Squirting a generous dollop of soap onto the strawberry sponge, she muttered, “The generator is behind the panel at the end of the hallway. To the left of my bedroom door.”
Forcing himself back another step, then another, Clark took heart in her small show of trust.It’s something, at least.
ChapterEight
By dinnertime,they were completely snowed in.
Nelly stared at the kitchen window, obscured by a wall of white, and thought,I can’t decide if this is the best or the worst thing that has ever happened to me.
That was a lie. She knew it was without a doubt the single best thing that could have possibly happened to her. Finding herself matedandbonded to an extremely attractive, thoughtful orc who spent the entire day tuning up her house just to make sure she was comfortable? Truly a fate worse than death.
Except she struggled to accept it for what it was.
Historically, fate hadn’t exactly been kind to the Ortegas. Her father, an expat from one of the largest cities in the Southern Federation, was a rising star in the culinary world and her mother, a lauded travel writer, was on her way to journalistic fame before their children came along. Both her parents were arrant — born without the ability to use magic.
A single recessive gene had produced two magically gifted children, born a scant year apart, and changed their lives forever. Dyed-in-the-wool nonconformists, they’d both given up their careers to ensure their children not only received the best care, but also stayed out of the grasping fingers of the government.
For their childrens’ safety, they’d lived in some of the most remote areas of the United Territories and Allies and worked in lodges, campgrounds, and odd, often unusual jobs to support the family. It wasn’t a bad life, but an isolated one, and certainly not what either of her parents envisioned when they’d gotten married.
Despite all that they’d given up, life wasn’t easy for their daughters as adults. Clementine still couldn’t live around most people for long and Nelly couldn’t expose her skin without significant repercussions. Their isolated childhood had also made them foreigners to the wider world and critically dependent on one another, which was both a blessing and a curse.
The world just wasn’t built for them. Everything they had, they’d been forced to carve out for themselves. Which was why she just couldn’t wrap her head around the gift that had driven into her tree just in time for the holiday.
It was too damn good to be true.
But Clementine had received a boon from the universe, hadn’t she? She was blissfully happy with her new mate, despite all logic pointing to it being an impossible pairing. After all, who would have ever guessed that her reclusive sister would end up with a barely house-trained merman? It didn’t justwork,either. The delight Clementine took in her predatory mate was almost obscene.
If that could work, why couldn’t Nelly finally have her own little slice of contentment?
Because you’ve tried before.A chill rippled over her at the memory of her failed attempts at relationships.
Clementine was too smart to try anything like dating, but Nelly had been so damn lonely that she’d thrown caution to the wind again and again.
Every time, it bit her in the ass.
“Well, I think we should stay nice and cozy until the storm blows over.”
Nelly turned to see Clark walk toward the kitchen sink, where he began to gingerly wash his hands. “Water tank looks good and I went ahead and turned on the pipe heater, just in case anything decides to try and freeze overnight.” He flicked his fingers in the basin, and for the first time she noticed that he didn’t have claws like most orcs. His were filed down into blunt points that would have resembled a human’s nails if they weren’t matte black.
It made sense. Claws probably got in the way of doing hard manual labor. She couldn’t say she was disappointed. A lot of people found a set of meticulously maintained, deadly claws attractive, but as someone mostly averse to touch, she’d always considered them more of a hazard than anything else.
She liked Clark’s hands, rough and a little scary as they were. In fact, there wasn’t a bit about his body shedidn’tlike.
Most people found orcs attractive, but it went beyond that.
Nelly loved watching him move. She sighed over the shift of his flannel shirt over his shoulders. She found the shaggy hair that sometimes fell in his eyes endearing. The stubble on his dimpled chin and the flash of his baby blues were a one-two punch.
And all of that couldn’t even touch the way his faded work jeans cupped a truly spectacular ass and thighs. Clark Wilson was a damn work of art.
And he’s mine.
Nelly sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down, her eyes tracing a path down from his broad shoulders to the perfect curvature of his muscled backside. Was it really possible that this outrageously attractive man had spent months pining after her and she’d just completely misread him? It was sure starting to look that way.
A flush spread across her body at the thought.
When she didn’t respond to him, Clark turned to give her a small smile. That smile widened when he caught her appreciative stare. Gods, it really wasn’t fair how orcs managed to look so damn charming when they flashed their lower fangs like that.
“You hungry, sugar?”
