Page 10 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

She did not get up. “You said something about a library. I am frightfully bored, I find.”

Iahir came over and peered down at her. “Are you a virgin?”

She blinked up at him. “I told you this was none of your business.”

“Findas said it was obvious we weren’t sharing a bed,” said Iahir. “He said that you shied away from my touch and you looked at me in such a way that made it all very clear. If you are not a virgin, then I want you to remember one of your lovers and pretend I am him when we are at dinner from now on.”

She laughed. “Oh, I don’t think that will help matters. I don’t have fond memories of any of my lovers, I’m afraid.”

“Oh, come now,” he said. “You’ve been in love—”

“Maybe,” she cut him off. “But I, you see, am not the sort of woman that men fall in love with. They want to bed me, but they aren’t the least bit concerned with my pleasure, and they treat me just as some sort of hole to rut into, some substitute for their own hand, I suppose. Men think of a woman like me as a diversion, but not as an object of affection.”

Iahir sat down next to her on the floor. “I see.”

She got to her feet, embarrassed to have said that all aloud. She smoothed at her hair, which was tied into a tight braid at the back of her neck. Many orcs—male and female—wore their hair long, but she always kept hers tidily out of the way. “Apologies. I don’t know why I went into all of that.”

“We should practice, then,” said Iahir.

She peered down at him, horrified. “What are you talking about?”

“Touching,” he said. “You need to accept my touch, at the very least. Why don’t you pretend I’m a man who hasn’t disappointed you yet, hmm? Someone you liked before he treated you badly.”

She snorted.

He beckoned with a hand. “Sit back down.”

She hesitated. “We don’t need to practice. I’ll be more mindful of the way I am when others are looking. I will—”

“Sit down.”

She sat down.

He crossed his legs and indicated she should do the same and face him. She did so. He held out his hands to her, palms up. “We’ll start like this. Holding hands is an easy way to begin the creation of intimacy.”

She looked into his stupidly handsome face and felt dazzled again by his beauty. She wanted to protest. She wanted to run away. She did not want to do this.

She put her hands into his.

“There,” he said. “Good. But you must not hesitate so much next time. Everyone must think that we touch each other all the time. They must think we art putting our mouths between each other’s legs—”

She drew her hands back, horrified. “What?”

“Well, at the least, you are sucking me,” he said. “I suppose going the other way round is less common, but I know that men do it. I have heard tell of it, at any rate. Personally, I pay all my women, so I have no need to put in so much effort.”

Her nostrils flared. “You’re really quite horrible, are you not?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, laughing. “When I was with the High King just now, I was pondering why it is that I am killing that man. I feel rather sorry for him, you know? I do not have a good reason for doing it, but I have given my word, so I will. I am not the sort of man who is driven by conviction or morality or anything of that nature.”

“What drives you, my lord?” she said, glaring at him.

“Pleasure, I suppose.” He winked at her, and she knew he meant that kind of pleasure.

“At other’s expense,” she said.

“No, no, my expense. I pay all my women quite well. Give me your hands again, warrioress.”

Sighing heavily, she put her hands in his. “Well, I can’t see why any of these women would enjoy your touch if you treat them thus.”