Page 14 of Grumpy Pucking Orc (Orcs on Ice #1)

She tapped her pen against her lips, and I watched, fascinated. Her lips had felt so soft and full against mine. I wanted to touch them, taste them again, suck them into my mouth and nibble gently down on them .

“Your tusks regrow?”

Jordan interrupted my thoughts with her question, which was okay because she seemed genuinely interested to know about my second favorite part of my anatomy.

“For our whole lives, our tusks always grow. We need to shape and trim them often, or they can curl around to sometimes hurt our face.”

She stepped forward, reaching out a hand before looking up to me for permission.

I grunted. “You may touch.”

She had my permission to touch all sorts of things.

Once more, my mind wandered to fantasy, only to be jerked back to reality when she ran her fingers over the loose tusk she’d examined last night.

It wasn’t that our tusks were sensitive; in fact, I could barely feel her touch on the tooth.

It was such an intimacy for someone to run gentle hands over my tusk and the edge of my lips, though.

We orcs were physically demonstrative, but that mostly meant slaps on the back, hugs, shoulder clasps, and head-butts, not… this.

Fuck. My hand-axe was absolutely rising to the occasion.

She glanced down, then stepped back, her face going pink. “So…uh…how long have you ever grown your tusks?”

I shook my head, a little embarrassed. “When I was a foolish youngling, I refused to trim and shape them. They grew to here.” I held my fingers mid-cheek.

“Then they curled out like this. My father said ‘enough,’ and I trimmed them back like they are now. It was not a good look, having my tusks curled on my face. In our clan, only very old orcs, hermits, and those who lose their minds let their tusks grow so long without a trim.”

My father had always been strict about keeping my tusks neat and a reasonable length, but after losing his mate, my mother, in the plague, he stopped caring about his own.

When I’d left, his one tusk had curled around in a circle while the other one had grown in a long arc just past the outer corner of his eye.

He had wanted to stop living after losing his life mate, but he—as well as many of our other clansmen suffering such a loss—would not allow himself that relief until he was assured our clan would continue.

“I can imagine it would be difficult to eat and drink and…do other things with such long, curled tusks,” Jordan commented.

She’d blushed at the “other things,” and I smiled, knowing where her mind had gone.

“I am capable of eating, drinking, and doing many pleasurable things to satisfy my partner no matter the length of my tusks,” I confidently assured her.

Her inhalation was sharp, and she wouldn’t meet my gaze. After a few seconds, she cleared her throat and finally looked at me once more.

“Well, your injured tusk seems firmly in place this morning with no signs of lasting damage,” she continued.

“I want to have images of all your teeth, but especially that tusk to make sure there isn’t something going on under your gumline.

And…and if you like, I can clean, shape, and polish them as well as the rest of your teeth. ”

My smile grew. “I would very much like that.”

She was clearly flustered, and it made me want to laugh. I was feeling lighter and happier than I had…actually than I had since the last time I’d seen her.

“Um, okay, then. Let me take a look at the rest of your teeth. Oh! Were you able to find the ones that were knocked out?”

My eyes widened as I remembered my gift. Digging the box out of my pocket, I presented it to her with both hands. She stared at it a moment, paling slightly. I felt my stomach twist. Was this wrong? Should I have gone with the grocery store steak instead?

Then she opened the box and made a snort-noise.

“The teeth! For a second, I thought…” Pink once more stole up her neck into her cheeks. “Never mind. I’m glad you were able to find them. Please let me take a look in your mouth to see if there are any broken pieces that I’ll need to extract.”

I relaxed completely as she looked at my teeth, poking around with a metal stick and checking each tooth, including the gaps where I’d lost those two. The whole time she chatted, asking me questions about my home, my family, and the team.

It was impossible for me to talk properly with my mouth wide open, so I just grunted and garbled monosyllabic replies.

“I still can’t believe that your English is this good,” she said, finally taking her hands away to make notes on what looked like yet another form.

“I know I told you that before, but I’m just amazed at how proficient you are.

If I’d arrived in some foreign land a few months ago, knowing only a few words and phrases, I doubt I would have progressed so quickly. ”

“Orcs need to learn other languages,” I reminded her. “I know ten orc dialects and six other languages from my home. Plus, we had help when we arrived here.”

Jordan tilted her head, and once more, I thought of how beautiful and alluring she was.

“Help?” she asked.

“When the demon offered us jobs on the hockey team, we all needed to learn English quickly, so the angels gave us these.” I showed her the communication device we’d all received.

She blinked at it. “A cell phone. The angels gave you all cell phones and what? A Duolingo app? Do they even have language learning apps for orcs?”

I didn’t know this Duolingo thing, but I pushed the button on the communications device that we’d spent two months using.

“I eat my breakfast in the hallway,” the device said.

Jordan burst out laughing, taking it from my hand. “Seriously? That’s terrible. Why don’t these things ever teach you usable phrases? When are you ever going to need to tell someone where you eat breakfast? And who the hell eats in their hallway?”

“I also know the word ‘pillowcase,’” I informed her.

She laughed again. “You’re joking.”

“And ‘the brown cat eats pie during winter.’”

“Oh, stop.” She was laughing so hard that tears fell from her eyes.

“May I borrow your bathtub?”

“No! Seriously? That’s not even possible!”

I let her get control of herself after that one, although I wanted to go on. Making Jordan laugh was addictive.

She wiped her eyes. “I should have known the angels would screw up a simple language learning app. Although some of the apps we humans have developed aren’t any better.” She handed me back my device. “Really, how did you learn English beyond what your friend taught you?”

I stuck the phone back in my pocket. “Radio, television, being close to humans. Although the device did help, silly as some lessons are.”

She tilted her head. “Say something in your language. Not the bathtub or the cat thing, but something you’d actually say to another person.”

I didn’t have to even pause to think.

“ Grumem-esch-ach metanekan schlonakanap-tsknt .”

She smiled. “What does it mean?”

“You need to learn Orcish, and then you will know what it means.”