Page 38 of Buck Wild Orc Cowboy (Brides of the Lonesome Creek Orcs #3)

Holly

N ear closing time, Gracie stepped into the kitchen like she had a storm chasing her.

“Don’t even offer me tea,” she said, holding up both hands. “I’ve got ten minutes, tops, to go through everything for the picnic auction tomorrow.”

“I can’t even tempt you with a sessaline scone?” I held one up with tongs. They’d just come out of the oven and smelled amazing.

She grinned but shook her head. “I’ll be back tomorrow for one.”

“Come on, then. Let’s sit outside while we make sure everything’s set.” I wiped my hands on my apron, nodded to Sel who was elbow-deep in dough at the far table, and stepped out with Gracie into the pale afternoon sunlight.

We sat on the bench beneath the front window, tourists meandering past on the boardwalk, many of them wearing bonnets or Wild Western-styled shirts they'd bought from Aunt Inla’s general store.

The carved wood sign above us creaked in the wind.

Gracie pulled out her phone and read, rattling off last- minute updates related to timing, table arrangements, who had recently signed up.

I half-listened, nodding at the right times, but my gaze had been caught by someone standing in the shadows outside the general store.

I couldn’t make out his face, but the shape of his shoulders was too familiar.

It was the same man from earlier, the one who’d scowled, who’d made me feel uncomfortable.

I’d never seen him before in my life, so I should ignore him.

For whatever reason, though, I couldn’t.

My stomach dipped, but I kept my voice light. “Tark’s still going to be the auctioneer, right?”

“He wouldn’t miss it,” Gracie said, typing something.

Movement inside caught my eye, and I glanced through the bakery window, finding Sel serving a customer at the counter.

When I looked back down the street, the man was gone. Had he stepped inside the general store? Maybe it was nothing; I was mistaken, and it was someone else.

Must be.

“Can you think of anything?” Gracie asked. “You’re kind of quiet.”

“I’m sorry. I’m…distracted.”

She gave me a long look. “Is everything alright? You and Sel didn’t fight or something, did you?”

“Things couldn’t be better between us. We’re…together.”

“Oh, yay.” She dropped her phone and grabbed my hand, squeezing it. “I knew it.” Her eyes widened as she gazed down, and she lifted my arm, squinting at the mating mark I still wasn’t used to seeing. “What’s this here?”

My face heated. “You know what it is.”

“I’m so happy for you both.” She gave me a quick hug, then picked up her phone again, adding a few more details. “I’d be distracted too if I was newly mated.” She stood. “Get back inside and kiss Sel or something.”

I grinned at her. “ Something , huh?”

“I’m sure you have a good imagination.”

Did I ever.

I rose as well. “Anything else?”

She shook her head and hugged me again, breathing past my ear. “So happy for you two. This means you’re bidding on Sel’s picnic basket tomorrow, right?”

He’d paid me for my work so far and more generously than I’d expected, and I was finally building some savings. But it was a good cause, and there was no way I was letting someone else scoop up my mate and go on a picnic with him.

“I think I will,” I said with a grin.

She pressed a small bag into my hands. “This is for you. A gift from Tark. He said you should bid on Sel’s picnic basket, and I told him you already were. He wanted to make a little donation to help.”

I tried to hand the bag back. “No way. I have money. I can afford this.”

“Keep it. There’s tons more where that came from.” With that, she whirled around and started striding down the boardwalk, calling over her shoulder. “See you tomorrow morning at the barn at 9 am sharp!”

We’d made plans to start setting up early, though there wasn’t much to do other than string some decorations.

“Gracie,” I huffed, holding out the bag.

“No can do. I’ve got to go!” She started jogging down the street.

Scowling, though I really wasn’t mad, I stuffed the bag into my pocket and returned inside the warm, golden, comfy bakery. Sel looked up from where he was brushing oil over proofing rounds and gave me a slow, crooked smile that made my knees quiver.

“I added a secret ingredient to the dough,” he said. “I’ll be curious to see if you notice tomorrow.”

I arched a brow and slipped off my apron, tossing it onto a hook. We were pretty much done for the day. “If you think I won’t, you’re underestimating me.”

“Never.” Finished covering the loaves, he stepped toward me. The way his eyes moved over me, slow and hot and full of things he hadn’t said aloud, made my insides start quivering along with my knees.

We tidied up, moving around the kitchen, with our shoulders brushing and heat building between us.

I reached for a pan; he was already handing it to me.

He dipped his finger in honey and touched it to the back of my neck when I passed too close.

I swatted at him, and he caught my wrist and kissed my mating mark before leaning in to lick off the honey.

When I straightened, his heated gaze met mine.

“Sel,” I whispered.

He backed me up until I reached the counter. “Hold that thought, mate,” he rasped. Rushing out front, he locked the door.

My heart thudded while everything inside me tingled.

He returned. “I’ve been craving you all day long.”

“Same.”

“You kept humming. And swaying. And licking your fingers like you didn’t know what it was doing to me.” His voice had deepened, gone rougher. He stopped in front of me and dragged his knuckles along my cheek.

“You did the same. Don’t think I didn’t notice you stroking my spine, cupping my ass when I passed you.”

“And here I was trying to be subtle.”

“I caught the cues.”

His brow ridge lifted. “And?”

“I believe it’s time you acted on this heat building between us.”

“Ah, mate. You’re utterly perfect.” He lifted me, setting me on the counter, and his big hands slid up my thighs to the waistband of my pants. One pop, and he undid the button. The zipper whizzed as he slid it down.

He nudged me to lay back and eased my pants down, delicately removing my shoes in order to get my pants out of the way, my underwear, leaving me naked from the waist down.

His mouth found mine, and I melted into his kiss. I tangled my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer. He smelled like bread and tasted like honey.

Sel pulled back only long enough to strip my shirt over my head and kiss his way down my throat.

He didn’t rush, didn’t fumble. His hands knew exactly how to touch me.

The way he unhooked my bra, then leaned in to taste the curve of one breast, the other, sent a shiver all the way to my toes. I felt worshiped. Undone.

“You’re so damn beautiful,” he said against my nipple before sucking it into his mouth.

Flames licked through me, and I arched my spine, my breath sharp. “You’re overdressed.”

His laugh rumbled low in his chest, vibrating across my breast. His head lifted only briefly. “Fix that for me.”

I did, tugging his shirt over his head, splaying my palms over the hard planes of his chest.

He stepped back, looking at me with his lips parted, breathing hard already. His eyes held something tender and fierce all at once.

“You make me believe in fate,” he said.

He kissed me again, and it showed me how badly he wanted me, how much he cared. How much more there was growing between us than either of us had dared say out loud.

Sel kissed me breathless, then trailed his mouth lower, down the center of my body. When he knelt in front of me, I gasped. The look in his eyes made my entire body clench with anticipation.

“I’m going to taste every part of you,” he said.

He lifted one of my legs to rest over a broad shoulder and pushed my thighs farther apart. Cool air kissed my slick heat, but then his warm breath followed, making me shudder with need.

The first swipe of his tongue made me cry out. He mumbled in approval, then did it again, firmer this time, pressing deeper. His hands gripped my thighs, holding me open for him while his mouth worked between my legs like he was starved.

“Sel,” I gasped, tilting my body toward him. “Oh…”

He groaned against me and wrapped his arms beneath my thighs to pull me even closer, his face buried in me now, his tongue exploring every part of me—teasing, licking, then circling my clit with aching precision. He flicked it and sucked, and I nearly came right then.

I dug my fingers into the edge of the counter before stroking up his neck to the pointed tips of his ears. His groan rang out, and he slipped a thick finger inside me, filling me, twisting it just right. I clenched around him, my breath hitching.

“Yes—right there?—”

He added another finger, stretching me, thrusting and tugging them out while his tongue worked on my clit.

Every flick, every pulse, pushed me higher.

Heat built between my hips, curling through me like fire licking across dry grass.

My legs trembled, but he held me steady, his mouth relentless, his fingers moving in deep, deliberate strokes.

“Look at me,” he murmured against my clit.

I forced my eyes open. The sight of him down there, with his dark hair mussed, his lips slick with me, his gaze burning up at mine, was too much.

I shattered. Pleasure tore through me, and I cried out, my back arching, my body pulsing around his fingers. He didn’t stop, just slowed, coaxing the last waves of my orgasm out with lazy strokes and gentle flicks of his tongue until I was a trembling wreck.

When he finally stood, his mouth wet and his eyes wild, he looked like a man barely holding back.

“That was…” I tried to speak, but my voice broke.

He leaned in, kissed me with that same mouth, and I moaned into it, tasting myself on his tongue.

“You’re everything,” he whispered. “And I’m nowhere near done with you.”

He unfastened his pants and freed himself, and I reached down to wrap my hand around him, feeling the hot, heavy weight of him throbbing in my grip.

His coorails pulsed, and I couldn’t wait to feel them gliding across my inner walls.

When I stroked my thumb across the wet tip, his body tightened, and he clenched the edge of the counter.

“Easy,” I said, breathless.

He met my eyes. “Not even close.”

Nudging my hand aside, he dragged me to the edge of the counter and rolled me onto my belly, spreading my legs wider.

The thick head of him surged into my pussy, and he teased me with just a taste until I gasped, my hands scrambling along the counter to find a way to hold on.

Gripping my hips, he pushed all the way in, filling me in one long, perfect thrust that made my clit throb and my passage clench around him.

“Fates, Sel?—”

He stilled, deep inside, his hand massaging my spine. “Alright?”

“Amazing. Go faster.”

He huffed out a laugh. “But I just started. I want to make this last, not come in seconds.”

“Then try deep.”

His snort rang out. “As you wish, mate.”

“No more stopping.”

Leaning over me, he slid his hand beneath me and found my clit, stroking it while he pulled his cock out and drove it back inside, bottoming out.

His coorails hummed, vibrating through my core, and I was going to explode really soon.

But I wanted it to last as long as he did, not give way in a flash.

Guys thought about other things to keep from coming too fast, right?

So I started creating a recipe for cookies.

Chocolate chip. Coorail. No, wait, no coorail cookies.

I’d heard of some people making cookies with cum, but that sounded…

okay, a bit nasty. A writer I once knew published cozy paranormal romances, and she wrote about a baker who put blood in all her cookies for her vampire clients.

Maybe I could create a recipe with blood.

Although, that also sounded nasty. And as far as I knew, vampires didn’t exist.

“Do you think there are vampires in the world?” I asked.

Sel paused mid-thrust, even his fingers halting on my clit, which made me want to snap and tell him in no uncertain terms to keep stroking. “Vampires?”

“Vampires. Blood cookies. If they exist, we could make them for that type of clientele.”

“I don’t think so.” He pulled out and pushed in harder, his coorails humming in a joyful way that almost dragged my mind away from the conversation and back to trying not to come.

“But if they did, that would be something to think about.”

“You’re thinking.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then I’m not doing my job, now am I?”

“Um…”

With a growl, he went wild, pinning me to the counter while pulling out and driving back inside me. His fingers continued their relentless strokes on my clit and soon I couldn’t remember what I was thinking about. It was a wonder I could remember to breathe.

“Sel…”

“Yes, mate?”

“Don’t stop. Keep doing it.”

“Now you’re paying attention.”

Fuck, yeah.

He kept pummeling me, his coorails stroking my inner walls until all I could see was the stars whipping around behind my eyelids.

I was a wreck, moaning into the countertop while he moved even faster.

And when he did a little pinch and roll thing with my clit, everything inside me unwound and blasted outward. I cried out, burying my face in the cool counter while spasms wracked my frame.

Sel followed with a low growl, driving deep as he spilled into me, holding me like I might drift away otherwise.

When the waves subsided, we stayed there, tangled and slick with our heat, breathing hard.

He curled forward to kiss my nape, stroking his fingertips up and down my back.

“I love you,” I whispered.

He stilled. Then he slid out of me and rolled me onto my back, cradling my face in both hands. “Say that again.”

“I love you.”

He smiled like I’d handed him the universe. “Good. Because I’m already yours.”

Reaching up, I held his face and kissed him, tasting the truth of his words. “Mine.”

He nodded. “Yours.” He looked down before his solemn gaze met mine. “I love you too.”

I hurtled myself against him, and he lifted me up, giving me a long kiss that melted everything inside me. There was nothing better than loving someone and being loved in return.

He put me back on my feet, and we cleaned up, though it took longer than it should have with all the pausing to touch, to smile, to kiss again.

By the time we’d locked up and called Zist for a ride home, my world felt different. The same, but better.

Just like us.