The relief felt like a palpable thing, like a long-awaited deliverance — and Ella desperately, gratefully obeyed. Moving down over him, closer and closer, until her lips met that smooth head, and lightly, carefully kissed it.
The pleasure surged in a torrent, in a flood. In the impossible, inexplicable feeling of his deep, filthy cleft actuallykissing back, clenching slightly on her delving tongue — and then swarming her with that delectable rich sweetness. While Natt’s entire body kicked and flailed beneath her, the moan a rising howl in his throat.
It was utterly glorious, utterly irresistible, shoving away the rest of the world in one easy, devastatingly powerful thrust. In the shocking, swerving sensation of Natt’s hips bucking up, that deep cleft spurting hard against her tongue. Saying kiss me, drink me, more, deeper,more—
Ella did, frantically sucking that length deeper inside, thrusting her tongue harder into its clenching, spurting depths. Almost as if drinking him from the inside out, lapping and flicking and twisting, drawing her delving tongue’s reward deep down her hungry throat…
Beneath her Natt’s groans were steadily rising, his clawed hand sunk deep and demanding into her hair. Saying don’t stop, keep kissing me, deeper, more, MORE —
And it was when Ella’s tongue was almost somehowinsidehim, and the dark cleft still kissing and clenching against her had seemed to open up, sucking her in — that it suddenly, shockingly exploded. Blasting Ella’s maiden tongue with surging streams of utter pleasure, firing out again and again and again with so much force that she had to yank back, away from him, desperately fighting to swallow —
But there was too much, so much, and Ella moaned as she watched that deep slit spray the rest of its seed wide across the cave. While the thick whiteness bubbled its way out between her swollen lips, running thick and messy and hot down her chin.
There was an instant’s breathless stillness, as Ella blinked up at Natt’s stunned, wide-eyed face — and then, oh hell, the feel of his big hand thrusting up under her torn sleeping-shift. And then there was glorious warmth, pressure, heat, as his palm slid hard and flat against the very core of her, pressing justthere, his delving fingers spreading her lips apart —
Ella actually screamed as the ecstasy rocked and roiled, her swollen, dripping-wet heat desperately pulsing and kissing against his hand. Soaking him, craving him, while the sparks shot wild and white across her eyes, her heart, her verysoul.
She finally sagged against the strength of his hand, against the hard stone floor beneath her — and after giving a brief, reassuring pat against her still-shivery wetness, his warm hand gently drew away. And then — Ella stared — Natt brought that wet hand to his mouth, and thenlickedit. Smooth, sinuous, hungry, with the flat of his tongue, making sure to catch every drop.
Goodgods. Ella gave a deep, shuddery sigh, and next that hand came up to her own face, fingers sliding deft and easy against her messy chin. And then slipping themselves between her parted lips, inviting her to lick, to kiss, to drink.
Ella did, eagerly, without thinking, though she winced at the new sting in her tongue, where the blast of his seed had struck her. And Natt’s intently watching eyes had perhaps winced too, but those fingers didn’t stop, only kept wiping, feeding, sliding smooth and familiar between her hungry lips.
“Ach,” he murmured, so soft Ella could scarcely hear it. “It was cruel of me, to kiss your tongue so deeply, and then sting you unawares with my seed. Next time, I shall speak first.”
Next time. Ella should have argued that, but she was instead caught on the rest of those words, on how they again seemed to speak so aptly what his body had already silently whispered. Kiss me, he’d said, deeper, more.
“Oh, but youlikeddoing that, and you know it,” Ella heard her voice say, husky and low. “You are the filthiest creatureimaginable, Nattfarr of Clan Grisk.”
Natt actually laughed, the sound ringing warm and utterly lovely through the cave, and his hand came to cup gentle and approving against her sticky, heated cheek. “Ach, I did like this,” he confessed, his eyes sheepish, twinkling, affectionate. “It is not every day one has a mouth so sweet as yours. Or one so quick to learn a true orc’s kiss.”
Oh. The warmth flared again at the praise, almost as if compelled — but beneath it there was a sudden, disconcerting chill. It is not every day. Suggesting that there had been other days, perhaps many of them, with many other women, and Ella belatedly twitched herself away from him, while the reality of this moment seemed to swarm all at once. She had just sucked off an orc in a filthy cold cave, while men waited outside toattackhim, and she was wearing only a tattered sleeping-shift, and she still had an orc’s actualspunk, smeared across her face —
She jerked further away, fully about to jump to her feet, when there was a hard clasp of Natt’s hand against hers, holding her there. “Do not run, lass,” he said, his voice gone thick, choked. “Not now, for this. I ought to better think, before I speak.”
The words sounded sincere, his hand hot and sweaty against hers, and Ella held herself stiffly in place, her eyes held to the cave’s opening, to the dimming sunlight beyond it. “For someone who seemed to care so much about being my first,” she said, her voice thin, “it might have been nice if you’d thought to grant me the same courtesy.”
There was a moment’s stillness, a heavy exhale of his breath. “I am sorry, lass,” he said, quiet. “It has not been — easy, these past years. I learnt to take what pleasure I could, when I could find it.”
“And you couldn’t have found it with me?” Ella shot back. “You couldn’t have stopped byone single time, to perhaps say, Ach, hello lass, I am not in factdead, as you feared, and instead I have been amusing myself gallivanting about the realm, and fucking any woman who would have me?!”
She turned to glare at Natt as she spoke, and he visibly grimaced — and then, with effort, struggled to shove himself up onto his elbow. “No,” he said, the single word snapping out flat, grim. “I could not.”
“Why,” Ella said, almost pleading, almost a sob. “Why. You came yesterday, didn’t you? So why in all the gods’ holy names did it take younine whole years?! We swore apledge, Natt!”
And gods, what had come over her, why was she saying such things. She was an heiress, she was one of the richest women in the realm, she was about to become a lady, tobelong. So what the hell did it matter what this damned orc had done, or hadn’t done, half alifetimeago?
But all the same, Ella was dangerously close to sobbing, and her body lurched again toward the exit — but Natt’s hand was still on hers, gripping tight, his claws scraping close against her skin. And his breath was coming out in rough, strangled gasps, and each one felt sounded, looked, felt like pain.
“I know,” he said, the words choked in his throat. “Iknow, lass. Butthisis why. I could not riskthis, upon you.”
This. Ella frowned at him, blinking through appallingly wet eyelashes, watching as his other clawed hand jerked up, and waved at — himself.This, meaning — his leg. The injuries. Theattack.
“I don’t understand,” Ella said helplessly, shaking her head. “Why, what do you mean, what does that have to do withanything.”
Natt’s eyes briefly closed, his hand clamping even tighter on hers. His chest rising and falling, his jaw set, his throat convulsing deep in his neck.
“I am —hunted,” he said finally, his voice blank, bleak. “I have been hunted, all these past nine years.”
