“Something a little less...brown. You should definitely go lighter.”
She’d felt her smile tighten at his words, although she’d said nothing. Her chestnut-colored hair was long and shiny and had never been tainted with chemical treatments before, and Silva wasn’t inclined to start, regardless of how silvery platinum-haired he and his family were.
His apartment had been stifling as they returned from dinner that night, and Wynn had turned on the ceiling fan in the bedroom.
“If you turn down the thermostat we can snuggle under the blanket,” she suggested with a smile, climbing onto the bed. “That’s more fun.”
He’d scowled from the bathroom doorway, pulling his shirt over his perfectly toned shoulders. “I don’t want a blanket anywhere near me in this heat. Besides, it gets too cold with the air on.” When her head found his shoulder beneath the thin sheet, once he had settled, she was dislodged roughly. “C’mon, Silva! Why are you so damned clingy?”
She retreated to the other side of the bed meekly, rubbing her jaw where his shoulder had clipped it, tasting blood on her tongue and tears burning her eyes, knowing she ought not to cry, as it wasn't the first time that he'd been less than gentle with her. The spot on her shoulder seemed to pulse as she pressed it beneath the sheet, wishing she was in a different bed, wishing she could feel the security of strong arms wrapped around her as she slept, wrapped in a cocoon of freedom.
♥♥♥
She winced as he rolled through the mud, several other orcs piling on top of him. It was the third week she’d come to watch him play in his Grumsh’vargh league, sitting on the end of a long bench with Ordo lying at her feet. This week, the cluster of orc women who had been there every other time she’d attended had been sitting closer than normal to where she shifted, alone on the bench.
“Sweetie, what in the world is a tiny thing like you doing here? Dog walking?”
The big mastiff flicked his ear back as though he’d heard himself referred to. Lurielle smiled down at him, giving him a scratch. A gentle giant, Ordo had proven to be easily cowed by Junie’s bossy yipping, allowing the little Yorkie to sit on his back whenever they were together.
Lurielle took a moment to breathe, fixing her face. It wasn’t the first time they'd encountered comments and looks for being in an inter-species couple, she reminded herself, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. “I’m here to watch the match, actually.” She kept her voice even and her smile serene, her gaze trained on Khash as his squad reformed for the last play of the game. He was covered in mud, and dried blood formed a crusted line from his nose to his dimpled chin, but Lurielle did love the way his round ass and thick thighs filled out the white uniform shorts. When she straddled his hips later, rolling herself against his thick length as his mouth clung to the pebbled tip of her breast, she was reminded that it didn’t matter what anyone else thought or said. They were happy, and that was all that mattered.
♥♥♥
“Tell me again what the point of this is?” Ris eyed the clusters of tables around the room. She’d thought speed dating had died out in the previous decade, but the crowded coffee shop said otherwise. Beside her, Dynah huffed, pulling out her phone as the notification for the dating app chimed.
“The point is to meet someone! C’mon, don’t be so cranky, we came all the way to the city to widen the pool. I told you that you shouldn’t have deleted the app, I’m blowing up over here!”
She had indeed deleted the app, after the string of disastrous dates she’d endured in the past several months. One after another, each as unsatisfying as the next, the men she met through Dynah’s dating app were either ridiculously entitled, thoroughly uninteresting, or clearly only after one thing. A gnoll who answered calls from his mother several times during their dinner date, a tiefling with whom she’d had not a single thing in common, a human who was obviously only interested in being able to say he’d slept with an elf.
The night she’d agreed to meet a middle-aged werebear for drinks had been the tipping point. She’d been surprised when they’d matched—he was a bit older than what she normally went for, but his profile had been interesting, his photo distinguished, and he’d messaged her first.Why the hell not? He’s got to be more mature than the mamma’s boy, right?It had been an old picture, she’d seen at once, entering the trendy tequila bar that night. His photo had shown salt-and-pepper hair and smiling eyes in a lightly lined face; a face that had been pinched in a sour look as she approached. His salt-and-pepper hair had lost all of its pepper since matching with her, she thought ruefully, and his face was creased with more years than his profile had advertised.
She took note of the way his expression brightened for the pretty server, a doe-eyed goblin who appeared to be around Silva’s age, if not younger. When he had the temerity to questionherage, insinuating she looked older than what she’d listed on her profile, Ris remembered there was a book waiting for her at home and that she liked herself far too much to put up with such an asshole.
“Well, this is actually what women in their thirties look like,” she’d laughed, draining her glass before retrieving her purse from the back of her chair. Tossing a twenty on the table, she’d left him sputtering, turning to the door without guilt. There had been a familiar face at the bar as she passed, a cocky minotaur with whom she dallied before, always up for a good time. Unlike her date, he was friendly and charming, and she’d not spared a look back to the werebear when he’d left with her.
“Did you make the reservations yet? Just let me know how much I owe you...I can’t wait! An orc buffet is exactly what I need to forget all about Grovan.”
Ris pursed her lips at Dynah’s words, sighing. She’d not planned on returning to the nudist resort, had experienced it once and had her trove of only slightly embellished stories to tell from the weekend spent there, and had no reason for a repeat performance...but it would be easy, she thought. Easier than this, at the very least. “I’ll make them online as soon as I get home. Let’s get out of here, okay? This is going to be an exercise in frustration, I can already tell.”
She wondered, as they stepped into a wine bar down the street a few minutes later, if the second trip would yield the same results.There’s only one way you’re going to find out…
♥♥♥
They’d been out for dinner with her parents when her mother had insisted she and Wynn pose for a photo in front of the shallow falls that ran through Cambric Creek’s small downtown. He’d scooped her up and they’d smiled brilliantly for the picture, but then he’d staggered comically, holding his back and loudly proclaiming that she ought to start laying off the desserts when he’d set her back on the ground. He and her parents had a good chuckle, but Silva just glared.You’ll kill yourself in the gym five days a week to keep this body, because he’ll let you know the minute you don’t.
The weeks passed. It was lonely on her side of the bed at night; his apartment in the city felt cold and unfamiliar, and she was sick of it. She was sick of it, and she didn't need to put up with it.You’ll always have someplace to go…His skin was warm when she slid to the center of the mattress, pressing her cheek to his side. He did not turn, his arms never coming around her, and she felt her resolve grow, along with her anger.
“Silva…” Wynn’s voice was irritated, and she glared at his back.
“Why won’t you cuddle withme?” she demanded. “I’m not asking you to not sleep, but why can’t you sleepwithme?” His annoyed response could barely be heard over the blood rushing in her ears. She was certain his behavior could be classified as a runaround, could practically hear Elshona’s blunt advice. She didn’t need to wonder what Wynn’s answer would be if she askedhimto get up and make her old country comfort food at this time of night.
Her dress was on the bench at the foot of the bed, and her hands found it in the darkness of the room—pitch-black, even though she’d expressed her desire to have one of the shades partially up, as she didn’t like the impenetrable darkness—as she stumbled to the dimly lit bathroom to pull it over her head.
“What are you doing?” Wynn snapped as she crossed the room. She’d already thumbed open the rideshare app, knowing that cars in the city were in fast supply; there would be one waiting for her at the curb seconds after she tapped the screen, which she did then.
“You want to sleep alone, Wynn,” Silva said in a flat tone that she almost didn’t recognize as being her own. She wasn’t going to be her grandmother, wasn’t going to be her aunt. Her life was hers to shape. “So I’m letting you.”
The car was waiting at the curb, as she’d known it would be, whisking her back to Cambric Creek and her own bed, where she’d be happy to sleep alone for the foreseeable future.
