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I fed him a succire, a sweet berry that ripened this time of year, and he fed me so many, I couldn’t take another bite. Soon, our lips were coated with redness, and we were kissing, tasting the fruit on each other’s tongues.
Lying on the blanket, we held hands.
“Would you like a tour of the house?” he asked.
“I’d love one.” Rising, I looked down at him. He was so handsome, so perfect. It made my heart ache. I feared something this wonderful would be stolen from me just like my parents were and then my life in the village. I couldn’t bear to lose him.
“Sad, my love?” Sitting up, he tugged me down onto his lap and held me, curling forward to rest his chin on the top of my head.
The last thing I wanted to do was hand him my sorrow-filled thoughts when his own appeared to have fled. “I’m never sad when I’m with you.”
“Tiny mate,” he grumbled. “You say things that are much too sweet for a gnarly orc commander like me.”
Looking up at him, I stroked his dear face. “You deserve sunshine and peace every day of your life. All the best life has to offer.”
“That’s you, Rhoslyn. You.” He rose with me in his arms and placed me on my feet. “Let me show you where I grew up. Then we’ll have to fly home if we hope to reach it before dark.”
At my nod, we gathered everything and strode toward the path weaving among the trees. I glanced back one last time, savoring the sweet smell of the flowers and the serenity of the meadow. “Let’s come here again.”
He squeezed my hand. “Yes, soon.”
We entered the building from the back, walking through a kitchen, the attached dining room, and across a foyer on the front. Stairs went up to the second level, but Jaus led me through two sitting areas first, pausing in the second.
“My mother and I would play games here or read in the evening.” He gestured to the big full bookcase.
I trailed my fingers across the spines. “So many.”
“My mother loved reading. She enjoyed romances, and she’d read them to me, skipping the good parts with a blush on her face.”
I laughed. “I doubt you wanted your mother to read them aloud to you.”
“You’re right.” He tugged me backward into his arms and held me, and his happiness sunk into my bones. “Her love of romance was passed on to me, however.”
“You still read romances? I can’t quite believe that. I picture you reading long treatises about battles and strategies to win a war.”
“I read those for work, but when I have free time, there isn’t much better than escaping into a world where love conquers all.”
“The grumpy orc I met in the forest didn’t act like a male who enjoys romance.” Although, only now did I remember the books that looked like romances in his home that I dismissed as military-related with odd titles.
“I may not have acted romantic, but the actions and words I read over the past years sunk in. Haven’t I been romantic with you since you came to the city?”
In some ways, perhaps as much as he could.
“I believe I am the roll inside you once named me, for you at least,” he said.
I turned in his arms and kissed him, melting against his battle-hardened frame.
“You distract me in a delicious way,” he said when we pulled apart. “Come. I’ll show you the room I slept in when I was an orcling.”
We took the stairs to the second level.
He gestured to the first doors we passed in the hall. “Guest rooms.” We walked by another he didn’t name before stopping at the one at the end. “This was mine.” He swung the panel open and urged me inside.
I took in the bureaus and the span of windows along one side. Pictures of various creatures hung on the walls, and a box overflowing with toys had been placed in a corner.
He crossed the room and looked out the windows while I puttered around, touching everything because each had meant the world to him.
Sunlight streamed around him when he turned away from the windows, striding over to stand with me beside a painting I suspected must be of his mother. The resemblance was uncanny. He’d gotten his hair and eyes from her, his height and the breadth of his shoulders from his father.
