Page 99 of Wed to the Orc Captive

I nodded. “Fair.”

“Fair?”

“It’s fair because now we’re both nak⁠—"

He pulled me onto the bed, onto his lap. And then I found it very hard to breathe.

“You were saying?” he said.

I got my voice back. I was not going to be silent this time. “Close…close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“To make it fair.” My heart raced. “You got to see me first.”

He closed them. “I feel like removing myself from the action is going to do the opposite of making this equal.”

When had I fallen in love with the shape of his nose, the angle of his jaw, that mouth? When had the harshness and the intensity that came together in this man become the most beautiful thing I could look at, the kind of beauty that gave me courage?

I feathered my touch over his brow, the softness of his skin, the ridges of that scar and the sleekness of his eyebrow. His ear. His lip.

“You’re teasing me,” he rumbled.

“No. I’m enjoying you.”

“Are you? What are you going to enjoy next?”

I pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, his jaw. “I don’t know. I might stay here.” I traced my fingers over the marks across his chest, his arm. “You’re very fun to ki—" I squealed as he caged me in his arms to roll over on the bed.

He was over me, and I was staring up, gasping. His eyes roved over me, from my face, down, back. “I don’t know,” he said, “You seem to enjoy being enjoyed, too.”

Maybe I didn’t need this to be fair.

“May I?”

I nodded, but he waited till I found my voice and got out, “Yes. If…you want.”

“I do.” That grin split across his face. “I’ve wanted this for a very long time.”

I tried to focus, control my breath. “You met me three months ago.”

“You think I didn’t want you before we met?” And then I couldn’t argue with his nonsense, because his lips had met my skin.

He laughed quietly. “Are you always going to hide your face for this?”

I was fighting for words. “...I think it’s very reasonable to have only one of us looking at a time.”

“Do you want me to blindfold myself? Would that make this less awkward?”

“It’s not awkward, I’m just—" I cut off with a squeak as his touch trailed downwards.

“How are you this aggressive and this jumpy?”

“How are you this nice and this mean?”

“Mean? This is mean?” He lunged and was over my face again, all of him was over me, and suddenly I didn’t have much to say. “Tell me how to be nice.”

“I…”