Page 44 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

“Anyway, he traveled with his wife, and she came with him everywhere, and they had their own tent, and she would cook for him each night, and he would go to her and talk to her of everything, and she would give him advice, and he would take it, and he would go so far as to tell others that his wife could not abide this or that, and so he was changing his policy because of it. Some of the men would deride him because of it, but she was shrewd, the ashreg’s wife. Most of her advice was sound. And he was utterly devoted to her. Once, he went out of his way, riding off late into the night to hunt for her because she said she had a hankering for rabbit, and he made sure to bring one back for her, no matter the cost, no matter how late. He did that because he had tired of her?”

Iahir was quiet.

“Well?” she said.

“I think it is as I have said before, that they had settled into something else, some kind of friendship or co-existence—”

“I tell you, he would have moved heaven and earth for that woman,” she said.

“And that’s what you want?” he said. “You want someone to devote himself to you? That’s why you don’t want to go to bed with me? Because I’m not devoted enough?”

“I…” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I want that sort of relationship, truly. I don’t even know.”

“So, then what do you want?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I don’t need to know what it is to know that you couldn’t provide it.”

He didn’t say anything.

“Anyway, I don’t suppose I can have that,” she said. “I don’t suppose I can ever be that sort of woman, because she, you know, she was devoted back, and I don’t know if I’m that way.”

“Well, I’m definitely not that way,” he said softly.

“I know that,” she said. “I well know that.”

“But I could be… I do really like you, warrioress. It’s not like anything I’ve really felt, I have to say.”

“Oh, you are despicable,” she said. “You would say anything. You would do anything. You would lie to me if you thought it could get you what you wanted. You are the worst man I know!”

“I’m not lying,” he said.

“We are going to part ways in probably two hours,” she said. “Accept the fact that you and I are never going to have any carnal knowledge of the other, my lord.” Then she urged her horse to speed up, and this time, he did not speed up with her but followed behind her instead, for some time.

12

WELL.

IT WAS not quite unwelcome, not as she had said, because she had kissed him that morning.

Iahir knew this in a way that was inexplicable, that was just an undercurrent of knowing. He didn’t always have this undercurrent with a woman. Especially when he first took up with someone, there was a great deal of confusion, things that could be interpreted this way or that. But eventually, he understood a woman well enough to be able to tell that she wanted him, that his advances were welcome. The knowing was different than being told so. It was a kind of confidence that made everything about the event possible. Without it, there was a great deal of fumbling and confusion, but once it was there, it changed the tenor of the act.

And whores felt it, too.

He didn’t delude himself into thinking that he was so good at pleasing the women he paid that they would be with him if he didn’t pay them or something like that, but there was a difference between a woman who was consenting to a thing only because of money and a woman who was enjoying doing her job.

When a woman was open, he could sense it.

Gathren was open.

He thought, now, that the reason she’d said his advances were entirely unwelcome was because she was trying to make him stop going after her because she was frightened she would give in. After all, he had awoken that morning to seeing her gaping at his crotch, simply staring at his erection, unable to look away, and then her shy little finger, tracing him, and then the way he’d leaped up and touched her and she turned back and kissed him, and—

By the golden-fingers of the dawn, why was she still resisting him?

Of course, then he had to ask himself the corollary question, which was, Why do you care so much about getting between her thighs, Iahir?

And the answer to that, of course, was that it was an excuse to follow her to wherever she was going instead of going home. Because he certainly did not wish to go home, perhaps ever again, but that was ludicrous, because he was going to have to go home. However, he could delay it.

So, this was why he caught up to her and began to talk about accompanying her to Notharlien.