I’m jerked awake, and all I see is darkness.
Something moves behind me, and I suck in a surprised breath, then realize it’s Korr. His arm is wrapped snug around my waist, his fingers digging into my belly.
And he’s…acting strange.
His heavy body shudders, and his grip on me tightens, almost to the point of pain. The rasp of his breath in my ear tells me something’s going on with him, but I can’t see anything, can’t even turn in his arms to face him.
“Korr,” I whisper. “You have to let go of me.”
I try to get from under his arm, but he drags me even closer to his chest and curls himself around me. At first, I think it’s because he wants to cuddle in his sleep, but he half leans over me, tucking me under his chest, as if he’s protecting me from something.
“No,” he groans.
I twist, but his hold on me is too strong, so I pat his arm instead, calling his name. When that doesn’t work, I finally pinch his skin, and he starts, breathing hard.
“Korr,” I say, worried now. “Can you hear me?”
He’s silent for so long, despair fills me, because I can’t reach him. For a mad, reckless second, I think about using my weak power to light up the room—about the only thing I can do with it.
Then he rasps, “Aye. I’m awake.”
I tap the back of his hand. “Do you think you could let me go?”
His movements are jerky as he pulls back. I squint through the darkness, but with the complete absence of light, I can’t so much as make out his outline, let alone his expression.
Cursing softly, I feel my way over his legs, then pat around on the floor where I last saw the lantern. I bump my fingers into it, and triumph surges through me until I remember I need something to light it with.
I feel more than hear Korr move through the room.
“Here,” he says. “Let me.”
The clack of flint against steel is followed by an orange spark. And another. Then the flame takes, flickering to light, blinding me.
I throw up my hand to shield my eyes, then focus on Korr, who’s crouched beside me. His long braid is disheveled, his brow beaded with sweat.
He doesn’t look at me.
“Are you all right?” I whisper. “You were thrashing…”
“I’m fine,” he snaps, then stands. He sets the lantern close to the bed and stalks into the privy, where water splashes from behind the half-closed curtain.
He returns minutes later, damp from washing his face.
I can’t tell the time in here, deep underground. It might be morning already or still the middle of the night, but I trust Korr, who motions for me to take my place in the large bed. Then he turns the lantern down low, so only a small flame remains burning, and gets in beside me.
He lies on his back, one arm tucked behind his head. I curl up on my side, facing him, waiting to see if he’ll say anything. His gaze darts to me, and he eyes me for a moment, then lets out a sigh.
“I don’t like being underground. The nightmares…” He clears his throat. “I’m sorry you had to witness that.”
I think through everything he’s told me so far about his job as a hunter and the fact that he likes the open sky.
“Is that why you travel so much?” I ask softly.
He jerks his chin in a nod. “Most orcs are uncomfortable in open spaces. They long to return to the Hill and its safety. I only find it suffocating.”
Biting my lip, I extend a hand and slip it over his heart. It’s thudding faster than usual, as if he ran a mile. Korr puts his hand over mine and blows out a breath, his body relaxing a little.
“Has this always been a problem?” I ask tentatively. “Or did something happen to you?”
He grimaces. “It was such a long time ago, it shouldn’t still be my weakness.”
That has me rolling to my stomach and pushing to my elbows so I can frown down at him. “Tell me.”
Korr lowers his gaze so his black eyelashes nearly graze his cheeks. “It was in the old kingdom,” he explains, “long before our clan split.”
He told me about that, the way King Gorvor took half their old Boar Clan and left his father’s tyrannical rule. He’d led everyone here, to the Hill some unknown people delved into the mountain, and created a happier life for them all.
“We lived in an underground fortress,” Korr goes on. “And my brother and I were always at war. We drove our parents crazy with the pranks we pulled on each other.”
I smile at the thought of a younger Korr running around, causing mischief. “Sounds like most brothers I know.”
“Aye.” Korr lifts his hand to caress my cheek lightly, then lets it fall back to bed. “I’d played some awful trick on Marut the previous days, causing him to be sent to bed without dinner, and he thought to return the favor by making me late for training.”
I lie by his side, my arm over his chest. “What did he do?”
“He locked me in a cellar,” Korr admits. “It wasn’t anything like this place either.” He motions with his hand at the small but cozy chamber. “That fortress didn’t have thermal springs, and the cellar was a damp, cold place. But the problem was that Marut forgot there was to be a feast that night, and in the excitement of the evening, he forgot about me.”
“Oh, no,” I whisper, imagining how he must have felt, alone in the dark.
He nods, gaze remote. “The next morning, my parents realized they never saw me that night and started a search, but Marut was too afraid of being punished, so he didn’t tell them what he did.”
“How long did it take them to find you?” I ask softly.
“No more than a day,” he says, glancing at me. “I was never in any real danger. A kitchen maid heard me crying when she came down for more lard.”
I frown at him. “But you didn’t know you’d be rescued when you were shut in there.”
“No,” he agrees thoughtfully.
“Your brother did you wrong,” I say. “I hope he was punished severely for that.”
Korr shakes his head. “I never told anyone it was him who did it.”
“Why not?” I study him with interest. “What did they think happened? That you locked yourself in the cellar?”
He shrugs. “Everyone was too happy to have found me to really question it. I said I didn’t know who did it. And that was the end of it.”
Only it wasn’t. Even today, he’s still reliving the time he spent in that cellar, and I unknowingly asked him to put himself in exactly the same situation when I told him to blow out the lantern when we went to bed.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I say. “But you should really punch your brother in the nose.”
He lets out a hoarse laugh. “Eh, I’ve done that often enough. Doesn’t have the same satisfaction when the bastard doesn’t care about me.”
I purse my lips, keeping my questions to myself. The bad blood between them clearly hasn’t been resolved yet. But Korr doesn’t need my prying right now.
“What can I do to help?” I ask instead.
He motions at the lantern. “This helps. A little.”
“That’s easy enough to manage,” I agree. “We’ll make sure we always have enough lamp oil on hand.”
Korr’s smile lights up his face. “Ah, see, little witch? You’re trying to take care of me, like I did for you.”
I flush, recognizing the truth of his words, and don’t even correct him for the endearment he uses. “All right, you might have a point.”
He buries his nose in my hair and inhales deeply. When he speaks again, his voice is deeper than before. “There’s something else that might help.”
“Yes?” I prompt him.
In a lightning-quick move, he grabs my hips and tucks me close to his body, my back to his front, our legs tangled together.
“I think the thought of all this earth above us that might collapse at any moment would be easier to bear if I was inside you,” he confides, his voice oozing earnestness.
I laugh, unable to stop myself. “Oh, really?” I wiggle until I feel his hard cock at my ass. “Is that what doctors usually prescribe for this ailment?”
Korr’s chuckle turns wicked. “You’re the healer. You tell me.”
Oh, the sneaky orc. He opened his heart to me and ambushed me with honesty, then sprang his trap. Only I don’t mind being caught, and that worries me. I’m moving too fast, with nothing to catch me if I slip and fall.
But I cannot deny him this, not when my need matches his own if I can judge by the insistent push of his erection behind me.
“This thing should be outlawed,” Korr murmurs, fingers tracing the strap of my lovely new chemise. “I want to rip it off you with my teeth, but then it’ll be ruined, and I’ll have to explain to Poppy why we need another.”
I giggle, then show him the ties. “Or you could undo these and save us the trouble.”
With some maneuvering, Korr unravels the ties, and I let him draw the chemise off me. He shoves down his leather pants and kicks them off the bed.
“Clothes are unnecessary here,” he murmurs. “But you can wear this silky thing whenever you want.”
“Why, thank you, sir,” I say coyly as I glance over my shoulder at him.
He shudders behind me, his body tensing. “Gods, I love your voice. It was made to drive me mad.” He pushes himself up on one elbow and trails his hand from my ass, over my hip, and up to my breast, the movement deliberate. “And your body… I could stare at you for hours.”
I close my eyes and lift my chin, inviting his kiss. He says he’s no poet, but his admiring words kindle an ache in me all the same. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and I’m afraid he’ll soon demand mine, too.
I want to unveil all of myself to him, and that’s where the danger lies. Korr said the orc society doesn’t look down on witches, but if he or his clansmen decided to put an end to me, they wouldn’t botch it like the villagers did.
Korr slips his hand between my legs and groans in my ear when he finds me wet. “Thank the gods.” He rolls the pad of his finger over my pearl and kisses my neck. “I need to be inside you, Ivy.”
Scrunching my eyes shut to fight my emotions, I open my thighs and reach between them for his cock. It’s warm and hard and already sticky with precum, and I run it lightly over the outside of my pussy before lining the head up with my opening.
“I’m here,” I whisper.
I expect Korr to surge inside me, but he takes my chin and turns my face to his. Then he kisses me slowly, licking into my mouth. I sink my fingers into his arm, clinging on too much, but he doesn’t seem to mind. His groan when I bite his lower lip, then suck on it, is genuine, and his breathing gets faster, shallower, the longer we kiss.
Then he breaks the kiss and pushes his hips forward. His cockhead dips into my pussy, stretching me. The sensation is as intense as it was the last time, and I reach back to steady myself against Korr’s hip as he sinks deeper inside me with each thrust.
His knot hits my pussy, and we both groan. I’m already so full of him, my brain doesn’t understand how he’ll fit anything more inside me, but my body remembers the sensation well, and I grow wetter around his length, my inner muscles relaxing.
“That’s it,” Korr rumbles, his breath hot on my neck. “Let me do this. I’ll make you feel so good.”
“Yes!” I gasp, snapping my hips back to impale myself on his cock as he pulls away from me. “Korr, don’t hold back.”
His growl reverberates around the small space. “I could never. You take everything from me, and I would still give you more.”
The air grows heavy with our groans, the sounds of our bodies moving together bordering on obscene. Between one rough thrust and the next, I climax, my entire body clenching hard in Korr’s embrace. He pauses, his teeth on my shoulder, his hand on my breast, and waits for my tremors to subside, then drives forward relentlessly, until the thick knot slips inside me, filling me completely.
Korr’s muscles lock around me as his thrusts grow shallow. He curls himself around me, pushing me into the soft pillows, and moves as much as our tight connection will allow. His breath saws out through gritted teeth, but he teases and pinches all the right parts of me until I’m close again, my body taut in anticipation.
When he comes, I tumble over the edge with him, the intense heat of his cum in my pussy triggering wave after wave of pleasure. My breathing hitches on an exhausted sob, and I swipe away my tears, not wanting Korr to think he’d hurt me. He did everything exactly right, better than I could have imagined.
“Fuck,” he mumbles against my neck. “You have marks all over your skin.”
I don’t have the willpower to raise my head from the pillow. “What marks?”
He traces his fingertips over my shoulder, eliciting a shiver from me. “I bit you, Ivy. Here.” He shifts his touch to my neck. “And here.”
I can’t move to check, and there’s no pain, but a thrill goes through me at the thought of wearing his marks.
“I don’t mind,” I murmur.
My orc brushes a soft kiss over my skin. “I like seeing them here. You are mine, Ivy.”
He settles in behind me, his breath warm on my neck. “I would wear your marks with pride if you gave them to me.”
I try to impress this into my sluggish brain. I have no idea if my bite—with my blunt teeth—would even show up on his green skin. But it will have to wait. Despite the fact that Korr is still lodged deep inside me, his knot filling my pussy, I’m ready to fall asleep again.
He shakes my shoulder lightly. “I’m sorry, I only need to tell you something else.” He runs his knuckles down my cheek as if he can’t help touching me. “I might not be here when you wake up. I’m going hunting early in the morning.”
“Mm-hm,” I mumble. “That’s fine.”
“You can find Mara or Dawn, and they’ll show you around,” he whispers.
“Good.” My eyelids are too heavy to open.
Korr remains silent for so long that I let myself drift away. It’s only through the deepening fog of sleep that I hear his last confession.
“I’m falling in love with you, little witch.”
