What is his. Ella likely should have countered that, somehow, but she could only seem to gasp, holding those hard, hungry, triumphant orc eyes. And without at all meaning to, her legs seemed to open even wider, almost as if to brandish herself to him, to say, yes, look, this is yours, taste it again —
It was shameless and humiliating and obscene, but Nattapproved, helikedit. His mouth giving another wicked smile as he slowly, deliberately touched a single finger justthere, and slipped it slick, smooth, easy, inside.
“Good lass,” he whispered, while Ella moaned and whimpered, her body clenching desperately around that thick finger. “Look how wide you have opened for me. Do you wish to take all my tongue, now?”
Ella frantically nodded, her entire body aching and screaming for it, and Natt slowly slid his now dripping-wet finger out again, and brought it up to Ella’s mouth. Nudging it back between her lips, and Ella eagerly sucked it inside this time, tasting herself all over him.
“See how wet you are for me, lass,” he said. “See how hungry your womb is for me. And” — he pulled the finger out of her mouth with a slippery-soundingpop— “as I fill it with my tongue, think on what else you might wish to take inside it.”
He meantthat, that huge bulge in the front of his trousers, and while Ella had pointedly been ignoring it, she hadn’t at all forgotten it — and in this moment the very thought of it was almost impossibly arousing. To feelthatinside her, huge and swollen and hard, making her his,forever—
But Natt was kneeling again, licking his lips, and now — Ella nearly shouted — sliding that tongue slow and purposeful against her. Exploring, delving, sinking deeper this time, no longer a wet, filthy kiss but rather a full-on actual invasion. Going where no one else hadevergone, deep and hard and powerful, impaling her whole upon it.
It was tight and full and close, more than anything else Ella had ever felt there, and she was whimpering again, writhing against it, even as she spread herself wider, perhaps even pressing back against him. Wanting to be pierced by this, taken by this, and it felt impossible, itwasimpossible, it was bending the lines of truth and reality. Smashing the entire world down to this, to a huge hot orc-tongue filling her, claiming her, drinking her from the inside out, while her crazed body gasped and squirmed and pleaded for more.
“Oh gods, oh gods,” her mouth was babbling, all of its own accord. “Oh gods Natt, oh fuck, oh please, please,please—”
Her voice was rising dangerously, her whole body tilting dangerously, wide open, filled with orc, stretched to its limit. Teetering on a craving so desperate it couldn’t be real, this couldn’t be happening, his mouth letting out a dark, satisfied chuckle, vibrating deep against her as his tongue curled up just there,there, again and again and again, fuck,fuck—
The release crashed over Ella with furious force, hurling away her thoughts her senses the world, and swarming her instead with wave after wave of raging, all-consuming pleasure. Her mouth shouting, her body frantically pulsating against the tongue still inside it, her hands scrabbling at his hair and his shoulders and perhaps even dragging him closer, closer, gods he was good, he waseverything.
When it finally faded she was left gasping for air, and trembling all over. And Natt was still there, still with his mouth between her legs, but it felt soft again, his tongue back to licking and teasing, rather than invading. And Ella watched, marvelled, as her own hands went down to that face, tilted it up, caressed it with a familiarity that seemed almost to belong to someone else.
“Good gods, Natt,” she breathed, trailing her thumb against those warm, wet orc-lips. “Where have youbeenthese past nine years.”
His face tilted into her touch, black eyelashes fluttering, but at the last she could see a trace of wariness, flicking across his eyes. “I have been missing you, lass,” he said, soft. “I have been dreaming of how you tasted.”
But it wasn’t an answer, and he knew it, and the beautiful warm languor that had overtaken Ella’s body seemed to ebb slightly, tilting away toward something almost like desperation. “But youleft,” she said, and there was a raw edge on her voice, her eyes blinking back an inexplicable wetness. “You just disappeared, with no word, no warning, nothing. I thought we werefriends.”
Natt’s eyes briefly closed, his head still tilting against her hand. “Ach,” he said. “We were friends.”
The misery lurched up again, stronger than before, and Ella heard herself sniff, felt a streak of wetness slip down her cheek. “I searched for you for months,” she said. “Years. I left you things, made you gifts, you never took them. I thought you must havedied.”
Something moved in Natt’s throat, but his eyes were back on hers again, steady, unreadable. “I did not wish to cause you pain. I am sorry, lass.”
He was sorry. The hurt seemed to sink deeper, twisting hard into Ella’s belly, and she stared at him, at the stark, strange lines of his face. He’d said he wouldn’t hurt her, but he already had, hadn’t he? He couldn’t be trusted. No one could, not anymore. She knew that, how had she forgotten that…
“Thenwhy,” she said, her voice cracking. “Why did you leave.”
Natt’s broad shoulders rose and fell, and his eyes dropped down, to where his big hand was still on her pale thigh, fingers spread wide in the moonlight. His ring glittering gold and green, his black claws visible and smooth and sharp.
“I cared for you, lass,” he said finally, quiet. “I longed to bring you to my home, and claim you as my mate before all my kin. But this could not be.”
Hismate. The word seemed to reverberate through Ella’s thoughts, deep into her very soul, because she remembered him talking about this. How for an orc a mate was more than a wife, but rather a part of him,always.
“You — you would have really taken me away with you, as yourmate?” she heard herself ask, her voice high-pitched, and while this was entirely the wrong point, she couldn’t seem to move away from it. “Permanently?”
Natt’s eyes angling back to hers looked almost surprised, and his mouth twisted up, into a grim mockery of a smile. “Ach, yes, lass,” he said, in a tone that suggested it should be obvious. “Had I been granted this, once you were of age, I should have crawled up your womb at once, and stayed there. I should have whelped so many sons upon you, I would now have a wholebroodto my name, and your belly would even now beburstingwith my seed.”
The words came out fierce, guttural, almost like a threat — but instead of feeling properly threatened, Ella felt strangely hot and fluttery all over. “Really?” she heard herself ask, the disbelief ringing through her voice, because the very thought of it was unreal, ridiculous,impossible. “And it never occurred to you — tomentionthat, to me, before you left?”
There was an odd, unfamiliar stillness on Natt’s face, something she couldn’t ever remember seeing before. “Ach,” he said, very slowly, “and had I said this, should you have been glad to hear it? Had I come to you in the night, once you were of age, and asked this of you, should you have come away with me?”
Ella stared at him, while all the possible responses to that question dipped and soared through her head. Would you really have done that, would you really have expected that, why do you ask, when would you, would I, well —
But now here were the visions, marching merciless past her eyes, of her father. Her mother. The land, the house, the fortune, herhome. All of the expectations, all on Ella’s shoulders. She had to make a good marriage, fulfill her father’s final wishes, she was about to become alady, and he was anorc…
Natt was still studying her, those black orc eyes seeing far too much, like they always had. “And if I were to ask now, lass,” he said, his voice very smooth, “should you stay with me tonight? Shall you come away with me, and show yourself as my mate, before all my kin?”
