And perhaps — itwasanother person. A person withfreckles, and with long, wild reddish hair, already brightened by the sun. A person dressed in leather and fur, with gold and a bright flash of green hanging from her ears. A person with more gold chains crossed over her chest, glinting where the fur didn’t quite cover, hinting at something beneath.
There was so much bare skin — bare legs, bare arms, a midriff entirely exposed from chest to hips — but perhaps it almost suited a wild, bright-eyed woman such as this. A woman who was glancing toward the huge, still-naked orc beside her, and reaching a pale hand, to draw him in close.
And when the orc came to stand behind the wild woman in the frame, his huge clawed hands coming to rest on either side of her bared waist, the woman’s reddened lips parted, her half-naked body leaning back against him. Gasping as the orc’s hands slowly slid upwards, coming to cup hot and familiar against each breast, his claws purposely tracing against braided gold, vibrating it deep into her skin.
The woman gave a helpless, choked-sounding moan, and dropped her head back onto the orc’s bare shoulder. A movement that revealed a mess of faint redscrapeson her neck, where the orc’s teeth had nipped and teased. Not full-on bites, at least not yet — but still a sure, shocking proof of his ownership, and their pleasure together.
“You see,” the orc murmured, heated and close into the woman’s ear, “how my jewels in your teats might please you?”
The words were utterly audacious, complete with a hard, thrilling snap of the orc’s sharp teeth against the gold ring in her ear. But the wild woman only moaned again, her eyelashes fluttering, her hand reaching around to grip behind her at the orc’s hot, muscled bare thigh. And when the orc’s deadly hand moved up to the woman’s heart, she didn’t even flinch, but only watched as he unstrapped the fur over her shoulders, and let it fall open to the light.
The sight beneath was utterly obscene, the woman’s full, pale breasts chained in gold, and entirely bared to the orc’s huge hands. And their rounded weights were jiggling and heaving under his touch, jutting out flushed nipples into his hungry clawed fingers, and the woman in the glass only moaned again, and bit her red lip with a sharp white tooth as she watched.
“Does this please you?” the orc purred, his voice a husky silken embrace all its own. “Speak, lass.”
Lass. And suddenly there was the jarring, twitching truth that this wild, wanton, shameless woman in the glass was —her. It was Ella Riddell, the heiress, betrothed to alord, and she was not supposed to look like this, she was notallowedto be this, shecouldn’t—
Ella whirled around, away, her body reflexively aiming toward the door — but Natt was here, close, safe. And when he tucked her trembly form tight into his powerful strength, she felt herself clinging to him, and fighting him, she had to go, she was supposed to be alady—
“Shhh, lass,” Natt’s voice said, low into her ear. “There is naught to run from. Naught to fear. I shall keep you safe.”
Ella’s body seemed to wilt against him, but she shook her head, squeezed her eyes shut. “What if they find out, Natt,” she whispered. “What if theysee.”
And the visions marching behind her eyes weren’t only of Alfred and his men, but her mother. Her neighbours. Her many associates and acquaintances, all the people who knew Ella Riddell to be proper, poised, respectable. An heiress, soon to be a real lady.
“They shall not,” Natt replied, harder than before. “You shall be safe here with me, to be as you are. This truth is ours, andyours. This has naught to do with them.”
It was inexplicably comforting, his fierce words, his fierce arms around her. His hands, now coming up to her face, tilting it to look at his glittering black eyes. “You are the fairest gift ever to greet my eyes,” he said, quiet, intent. “You are a bright jewel, a flame in winter, a blade new from the forge. It shall be pure joy to walk my home by your side, and flaunt such a rare prize.”
Oh. The rest of the tension snaked away from Ella’s form all at once, and she felt her face heating, her eyes dropping from the intensity of his gaze. “You orcs,” she said, a little choked, “are utterlydepraved, Nattfarr.”
He gave a wry chuckle, his hand sliding with obvious approval against her bare back, because he knew he had her, the bastard. And Ella couldn’t even seem to argue, but only took a fortifying breath, and raised her eyes back to his face. “So what next?”
Natt’s smile was slow, sharp, gloriously wicked. “Next you shall come,” he said, “and meet my kin.”
19
When Ella left the dressing-room with Natt, it was with her head held high, her hair tossed back, her steps as sure as she could make them. She could do this. She could embrace a week of exposure, of secret debauchery, if it meant so much to Natt. No one would know. The men had beenaddressed, he’d said. It would befine.
It helped, oddly, that Natt hadn’t fully dressed either, only yanking on a knee-length leather kilt of his own, and, to Ella’s vague surprise, snapping another thick gold ring into his left ear. Making him look even more dangerous, somehow, especially when he strapped on his sword-belt again, hanging the gleaming, gem-studded scimitar back in its place by his side.
And as they strode down the corridor, hand in hand, Ella could almost see how she might —fit, like this. How a half-naked, shameless orc like Natt perhapsshouldhave a wild, brazen, scantily-clad woman by his side, wearing his furs and jewels.
It was enough to keep Ella moving, her bare feet padding silently on the smooth stone floor, as Natt led her down the slowly widening corridor — at least, until there was someone else. Anotherorc. Huge and hulking and deadly, and walking straight toward them.
Ella’s steps faltered, her body instinctively angling itself behind the safety of Natt’s form — but Natt was slowing down, he wasstopping, he was talking to this strange orc in their incomprehensible black-tongue. While Ella’s panic kept steadily surging, straight down to her feet — and she might have run, if not for the way the strange orc suddenly turned and smiled at her, and even gave a flourishing little bow.
“Greetings, woman,” he said, in a warm, melodious voice. “Welcome to our mountain. I am Baldr, of Clan Grisk.”
Ella was still caught in the orc’s scarred, greenish face, the huge muscled form that seemed far too small for his tight-fitting tunic — but thankfully her many years of social training seemed to take over, and she felt herself curtsey, her own head bowing. “It’s lovely to meet you, Baldr of Clan Grisk,” she said, her voice only slightly wavering. “I’m Ella Riddell, of Ashford.”
When she looked up the orc was still smiling, and if he’d noticed Ella’s shocking ensemble, he gave no sign of it, his twinkling black eyes remaining safely on her face. “We’ve all been most eager to meet you, woman,” he said. “Especially the Captain and his mate. Will you bring her up to us, Nattfarr, at your first opportunity?”
“Ach,” Natt said, both his voice and his eyes betraying an unmistakable stubbornness, but Baldr only gave another bright smile toward Ella, and then turned and walked away. Leaving Ella to blink bemusedly after him — until she was confronted by the appalling sight of four more huge orcs, striding up the corridor toward them.
These ones were even more alarming than Baldr had been, not least because they were all bare-chested, like Natt, and boasted scars all over their huge, muscular grey forms. And their glittering eyes on Ella were far more familiar than Baldr’s had been, more openly assessing, and the nearest one — who had a perfectly straight nose, and long black hair that hung loose down his back, and a thick gold ring through hisnipple— was looking Ella up and down with frank shamelessness, his black eyes lingering particularly on her chest, and then her bare midriff, and her groin.
But Natt was grinning at these orcs, with far more warmth than he’d shown Baldr, and his clawed hand had come to clap at the frowning one’s shoulder. “Lass, these are my most faithful brothers,” he said to her. “They are to be my guard, when I take the name of Speaker. And brothers, here is my sweet little lass. Ella.”
