Page 10 of Marked By the Wild Orc

“Why do they like you so much?” one of the orc customers, who is a regular, questions.

“I don’t know,” I answer truthfully. “Maybe because they can sense that I adore them?”

“That’s not the reason,” Oreg grumbles.

“You know why?”

“I do but I’m keeping my ideas to myself.”

Business picksup later in the day. The afternoon and early evening were spent juggling a steady stream of orcs and humans, keeping all three rooms full, with customers waiting for their next openings.

Talon seems to have the most customers who are here with appointments. Doril and Oreg are always full with walk-ins.

Doril and I end up taking a dinner break at the same time. We leave together and walk over to the pizza place at the end of the strip mall and order enough pizza for all four of us. And when we return together, laughing over a shared joke, Talon is immediately rude to Doril for an unknown reason. “Get back to work,” he barks. “You shouldn’t be wasting time talking with the new human. Your booth isn’t even properly set up for your next appointment.”

My jaw drops open and I confront Talon for his irrational treatment of an orc who is obviously a hard worker and, as far as I can tell, a reasonably kind orc. “It’s not his fault. His next appointment canceled.”

“No, it's okay,” Doril offers. “It’s true I need to get things ready. Might as well start now.”

I put my hands on my hips and step closer to Talon. “No, it's not okay. Doril needs to pause and eat his dinner and it’s notright for you to confront him like that in the middle of his dinner break.”

“Krissy,” Talon growls, “we had an agreement. You knew how I was when you accepted this job.”

I blow out a breath, because I do need this job. And he did warn me. Also, I’m getting distracted yet again by Talon’s perfect chest and that deep voice. The tusks that jut out from his lower jaw are somehow highly erotic. All day I’ve watched other orcs arrive and treat him in a god-like manner because he’s “the best tattoo artist in the Pacific Northwest” and I have to admit it was awesome to see what he was creating on the other orc’s bodies because they’d always show it off to me on the way out. “I know. You did warn me. It's just difficult, okay?”

And then Doril looks between the two of us and steps close. He leans towards me and inhales and then looks over at Talon. He seems to come to some sort of decision and takes a step back. “I have to get work complete in my room during my lunch break,” he grumbles.

“Oh, really, but you don't have to…”

He steps back from me and says with a firm tone. “I'm busy and need time to myself. But thank you, female.” And then he’s gone and shuts the door to his booth behind him.

For the restof the week, I see the effects of that confrontation.

Oreg and Doril are just as kind to me as ever, always quick to help out with an explanation for the new girl on how things work. Always showing me their tools and ink work, because I’m endlessly curious about what they do.

But neither one of them is ever alone with me. Oreg and Doril now take their dinner break together and my dinner break is with…Talon.

“Don’t you have friends?” Talon questions as we share a pizza inside of his office.

Not that I mind having dinner each night with this amazing male, but it doesn’t help me in the least with my initial plans of getting over my doomed attraction. This last week I’ve spent most of my time with Talon and I still go home at night and masturbate to highly erotic thoughts of my boss. When I’m in here with him like this, the space between my thighs grows hot. I imagine him shutting the door and kissing me. Which is silly because that’s never, never going to happen. “No, I didn’t have many friends locally, back home, and obviously not here either because I’m new,” I answer truthfully and with all the professional detachment I can muster. This orc must never know how much I wish he wanted me as his mate. I’d die of embarrassment if he ever knew of my inappropriate attraction. I’m just an employee and I guess we’re becoming friends? Probably because he’s friends already with my brother. “My friends are all on the internet. They live all over the world.”

“You travel often?”

I’m having a hard time, keeping my eyes off the way his forearms look so strong and sexy. I love watching him devour pizza with gusto. “No, it’s because I’ve been trying to write a romance novella for the last five years. My closest friends are all other women like me, trying to write and publish our first book to no avail. We’ve grown close over the years.”

“Ah.”

I tense at the timber of his voice, which I think sounds a tad judgmental. “It’s hard to write a romance book.”

His lips twitch as he bends down to pet both Ink and Cole. “I understand.”

“You’re making fun of me.”

He sits up. “I do not make fun of you.”

For some reason I’m immediately angry. “You make a living drawing pictures and putting ink permanently in orc skin. That also sounds weird at face value, but it’s important to you and you spend a lot of time getting better and better at it, so I’d never make fun of it and instead take it seriously. I understand that you are a professional at what you do.”

He grunts.

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