Page 7 of Running from the Orc
The horse took us up a steep hill, one dangerous enough to cause her to stifle her gasp and clutch the animal’s mane, as if I’d let her fall. But the movement sent her curls blowing back into my face. While the sensation wasn’t unpleasant, ‘twas an opportunity.
I used my free hand to gather her hair and drape it over her shoulder, baring her neck to my gaze.
Leaning forward, I blew lightly, enough to see bumps rise on her skin…and she shuddered. Shuddered, and her eyes fluttered closed.
Hmm.
When we reached the top, I kept the reins twined between my fingers, but I rested my palm against her thigh. Just rested it, didn’t move…but she squirmed.
And when she did, she shifted my fingers sideways, toward her inner thighs. Toward the sensitive skin beneath her skirts…
Had that been on purpose?
I leaned closer to her, inhaling, wondering what she would do if I licked her skin there. If I kissed her, the way humans preferred.
My fingers tightened around her thigh, my longest finger brushing the place where her legs met. Roxanna jumped, then exhaled andleaned back. Pressed herself against me.
If you’d asked me to wager on her response, that would not have been it.
On the edge of my awareness, I caught a scent.
The hunter in me went on alert, inhaling deeply,looking for danger.
But ‘twas not dangerous, this scent. Not a predator, not an enemy.
Tempting fate, I brushed my littlest finger along the seam between her thighs, and there ‘twas again.
Despite her skirts and chemise, I was smelling Roxanna’s arousal.
MyKteerhowled, demanding I take her now, but I’d sworn she’d reach our village unharmed.Ye could show her pleasure without harming her. Aye, I could. But would she accept that?
Still, I couldn’t help my slow—excruciatingly slow—exploration. Not of her body, but of her responses.
My free hand rose to her shoulder, then her ear. I paused at each movement, allowing her to grow used to my touch. But the tip of my finger—I’d retracted the claws, of course—traced the outside of her strangely blunt, rounded ears, and she shivered again.
I leaned closer, unable to resist the urge to nuzzle against her hair, to inhale her scent again.
And I swear she moaned.
‘Twas a soft moan, one she tried to hide…but my wee firebrand was reacting to my touch, and myKteerexalted.
I would not push her. Last night, I would have scoffed at the thought of bedding a human femaleon my way back to our village. But right now, my cock had plenty of opinions of its own.
Tonight, I would show her I could be trusted, just as I’d promised. I’d give her the space she needed, or risk her wrath.
But between now and then…
I was afraid the faint scent of her arousal was an addiction I couldn’t ignore.
Chapter 3
Roxanna
Varkaan underestimated me.
Most men did, and I had used that to my advantage many times.
But now… He thought, because I allowed him to touch me, to caress me, to make me shiver…he thought he had me cowed. He thought he had won and I would meekly give up my goal to return to the only home I knew.
