“Yeah, well, there’s kind of a legendarily bad blizzard happening right now, so maybe cut yourself some slack.” Nelly looked down at her where her toes, covered in polkadot socks, curled over the edge of the couch cushion. “But, um, that’s not everything.”
Peeling off the edge of the glove felt like he was trying to rip off a layer of skin. Clark grimaced at the sensation, but he didn’t take his eyes off of his witch as she picked nervously at the fluffy yarn of her blanket.
He paused his fidgeting to ask incredulously, “Wait, did you get me all the way back to the house by yourself?”
She shrugged. “Yes.”
“How? I’m twice your size!”At least.He should know. He’d imagined what it’d be like to get his hands all over her enough times to be reasonably confident in his estimation. And not only that, but she’d somehow gotten him into the cottage when he was passed out in ablizzard.
In fact, now that he was looking for it, she did look a little worse for wear. Her cheeks were chapped, the tip of her nose was rosy, and the normally glossy waves of her hair were a bit bedraggled, as if they’d gotten wet and then dried in a tangle.
His chest tightened with a mix of worry and deep admiration.She saved my life.
The hit to his head was nothing, really. Orcish bones were solid as rock and the cut would heal up in a few days, so long as he kept it clean. His kind could survive just about anything — rockslides, bolt gun shots, cuts, you name it.
But very few beings, even among the sturdiest walking Burden’s Earth, could survive long in a blizzard like the one howling outside the little cottage.
The fact that a witch, half his size and one of the physically weakest beings in the world, had not only saved him but risked her own life to do so was…
Well, Clark couldn’t decide if that made him the proudest orc on Earth or angrier than he’d ever been in his life.
Bit of both.
Nelly shrugged again. Her eyes remained locked on her feet when she answered, “Well, I didn’t drag you the whole way, in case you were worried about that. I drove your truck back and then pulled you across the yard on a blanket.” She paused. Then, in a mutter, added, “Yesterday.”
Clark blinked. Surely he’d misheard her. “Yesterday?”
She puffed out her cheeks before making a popping sound with her lips. “Yup. Yesterday. It’s about six in the morning right now. You’ve been out for… sixteen hours? Give or take?”
“Well, shit.” No wonder his back was so stiff. He’d been passed out on her living room floor for over half a day.
Woulda been nice if she’d hauled me into her nest.Not that he blamed her for not doing that, of course. He was a heavy bastard and she’d done enough to save his ass. Besides, it was the stuff of teenage fantasies to just wake up in a pretty woman’s nest. That never happened. You had to work for that sort of thing.
Which was precisely what he was trying to do when he stopped by.
Trying to shove aside the intensely arousing image of waking up sprawled in Nelly’s nest, her naked thigh thrown over his hip and her fingers in his hair, Clark offered her a wry smile. “I guess I should thank you for saving me, sugar. Sixteen hours in a blizzard with my head split open like a peach wouldn’t have been a very dignified way to go.”
“Yeah, so, I wouldn’t say thank you just yet.”
Clark shifted restlessly on the carpet, hyper aware of both the hardon that was being pinched to death by his stiff jeans and the material of his glove scraping his skin as he began to painstakingly peel it off.
“Why’s that?” he grunted, watching her wary expression morph into one of outright anxiety.
Her throat bobbed with a swallow before she hoarsely answered, “Okay, so, I want you to know that it was an accident and I have no idea how to fix it. I absolutely wouldneverhave done this to you without asking, but I don’t know— something justhappenedand then…” Still grasping the edges of her blanket, she waved her hands helplessly. “I just don’t know what to do and I’m really, really sorry.”
Clark’s glove was halfway off when he stopped to listen to her, his gaze fixed on her panicked expression. He hated that look. His witch should never look so lost. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears and when she spoke, it was like she had to get the words out as fast as possible or else they’d get stuck.
It broke his heart.
Wanting to close the distance between them and scoop her up but not entirely sure his legs were working well enough to do so, he settled for a low, calming croon, “Hey now, no. It’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out together, sugar.Whateverit is, I promise.”
Her lower lip really did tremble then. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“You mean, besides that fact that you probably saved my life?” He gave her a quizzical look. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know. Because you hate me?”
Clark reared back with surprise. “Hate you? I’m pretty sure you’ve got me wrong. Sugar, what on Burden’s Earth gave you that idea?”
