Page 17 of My Orc Contract Husband
He grinned. “Orc feet are a great standard of measurement. Mine are exactly seventeen and a half inches. Once I know that, I can figure out a lot of stuff.”
He was completely adorable, wasn’t he?
Growing up, I’d never met someone like him—not just anorc, but a male who worked with his hands and wasproudof his talent. He was unapologetic, and kind, and attentive, and for God’s sake, he quotedShakespeare.
Well, not exactly, but the whole thing about the plants? How could I not adore that? “Hey, what did you do with those aloe pups I gave you?”
“They’re soaking up the sunshine on my windowsill above my kitchen sink, where I can watch them grow.” He’d gone back to pacing, but now he shot me a rueful smile. “I’ll repot them once I get my new place. But it won’t really make up for having to cut down that peach tree”—he pointed—”and that pear.”
I’m a realtor. My business was putting people in their dream properties, yeah? But I was also a gardener, and realizing that Tarkhan understood the importance of living things, and had the same reverence I did for them?
Be still my heart.
Yeah but also be a professional, Sami.
Right, right. I could manage that.
I lifted my phone again and began to rattle off information about the property and what was expected as he continued to pace and mutter to himself—or maybe in response to what I was reading.
When he finally halted, I finished up as well and lowered the phone…only to see it had grown pretty dark overhead. “Uh-oh,” I blurted, looking up. “Looks like we’re about to get some weather.”
Tarkhan’s dark gaze flashed to our cars in the distant drive, then to the barn. “Come on, the building’s closer. Just stay behind me so I can test the floorboards.”
Glad I wasn’t going to have to look for nails with my little summer sandals, I gratefully followed him. But we weren’t fast enough, and long before we reached the dilapidated doorway, the downpour began.
I heard him curse, and I had to giggle, even as I tipped my head back to let the rain run down my hair. But before I could decide if I wanted to bother running, a huge green forearm snaked around my middle, and then I was in the air.
My breath caught on a squeak when I realized Tarkhan had picked me up and was jogging toward the barn.
Oh my.
I was beingcarriedby an orc. Not just any orc, but Tarkhan. Ohmy. I wanted to focus on the sensation, on the feel of his skin next to mine…but unfortunately, it was over in a blink. One moment we were in a deluge, the next he’d ducked into the barn and the rain was a distant patter on the roof, high above, and he was setting me down.
“Are you okay?” he murmured.
Was I? I patted my dress, my cheeks. “Yes,” I managed, somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. “Thank you. I’m only damp.”
Wet, Sami. The word you’re looking for is wet, and it has nothing to do with the rain and everything to do with Tarkhan holding you.
From the way his nostrils flared and his tongue darted out to flick against one tusk, I wondered if he could tell.
So I wrapped my arms around myself and looked around. “Well, I guess we’re getting a tour of the barn. It has…character.”
“It has tetanus, is what it has,” he muttered, shaking his head.
“The roof is sound, though.” I pointed to a bench that ran the length of the near wall. “And some of the furniture isn’t completely riddled with rot. Of course, as a woodworker, you could take care of all that.”
But my attempts at distraction hadn’t worked. Tarkhan was still watching me, too intently, in the dim light. “I’m sorry, Sami. I shouldn’t have touched you without asking.”
Sweet, empathetic,andhe understood consent? I was crushing hard.
But I shook my head dismissively. “Oh, it’s okay, you saved us both. I’m just not used to being picked up.” In my effort to distract myself, I continued to blather on with a laugh. “I guess I haven’t been picked up since I was a little girl. My father?—”
My father used to throw me over his shoulder when my mother said it was time for bed. This was before he made enough money to hire a nanny. Before he shipped me off to boarding school. Before he lost his smile.
“Sami?”
The murmur came from beside me, and it wasn’t until I glanced wide-eyed at him that I realized I’d sunk into some sort of fog of memory, and Tarkhan had moved up beside me.
