“Just grab one out of the bag, and that’s who I’ll be wearing tonight.” Stephanie winked at me, then eyed the shirt Abby handed her. “Morag. I’ve got no idea which one is Morag, but tonight I’m his biggest fan.”
I took a shirt from Abby and held my breath as I unfolded it to see the name on the back. “I got Ugwyll.” Thank the Lord it wasn’t Eng.
“And I’m wearing…Bwat.” Abby sighed and rolled her eyes. “I swear on my morning coffee that guy is everywhere I turn. I can’t swing my laptop bag without hitting an article, Insta reel, video clip, or X post about the guy.”
“He’s friendly and approachable.” Which was more than I could say about most of the other orcs. They were all huge and imposing, but Bwat was less so. And the guy seemed always happy to talk to humans about anything. Of course he was the go-to for the reporters.
I’d guzzled down the watery beer before I even reached my seat behind the team, trying to quell my jitters. Thankfully neither Jordan nor Abby seemed to notice. Jordan was all aglow over Ozar, and Abby was excited that the team was her client at the marketing and public relations firm she worked for. Between the the two of them and Stephanie talking about her latest project, I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Which was a good thing since my focus was on not looking at Eng.
And taking quick peeks at him out of my peripheral vision.
He looked good, like he’d been hitting a workout routine hard. His muscles were even more sculpted, his legs more powerful. Although he still stood along the edge of the wall, he wasn’t using it to support himself. Tonight he seemed more balanced, more confident on his skates. Even though he didn’t chase after the puck like the other orcs, he participated by acting as a defender with a very limited play area. He actually took a few short glides away from the wall to check a couple of the opposing team, and once batted the puck away in what turned out to be a very nice pass to Ozar.
Probably unintentional, but it showed me the guy had potential once he got his head out of his ass. If I could manage tostuff my hurt feelings into a locker and throw away the key, then I might be able to get Eng away from the wall and turn him into one of the best players on the team.
I was bursting to tell my friends my news. Instead, I held it in, deciding I’d wait until after my first session with the team on Monday to celebrate my new job. That way I wouldn’t jinx it and wind up with an eleventh-hour phone call from Escalates Johnson telling me he’d reconsidered.
The game ended with a score of one to three. It was another in a long line of losses for the Tusks, but it was a respectable loss. They were improving. And hopefully with my help, they could continue to improve.
McHenry’s was packed. It seemed that other members of the team had decided this was their go-to spot as well, and someone, probably Abby, had capitalized on that fact. Humans crowded into the space, probably exceeding the fire code regulations as they fought to buy the orcs drinks, have jerseys and various other merchandise signed, and take selfies with the members of the hockey team.
The selfies were hilarious. The orcs were having to either hunch down to be in the frame with the much shorter humans, or help the humans to stand on various chairs so there was not quite the enormous height distance. I found myself laughing and participating in the nonsense with an orc named Trap who was a little overly enthusiastic about taking selfies with me. I finally shooed him away after declining a marriage proposal and turned to see Eng coming my way.
Pretending not to see him, I spun around and looked for someone else to talk to.
His arm came around my back, his hand gripping my waist. “I have missed you. Come back to my hovel tonight and I will show you how much I longed for you while I was away.”
It was a throaty proposition that sent a traitorous arrow of heat right between my legs. I gritted my teeth, remembering how angry I was. He wasn’t the first guy who’d said these things after ignoring me and having sex with other women.
“No.”
He tugged me against him where I felt the bulge of his erection against my side. “Yes.”
Damn. Why did this bossy asshole stuff get me so turned on?
Stepping forward, I put a few inches of distance between us. “No. I’m not a toy for a fuck-boy like you. You don’t get to use me for sex whenever you feel like it then ignore me every moment I’m not in your bed.”
He frowned, tilting his head as his eyes met mine. “Youuse me for sex when you feel like it. We both enjoy sex with each other, and neither of us has ever declined an offer for sex. And I do not ignore you when we are not in the furs. We have had dinner together, danced, and done other activities with our clothing on. We have conversations. We do not just rut like animals then leave the furs immediately after.”
Our dateshadbeen amazing. We’d actually talked. He’d revealed the Eng behind the arrogant prince, let me see the wounds on his heart that had never healed. He’d let me glimpse his frustration at his inability to be more than just a figurehead in his kingdom.
But all of that seemed to mean nothing once he was out of Baltimore.
I wanted more. And two weeks of silence had let me know that what I wanted was out of reach as far as Eng was concerned.
It was my own damned fault. Eng was Eng. And no matter how great the sex was, no matter how much I liked the orc behind the prince, the truth was that I wasn’t worth the effort to him. I was sick and tired of being not worth the effort. I should just walk away. Tell him I was done and go home. But I waspissed, and I wanted him to know exactly why before I walked away.
“You could have called me when the team was on the road.” I tried to keep the hurt from my voice and the words came out stiff and stilted. “But you didn’t call me. Or text me. You didn’t even think about me. You probably didn’t think about me until the second you saw me here in this bar.”
“Ididthink about you,” he snapped. “Every night I stroked my hand-axe thinking about you. I wanted to come back just so I could have you in my bed again. I want you. I have wanted you for every minute of these two weeks.”
While the idea of him masturbating while thinking about me was gratifying and a turn-on, it wasn’t enough.
“Then why didn’t you call me?”
“I don’t know your phone number. I don’t even know your name.”
That brought me to a dead stop. “You don’t know mylastname?”
