Page 38 of Orc's Claim
“You’re missing the point, Lily! The orcs aremonsters.” She thrusts her hand in the air toward Ryko and his grak who constantly scowls.
“Tusks, Lily. They havetusks. Like elephants.” Jessie shakes her head. “Or did that little detail escape your notice?”
A shiver runs through me remembering the delicious tingle that spreads over my body when Ryko drags his long, sharp tusks over my lips, my throat?—
“Exactly. They’re horrifying,” Jessie says, misunderstanding my shiver. “I wish I’d never come to this horrible planet.”
“If you had stayed on Earth, you’d be under coalition rule. And who knows what that would be like.”
“Better than being bossed around by the men in our colony.”
She has a point. When the Coalition conquered Earth, the cendagi, one of the races that make up the Coalition, gave a few thousand people the chance at a new life on Kovos, a planet with no cities and no intelligent native life. A place where we’d be free to rule ourselves.
They never told us we’d be sharing the planet with four other species. There are no planetary laws or treaties, only one central market designed to give the five groups a neutral place to trade.
Outside of Pen’Kesh, we don’t interact with one another, and each colony governs itself. Which means that the fragile peace we enjoy can disintegrate with the smallest incident.
Like being discovered with an orc.
Ryko strokes his right tusk and the apex of my thighs heats. “Damn,” I curse when I prick my finger again.
“You lose your thimble?”
“No, I just hate wearing it. It slows me down.”
Ryko watching me is a distraction. A hot, exciting distraction, but still a distraction.
“At least we get to wear what we like.” I twist my torso slightly so no one catches me giving the girls a slight lift.
“That’s because we’re the ones making the clothing.”
“Precisely.” I’m currently wearing a flowing skirt that reaches my knees. There’s just something about wearing a skirt that makes me feel pretty. I don’t normally change what I wear foranyone, but when I come to Pen Kesh, I wear a blouse that hugs my curves. I started showing off the girls after I met Ryko. These last three weeks, that didn’t change. I guess I hoped I’d see him again, despite how hurt I’d been.
“Can you imagine if the men start telling us what to wear next? Like demanding we wear long sleeves or worse, some prairie-style long skirts? I’d melt.”
I laugh, unable to picture Jessie in anything but the shorts and tank tops she wears year-round, even when the temperature drops. “I don’t think the men care about what we wear.”
“Just the same, if Owen spews any nonsense about a dress code, I’m gonna point out how he needs to worry about watching those orcs who keep staring at us.”
With a nervous tilt of my head, I peer at Ryko. He’s looking away again, but he’s hanging out at the entrance to our sector. He’s never done that before. He doesn’t appear to be waiting for me, not with how he’s avoiding eye contact as much as possible. Something’s up and I get the sense that we need to be more discreet than ever.
A cold blast of reality strikes me. Even if Ryko’s grak gives him permission to be with me, if I try to break away from New Earth to be with an orc, I could start a war between our colonies.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LILY
Two hours later, Ryko’s still at the edge of the market. Why is he just standing there?
My hands are getting sweaty, making it hard to handle my needles, especially when working with leather. Should I take an early break, to see if he follows?
What if he doesn’t?
“What’s wrong with you, Lily?” Jessie asks.
I look down at the fabric on my lap. I’ve sewn the harness to my skirt. “Crap.”
“Wow, someone’s going to have to wash that mouth out,” she teases. “Relax, our guards have that orc under surveillance. He won’t come within ten feet of us.”
