Page 31 of My Orc Billionaire
“You’re not even looking!”
“I don’t have to look.” My lips twitched again. “Gravel is usually made of granite.”
She huffed. “That’s cheating. This one is a different color. What is it?”
I pulled one hand from the wheel and held out my palm for her to drop the rock into it. Pinching it between my claws, I lifted it to my mouth. “Basalt,” I said, just from the smell of the wet volcanic remains.
When I handed it back without looking, she clucked her tongue. “What causes the spots on this one, mister wise guy?”
I recognized the turn to my property coming up and took it carefully in the pouring rain. Then I held out my palm again and lifted the piece of gravel to my face. My tongue flicked out. “Quartz in the granite. Feldspar, which is really common. Biotite is causing the dark specks.”
“Holy shit,” she whispered as the house came into view, outlined by the storm over the ocean behind it. “Are you serious? You cantastethe rocks?”
As I waited for the garage door to open, I sent her a smirk. “How do you think I found my lithium mine?”
Riven rolled her eyes and snatched the rock back to cup in her hands with the rest. “Youtastedthe lithium?”
Was there any reason not to tell her? I was feeling relaxed, after all. So I shrugged, then edged the SUV carefully inside the garage, next to her sedan, which she’d finally begun to park inside.
“Your world is a mirror of mine. I knew where the ores and minerals were in the mountains you call the Rockies. I learned to identify them during that year we were kept at the laboratory, and afterward, I studied their worth.”
I’d been so godsdamnangrythen, so full of rage at the humans and their hatred. I’d been determined to prove myself, to beat them at their own game.
“So you knew where to find the lithium?”
“I knew where there was a deposit inmyworld. It hadn’t been found yet in your world, so I used my share of the government’s hush money to build my first company.”
And destroy the land.
I pulled the keys from the ignition harder than intended. That decision had led to death and destruction—not just my guys, but the very nature I once revered.
“You’re remarkable, Abydos,” Riven whispered.
No.
No, I wasn’t.
So I wrenched open the door, desperate to get away from her stare. “I’m going to dry off.” Maybe a dry cleaner could salvage this suit. “I’ll bring in your stand mixer afterward. Don’t touch it.”
On that command—I had to give it, knowing my stubborn little human would try to get it out of the trunk herself otherwise—I slammed the door. Not just on her, but on the swirling tempest of emotions in my chest.
Riven
Holy.Shit.
I just…Wow.After Abydos stomped out, I slumped against the seat of the car, still holding a handful of fuckingrocks, and tried to remember how to breathe.
Being with him in such close quarters had been playing merry hell with my libido, but then getting caught in that storm with him? Seeing him unleash that raw power and energy? Watching him rage at the storm as if it had personally done him wrong?
Seeing him laugh?
Yeah. “Wow” didn’t cover it.
I felt tingly…as ifI’dbeen standing too close to a lightning strike. Wrung out, but also strangely energized.
I needed a drink.
Chuckling at myself, I managed to get the door open, briefly considered disobeying and trying to get the stand mixer from the trunk myself, then shook my head and decided to deal with the rocks. Excuse me, thegranite.
