Gwyn’s head was shaking too, her hands tightening around his neck. “But youdidbelong,” she said, quiet, fierce. “They listened to you, even when it didn’t seem that way at first. They helped you. Theyrespectedyou.”
Joarr’s shoulders rose and fell, his breath hot against her mouth. “Ach, mayhap,” he said. “I no foresaw this. No until… you.”
You. The warmth shivered up Gwyn’s back, into her swelling heartbeat. “Well,” she said, as steadily as she could, “clearly you should have. Because it seems quite obvious to me that Bautul could use someone like you. Someone with some new ideas. New ways.”
There was another beat of silence, thudding out between them — and Gwyn felt Joarr’s head ducking downwards, his face nudging against her neck. Or wait,oh, that was his mouth, hislips. Kissing her. Approving of her.Listening.
And suddenly Gwyn needed to keep speaking, following this, feeling this. “And it seems to me,” she added, “that kind of… brutality, or bravado, or unthinking allegiance… it could multiply, right? Extend into the rest of the clan. Encourage them to hide their weaknesses, or their failures. To pretend that all is well, when it isn’t.”
Joarr’s mouth was still kissing her neck, harder now — and that might have even been a furtive nod, brushing light against her. And Gwyn’s fingers were spreading against his sweaty skin, her head tilting back against the wall, her breath shuddering from her exposed throat.
“And in your work as a scout,” she whispered, “you’d probably have seen all that in the Bautul long ago. Probably much more than most. And you’d have a lot less patience with it. You’d need to escape, to your lovely garden. To yourfun.”
And oh, gods, that was the gentle, unmistakable scrape of his teeth. Dragging so soft, so dangerous, against the too-sensitive skin. And Gwyn’s breath lurched, her fingers clutching tighter, her head even angling away, giving him more room…
“And now you’re even allowing it into your garden, too,” she continued, her eyes fluttering. “You’re giving up your own space, your own peace, to help your clan. It’s so” — she gasped for more air — “generous of you, Joarr. It’smagnificent.”
The hard caress of Joarr’s lips on her neck was broken by a laugh, low and hoarse, and then a slight shake of his head. “You say this,” he whispered back, pulling away from her neck. “But you no ken how I bear this. Mayhap they tromp on my huckleberry, and next I slit their throats in my rage.”
Gwyn’s laugh bubbled up on its own, the sound warm, bright,affectionate. “You wouldn’t,” she replied. “And besides, we’ll strictly prohibit any and all tromping. We’ll post signs. Set up traps. Maybe dig a pit full of stink-lilies to hold them in, until they learn.”
Stink-lilies had a truly rank scent, not unlike that of rotting meat, and Joarr’s answering laugh was merry and unfettered, his shoulders shaking beneath her hands. “Ach, my canny witch,” he said, between chuckles. “I should give much, to throw Silfast into a pit of stink-lily.”
Gwyn couldn’t seem to stop grinning into the darkness, especially when Joarr ducked his face back against her neck, his mouth so warm, sowilling. “Mayhap,” he murmured, “youagain teach them, to start. Head off the worst of their folly, and thus temper my rage. Ach?”
Oh. He was — asking. Asking? Asking her — to help him do this? To… stay?
Gwyn felt herself swallow, her hands tightening against him — and she heard him swallow too, felt another soft, scraping kiss to her neck. “Stay,” he whispered. “A few days more. I show you more fun.”
Something was quivering in Gwyn’s belly, ramping up her racing heartbeat, and she tried for a laugh, high-pitched, hoarse. “You know, I’m starting to seriously question your sense offun, orc,” she said, as lightly as she could. “I mean, just now, you showed me a bloodymassacre, and then completely ignored me while I sucked you off in front of yourfriends.”
She punctuated that with a half-hearted elbow at his shoulder, but the bastard only chuckled, his teeth still scraping against her throat. “Ach, you like this,” he purred at her. “You stay, and I grant you more. Mayhap” — he hesitated, dragging those teeth harder — “mayhap I fully pierce you. Drink you. Show you true taste of pain and pleasure.”
Gods. Gwyn’s shiver was unstoppable, undeniable, wrenching down her back — and this time, Joarr didn’t laugh. Just opened his mouth wider, let those teeth settle sharper, deeper, their deadly points pressing against delicate pulsing skin…
“I make you scream for me,” he breathed. “Make you spurt for me. Spark your bliss with no even a touch.Again.”
Again. His voice so hot, so sure, so gods-damned arrogant. And wait, sosuspicious, because — what if this was more manipulation? More of him using Gwyn for his own gain?Especially, her distant rational brain shouted, after he hadn’t told her about his brutal clan, hadn’t told her about… about…
But in this breathless, shimmering moment, with this orc’s depraved, deeply dubious promises hovering between them, Gwyn somehow… didn’t care. Didn’t care what he was doing, what he was hiding, or even what else he was plotting. Not when this was on offer. Not whenhewas.
“You stay,” he whispered again, so soft. “Few days more. Ach?”
Few days more. And she still had twenty days until Roy returned, an eternity…
So Gwyn… nodded. Again and again. Perhaps just to feel the tease of its tenuous truth against his teeth, scraping her raw beneath it.
“Yes,” she breathed. “A few days more.”
23
Gwyn slept easy that night, curled close against Joarr in his gently swaying hammock. Her body warm and sated, her breaths slow and deep.
And when she awoke again the next morning, blinking down toward the truth of his tall, sleeping body still entangled with hers, she couldn’t deny something fragile and new, curling through her thoughts. Something like… temptation. Likehope.
Kind witch, he’d called her.Kindred witch. Stay. A few days more.
And what if — Gwyn swallowed, let her gaze linger on his sleeping face, his sharp cheekbones, his lashes long and black against his skin — what if she just… kept staying? If they could keep getting to know each other, supporting each other, learning to trust each other… what then?
