Page 64 of Falling for the Orc All-Star

“Marina said I should drink it several times a day. She says hi, by the way. The bleeding totally stopped, and she has an ultrasound on Monday.”

“That’s good. Wonderful.” But I’m back on the tea. “Did you have some today?”

Ingrid finishes making a note on her calendar. “This is cup number four. I didn’t really love it at first, but I put honey and a couple of mint leaves in it, and it’s pretty good.”

“Good. Good.”

“How was your session with Kev yesterday? I think we rushed right to the game and we never got to discuss it.”

Her voice is so casual. It’s killing me.

“He said one more week in the immobilizer and then another X-ray. If the X-ray looks good, then he wants me to start mobility exercises, nice and slow.”

“But you can’t put weight on it yet?”

“No. But there are a thousand positions that don’t need me to put weight on it,” I blurt.

She smirks. “Ah ha!”

“You asked about putting weight on it!” I protest, hopping over to her.

“You connected it to sex.”

“You’re drinking pints of knotting tea. Youwantto have sex with me. Youwant,” I slap my palms down on either side of her on the kitchen table, and lean over, my face close to hers, “me inside of you.”

For a second, our eyes battle, and then our lips battle. “I don’t know if it’ll fit,” she says faintly. “I want it to, but...”

I pull back, startled. “You know I won’t... ‘make’ it fit, right?” I sit down in a chair and scoot it up close to her, the wooden legs screeching on the tile as I put my knees outside of hers, one leg bent, the other awkward and stiff out to the side. “I just want to have more with you. More of everything. More life. More love. More intense orgasms that make you decorate the sheets. But nothing that hurts you. My God.” I rub my throat, which instantly goes tight. “Thinking about you hurting makes me sick. Like, physically sick. I l-love you, remember?” I haven’t said it again, and she’s still not told me, but I want her to be reminded.

Ingrid’s smile lights up the night. Her real smile, so natural and always looking like she’s about to laugh, so different than the polite, patient smiles she gives to everyone who comes into her office. “I’m not worried about you trying to force it to fit. I’m worried about disappointing you, or frustrating you. Or... I don’t know. Not being the one you really want once you discover that sex will always be limited.”

“You know what?” I stand back up and get the spanakopitas out of the fridge. “I like our routine just how it is, and it can stay that way as long as you like. I love when you come meet me after work at the games. I love when you come to practices. Dinner. Then the evening dog walks. Hey, babe, you want to see about putting a fence up around the yard? Like, enclosing the whole yard? With a gate? Then the dogs could really cut loose and—”

Ingrid reaches past me and shuts the fridge door. With a slow, burning look that melts the words right out of my mouth, she headsto the coffee maker and pours the scalding water into her mug, guiding the water through the strainer of herbs and tea leaves.

“Routines are wonderful, especially when you add new, special things to them.” Her fingers lace with mine before she releases them and carefully picks up her mug. “Like, next week, aren’t you supposed to go talk to the high school gym class about the pet program?”

“Mhm. And next year at this time, we could be babysitting for Kev and Marina.”Next year at this time, she could be my wife. She could be carrying our baby.

“Promise not to be disappointed?”

“Never in a billion years.”

It’s not like I don’t want to. I want to.

King drops his sweats and boxers, then leans on the wall for a second, all of his muscles taut.

The shallow part of my brain screams that I really, really, really, oh-my-God-never-been-so-wet-in-my-life want to.

My heart is bellowing right along with my libido. That little speech about loving our simple routine and never wanting anything to hurt me made me tear up. King opens up with me in a way I don’t see him do with others, in a way I don’t see anyone do with others.

And I do the same. I wonder if this is what it is like when you find the one you love, the one you’re supposed to be with.

“I think the tea works,” I say, my voice hovering in the calm and informative zone while my hands ball into fists so I don’t rake my claws down King’s chest on my way to my knees. My hands and mouth are itching to get around that cock, and my pussy drips at the thought. “It makes everything slippery.”

“It’s supposed to. We could test it, I think?” King takes off his immobilizer and sits on the edge of the bed.

I have candles. Black lace lingerie. Mood music.