“I yet keep to your rules,” he said distantly, his eyes flicking across the page. “Yourworkis well done, woman.”
It was sarcasm, he wasmockingher again, and Rosa gritted her teeth, took a breath, and strode further into the room. Over to sit down on Lord Kaspar’s cot, where she clamped her knees together, and gripped her jittery hands against them.
“Your mockery is not appreciated, orc,” she said thinly. “I did you a kindness, by allowing you to stay here, when it could cost me my job. The polite thing to do would be to return the favour.”
She was looking at the orc’s profile, now, at his perfectly straight nose, his sharp square jaw, flexing under his skin. “It is my right, by law, to read in this library,” he countered, without even glancing at her. “I owe you no debt.”
“You do owe me,” Rosa shot back, the frustration edging into her voice. “You broke in. You broke the law.”
“And thus I must share with you deep truths of my kin?” he demanded, as he finally looked at Rosa again, his eyes glinting, disapproving, mocking. “Very well, woman. Here are some truths for you. I am an orc. I live in the place you call Orc Mountain. I bear sharp claws, sharp fangs, and tapered ears. Your people have long waged a cruel and unjust war against mine. I cannot even peacefully read in a library without question and blame. Does this repay my debt to you?”
Rosa’s empty stomach shifted uncomfortably, and she glanced away from his unnerving, prickling gaze, toward the wall opposite. “Look, I’m not trying to — to oppress you,” she said, wincing at the words. “I’m only asking for your insight. Your help.”
But even that sounded hollow, brittle on her lips, and across from her the orc made a sound that might have been a laugh, hard and scornful. “Myhelp,” he repeated. “I fully fail to follow, woman, why I would freely grant you this.”
Rosa bit at her lip, stared down at her knees. She could do this. Whatever needed to be done, to become a student. A real student. A scholar.
“I could offer payment,” she said, to her knees. “If that might be any incentive.”
There was an instant’s empty, hurtling silence, and when Rosa risked a glance up, the orc was again staring at her, his gaze bright with disbelief. “What payment?” he demanded. “I smell no gold or trinkets in this library, and no food, also. What might you offer me? Goods? Books?”
His head tilted at the last, his eyes glancing toward Lord Kaspar’s small shelf of books, almost as though he might actually consider trading for those — and Rosa frantically waved her hands, whipping her head back and forth.
“No!” she replied. “No books, of course not, the books are priceless, and they aren’t mine to offer. I couldneverenable book theft. I meant —”
The orc was staring at her again, mouth pursed, eyebrows raised — so Rosa gulped away the constriction in her throat, and clutched her shaking fingers to her knees. “I meant,” she continued, her voice almost a whisper, “I could, um, please you. Bring you satisfaction. Um. Physically.”
The stillness felt like a slap, suddenly, jarring and painful between them — and even worse was the orc’s abrupt, hoarse laugh. “Ach, woman,” he said, grating, thin. “I am an orc, and thus you think I shall trade away all the truths of my kin, for a few shallow thrusts in your weak little mouth?”
Rosa’s face was furiously burning, enough that she had to bring up her hands to rub against her cheeks. “It wouldn’t be shallow, I’m good at —” she began, before tightly scrunching her eyes shut. “I mean, it could be — something else. If you’d rather.”
There was more unmistakable astonishment, juddering through the too-small room — and then another barking laugh, loud and deep. “You wish me tomatewith you?” he demanded, his voice cold, incredulous. “You cannot truly be this foolish, little woman?”
Rosa swallowed hard, but forced her chin to lift up, her eyes to hold on his taut, mocking face. And she could see something change, flicking across those dark eyes — and then, a telltale flare of his nostrils, a slight arch of his head. Almost as if he were smelling the air. Smellingher.
And for the briefest of instants, all Rosa’s plans and goals dissipated into emptiness. Lost in the dark glint of those eyes, the deep inhale of that broad chest. The slow, inexplicably compelling sight of a sinuous black tongue, slipping out to leisurely brush against his parted, sensuous lips…
It was like a compulsion, an immovable force, drawing Rosa up onto her unsteady feet. Moving her one step closer, and another, until she was standing close before him, looking down into watching, half-lidded black eyes. And her hand, her hand had somehow lifted between them, her quivering fingers drifting through the heated, sweet-smelling air — and then coming to rest, impossibly, against those warm, parted lips.
The orc breathed in again, long eyelashes fluttering, and as Rosa watched, taut and caught and frozen, that slick black tongue flicked out, swift and purposeful, to curl against her fingers. Hot and wet and shockingly arousing, and there was nothing she wanted more, in this instant, but to slip her fingers between his lips, to feel the warmth of his liquid beautiful mouth, sucking sweetly against her skin…
The world jerked and twisted all at once, sending Rosa staggering backwards, hot strong hands gripping against her shoulders — and when she found herself again, she was standing back beside the cot, shivering all over, while a huge, threatening orc loomed over her, his lips snarling, his eyes flashing with bitterness and rage.
“No, you deceitful little human,” he hissed. “You shall not use me for your own aims. I may be an orc, but I am not a fool. Now leave me in peace. As I have asked you. Again, andagain.”
Rosa could only seem to blink at him, while the chagrin pulsed and swerved in her skull. “I wasn’t trying touseyou,” she began, and perhaps that was even true — was it? “I just wanted —”
You, she was about to say, and good gods, what was wrong with her today, she didnotwant an orc, she wouldneverwant an orc, especially one as cold and cruel and terrifying as this one —
But the denial wouldn’t come, nothing would come, and the orc’s long arm had raised to point toward the door, slow, purposeful, a threat. “I care not what you want, fool woman,” he growled. “Leave me.”
Rosa still couldn’t move, couldn’t think, his rage was hers, it was bending the room around him, it was swallowing her alive…
“Get out!” he roared. “Now!”
And thank the gods, finally, Rosa’s feet staggered back to life — and with a sharp, miserable little cry, she ran.
6
