Page 51 of The Orc's Thief
I glance down at the laces on my boots. It seems like they’re mocking me, laughing at my inability to tie them.
“Are you decent?”
My companion’s voice is closer now, right on the other side of the alder shrub.
“Y-yes,” I stammer.
Arlon pokes his head through the branches, and his eyes widen at the sight of me hunched on the ground. He’s by my side in two long steps and crouches, peering intently into my face.
“You’re too pale,” he tells me. “What’s wrong?”
“Cold,” I force through gritted teeth, not wanting to show him just how badly chilled I am.
But my body betrays me, and my chin trembles as another shudder runs through me.
“Gods, woman, why would you do this to yourself?”
Then he’s up and hurrying to the horses, returning a moment later with my blanket. He drapes it over my shoulders and rubs my arms through the thick wool. His touch is firm but respectful, his focus entirely on warming me. It’s as if he’s forgotten our moment from earlier. He’s fully dressed now, shirt buttoned, pants laced, though the faint bulge at his crotch still betrays his body’s lingering response.
“There you go,” he murmurs encouragingly. “Some color in your pretty cheeks. That’s good.”
Then he stops and sniffs, his eyes widening as he stares at me.
It hits me then—he can smell me. Not just the scent he mentioned earlier, cherries and sweet peas, but my body’s reaction to him. I know it as surely as I know my name, because he drops his gaze to my lips and sways forward, just an inch, then stops himself, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“What does it feel like?” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
Arlon’s dark gaze meets mine. “What does what feel like?”
I shiver, either from the remnants of the chill clinging to me or from the raspy quality of his deep voice.
“Finding a mate,” I explain. “What-what do you?—?”
“Incredible,” he interrupts my stammered question. “It feels incredible to have you near me. To know you’re safe. To scent you.”
He inhales again, and his eyelids flutter shut as if he’s half-drugged by my essence. Then he focuses that intense gaze on me, his expression serious.
“You have to know that I’ll never do anything to compromise this, Tessa. I’ll protect you from whoever wishes you harm, but you’re safe fromme, too.”
“I know,” I reply, and realize it’s the truth. “I-I’m not afraid of you.”
Arlon’s smile is a thing of beauty. “Aye, I’m aware. You were scared at first, back in Ultrup, but that was because I startled you. Now you know there’s nothing to fear.”
Do I?I’m still afraid of what this all means, of how he’ll react when he realizes I’m not what he’s been searching for all this time.
He releases my shoulders and runs the backs of his fingers slowly over my cheek. “There you go, you’re getting warm. No more swimming in streams for you, not until summer.”
He moves a few inches back and tugs on the laces of my boot. He does up my left one, then moves to the right, his movements gentle and precise.
“You’re a good man,” I murmur.
Arlon looks up at me, his eyebrows raised.
But I continue before he can ask for an explanation. “The fact is, I’mnot. Good, that is. And I think you should find another woman to court. I’m not the perfect mate you think I am.”
Chapter
Nineteen
