Page 42 of Orc's Mate

“How will you teach me to swim?” she asked, wrapping her arms around her body.

“Are you uncomfortable being naked with me?”

“I should be, right? But we’ve done things. Not everything, but we’ve both seen parts of each other. This . . . just takes it a bit further.”

“If you’re more comfortable learning to swim with clothing on, we can wear our shirts.”

She teased her fingertip across my belly, and my brain shot all the way to the sky. My cock tried to reach it too. Her smile grew as she traced a fingertip along my length.

“Big,” she said. “Thick. One of these days, you’re going to have to show me what you can do with it.”

“Say the word, mate, and I will.”

When she looked up at me, her gaze was full of mischief. “Swimming first. We’ll talk about other activities after that.”

Very well. “As for how I’ll teach you,” It was all I could do to think—speak—and not stroke every bit of her lovely body. “I’ll hold you in the water and show you how to keep your head above the surface, then slowly show you how to move when you challenge the rest of the sea.”

“Which I’m not going to do today, right?”

“Maybe we can wait for tomorrow,” I teased.

Her head tilted. “During the storm?”

“Maybe we’ll wait until a day or two after the storm.”

She gripped my forearms. “For whatever reason, I’ve always been afraid of deep water.”

“Maybe that’s how you hurt your leg?”

“I don’t remember.” Her shrug shifted her breasts. Highly distracting. “I was either too young or I’ve blocked it from my mind.”

“Do you want to know?”

“Sometimes, yes. Did I do something stupid or was it an accident or did someone try to harm me? I just don’t know.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter any longer.”

“Sometimes it’s best to just let go of the things you can’t change.”

“You’re right.” She stepped back and stared toward the sea stretching on for what seemed like forever. “The clouds are gathering, strengthening. It’s going to be a big storm.”

I went up behind her and held her, savoring the feel of our bodies touching. I ached to be with her, but it was also nice to just hold her. “When I was young and the mantle of leadership hadn’t settled on my shoulders, I used to love storms.”

“Do you fear them now?”

“Only what they can do to my people. There’s something awesome about a storm. My father used to come down to the rocks where we fished while the tide was out. We’d stand there and challenge the storm’s fury with our arms and voices raised.”

“I understand. It’s doing something, not just letting the storm rush over you while you cower.”

“Exactly. When the tide comes in during a storm, the water covers the rocks. This pool as well. It washes against the cave you hoped to explore.”

“Are there other caves on the island?”

“If there were,” I said, “I would’ve found them already. I spent much of my childhood exploring every bit of the island. I started doing the same with the uninhabited ones nearby until my father caught me returning one day in his boat and smacked my ass, telling me never to take on the sea alone again.”

“How old were you then?”

“Ten.”

She laughed and turned in my arms, looking up at me. “I think I would’ve chided you too if you’d been my son.”

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