Page 24 of My Orc Contract Husband
Sami
I thinkI had about seventeen thousand steps for the day, just based on how much I’d been pacing.
After that wild conversation—decision? Suggestion?—in the barn during one of Eastshore’s ubiquitous afternoon summer storms, I drove to the beach, where I just…walked. For like two miles. Also got a mild sunburn, but that’s what I get for being unprepared.
I didn’t notice much of anything, because my mind was too full of thoughts and anxiety and a million other things.
You’d likely imagine I was thinking of Pierce T. Montgomery III and his threats, right? But instead, what I kept coming back to was howsafeI felt in Tarkhan’s arms. He’d promised me everything would be okay, and you know what? I believed him.
I believed that he could keep me safe no matter what, even if we decided against this harebrained scheme.
Which, to be fair, was technicallymyharebrained scheme. I’d been the one to more or less suggest it, but he’d agreed. Hadn’t he? Gah, everything was so jumbled up in my mind!
I needed someone to talk to.
Which is why I found myself sitting on my aunt’s front porch at eleven fourteen p.m., listening to my cousin mutter quietly to herself as she climbed out of her car in the darkness.
“Riven?” I called as she stomped up the front walkway.
Her movements—and the cursing—halted suddenly. “Who’s there? I have bear spray. Swear to God, I’m not afraid to spray your ass from here to Kingdom Come.”
“Bear spray?” I repeated with a snort as I unfolded from the patio chair Aunt Sharon kept out here. “Why not carry pepper spray like everyone else?”
“Sami? Is that you? What the hell are you doing out here?”
I heard when she relaxed, and her steps resumed, so I joined her by the front door. “Waiting on you, obviously. I don’t have a key. Why bear spray?—”
“Wider dispersal area. Are you okay? Why are you being all creepy?”
When Riven opened the front door, I followed.
“I needed to talk to you—to someone, and as my cousin,I nominated you. You’re not going straight to bed, are you?”
She eyed me up and down, then shrugged and shook her head. “Bedtime’s not till at least two, maybe three. You okay?” she asked as she began to pull stuff out of her pockets—keys, phone, wallet. Boy, those chef pants really had robust pockets, huh?
My instinct was to assure her I was fine, but I blew out a breath and crossed my arms over my chest. “Did your mom tell you about my Dad?”
Riven winced as she plopped a to-go bag on the counter. “Yeah. I’m sorry, Sami, that sucks. She said you were more upset by the inheritance though.”
“Does that make me a horrible person?”
“Not even a little bit. You and Mom have both told me enough about your father that I know you’re not going to mourn him, and neither am I.” She jerked her head toward the hall. “I havegotto shower—the smell of the frying oil gets into my hair, and I can’t stand it when I’m not in the kitchen.”
Wrinkling my nose, I followed her and said in a teasing tone, “Yeah, I wasn’t going to mention it…”
“I’m a very subtle person, you know that,” she shot right back as she squatted to untie her boots. “Is Mom asleep?”
As if on cue, a snort-and-gurgle sound came from the main bedroom, and the two of us shared a conspiratorial grin.
“Guess we’d better whisper,” I whispered, and my cousin huffed.
“Mom has her white noise machine on and can sleep through an earthquake—Brooke told me Mom once did, when she was visiting her out in California. But come on, once the water’s on, she won’t hear anything.”
Most houses on Eastshore were built around the same time to the same design, which is how I knew that the hall bathroom was particularly small. Or at least, it felt that way with both of us in there. But Riven climbed into the shower and shut the curtain while I climbed up to sit cross-legged on the counter, my back to the mirror.
“So,” she began as she tossed first her socks, then her shirt from behind the curtain into the hamper. “Dad’s dead, surprise—my condolences,et cetera. But more concerning is the fact that you’re his heir.” Her pants followed, then her underwear.
She never wore a bra anymore.
