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“Who did?” I shake my head, playing catch up with what she said.
“The young alpha soldier who brought your father’s letters.”
I fumble the letter and scramble to pick it from the floor, blushing furiously. “W-what is his name?”
“Lor,” she says, smiling as she reverently folds the letter in her hand and puts it on the table, oblivious to my heightened state. “That’s an unusual name, don’t you think? He has given no indication, but I think he might be a shifter. His eyes seem unnatural… a little too bright, like shifters are.”
“How long is he staying?”
“He didn’t mention,” my mother says. “But he was very insistent he would stay until such a time as we didn’t need him.”
My heart pounds in my chest, and my breathing is unsteady. Lor is here.
Why is Lor here?
He gave my mother reasons, noble ones, but a part of me wants to hope it might mean something more… and that makes no sense when, as he pointed out, we have met exactly once.
Also, I am virtually betrothed and should be ashamed of my wayward thoughts. My blush deepens as I remember what I saw that fateful day in the forest. I really should be ashamed of myself, given we were only thirteen then. I’m sure looking at a boy there is highly inappropriate, and thinking about it again many years later, equally so.
He did not look so much like a boy,the little voice inside coaches me.
Goodness, I need to think about something else.
“I need a little fresh air,” I say. Rising from my seat before my mother can respond, I leave the room.
I don’t know where I’m going until I find myself in the rear courtyard, approaching the carriage. I scent him even before I see him. Is it something to do with shifters that they smell so nice? My nose twitches.
I should not be here.
I don’t know why I am here.
Then Lor rises to his full height from where he is bent over, rubbing oily hands on a rag, and fixes me with a stern glare, and I know exactly why I’m here. Lor is head and shoulders taller than me, and his chest is easily twice as broad as mine. His hands, which move over the rag as he cleans them of oil, are large and capable-looking.
A penniless shifter and former soldier without work is not a practical source of romantic interest. Nor should I be wallowing in his connection to Aston, who, as a barbarian, is also not practical source of romantic interest.
The last time I saw Aston was nearly two years ago when he paid a brief visit to his family. I was nineteen at the time, awkward and painfully shy. I remember Dara mentioning how all the young lasses in the clan swooned and batted their lashes at the handsome young alpha. He seemed impossibly commanding and worldly to me. I turned beet red and could barely stammer a word.
He’s probably mated to two lasses by now.
“Can I help you, little one?” Lor asks in a deep, rumbly voice.
Little one? Well, I dare say everyone is little compared to him, for Lor is unquestionably huge… and stern-looking with his dark brows pulled together and bright eyes pinning me where I stand.
And now my mind decides to flood my memory with images of his cock, which is likewise huge.
Was huge.
I swallow thickly. I really hope it has not grown proportionally to the rest of him. He will surely kill the poor lass he tries to rut with that.
She would doubtless die happy with an expression of bliss upon her face. “I was thinking of going out in my carriage.” This is a bold lie, but the best I can come up with under the pressure of the moment.
He grunts and turns back to his work. Only now do I notice one wheel is completely off, and he is doing something to the spring.
“I guess I’m not going for a carriage ride today,” I say, a little cross that he is ignoring me and going back to his work while I’m a mess of conflicted emotions and near swooning from his presence and scent. I don’t even care that he is not even a sensible source of lustful interest. Let him break me on his thick cock… My cheeks heat to a blaze. At least while he is ignoring me, he does not see.
“I guess you’re not.”
“I’ll go back inside then.”
