Page 13 of Running from the Orc
She hummed as she bathed, which seemed so sweet and domestic I had to fight the urge to turn and ensure she was still the same female I’d seen spitting defiance at me in the last days.
I needed a bath as well, but I’d wait until she was through.
“Ohfook, that’s cold,” I heard her hiss, followed by some splashing.
The sound of such a word on Roxanna’s lips? I groaned aloud.
The splashing stopped. “Varkaan?”
Varkaan. Fook.Gods below, I groaned again.
“Varkaan, is aught amiss?”
“I’m fine, firebrand,” I snapped. “Wash yerself.”
I heard her sniff, as if my bluntness had offended her. “Fine. I will bathe. Of course, I have no soap, so I will use this sand. Scoop it up and run it over my arms…my shoulders…”
Palton’s Spear, was she teasing me? My eyes fluttered closed. “My breasts. Oh, Varkaan, the water is cold on my breasts.”
The minxwasteasing me!
I shouldn’t respond, I knew. But I also knew she couldn’t see me, behind the boulder, just as I couldn’t see her. So my hand wrapped around the thick bulge in my kilt.
Through the woolen plaid, I jerked my cock once, twice, thrice, imagining ‘twasherthat touched me. Malla the Beginner, but I wanted her to touch me. I wanted to touchhereven more. I positively ached to taste her, to stroke her…to hear her gasp my name the way she’d gasped when her nipples had touched the water.
But behind me, her teasing had turned back to humming, and I sighed, releasing my cock.
I wasn’t going to hand-fook myself here and now. I could wait until I returned to the village and my simple cottage.Alone.
When the humming abruptly stopped, I straightened. “Roxanna?” I called without turning around. My heart began to pound. “Roxanna?”
A sputtering sound. “I was washing my hair,” she called, laughter in her voice. And Torvor’s Hammer, I liked the sound.
I settled against the boulder once more and imagined what I could do to her to makeher laugh more often.
Finally, she called almost shyly, “You can turn around now.”
When I did, my breath caught in my throat. She was wearing her chemise, still wet from its washing, the pale linen sticking to her as it dried in the warm summer afternoon. Her gown was spread across some berry bushes to dry, and she was combing her fingers through her hair, wringing out the worst of the water.
“Are we staying here tonight?”
I couldn’t seem to make my mind work. “Uh…aye, if ye’d like.”
“I would.” She yawned. “I thought I might take a nap while you bathed?”
“A-aye.” Nodding, I jerked my chin to where I’d stacked the saddlebags. “The plaid…”
But Roxanna waved airily. “I can handle it. Go bathe. I will just curl up in the sunshine.”
It took seven deep breaths and imagining how cold the water was in order for my raging erection to subside. By the time I’d stripped off my boots and weapons, I peeked over the berry bushes, and aye, Roxanna was fast asleep.
So I thought.
The water was as cold as she’d said, and it surprised a shout of laughter from me. But growingup with a twin like Korvak had taught me to face adversity head-on, or he’d dunk me anyway. So I took a deep breath and dived, gathering up sand to rub into my scalp and rid my body of the oils and sweat which had been plaguing me.
The bath wasn’t so long I had to worry about Roxanna, but mayhap I should have.
Because as I buckled my kilt around myself, I glanced over to our little camp…and she was gone.
