Page 26 of Shared By Two Orcs

His voice isn’t jealous or even accusatory. Just confused. Duma has the same baffled expression. “Yeah. Who were you trying to set the date up with?”

He makes it sound like I must have just gotten confused. I want to laugh but hold it in. They’re being reasonable, and I know laughing at either of them would quickly sour this conversation.

I wasn’t confused. I knew exactly what I was doing, and I proceed to tell them that. “Both of you,” I declare resolutely.

They just stare. Yamarz folds his arms again, wrinkling his brow as he tries to make sense of the words.

“Look, I’m having a lot of fun seeing both of you. But it’s a lot of work to maintain one relationship, much less two. I don’t have that much free time as it is. I’m a busy girl. They keep me hopping in the mines and at the end of the day, I’m tired. We need to simplify this.”

“Simplify this how?” Yamarz asks warily. I can see by the look on Duma’s face that he’s already put it together. I just can’t get a read on whether his thoughts are positive or negative.

“I want to see you both at the same time. No more wasting my day to meet Yamarz for lunch and Duma for dinner. I could spend twice as much time with you both if it was just the three of us, from the start. Why can’t we?” I demand. My voice is authoritative, already prepared for the backlash I am expecting.

I don’t care. I’ve put a lot of thought into this. Let them argue. I have already considered and practiced every possible counterargument in my head.

Duma and Yamarz look at each other in a wordless exchange that stretches on an uneasy length of time. My nerves are agitated and unsure of what to do next. I’ve already mustered my adrenaline for a battle but currently have nowhere to direct it. So I just stare at them while they stare at each other, trying to ignore the way my heart races.

“Okay.” Yamarz speaks first, and the response is so simple and unexpected that I’m stunned for a moment.

“Okay?” I echo.

“Okay.” This time it’s Duma speaking. They’ve both turned to face me.

I look from one to the other, shuffling my feet. It’s the answer I wanted, of course, but I’m almost disappointed it was that easy. I had prepared to do a lot more convincing.

“It just makes sense,” I offer weakly. A voice inside my head wonders why I am still making my case when they have both agreed. It’s as if I can’t stop the words that I prepared from slipping out. I worked myself up for a debate, and the energy has to go somewhere.

“It does,” Duma agrees. “If you’re already seeing both of us, why can’t it be both of us at the same time? I’ll be honest, sometimes when you’ve made plans with him for the day, I’m a bit bored on my own.”

Yamarz nods. “I’ll get to spend more time with you. It doesn’t bother me if Duma is there. What’s the harm? Duma’s fine by me.”

He stops just short of saying they are friends, but I can’t help wondering if that’s what he’s leading up to. Are they? I thought they could barely stand each other in the beginning. Their relationship seems to have changed recently in a way I wasn’t quite prepared for.

A part of me wants to ask more questions. I could shift the energy I built up to coax and wheedle them into a group date into interrogating them about their sudden closeness.

Don’t turn your nose up at a blessing,I warn myself sternly. In the end, I got exactly what I wanted. What’s the sense of pushing it?

Besides, I really doubt two macho orcs like Yamarz or Duma would ever own up to it. If I point out they’re acting like friends, they’d probably go back to arguing just to prove me wrong. Better to just not stir the pot and see how it all plays out.

I feel the tension ebb out of me at finally admitting the whole thing is resolved – and satisfactorily, at that.

“Well, I guess that means we run things as a majority rules,” I suggest, starting to lay the framework of just how it will happen. “There’s three of us. So, we can all pitch in ideas like what we want to eat for dinner that night, or where we’d like to go. That kind of thing,” I explain.

“Of course, no one has to do anything,” I continue. “If two of us agree to a meal and the third one decides they’d rather eat by themselves, for example, that’s fine. Everyone is always welcome as long as they are comfortable. But we all still get to decide for ourselves. No one is calling the shots. Equal, three-way partnership. Deal?”

Duma and Yamarz exchange another glance. This one is brief, but it still doesn’t escape my attention. Since when did these two work together? All of a sudden, it’s almost like they’re one mind. A team.

I almost think I should be jealous to see them on each other’s side, but the truth is, I’m not. At all. If anything, it’s kind of hot for them to be so willing to share me. Should I be turned on by the fact that two men want me?

I know my own mind. I don’t really need an orc to back me up every second of the way as much as I just want them to humor me. I’m not fragile, requiring a big, beefy guy to hold me gently in his hand like a piece of china and tell me Protheka spins around me.

If I still get to have my fun, I don’t care how close they are. Frankly, the closer the better, because it’s a lot less fighting.

And that means a lot more fun for me.

I sidle toward both orcs, putting a suggestive sway in my hips as I walk. Stretching out an arm to touch each shoulder, I grin broadly. “Well, sounds like we have reached a happy ending.” I bite my tongue before I can suggest an even happier one, but I’m definitely thinking about it.

Then I stretch as high as I can on my tiptoes, turning to kiss Yamarz. It’s a brief kiss, just a simple little reward that lets him know there’s more where that came from. You might call it a thank you for his cooperation. My hand slides up and down Duma’s shoulder at the same time, making it clear he is not forgotten.

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