Her badly trembling hand waved at him, at her, atthis— and she could see the understanding flare across his eyes, chased by an almost immediate disapproval. “None of these men have tasted you?” he demanded. “Even this foolish rich man did not taste his ownpet?”
It was a clear condemnation, and Rosa shivered again, her gaze angling away from him, toward the safety of his books. “No,” she whispered, quiet, ashamed. “Never.”
She could almost feel John’s eyes boring into her, hard and unsettling.“But you showed some skill with your mouth, when you drank from me,” he said flatly. “Surely you learnt this from these men?”
Even as a shameful part of Rosa inwardly preened at the praise — she’d shown some skill, he’dlikedit — far stronger was the uncomfortable urge to curl up. Cover herself. Hide away…
But John was still too close, too powerful, both hands back on her thighs, shoving her further apart. Exposing, demanding, waiting. Expecting an answer.
“Yes,” she whispered, to his hands, rather than his face. “But I told you. Men don’t give. They only take.”
There was a harsh, hanging stillness, fraught with heaviness, discomfort, perhaps even blame. While Rosa’s helpless, spread-apart body only clenched again, exposing her with brazen, appalling flagrancy, and her face flushed even hotter, flooding her with shame. She shouldn’t want such things, she didn’t deserve such things, she was foolish and skinny anduseless…
But rising between her legs, low and steady, was a sound. Not from her, but from John, and when her gaze darted furtively to his face, he was again —growling. His teeth bared, his dark eyes narrowed and glittering, his claws black and dangerous as they pressed gently against her bare thigh.
“And I toldyou, woman,” he said, deep, menacing, “I am not a man. I am anorc. And when an orc gains a woman” — he dropped a hand back between her spread legs, traced his thumb slow, taunting, utterly thrilling up between — “he bares her. He covers all her parts with his scent. He drinks his fill of her whenever he pleases.”
A helpless, heaving groan escaped Rosa’s throat — he couldn’t mean this, he couldn’tpossiblybe doing this — but then all else blinked away, because hewas. His head leaning in closer, his growl rising as he inhaled, his chest filling with the scent of her — and then he again slid out his tongue, with slow, deliberate purpose, andlickedher.
Rosa instantly squealed and flailed, the impossible sensation whirling and shuddering. And in return, John only laughed, dark and mocking, and did itagain. Running that long, sinuous black tongue up her swollen parted crease, lingering upon where he’d filled her, on where more of his own thick white was already oozing onto his delving tongue…
Rosa moaned again, blinking, dazed, wondering — to which John gave that dark laugh again, and then used the pads of both clawed thumbs to draw her dripping heat even wider apart. And gods, the vision of that, thetruthof that, an orc’s deadly claws nudging so gently against her most vulnerable, secret place, doing with her as he wished, using her as his own…
“More, pet,” he growled, hoarse and heated, and he couldn’t mean he wanted to see more, taste more of his ownleavings— but Rosa’s audacious, appalling body was already obeying his command with shocking abandon, pulsing and clenching and pushing, squeezing out more of that betraying white, from where it had been hidden inside, perhaps waiting for just this moment…
John watched it with arrested, fluttering eyes, his claws clamping with approval against her thigh — and then he again leaned forward, and caught its pooling warmth with his tongue. Lapping it up with astonishing eagerness, and now delving deeper, following it to its source —
Rosa’s breaths were juddering, her eyes glued to the sight, the slick slurping sounds, the impossible unreality of it. This cold, distant, angry orc, with his head thrust between her parted thighs, his long slippery tongue flicking and twisting with such deliberate intent, sinking deeper and deeper…
Andfuck, his tongue was huge, it feltalive, it felt like a gods-damnedsnakewas writhing within her. A snake that was unspooling its delicious poison deep inside, setting her jolting and convulsing around it, her back arching, her hands grasping at his silken black head, she couldn’t possibly bear any more, shecouldn’t—
But he only chuckled again, cool and mocking and desperately thrilling, vibrating into her through his huge, thrusting tongue. And itwasthrusting, this orc was actuallyfuckingher with his mouth, his lips now pressed close and hot against her, in almost an obscene, open-mouthed kiss. And she could feel his sharp teeth, threatening to sink into delicate skin, while his tongue kept punching her, claiming her, splitting her flailing body upon its writhing furious power —
Rosa screamed as the release tore at her, exploding from his still-driving tongue, consuming the whole of her in its shouting, hurtling wake. Wracking her again and again around him, upon him, her body no longer her own, but anorc’s.
And the orc’s tongue was still there, but licking and lingering gently now, giving her shameless, quivering heat something to rub against, to clench against, to perhaps even kiss at. Until the aftershocks gradually subsided, and that slick tongue gave one final, deliberate lick — or maybe a kiss back — before he slowly pulled away, wiping at his face with the back of his hand.
And it was the sight of that, inexplicably, that seemed to snap Rosa back into herself again. Into the vivid, unimaginable truth of this moment, with her debauched, gasping body sprawled and spread-eagled on a library table, generously dripping its excesses onto it. While the fully clothed orc before her coolly stood tall, smoothed back his still-neat braid, and looked down at her with carefully blank eyes.
Oh. Oh,gods. Rosa heard herself whimper before she felt it — what had she justdone— and she frantically pulled herself back in, snapping her legs together, wrapping her arms tight around her chest. He was going to mock her again. He was going to blame her again. He was going to walk away…
The sobs were lurking, threatening, about to escape — how had she possibly been so foolish,again— when a low, sustained growl jerked her head up.Hewas growling, and his warm hand circled around her neck, strong and menacing and deadly.
“I told you, pet,” he said, slow, a threat. “Whilst you are here, you shall please me. And thus, you shall not hide yourself, or your joy, away from me. You shall show all I wish to see, and all I have done to you. You shall be bared, both before me and before my kin, and you shallnotbe ashamed. Do you understand?”
Rosa blinked at him, at the cold command in his eyes, at the danger in his voice — and for some bizarre, unaccountable reason, she felt her curled-up body relaxing, her throat swallowing hard against that press of his palm. A touch that felt almost soothing, suddenly, even as his other hand snaked back down to her thigh, and unceremoniously shoved her leg apart.
“Good,” he murmured, soft. “Should you hide thus from me again, little rose, I may need to punish you, until you learn to obey.”
Rosa’s gasp of shock was instinctive, appalled — but there was heat in it, too, and hunger, and perhaps evenrelief. And when those claws slipped up her bare thigh, coming to card gently into her secret patch of dark hair, she felt herself shiver, warm, alive.
“I understand,” she heard her shameful voice whisper, to those waiting black eyes. “I shall seek to learn, my lord.”
Those eyes fluttered, once, his lips slightly parted — but the nod of his head was brusque, businesslike, satisfied.Pleased.
“Good,” he said firmly. “Now you shall come, little pet. I shall teach you the truth of my home.”
18
