Page 41 of My Orc Contract Husband
“Kitlings are the greatest gift the gods of our ancestors could grant us,” I rasped, looking up to meet her eyes. “That your world had so many—unwanted, unclaimed,or unable to find a home…” I shook my head again. “It wasn’t right.”
She was watching me, frowning thoughtfully. “I suppose I never thought of that, which is embarrassing to admit. My childhood wasn’thappy, but I never had to worry about survival or food.” Tossing the towel down, she moved toward me. “Leave it to my thoughtful, good-hearted husband to think of such a thing.”
MyKteercrowed when she called me hers, and when she leaned forward to kiss my forehead, I gladly moved my chair back to reach for her. Sami settled on my lap—the same easy way she’d done so in that barn all those weeks ago—and wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Mmmm.” I nuzzled against her neck. “I got it. Shut The Fuck Up, A Certain Orc Took Delight Licking A Delicious Little Shoulder.”
Laughing, Sami tried to wiggle away from my tusks, but she didn’t go far.
“So you left the facility, and you took that blood money and you—what? Started fostering? Adopting?”
She was determined, wasn’t she? So I confessed.
“I couldn’t do either of those things. Hells, I was barely legal to your government. And we had no permanent home. Abydos is my best friend, and he was all torn up—inside and outside, full of hatred for the humans who’d done it. He decided to hide in the mountains, and a few of us went with him. We found Bramblewood Bluff and made a home there.”
“But you couldn’t adopt.”
“I was a single male orc.” Grinning, I bent down to nuzzle her neck. “Half the humans I met would’ve assumed I was going to cook and eat the kids, like something out of one of your fairy tales. But I gave that money to the Boys and Girls Club, and I sponsored the local teams.”
“Really?” She reared back, arms still around my neck, eyeing me speculatively. “So somewhere out in the mountains there’s a group of little kids running around with your name on their jerseys?”
“Even better, each spring the high schoolers compete for the Tarkhan Just Be Awesome Scholarship for Junior Athletes.”
Since I was chuckling when I told her, Sami soon joined me. “You gave away all your money to kids, didn’t you, Tarkhan Shayson? I’mveryimpressed.”
You know what impressed me? Hearing my name paired with hers. Since orcs didn’t have last names—we’d been classified as “Smith” in the government records—I took hers. And even though Shayson was a made-up name to hide from her father, it suited her—us—better than her father’s name.
Sami and Tarkhan Shayson.
Yeah, I liked the sound of that.
She leaned forward and dropped a kiss on my nose. “So what did Sakkara say to you at the wedding?”
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about the start of our conversation. I exhaled, decided now wouldn’t completely suck to confess. “Right after we left the facility, Ididconsider fostering, and Sakkara knew it. At the wedding—I wasstanding up there by the holy man, nervous and needing a distraction, I guess—he pointed out that once I was married, I would find fostering easier.”
I saw the surprise in her eyes, saw the way she reared back, and I hurried to assure her.
“I’m notsuggestingit, Sami. It’s honestly something I’d given up on. I can help kids in other ways. It’s just that after not thinking of it for years, Sakkara brought it up and it was on my mind.”
“You want…to foster a child?” Sami said slowly, as if trying out the words.
And in an effort to get her to understand, I closed my hands around her waist. “No, no, I would never ask you to?—”
“I never thought about children—having them or otherwise.” Her gaze had gone distant, and I knew she wasn’t really staring at my forehead. “I guess I don’t think…”
“Sami, we don’t have to consider?—”
“No.” She blinked, then shook herself and smiled at me. “I’m not vetoing something that means so much to you.”
And all I could do was stare up at her.
What?
She was…she’d actually consider fostering a child, just because it was once my dream?
I opened my mouth—to thank her? To argue?—but luckily no sound came out.
And she smiled when she leaned forward to kiss me. While I was still dazed, she wriggled off my lap. “I haveto get ready if I’m going to meet my client in time. Thanks for breakfast, Tarkhan.”
