Page 27 of My Orc Billionaire
Competence porn, much?
I rolled my eyes and hurried after him, knowing I didn’t need another reason to crush on my uber-hot boss.
Abydos
Sylvik had orderedthe black SUV for me when I’d told him I was building out here; the thing had a total of three hundred miles on it, since I never left the house except to head to the airport. But it was identical to the model I drove back in Colorado, so I was comfortable with it.
Still, it amused me to see Riven exclaiming over the AC built into the seats—“My cousin’s car has heated seats, butcooledseats? We’re living in the future, huh?”—and the rest of the stuff she calledbells and whistles.
Her wonder was a delight, and made me want to heap gifts on her, just to see her responses.
But I wouldn’t. Because she was my employee, not my lover. And she was a human.
So I wrapped my big hands around the steering wheel and waited for her to direct me where to go.
We reached the docks without incident, and Riven sent me a smile as she reached for the door handle. “I’ll just pop out and sign for it, don’t worry.”
But fuck yes, I worried, and when I saw her teetering out of that cargo office holding a box nearly the size of her? I didn’t bother hiding my curse as I climbed from the SUV.
“What in all the hells do you think you’re doing?” I growled as I relieved her of her load. “Give that to me. Go open the trunk.”
Instead of being flustered by my grumbling, my little human just smiled as she hurried toward the rear of the vehicle. “Thank you!”
I honestly couldn’t tell you the weight of the box because it wasn’t particularly heavy to me…and because of that smile. And of course, it meant I got her amazing brioche tomorrow.
But mainly that smile.
In the last week, since I’d found her in pain in the bedroom, I’d discovered all sorts of interesting scents from my private chef. Sure, there was the blood, which didn’t bother me once I understood she wasn’t bleeding to death. But there was also a shy sort of happiness.
And…something else.
Something sweet, something tantalizing.
Just because I was a recluse didn’t mean I didn’t know the scent of a female’s arousal…I’d just never smelled it from a human before. My partners had mostly been fae, and while all of them had been pleased with my skills in the bedroom, I’d never had any interest in maintaining a long-term arrangement.
Lovers were for one night.
I could satisfy them, achieve my own satisfaction, and forget them. I didn’t need more from them, and didn’t want to worry about their simpering or fawning over my money.
Riven smells of arousal, and doesn’t defer to you because of your wealth.
Huh.
She didn’t. I glanced to my right as she buckled her seatbelt. It was one of the things I liked about her; she might be my employee, but she didn’t bow and scrape or pretend I was better than her. Sylvik was like that too, and his competence and willingness to stand up to me was why I’d kept him around for so long.
Although the whole hiring-a-human-without-realizing-she-was-a-human fuckup meant the male was going out of his way not to piss me off, and that made me smirk.
“Ready?” Riven asked, and I shook myself.
“Yeah.” I put the SUV into drive. “Home?”
“Turn left up here.”
It wasn’t until I recognized the road we were on that I realized we weren’t heading straight home. She was directing me through the town of Eastshore. The town I’d done my best to avoid since arriving.
“This is Main Street coming up,” she said, leaning forward in the seat. The sun was setting in the west, and a storm was blowing in from the east, meaning the shadows were interesting. “That’s Giza’s tattoo parlor. Sami says that he’s been booked solid for a year.”
I nodded, feeling the need to prove I knew something relevant. “He is the memory keeper for our clan, and the memories are recorded in skin.”
