“I hope your seventh husband is confident,” he’d laughed into her hair. “Because I’m going to be critiquing his technique on every thrust. Let’s just hope he’s open to feedback. Ooo, you can wear me to the oceanographic museum there! See? Now it’s something to look forward to.”
They’d not had a stupid fight like that since, and Ris had a mind to keep it that way.
But adding Khash and Lurielle into the mix was like a splash of oil into their already precariously sloshing bowl of water.
She and Lurielle had been friends first. They were closer in age, had known each other longer, had worked together and been friends longer . . . but since meeting the big orc on that first weekend trip, Lurielle’s commonalities with the rest of them, beyond the superficial, seemed fewer.
Adult friendships take work to maintain. This is why elves belong to a club.So that we have the chance to build a community outside of our relationships.After all, they would be the ones left. Elvish women lived longer than their male counterparts, to say nothing about other species who measured their time in weeks and months and years, instead of jubilations and epochs.Like humans and goblins and trolls. Like orcs.
The reality of their situation had been lurking there at the corner of her mind often of late. It spoke volumes about the futility of dating in the Elvish community that all three of them had taken up with men of a species they would vastly outlive. It was why she let go of things quickly and was fast to forgive — none of these petty spats would matter at all one day.
She liked Khash.A good sportwas the best descriptor she could think of for Lurielle’s intended. Charming and full of Orcish swagger, Ris only knew what she heard from Lurielle and what she saw firsthand the few times they’d gone out together — he treated Lurielle like a queen and made an effort to get along with her friends, was exceedingly polite to servers, was a generous tipper, and seemed invested in merging his life with Lurielle’s independence, rather than expecting her to conform to his existence. It was the best one could wish for a friend.
But for as much as Ainsley treated his time in the bigger orc’s presence as a study in the Orcish clan traditions he’d grown up without, Ris couldn’t shake the impression that Lurielle’sboyfriend looked at the orc beside her as justslightlybeneath him.
It could have been a combination of numerous intertwining factors, she would remind herself. Ainsley had a high-paying tech job, but one wouldn’t automatically assume it from looking at him, his punk aesthetic being the first thing most people took note of. While Khash, on the other hand, embodied his lifestyle of white-collar luxury in everything he did. He would explain Orcish customs and traditions in the manner of someone tutoring the less fortunate, which, she supposed, Ainsley brought upon himself with his barrage of questions and no personal point of reference . . . but it rubbed her ever-so-slightly the wrong way just the same.
The clincher was that Khash had a near palpable dislike of Tate, a feeling she knew was entirely mutual. Ris had cackled in laughter every time Lurielle or Silva would narrate a play-by-play of one of their disastrous double dates — normally only drinks or dessert in the resort town where they’d all met, Tate begging off being pulled away from either of his businesses for longer than that and Khash flat out refusing an entire evening in Tate’s company. The three of them would all laugh until their eyes teared, shaking their heads over their counterparts’ collective inability to simply get along.
“They’re like children,” Lurielle decided. “We have to make playdates for them and ensure there are adequate snacks. And then they still don’t want to share their toys.”
Khash knew Ainsley was friends with Tate, and Ris had a feeling that was enough to prevent any true friendliness between the two beyond the superficial acquaintance. Guilt by association, coupled with all of the other little tells she’d picked up on over the months — she caught the slightest whiff of superiority from the big orc, one she recognized, having grown up in an Elvish community. It was a good reminder that no onewas truly perfect, regardless of the image they projected to the rest of the world.
And there she was at the center of the web, attempting to hold her friends and their lovers at a safe, connected distance.
Why are you even trying to go out tonight? You should save yourself the headache.
“I wouldn’t mind if I hadn’t warned them this would happen,” Ainsley ranted from the bedroom behind her, coming to stand in the bathroom’s doorway, the buckle of his open belt bouncing off the side of the frame.
His mood was foul, and it had been since his end-of-day meeting at work. He’d been grousing from the moment his train pulled into the small park-and-ride station, throwing himself off the platform and loping across the parking lot to her car, his fingers snapping in irritation. He’d been informed that day that he would be spending another week working in Bridgeton the following month, and possibly the month after that, a prospect that had brought about this uncharacteristic discontent and agitated mood.
She reminded herself that his ire was with his company, but it was hard not to take his distaste over the news personally when she had enjoyed having him beneath her roof so much.See? This is why you’re not supposed to be interested in anything super serious.
“I literally predicted thisexactscenario, Nanaya. I told them if they moved everyone who’d built the program out to start the satellite offices, they’d wind up with a bunch of amateurs without the necessary experience in the home office and no one to train them. Here we are. I’d like to collect the interest on that prophecy, thank you very much.”
She grinned in the mirror, forcing her hurt feelings down. “Earning your millions, prognosticating other people’s fuck ups. Nice work if you can get it, babe.”
Ainsely grumbled, shoving the hem of his shirt into his open button-fly with no small amount of aggression. Ris paused, wondering if this was the moment she’d look back on later that night as the point of no return; if this out-of-character tetchiness was her warning to call Lurielle and cancel.
She turned, stepping into his personal bubble, hand dropping to his wrists, holding them still. “Do you want to just stay in tonight?”
She wouldn’t be upset if he said yes. It wasn’t as if she wouldn’t see Lurielle at work on Monday. Plans to get together could be scheduled for another time, when he wasn't in such a grumpy mood, when his week-long punishment working in Bridgeton and staying with her was over.
"We can go back to your place tonight, if you want.” Ris forced her lips into a smile, kicking her bruised ego into the closet. “I know you're probably itching to get out of here. It's totally fine if you want to cancel. I can text her right now to let her kn—”
She felt the warm huff of his breath against her head as he scoffed, his giant hands twisting to reverse their position, capturing her own in his grip.
“Nanaya . . . when have I scratched a single time saying I wanted to go home?” His tusks pressed to her head as he moved, teeth nipping at the top of her ear. “I could quite happily play domestic sleepover with you every night of the week, laughing girl. I’m pissed off because of theprincipleof it. My office doesn't know I’ve been staying with you. They don’t know I had a bed to sleep in this close. They were perfectly fine fucking with my schedule, knowing I was more than an hour away. Staying with you was an unexpected boon and a bonus, and the only thing that made this week bearable. The only thing I’m itching to do tonight is stuff myself with salt and pepper tofu and undress you with my teeth.”
He turned her head with two fingers under her chin, catching her lips between his tusks. At the first press of his tongue into her mouth, Ris exhaled on a whimper, releasing her silly upset. His other hand had dropped to her hip, slowly dragging down to cup her ass, long fingers stretching to press between her thighs and scrape against her cleft.
“If you think waking up and licking your pussy every day before breakfast wasn’t the highlight of my week, you’ve lost the thread. I amlividwith my boss right now, but this still beats the hell out of being alone in my apartment, jerking off in the sink.”
He released her abruptly, stepping back to finish bucking his belt. Ris swayed, grinning up as she grabbed the sink for support. “Now that you mention it, thathasbeen a nice way to start the day.”
“I’m furious with my company,” he went on, “because this is their MO at this point. This is exactly how they snookered me into moving in the first place. ‘Ainsley, you sure would be helping out the team, we know you care about your co-workers. Ainsley, we’re sending you out to the satellite for the week. Ainsley, you can transfer or be passed over.’ This is exactly what they did to me then.”
“Wait, why the sink?”
