SHARING A BED WITH KAETHE is a mistake.
I have missed my sheets, my pillows, my mattress and despite it being a hundred times better than the bedroll downstairs, I knew it was a mistake as soon as I slid under the sheets. I’m enjoying the way Kaethe’s scent is mixing with my own.
Her smell arouses dangerous thoughts again. Thoughts that are causing my cock to stiffen under the sheets.
Luckily, she’s turned on her other side, awake but pretending to be asleep. I know she’s still seething over my comment about not trusting her. Why should I trust her? Everything about her is a contradiction. A contradiction that, if it was just me, Bazur, a simple orc without a village to look after, I would happily ignore if it meant getting her naked and sweating underneath me.
It’s not that simple for me. No matter how much I want to trust her, I can’t risk it. She’s been here a week and I still know very little about her. She doesn’t share much about herself, even to the other human women. And from what Lady Myren says, she’s more interested in asking the other humans where they’re from then sharing her own experiences.
Is it just pleasantries?A way to connect with the humans here? Or is it something more dangerous? If she truly has questions about this place, she should ask me. Does she not know that?
I glance over beside me to her hunched form. Even in the dark I can make out her stiff shoulders as she faces away from me. Her long mane of pink hair spreads out on the pillow beneath her head. The roots of her hair are darker, the same shade as her eyebrows. Interesting.
“I know you’re awake,” I say, watching her shoulders tighten even more.
“You should be asleep.”
Her voice is quiet in the dim room. The moon from the skylight illuminates us in pale blue light.
“It shouldn’t be a shock that I don’t trust you. You don’t trust me.”
Her shoulders slump a little bit. I watch her small fingers play with a loose thread on the wool blanket.
“I have my reasons,” she says quietly.
“I have mine too.” I don’t have to see her to know she’s rolling her eyes.
“Then perhaps we will remain at an impasse until I leave in the summer.”
My muscles tense. The thought of her leaving, of watching her walk through the oak doors of my village knowing she’s never coming back, unsettles me.
It shouldn’t; her leaving is inevitable.
The bed shifts slightly as she rolls onto her back and then on to her side to face me. I have to look away as the low neckline of her nightgown shows the ample swells of her breasts. My cock is hard, but she doesn’t need to know that.
It’s been hard since she emerged from the washroom. Dressed only in that thin shift of hers, her nipples pebbling against the front of it. In the dark, the material was so thin I had to tear my eyes away from the shadowy place between her thighs as she climbed in beside me. Kaethe’s body is perfect, from the soft slope of her belly to her wide hips that beg me to grab them. I’m always thinking about it.
Then there’s her voice. While we barely speak, the conversations we have replay in my head. Every word that passes through her pink lips, every expression flits through my mind on repeat.
Everything about her is tempting.
I’d think she was sent to torment me and lure me to my doom by using her body and her voice if she didn’t seem so shy half the time. Surely she knows what she looks like. Surely she notices the stares human men and orc males give her as we make our way down the road. Surely she notices the stares I give her and understands what they mean.
It was true what I said at Lady Myren’s: she does confuse me. She intrigues me, but all of that must be set aside. I can’t risk being blindsided by her. I owe it to my people.
“Don’t you think,” she says, interrupting my thoughts, “that if I wanted you dead, I would’ve let you bleed out earlier today?”
“You don’t have to want me dead to be a spy.”
She huffs out a humorless laugh and begins to turn back over. A piece of her pink hair tickles my arm and without thinking I grab it. The soft strands snag on the calluses of my thumb.
“What are you doing?” she asks, eyeing me nervously.
“Why is your hair this color? I’ve never seen it before.”
She turns back to look at me, and I let the strand of hair drop. I roll onto my good side and look into her dark, brown eyes, flecked with gold and green. Her scent fills my lungs, so earthy and sweet.
“I color it with darksky roses.” Her nose crinkles as if she is remembering something unpleasant. “Though, I haven’t seen any since I’ve been here. I don’t know how I’ll maintain it if I can’t find any.”
“Why?” I quickly ask. This is the most we’ve ever talked and I’m eager—no greedy—for more information about her.
“I don’t know. A way to stand out maybe?” She shakes her head, her small hands twisting into the blanket. “I did it shortly after I graduated from the academy. I just felt so different from everyone else around me, I wanted to reflect how I felt inside on the outside.”
She giggles softly, wrinkling her small nose again.
“Maybe I was just tired of looking boring and unremarkable.”
I lower my brows at that statement.
“There’s nothing unremarkable about you.”
Kaethe is many things. Obstinate, difficult, secretive, a pain in my ass…beautiful in a way that makes me angry. Angry because my brain tells me to be wary of her, but my body wants nothing more than to hold her close. Someone unremarkable wouldn’t have the power to do that to me.
“Tell that to human men,” she says. “The last time one showed me any interest, I was ten. He kissed me under an old oak tree and then ran off, never to be seen again.” Kaethe smiles slightly in the dark, an emotion passing in her dark eyes.
I want to tell her no males or men are worthy of her. That if they can’t see how appealing she is then the problem is with them. There are so many things I want to say but none of them would be wise.
“Human men are idiots.” It’s the only response I can think of.
“They are,” she agrees, her hand resting under her head on the pillow. “But I think before I didn’t want anyone to take notice of me. I was hiding. But now I’m finally ready. I want to be seen.”
I see you, even when my eyes are closed. I silently curse at myself. What would confessing that solve? Kaethe is here to help during winter. Whatever her motives for coming here, it’s obvious it’s not out of a great fondness for my kind. When summer comes, she will go and with time I will forget about her and she will forget about me.
It is for the best.
Silence stretches between us before Kaethe breaks it.
“What does prognazoc mean?”
My whole body tenses. Ice gathers in my veins and my palms turn sweaty.
“Where did you hear that?” I grit through my teeth.
“Lady Myren always uses it when she speaks about you to the other women. Especially when she chats to Mornga…” she trails off, noting my rigid posture. “Is that your word for general?”
I grunt, not trusting what I would say. She’s picking up our language. I’ll have to warn Lady Myren to be careful with the words she uses around her. Glancing down at Kaethe’s soft face I see more questions dancing in her eyes.
Questions I’m not willing to answer.
“You should go to sleep; the morning will come soon.” I turn away from her to lie on my back and stare at the ceiling. Closing my eyes, I hear the bed creak as she also turns away. When her breathing begins to deepen, I let out a sigh.
Prognazoc. She is an observant one. I hate lying to her. It doesn’t sit right with me, but I’d rather lie than admit that word means prince.
