“These devious distraction tactics of yours,” Maria gasped, between her still-gulping breaths, “aredeeplyunfair, Simon. Unsportsmanlike, even.”
But his crooked grin only broadened, and he smoothly plucked the dagger out of her fingers, and then pressed her barehandto his groin instead. Wanting her to feel the ridged, swollen heft of him, leaping against her fingers. Wanting her.Approving.
“I no ken this isunsportsmanlike, my pretty one,” he murmured, as her traitorous fingers circled around him. “For I am no man, ach? No man could ever wield a weapon so grand, you ken?”
Maria rolled her eyes at him, but felt herself grinning as she stepped closer, squeezed a little tighter. “Give memyweapon back, you grand prick,” she breathed at him, “and maybe I’ll cut you down to size.”
Simon blinked at her, once — and then he actually laughed.Laughed, the sound deep and rolling, his shoulders shaking, his eyes on Maria so warm, so amused, soapproving. Wanting her. Even, perhaps,likingher.
“Wilful woman,” he murmured, flicking a gentle claw against her chin, as his other hand tucked her dagger back into her belt. “Should you truly wish to land me a felling blow, mayhap you shall grant me one more honour today?”
His mouth was still smiling, but his eyes were suddenly watchful on hers, perhaps even sober. As though he truly meant this, whatever it was. One more honour today.
Maria felt her own mirth settling, her head tilting, her eyes studying his. Her free hand reaching to find his bare chest, spreading against the truth of his rapidly beating heart.
“One more honour?” she repeated. “What is it?”
And this was important, it was something that meant something to him, and his eyes angled, brief, toward the other orcs still brawling in the room. Or, rather, toward the other orcs who had mostly stopped brawling to watch, their eyes held — Maria froze — to where her hand was still gripped tight around Simon’s swollen, pulsing heft.
But Simon’s claw flicked her chin again, gentle but purposeful, snapping her gaze back to his. And before he even spoke, she somehow knew, could feel it. Just the same as how she’d somehow felt him in the darkness, warm and close and powerful.
“I wish to take you,” he said, very quiet, “before my kin. In the Skai common-room.”
Maria swallowed, her heart picking up speed, her eyes searching his. To where he was… asking. Not ordering, this time. Not demanding she honour him. Not even offering a reward. Just… asking.
And looking at him, feeling him, her breaths still heaving in her lungs, it occurred to Maria that today had been… lovely.Fun, even. Better than any day she’d spent inyears, without even a twinge of the ever-present panic or fear.
And behind Simon’s constant stream of orders, he’d also been… kind. Patient. Teaching her his ways. Seeking to help her. Showing her how to belong. How to be a Skai.
But then — Maria swallowed hard — there’d been yesterday. Last night. The way Ulfarr — and those other orcs — had spoken to her. The threat Ulfarr had made to Simon.By the rise of the next moon, all you have shall be mine.
“Why do you want it?” she asked, her eyes searching his. “Why now?”
And it was a test, perhaps. A test of this new, precarious thing between them. Of whether Simon would keep teaching her. Keep telling her his truth.
And he knew that, Maria could see it in his eyes, in the slow rise and fall of his chest. “I wish to witness this,” he said finally, his voice barely audible. “To claim you, and flaunt you, and know this joy. But also” — his head tilted, his mouth thinning — “this shall show my strength. It shall show me wise, rather than weak, in gaining you as I have. It shall mayhap grant me the fealty of Skai who know not which side to take, in what is yet to come.”
What is yet to come. “And why,” Maria whispered, “do they need to take sides? I thought this whole fight to the death thing” — she shivered — “was only between you and Ulfarr?”
But Simon shrugged, his eyes suddenly dark, distant. “If I am to keep my place as Enforcer,” he said, “and seek these new ways, I need their trust, ach? If I defeat Ulfarr in battle, and my kin no welcome this, in truth I win naught, ach?”
Oh. So it wasn’t only about winning against Ulfarr, then. It was about winning over his clan, too. Showing them this new way. Teaching them.
And in this moment, with one of her hands on Simon’s hungry groin, and the other over his thundering heart, Maria again —understood.
And she had decided to do this. To honour him. To seek a new way. Tohelphim.
And she would. Shewould.
“Okay,” she whispered, the word caught on a breath, onhope. “Let’s go.”
24
Simon guided Maria back to the Skai common-room in stilted, wavering silence. He’d brought the lamp again, perhaps not wanting to add to her discomfort with darkness — but that meant Maria would see everything, all those dangerous watching orcs, all the potential mockery in their eyes.
Her heart was thumping erratically, her legs wobbly beneath her, but she squared her shoulders, drew in a deep breath. She could do this. She was gaining Simon’s trust. She was helping him. She would.
“So,” she heard herself say, unsteady, “is there anything I should know first? Anything I should expect?”
