For a moment, Natt only blinked at her, his black eyes entirely unreadable — but then there was a twitch of unmistakable amusement on his mouth. “Even if these people swallow all these fancy words, lass,” he said, “your betrothed shall not be pleased with this. And his dogs shall yet smell me all over you.”
“Yes, because youbledon me,” Ella snapped back. “Copiously, and repeatedly. Orcs areextremelyuncouth, you know, and wont to start spurting blood at precisely the most inconvenient moments, all over anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby.”
The twitch on Natt’s mouth had slowly broadened into a smile, warm and sharp and wicked. “Ach, this is true,” he murmured. “And who is to say I could not manage to spurt this — blood — down your throat, or up deep between your legs.”
Ella’s face had gone very hot, but she managed a jerky, imperious little nod toward him. “Indeed,” she snapped. “Extremelyuncouth, as I said. And also arrogant, and ungrateful, as well.”
Natt laughed out loud at that, the sound low and oddly reassuring, and then he carefully crouched, and leaned over to grasp his pack, and the sheepskin. And after beckoning Ella to come closer, he again furled the sheepskin over her shoulders, tying it warm and tight against her.
“Thank you, my lass,” he said, quieter. “You have shown me great kindness.”
Ella could only seem to shrug, her face still decidedly hot, and she watched with strangely greedy eyes as Natt turned away and crept toward the entrance, his pack in hand. Exposing the round, high muscles of his arse, shifting against his trousers, his bulky form still favouring his right leg over the left.
“Can you still tell where the men are?” Ella asked, once he’d hesitated just inside the opening, with her crouched close behind him. He was sniffing the air, inhaling slow and deep, and he gave a thoughtful nod.
“South,” he said, “but still mayhap a half league away. This is luck, lass. We shall have a good start. And, time for a bath.”
With that, he shot her a jaunty little smile, and carefully eased himself out the cave’s small entrance. And then, without any warning whatsoever, he turned and dropped his entire body sideways, full into the creek below.
Ella yelped and lurched over to look, but the creek was only waist-deep, and Natt was already rearing up again. His black hair arcing up long and loose behind him, while the water streamed from his gleaming grey-green skin, and his hands came up to splash more water over his face, again tilting his fluttering eyes up to the light.
“Ach,” he breathed, an undeniable sigh of pleasure — and as Ella watched, her mouth gone entirely dry, he did it again. Dunking himself whole before arching up again, this time shaking himself off in a shivery rush, just as a dog might, sending the water-droplets spattering all around.
“Should you like to join me?” asked his shocking voice, as Ella belatedly wiped the water off her face — and there was a hitching, jolting instant where she blinked at him, at thisorc, standing there streaming water, with his black hair long and unbound, almost to his waist, plastered messy against his gleaming wet skin.
And somehow, there was the inexplicable, unnerving realization that Ellashouldlike to join him. Really very much so, and she hadn’t splashed in water like that, let alone gone swimming, foryears—
“No, thank you,” she made herself say, too late. “I’m sure it’s filthy. And probably freezing.”
“Ach, I shall keep you warm,” came his audacious reply, complete with a devious grin, and a beckon of his sharp claw. Almost — almost — enough to draw Ella forward, but she barely managed to keep herself in place, and fixed her eyes away, safe, on a huge old oak-tree behind him.
“No, we really should get going, shouldn’t we?” she said, as firmly as she could. “If you’re certain you’re well enough. Which” — she risked a look at where he was now leaping back onto the bank, only slightly favouring his injured leg — “you seem to be, clearly.”
He did look much improved, many of his wounds fainter than before, or entirely vanished. The worst was still his leg, by far, and Natt was still visibly limping on it as he came back toward her, his clawed hands combing through his long wet hair.
“Ach,” he said, with a wince, and a dark glance toward the still-visible wound on his left shoulder. “I am better, lass. But I ought to take more care, instead of showing off thus, for you.”
He’d dropped his left arm to his side, grimacing at the movement, while he kept jerking his other hand impatiently through his wet hair, clearly wishing it out of the way. And against all her better judgement, Ella sighed, and then stepped around behind him, and drew his wet hair back. Taking care to tuck it behind his pointed ears, and away from his earring, as she combed her hands through the thick black strands, and then began to braid.
It wasn’t the first time she’d done this — Natt had always had beautiful hair, thick and black and glossy, and Ella had always longed to touch it, and plait it, and play with it. A desire that Natt had been all too willing to accommodate, and just like this, he would tilt his head back, allowing her to do all that she wished, while he purred low and contented out his throat.
Ella braided all the way to the end, fighting valiantly to ignore the rather heated tone his breath had taken. And when Natt slowly turned back around again, she couldn’t quite look at him — but she shivered all over as he stepped closer, closer. And then leaned in, his head angling, so he could lower his face to her neck, and —smellher.
There was no moving, no resisting it. Only standing there, her eyes fluttering closed, while she felt him slowly inhale, filling his chest with the scent of her. And just like last time he’d done this, back in the hunting cottage, there was just the slightest brush of those warm lips to her skin, sending a hard shudder down her back. And then again, and again, and a dripping-wetorcwaskissingherneck, but Ella could only seem to stand there, and feel it, and breathe.
“Ach,” he murmured, as he finally drew away, his irises looking even blacker than usual in the brightening sun. “Your scent is already so much sweeter, lass.”
Ella blinked at him, not quite sure whether to take that as an insult, or not. “Why,” she managed, through her thick-feeling throat. “Because now I smell likeyou?”
He gave a rueful, twitching smile, his thumb coming up brief to brush against her lips. “Yes,” he whispered, almost too quiet to be heard. “Only of me.Mine.”
Ella’s breath had vanished, the world had vanished, everything — and all that was left was this. Natt slowly leaning forward, sliding his clawed hand to her cheek, and bringing his mouth to hers.
His kiss was soft, slick, sensuous, even with his still-split lip. His long tongue delving deep inside, spreading her mouth apart, sparking heat bright and powerful within. And speaking, all too clearly, of what else he wished to do to her, slippery filthy warmth stretching her, filling her, making her its own —
Ella jerked back, much too late, her breath catching, her face hot. While her eyes cast wildly about them, searching the trees, because he’d said the men were coming closer, what if they’d seen her doing this, willinglykissinganorc?!
There were still no men within immediate view, but that helped very little, and neither did the shuttered look on Natt’s face. Hiding something, something new, something that might have almost been —hurt.
