Page 65 of Wrangling the Orc Cowboy

He hadn’t left a note, and he hadn’t returned with a sheepish grin and a clump of flowers gripped in his hand. No chocolates, though he could’ve dropped them when he rode the sorhox like a bucking bronco.

“Me.” Only now did a hint of hesitation come through in his voice. In a flash, the rough and tumble orc cowboy who’d more or less slayed a chumble then ridden a sorhox into submission deflated. “I’m…Tark.”

I crossed my arms on my chest. “Yeah, I know that.” I wanted to tap my toe on the ground—boulder—but my ankle throbbed, the pain bringing tears to my eyes.

“I’ve come home to you, little lady,” he said in such a tiny voice I could barely hear him. “Come give your cowboy, um… A hug then? Kisses, um…can be for other times.”

“Where have you been?” I screeched like a jilted bride. “You took me to the hotel, made a nice meal for me, escorted me to my room and then took off without another word. We weretogether.” He’d hurt me, and I would’ve shouted that at him if his face hadn’t cratered.

“Oh, Gracie.” He dropped to his knees and looked up at me.

In movies, when the man makes a mess of their relationship, he makes it up to the woman with plenty of groveling.

Being on his knees must count for something like that.

“You’re right. I didn’twantto abandon you.” The words rushed out of him. “I wanted to stay here. To enter your room and carry you to the bed, but I worried about your redness. I knew if I stayed, you’d only get redder, and the thought of causing you that much pain again gutted me.”

“Get up.”

He blinked at me.

“You have some explaining to do and you’d better do it fast. But first…” I lifted my eyebrows. “Will you really catch me?”

He gave me a sheepish smile as he rose to his feet. “Always, Gracie. Don’t you know that?”

“I don’t know anything. Not what you’re thinking or feeling or what this means.” I gouged my finger against the mark on my wrist.

“Oh, that.”

“Yes that. Arms up!”

They jerked into the air, and I leaped.

He caught me squarely and stared down at me with lines of sorrow on his sweet face. “I should’ve told you. Planned to. But I didn’t want to scare you away. And then there was all that redness, and it wouldn’t fade, and I thought touching you even a tiny bit with my big body would only make it get worse and?—”

I placed a fingertip over his lips, bringing his gushing to a halt. “Mating mark aside, you didnothurt me. Do you hear that? I loved what we did. The redness was nothing. It faded within minutes.”

He tilted his head, watching my face. “The redness was a bad thing.”

“A good thing.” My laugh bubbled up. How could I be mad at him when he was so serious and solemn? “In case you didn’t notice, you made me scream as I came, and no one has ever done that before.”

“I made you scream as you cametwice.” I savored hearing that hint of pride in his voice.

“You did. I bet you can do it again.”

“I haven’t handled this right, not from the start, but I have plans to make it up to you.”

“You don’t have anything to make up for.” We’d get to the mating mark later.

“No, I do, and I know how.”

I could remind him over and over again that he hadn’t hurt me. Well, maybe a bit when he went away without telling me he was leaving and explaining about the mark, but not physically. I craved him again already, and I sensed I always would.

That was where things went when you were falling in love.

Chapter 23

Tark

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