Page 72 of Falling for the Orc All-Star
Her face is tight. “Uh-huh.”
“Is that bad?”
Ingrid scrolls up, and I see a long block of text underneath the photo, a reply that turns the phone screen to text.
Mom: Oh my God, who is that? He’s gorgeous. That can’t be your boyfriend, can it? He looks comfy with the dogs. Is he a friend? How tall is he?
Mom: Is that your boyfriend? I thought you said you weren’t interested in dating. Why don’t you bring him with you for Thanksgiving? How old is he?
“She seems excited.”
“Too excited.”
I turn and watch the high school marching band and the pep squad. The small color guard is ridiculously good, and they’re amazing to watch.
But I don’t feel amazing. Ingrid looks pissed off, and her face is closed over.
She’s not ready for me to meet her mom. She didn’t want her to know about me. To have to explain me or who I am to her.
I think about the things we were going to do tonight—the intimate things, injured body and fertile body, wrapped together in darkness and steam, sacred blood that only women can make coating my cock as she shares herself with me.
We shouldn’t do that. We shouldn’t do that unless she loves me as much as I love her, and she’s a human. She doesn’t have the all-consuming instinct that Orcs have. Hell, even I thought it was made up until I met my mate.
How can we be so close and tangled up together one moment, and the next, she seems so far away?
The rest of the parade is incredible, but I don’t talk much during it, and Ingrid is distracted. She types and erases messages to her mother a dozen times, but I never see her send one.
“So.That was an unexpected workout.” I let the dogs off their leashes, and they collapse on King’s rug before I can even get their costumes off.
King nods and sits, wide-eyed. “I don’t know if the fact that half of them had knee replacements made them more or less of a threat at limbo. Maybe they don’t have the normal human constraints anymore.” He rubs his lower back. “I was never going to make it past the first round. Not on crutches.”
“It’s okay, baby. Wanna back rub before we get into our party clothes?” I lay my hand on King’s shoulder. He’s seemed quiet ever since I showed him the text from my mom.
Damn it. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything. Shouldn’t have sent it.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to,” he murmurs, eyes closed, head bowed as he rubs the back of his neck. “I think Mrs. Y forgot young people still need to breathe.”
“I told you not to bob for apples when you can’t kneel.”
“But they went to all that trouble to move the apple tub onto the table... Wait, that was probably good for the seniors, too.”
“Probably don’t feel like getting a shower, huh? Wet enough for the day?” I tease, ruffling his hair, hoping to see his smile and his flirty chatter come back. I move to undo Chip’s cape. Daisy snuffles, yawns, and walks to King to get hers undone.
To my surprise, King ignores Daisy and looks up at me. All at once, I understand the expression, “With his heart in his eyes.”
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I demand, my stomach cramping into a ball of nerves.
“I’d love to shower with you. To be with you again. I miss you around me. I miss you on top of me. I miss... I miss all the physical things, but for the first time in my life, physical stuff hasn’t only been about feeling good. Like, outwardly feeling good.” He swallows,jaw working, trying to hold a smile. “I was falling in love with you. Loving you.”
“Was?” I whisper.What changed? What did I do? Did my mom scare him off?
How is that possible, if I didn’t scare him off, and I opened this relationship with a shove and a shout?
“You looked so upset when your mother saw my picture. She didn’t ask if I was in a costume or wearing green makeup, so she must not be able to see that I’m an Orc, just like most humans. So it wasn’t that. You just—you’re not in the same place that I am, and I don’t want to keep asking you to give me such special pieces of you if I don’t have your heart first. I’m stupid, aren’t I?” He suddenly wipes his wide jersey sleeve across his eyes, the broken smile completely disappearing. He looks back down at Daisy and undoes her costume, voice thick, eyes blinking away tears as he strokes her head. “I didn’t live like an Orc for so long, flirting and fucking around, and I screwed up courting you. Went for the physical too fast, and you don’t want to move at the same pace. I even said I’d wait for your signal, but I—”
“Oh! Oh my God!” I interrupt with a full-throated shout that sends Daisy scampering as I drop to my knees, grabbing King’s face. “King,no! I love what we do, I love you, I love being together in bed, in the kitchen, just hanging out at the park! No, no, no. You didn’t do a damn thing wrong. You’ve been ‘courting me’ like a pro, I promise. I’d write a testimonial about it to an Orc dating site.” I stop for air. “Are there Orc dating sites? No, never mind. No, baby, I just... I wasn’t ready to tell my mom about you yet. I like my relationship with my mom the way it is—where I don’t give her a chance to butt in and try to direct me. Control me. Frown when I don’t do things her way, or use guilt to manipulate me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think she does those things more than any other parent, but... I likethat I’ve been able to have it on my terms.” I hold up a hand. “Before you say I’m a bad daughter—”
“I would never say that. I think you’re amazing.” King’s voice is low and raspy, what I think people might call “gravelly” with emotion.