If she wasn’t mistaken, that was an actual grimace on Natt’s mouth, a hard shake of his head — and his clawed hand reluctantly dropped from the sword-hilt, back down to his side. “Ach, this is true. But” — his voice lowered — “I may yet dream of the day when I watch this man’s blood pool beneath him, and the life leach from his pale eyes. And I shalllaugh.”
That last bit was said with a harsh, biting satisfaction, sending another wrenching shudder down Ella’s spine. Not only did Natt want to torture andkillAlfred, but he would take that much pleasure in his death? What in the gods’ names had this orc become, in all these years? What else was he capable of?
But Ella’s hand on the door behind her hadn’t pulled the latch, hadn’t even tried. Not even when Natt came a slow step closer, near enough to touch — and suddenly Ella could smell him, the woodsy warm scent almost shockingly familiar in her nostrils. Bringing an inexplicable heat to her face, and even more so when he leaned in, closer and closer, until — Ella’s mouth let out a strangled, choked gasp — he’d put his face to her neck, andsmelledher.
It was just the same as how he’d done it all those years ago, down to the quivery little tickle it left against her skin. His breath warm, the scent of him curling close and familiar, his smooth black hair brushing against her cheek.
And that — Ella gasped again —thatwas a brief, unmistakable touch of his hot mouth, his soft lips, against the curve of her neck. And that wasdefinitelynew, and what the hell washappeningto her, because she didn’t even push him away. Just stood there and felt it, her eyes fluttering briefly closed, her head leaning back against the closed door.
Natt seemed to take it for the permission it was, because his face lingered there for far too long, until his deep, steady inhale had filled his chest enough that it brushed against the front of her dress. And that made Ella gasp too, for entirely unaccountable reasons, and when his warmth finally pulled away, there was a strange, irrational twinge of displeasure at the loss of it.
“This man has left his foul scent upon you,” Natt said, his eyes shuttered, and was that — was thatreproachin his voice? “He has touched you, andtastedyou.”
What? Nattknewthat, just from smelling? Another shiver snaked down Ella’s spine, even as the heat surged to her face, sharp and prickling. “That’s none of your business, Natt,” she managed. “I’m twenty-five years old, I’m the richest heiress in the entirerealm, and I can do whatever the hell I please. And also, Alfred and I areengaged. We’re to bemarried. In fourweeks.”
She didn’t miss the sudden sneer of Natt’s lip in the dim light, the hard narrowing of those black eyes. “Marrythis man?” he said flatly, the contempt all too clear in his voice. “This faint-hearted fool who breaks his pledge to you, and piddles his weak seed away into another? No. You shall have better.”
Ella blinked, and her hand on the door-latch behind her clenched involuntarily, more heat rushing to her cheeks. “Um,” she said, her voice high-pitched. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Or did she, because Natt had stepped even closer, his form looming huge and unnerving above her. “Do you not?” he asked, and Ella blinked again as his big hand came up, and a single finger — complete with a thick gold-and-green ring — stroked slowly, carefully, down her cheek, her jaw. Light, warm, gentle, with no claw out, because orc claws were retractable, and Ella had been fascinated by that back then, had held his hand as she’d watched him do it again and again —
“You do not remember?” he said, as that finger slowly traced lower, down her neck, along the line of her shoulder. “The pledge you made to me?”
The pledge. Ella felt herself swallow, her eyes dropping, following that hand as it trailed its way down her arm. It was so much bigger now, compared to back when she’d touched him so easily. When one day, deep in the forest, these very orc hands had held both of hers, and those black orc eyes had looked into her soul.
Will you have me, lass, he had said. Before any other. When we are grown.
He had been so serious, so earnest and quiet and —vulnerable, almost, in that moment. And Ella had looked at him, at his strange face and his hands and his hair, at his lean, beautifully expressive body. At those bottomless, black orc eyes.
And she’d said, Yes, Nattfarr of Clan Grisk. I will.
Natt’s other hand had come up under her chin, tilting it back up, making her look at him. And Ella was looking, gods damn her, she was looking. And did he truly still remember that day too, thatpledge, after all this time, after years and years andyears. After Ella had finally,finallyforced herself to forget it.
“That was a long time ago, Natt,” Ella heard her voice say, oddly thick. “Alifetimeago.”
And more than that, he was anorc. And Ella knew now that she should never have agreed to such an appalling thing with anorc, proper women would never even be possessed of such a thought. Orcs were violent ravaging murderers, they killed men, raided villages, stole goods, drank blood, seduced hapless women and then trapped them in their mountain to bear their sons, he was anorc—
“Yes,” Natt said, quiet. “It was nine summers past. And you made a pledge.”
Ella’s mouth had gone dry, her heart fluttering madly in her chest, and that warm hand on her chin came up, brushed soft against her mouth. “You did not forget this,” he said. “Did you?”
Ella’s lips against his finger had parted, as if to speak, but no words came out. Just her breath, far too close and gasping, dragging in that scent of him, filling her lungs and her thoughts.
“You did not forget,” he said again, and this time there was a note of satisfaction in his low voice. “Though you foolishly gave this man leave to taste you, you have yet kept your maidenhead for me.”
Shewhat? That was enough to snap Ella out of this strange stilted stupor, and she felt her body straighten, her eyes fixing narrow on his. “I have done no such thing,” she said, and that was true, wasn’t it? “And also, blithely commenting upon a woman’s — ahem —virtue— isextremelydiscourteous!”
But if Natt registered her tone, or her discomfort, he didn’t acknowledge it. Just kept that warm orc finger against her parted lips, and then — Ella gasped — he nudged it slowly, but purposefully, between them. Sinking his thick orc fingerinto her mouth, brushing against hertongue, and he was probablyfilthyand why wasn’t she slapping him pushing him awaysomething—
“You did not give your maidenhead to this piddling foul man,” he said, his voice harder, as if stating an incontrovertible truth. “Or to any other. You kept it for me.”
Gods. There was a clenching shudder up Ella’s spine, and low in her belly, but she still hadn’t moved — and that single orc finger was sliding deeper, deeper into her mouth. Tasting inexplicably sweet, reminiscent of the scent that was swarming the air still further, settling in her lungs.
“And thus,” Natt said, his voice full of danger, of heat, of promise. “It shall bemine.”
4
It would be his.
