Page 19 of Cider, Spice & Orcish Nights
Hours later, when the wind finally starts to die and the rain softens to a gentle patter, I’m still wide awake. Watching her breathe. Feeling every tiny shift of her body. Wondering how in all the wild twist of fate I ended up here—holding the reckless, sunshine-hearted girl who’s supposed to be nothing more than a clever contract.
My hand flexes on her waist, almost of its own accord.
“Dangerous,” I whisper into her hair, voice low so it doesn’t wake her. “This is all so damned dangerous.”
But I don’t let go.
Not even a little.
CHAPTER 15
MADDIE
My thigh burns where it’s slung over Thornak’s hipbone. His chest rises sharp beneath my palm like he’s been holding his breath. Rain still taps the roof in leftover whispers, dawn light threading gold through his lashes when those dark eyes blink open.
“Mornin’,” I murmur, thumb brushing his brow. His throat bobs under the scrape of stubble.
He doesn’t bolt. Doesn’t tense. Just rasps, “You’re squishing me,” in that gravel voice that hasn’t quite woken up yet.
I press closer, nose bumping his jaw. “Liar. You’ve got enough muscle to bench press a draft horse.”
A huff stirs my hair. His hand flexes where it’s been stranded on the small of my back since god-knows-when. “Should get up. Check the storm damage?—”
My teeth graze the hinge of his jaw. He chokes.
“Maddie.”
“Thornak.” I mimic his growling tone, all smoke and gravel. His pulse jumps under my lips. “Still pouring earlier. Heard the gutters sloshing.”
“You’re trouble.” The words rumble through me as his palm slides up my spine, cautious as a man handling spun sugar.
I tilt my chin, catching his mouth in a slow press of heat. He freezes for a heartbeat—then answers with a hungry noise that vibrates straight through my ribs. His calloused thumb sweeps my cheekbone, the other hand splaying wide between my shoulders to drag me flush against him.
The bed creaks. Something thuds outside—probably a wind-lashed apple branch hitting the roof. I don’t care. Not when his tongue swipes my lower lip, when his hips roll up just enough to make my breath hitch.
“Wait.” His growl’s gone ragged. One massive hand cages my wrist where it’s crept under his borrowed flannel. “You’re…” The emerald skin at his temples darkens. “This isn’t—I don’t want you thinking I’m like?—”
I still his words with another kiss, softer this time. “You’re you.” My thumb traces the shell of his ear, sharper than any human’s. “Sculpts chess pieces for the schoolkids. Growls at anyone who tracks mud through my shop.”
His snort shakes the mattress. “Not a compliment list, woman.”
“It’s a Thornak list.” I nip his collarbone through the flannel, grinning as he shudders. “Best kind there is.”
He mutters something in Orcish before rolling me beneath him with terrifying ease. Dawn catches the edges of his silhouette as he braces over me, black hair half-loosed from its tie.
“Still scared I’ll crush you?” I whisper.
The corner of his mouth twitches. “Terrified.”
Heat pools low as his knuckles skate down my side, stopping just shy of my hip. I arch into the touch. “So crush me.”
A ragged inhale. Then his mouth crashes into mine, all desperation and teeth and the salt-sweet taste of last night’s cider. His hand fists in my sleep-mussed hair, tugging just enough to pull a moan from my throat.
His thumb brushes my lower lip, callouses catching. “Need to be sure?—”
My teeth close around the digit, watching his pupils flare. “I’m flour-dusted and stubborn, not fragile.” Arching into him, I slide my knee higher along his ribs. His flannel parts under my nails, revealing emerald skin taut over the hard plane of his stomach.
A rumble builds in his chest as I trace the ridge of a scar. “Maddie.”
