Page 13 of Bread with the Orc
“Yes,” I solemnly agreed. “We are.”
Chapter Five
Laney
I’d kissed him!Aiya,I’dkissedhim! I’d kissed Dorvak!
I managed to escape the park with a minimum of awkward blushing and shuffling, trying to pretend as if nothing had happened. For his part, Dorvak seemed completely unfazed by the whole thing; in fact, once or twice I thought I’d caught a littlegrin.
A grin! From Dorvak, the grumpiest recluse to ever grump!
From Dorvak…my business partner. The male I was supposed to maintain businessy protocols with. That was like the first thing we’d learned in school: Don’t sleep with the person you’re working with, things will get messy.
But at that moment, I wouldn’t have minded getting messy with Dorvakat all.
And let me tell you; as much as I adored Maggie and the chaos which was the house she was renovating for her social media pages, there were downsides to having to sleep on her sofa. Not the least of which was my sexual frustration; a girl didn’t feel comfortable getting all feely when her bestie could pop up at any second and ask for her opinion about tile designs.
Wednesday night, however, Ididturn the music up, set the shower head tomassage, and had a quickie when I was supposed to be washing my hair. That helped a little, but not, you know,a lot. Especially when it was Dorvak I was dreaming of touching me.
But Thursday?
Thursday, when I showed up at work bright and early to help him prep the bread and greet the first customers? Thursday, the day after that kiss?
Whew.
Frankly, I’m not sure how I made it through the day without melting into a puddle of embarrassment every time I had to talk to him.
More than a few times, I caught him staring at me through the window to the kitchen, and I’d blush tomato red as I tried to concentrate on what the customer was saying to me. It didn’t often work.
I wanted to shoutI’m sorryat him. But also:Stop staring, people will think there’s something going on between us!
I mean, there wasn’t, right? It was just a little kiss between business partners.
It was right around that time that I’d groan, drop my head into my palm, and pray for the ground to swallow me up.
By the end of the day, I was a sweaty, anxious mess. And I wassureDorvak was looking at me funny. So when three o’clock finally rolled around, and I could flip the sign toclosed, I shook out my hands.
“I’m going to mop out here,” I called. “Unless you need me for anything?”
A pause, then came Dorvak’s deep rumble from the back: “Need you?” A longer pause. “Go mop.”
Right. What was that about?
I pulled my hair tie off my wrist and yanked my long hair up into a messy bun on top of my head. Then I smiled. When I wore my hair like this, I matched Dorvak, although I’d never seen his hair down. I wondered how long it was.
I risked a glance through the kitchen window and saw him with his back to me, prepping the dough for tomorrow. Okay, good. Quickly, I pulled my long-sleeved shirt over my head, leaving myself in only a cami tank top and bra. I knew mopping was going to get messy, so I slid my apron back on again, already looking forward to the burn of physical labor.
Unfortunately, an hour and ten minutes later, the whole place looked spotless—the chairs up on the tables, the floor gleaming, the counter pristine—and I was still as sexually frustrated as I was before.
Did I say sexually frustrated? I meant awkward. I wasawkward. Awkwardly frustrated in a sexual manner. Yeah.
Sighing, I went to wash my hands and put away my equipment.
When I returned to the kitchen from the back room, Dorvak was watching me. Just standing there, following me with his eyes. And those eyes? Forget that strange spark of green I’d seen before; now the green wasmuchmore pronounced.
“Hey, Dorvak, did you know your eyes are green?”
He grunted. “I’m not surprised.”
