His hands were waiting on her ankles, his black eyes glittering. And did Ella dare make any more pledges to this orc, who was clearly wont to remember them for all his days — but his hands weren’t moving, why weren’t his hands moving, and Ella swallowed, felt her head nodding.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, very good. I shall.”
There was another flash of those white teeth, an approving brush of claws against her anklebone. “Good,” he said, as both hands began sliding slowly, purposefully, upwards. “I shall hold you to this, lass.”
Ella had no doubt of that, and her head gave another jerky nod, her mouth gone bone-dry. Her eyes staring at the shocking sight of this orc, kneeling between her legs, dragging up her muddy skirts. Exposing her calves, her knees, her thighs, guiding her legs apart as he went, and Ella trembled against him as he kept going and going, her skirts higher and higher —
And this, Ella now knew from her experience with Alfred, was where Natt would lean forward, nudging his face under the edge of her skirts, concealing the improper proceedings from her innocent eyes. And then there would be the light, teasing touch of tongue, a thrilling perfect jolt to the senses, and Ella wanted to feel that again, desperately needed to feel it again —
But Natt wasn’t doing it, yet. Natt was still sliding his hands upwards, curving them warm and possessive against her bare hips, and over the tight fabric of her corset. And that meant — Ella felt herself gasp, and shudder all over — he wasuncoveringher. Bunching her skirts well up above her waist, leaving her entire lower half — all her most secret, embarrassing parts — exposed to the air, and to his watching, hungry eyes.
And Natt was watching. Not moving, not touching, not yet — just looking. His black eyes held fast on the sight between Ella’s spread legs, and she could feel — couldhear— her audacious body clenching, twitching, dripping wet, for those watching orc-eyes to see.
Those orc hands were sliding down her legs again, all the way to her ankles, and they nudged her muddy slippers off her feet, and onto the floor. Then he lifted her ankles up, placing her feet on the edge of the couch. And if Ella had thought she’d been exposed before, this was something else entirely, this was every hidden part of her spread open wide, without question the most wanton, humiliating thing she’d ever done in herlife—
But those orc eyes were on hers again, those eyebrows raised, again willing her to speak. And when she didn’t, the orc —Natt— leaned in, spreading her thighs even wider, gentle but inexorable —
“Look how open you are, lass,” he murmured, low and husky. “Look how soft and wet you are for me. Now, for what do you wish next.”
He was looking again at the sight he’d exposed between her legs, his eyes hungry and appallingly brazen, like they truly wanted to see this, Ella’s bare, swollen wetness madly convulsing and dripping for his eyes. And while she could admit to herself, perhaps, that she wanted him, making herself say it, out loud, to anorc, even if she was spread-eagled on a couch with him kneeling between her legs —
“Speak, lass,” Natt said, his voice harder, his gaze once again on her face. “What has taken your voice.”
Ella’s thoughts floundered, suddenly, darting from her mother to Alfred to her father, lying cold and pale and silent in a casket. And then to the damned lawyer reading that damned will, six months to wed a man of standing, an earl a baron a duke, or the presumptive heir thereto —
But here was Natt’s hand, on Ella’s cheek. He’d risen up on his knees, his eyes on a level with hers, and gods he was big andgodshe was close and his eyes, his eyes —
“For what do you wish,” he insisted. “From me.”
Ella gulped for air, stared at those black eyes. What did she wish, from him. His strength, his certainty? His huge, beautiful body? His explanation, his apology, for disappearing with no word foryears?
“Your — your tongue,” she heard her halting voice say, because perhaps that was the only truth that could be relied upon, at this moment. And it was one Natt clearly wanted to hear, because those eyes flared with heat, those big orc hands gripping against her skin.
“Then this you shall have,” he said, promised — and then he bowed his head, took a long, deep exhale, filling his lungs with the scent of her. And as Ella watched, caught and breathless, that huge black tongue slithered out — andlickedher. Sliding slow, deliberate, utterly maddening, all the way from one end of her exposed crease to the other.
It was sparks and life and pleasure, shouting all at once in Ella’s head, and fighting and flailing against a shocked, impossible disbelief. That wasn’t what Alfred had done, Alfred hadn’t gone anywhere nearthere, and whyever would he want to?
But Natt had let out a harsh, guttural groan of undeniable pleasure, vibrating deep against Ella’s skin, and then — she heard herself groan aloud, too — he licked heragain. Even harder, deeper this time, that huge black tongue lingering against all Ella’s most secret, forgotten, shameful places. Laying them bare, and known, and perhaps evenwanted.
And oh it felt good, it felt like glory itself had descended from on high, to dwell between Ella’s spread legs. To lose itself in the pleasure of a huge, licking orc-tongue, and she felt her thighs dropping slightly further apart, her wet, swollen folds quivering against that sinuous orc-tongue as it snaked its way past.
And then his tongue stopped, lingeringthere, right where Ella most craved it — and she felt herself clenching back, hard. Almost as if meeting his lips and tongue with her own, kissing him back with wanton luridness, but Natt only seemed to settle himself closer, his lips hot and hungry, his tongue slowly,finally, nudging its way inside.
Ella moaned aloud, her legs trembling, her head falling back on the couch, becausedamn, his tonguewashuge, just as he’d promised. Feeling hot and tight and full as it delved itself further, further inside her, still curling and licking, ohgods— and then slipping back out again, back to giving her the same soft, wet, filthy kiss he’d given her mouth.
It was almost unbearable, both the dizzying feel of it, and the outrageous, preposterous sight of it. Natt’s black orc head pressed deep between her legs, his long braid tickling her skin, his gold earring glinting, his thick eyelashes fluttering as he kissed and suckled and licked. Sliding that huge tongue back inside, deeper this time, so full and hot and tight andalive, tasting her drinking her eating her whole. And this was nothing like Alfred this was nothing likeanything, it was impossible that any living being would actuallywantto do this —
“Natt,” Ella heard her choked voice say, and in an instant he’d pulled himself away, his eyes narrow and intent on her face. His own face was half-covered in a sheen of wetness —herwetness, Ella thought — and she stared at that, and watched as her finger moved to trail against his cheek, almost as if to see if it was real.
But it was, he was, and he was waiting, and Ella swallowed, forced her dazed thoughts to right themselves. “You can’t really,” her hoarse voice said, “want this, like this. Can you?”
Natt’s head tilted, the way it always had when he’d considered her, evaluated her words. “Why should I not? I have longed to taste you for half my life.”
That made no sense, could it, and Ella blinked at him, shook her head. “But it’s not — clean,” she managed. “Notproper. Not like when —”
“When that piddling man tasted you?” Natt finished, and his black tongue slowly, lasciviously, licked his lips. “Yes. I can smell how little he had of you. I shall not be so wasteful with my chance, lass. When I am finished with you, your womb shallreekof my scent, and shall flood itself with juices at the barestsightof my tongue.”
A desperate, helpless groan escaped out Ella’s mouth, and Natt flashed her a sharp, not-so-nice smile. “Even a man shall be able to smell me upon you,” he purred. “And his prick shall flag with fear before he can come close to touching what ismine.”
