“Sleep well,” he said, turning toward the door. “There are extra towels in the bathroom closet if you’d like to bathe.”
“Dungar, wait.”
He stopped, his hand on the doorframe, and looked back at me. In the low lamplight, he looked younger, vulnerable in a way that made my chest tighten.
I took a breath, knowing I was about to cross a line there would be no coming back from.
“We could share the bed.”
Chapter 12
Dungar
Heat flooded through me at her words, and all I could picture was us lying together, my arms wrapped around her, kissing her soft lips, then pulling her beneath me, worshipping every bit of her skin until she cried out my name. My cock stiffened further, already half-hard just from having her in my home. In my bedroom. Soon to be lying in my bed.
Reality crashed through my daydream when she spoke again.
“I mean just sharing the bed,” she said quickly, color rising in her cheeks. “No, um, other expectations.”
“Oh. Yes, of course not.” Disappointment and arousal warred in my chest.
“If that’s alright.” She worried her lower lip between her teeth in a way that made me want to soothe the tender flesh with my tongue. “There’s no need for you to be uncomfortable.”
“Right. We wouldn’t want that.” I cleared my throat, feeling awkward now, unsure what to say next. The careful control I’d maintained all evening was slipping, and I needed the familiar comfort of routine to ground myself. “Thank you. I’ll take you up on your offer.”
I moved to the dresser, opening the top drawer to retrieve my cotton pants I wore to bed, folded with precise creases. From the second drawer, I pulled out a clean undershirt, placing it exactly parallel to the pants I’d laid on the dresser’s surface.
Next came the ritual of checking the room. I moved to the window, adjusting the blinds until each slat aligned perfectly, then testing the lock twice—turn left, turn right, turn left again. My hands moved to the bedside table, straightening the lamp until its base sat exactly the span of two hands from the table’s outer edge, then checking that my phone charger cord lay flat on the wood without any loops or tangles, the phone plugged in and lined up parallel to the bed.
Riley watched from where she sat on the edge of the bed, but I didn’t see pity or exasperation in her brown eyes, only quiet interest. The absence of judgment made the knot in my chest begin to loosen. It also made it easier to stop, something that didn’t happen often.
“You can have the bathroom first,” I said, sorting through my neatly aligned uniforms in the closet, trying to decide which I’d wear tomorrow. Back in the orc kingdom, I’d worn blue on Mondays and green on Tuesdays. A different or similar color each day of the week, though never the same color two days in a row.
“I won’t take long.”
“No problem.”
She was back in no time, but I was still standing at the closet, trying to decide.
“I borrowed one of your shirts,” she said, pausing in the open doorway. “It was folded on top of the dryer. I hope that’s okay. All of my other stuff is in the dryer, still wet.”
I turned to find her wearing the pale green t-shirt I wore on Saturdays to do gardening. The fabric fell to mid-thigh on her small frame. The sight of her wearing a piece of my clothing sent a possessive thrill through me that I tried to suppress.
“You can use whatever you’d like. It looks better on you than it does on me.” My voice came out strangled.
She smiled. “I doubt that, but thank you.”
After gathering my sleep clothes, I headed for the bathroom. “I’ll be just a few minutes.”
“Take your time.”
My bathroom routine was as ingrained as everything else. Tusks and teeth brushed for exactly three minutes, face washed with precisely measured amounts of cleanser, then moisturizer applied in small, even circles. I changed into my sleep clothes, folding the day’s outfit and setting it on the bathroom counter to deal with in the morning.
When I returned to the bedroom, Riley had already claimed the left side of the bed and had the covers pulled up to her chin. She looked impossibly small in the largespace, like a fairy princess who’d wandered into a giant’s castle.
I turned off the overhead light, leaving only the soft glow of the bedside lamp, then moved to my side of the bed. The mattress dipped under my weight as I settled beneath the covers, hyperaware of every sound she made, every shift of her body.
Even with the bed’s generous size, I could feel her presence like a warm flame beside me. Her breathing came soft and even, and the faint scent of her shampoo drifted across the space between us. Having her here felt both completely natural and utterly surreal.
