Even if it wouldn’t be the last.
With a regretful sigh, Archie eventually pulled out.I lowered my knee, and he stretched out beside me.Somehow, we both fit on the cushion now.Probably because he was mostly draped over my chest with a leg slung across my thighs.
I turned my head to gaze at my human lover as he trailed absent patterns through the sticky seed on my belly, while somewhere deep within the cave, the Great Whale geysered its own spume.The cheek bearing the red handprint was facing away from me, but still, I felt its echo in my chest.
This wasn’t how I expected my first time to be, I decided.Not at all.I’d expected to be in a normal house.With a normal wife.And certainly to be burying my cock instead of sheathing one.
But when I basked in the smooth, pale, lightly freckled angle of Archie’s cheek and jaw, the wisp of red fur on his upper lip and chin, the expressive arch of russet brown eyebrows over his sky-colored eyes...I could scarcely recall what Farya even looked like.
And I certainly wasn’t thinking of her when I cupped Archie’s face in my hand and drew his sweet lips to mine.
25
ARCHIE
I might not have mastered the art of sleeping with one eye open, but my time in the brothels made me a light sleeper, for sure.Bedboys and wenches have nimble hands.And if you ever do manage to set a coin or two aside, they’ll gladly relieve you of your hard-earned pennies while you’re visiting dreamland.So, when I heard the familiar slap of sandal on stone, I flinched awake immediately.
Gorgul was dead.Intellectually, I knew it.I’d seen the top of his head slide off.But sleep-woozy me was positive my nemesis had finally come to put an end to me after all.I jerked up from the cushion, making Droko grunt in his sleep as I cast around for the knife and cursed myself for letting my guard down.
The brazier had burned low and the chamber was filled with shadows.But the hulking figure that had slipped into the room made no move to throttle me.It simply set a tray down among the clutter on the nearest semi-clear surface.
“Kof?”
The huge orc turned to line me up in his good eye.I suddenly felt profoundly naked, but he didn’t act like anything was amiss.Or even particularly remarkable.
Orcish ways were gonna take some getting used to.
Kof knelt under Droko’s sleepy gaze.“I told you Taruut encouraged me to learn cookery.Since the bearer of the prophecy could hardly be expected to do such menial work, I figured I might as well handle it.That way I’ll know for sure nobody’s been poisoned.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Droko rumbled.“Archie’s cooking keeps getting worse.Now he doesn’t even need a toxic herb to poison someone with it.”
“Hey,” I complained automatically…though he wasn’t wrong.Even I could smell that the orc knew what he was doing at the hearth.
“This doesn’t relieve you of your guard duties,” Droko told Kof.“You’re still the captain.”
Kof puffed up, just a little, as he rose to his feet—but it was obvious the order pleased him.“As you wish, Droko the Starry-Eyed.”
The look on Droko’s face was priceless.“I can’t deny those flecks in his irises are enchanting,” I said, “But Droko the Starry-Eyed is quite a mouthful.How about Droko the Mystic?”
“If you must,” Droko said with infinite patience.
Kof nodded, then turned to go, adding, “Oh, and I was sure to heap on plenty of those grubs the human likes.”
Delightful.
“Mystic,” Droko grumbled, once Kof was gone.“I preferred Sage.”
While Droko might not have put much stock in esoteric matters, he hadn’t seen the way the prophecy took him.But he was nothing if not pragmatic, so no doubt he’d come around to the idea eventually.
And speaking of pragmatic….Good thing I was used to flicking weevils off my bread.I shoved the bugs aside and helped myself to what was underneath.Stewed meat of some kind, with something starchy, and something green.Whatever it was, it was well seasoned, so I figured I should stop trying to figure out what exactly it might be and simply eat my fill.
Droko was happy enough to shovel down all the grubs.I’d have to do my best not to think about it the next time I kissed him.And then my heart got all soppy over the thought of anext time.Because with a paying man, that sort of thing is never a given.
Though I couldn’t help but remark, “Never mind that they’re moving….”I shuddered.“The way they just pop between your teeth.”
“If they’re young enough, you don’t even need teeth.Crespash loves ’em.”
Crespash.
