Page 11 of Marked by the Scarred Orc (Heat & Ink #6)

Chapter Eight

Harken

C orrine walks to her car, her hips swaying in that sexy blue dress.

I’m enjoying the knowledge that I tore off her panties and then later picked up the shredded material and stuffed it in my pocket.

She’s choosing us, choosing me, despite everything that’s happened. Despite the way we started and my inexperience with human customs.

She’s chosen to stay the night in my home. In my bed.

The thought sends heat straight to my cock that still throbs with want and need.

I adjust myself as I follow her outside.

The sun has set and the cool evening air does nothing to calm the fire building in my veins.

I licked her to orgasm and can still taste her on my lips.

“Let me help you,” I say, reaching for her overnight bag as she pulls it from the backseat.

She hands it over with a small smile. “It’s not heavy, but thank you.”

Sterling’s pet bed and litter box come next, along with a large bag of what I assume are the rest of his supplies.

We head back toward the house, and I can’t help but notice how small her overnight bag looks compared to the enormity of my home. Everything about her seems delicate next to my world, and yet she’s brave enough to step into it. Brave enough to give us a chance.

“I still can’t believe you live here,” she says, looking up at the mansion as we approach the front door.

“It’s just a domicile,” I respond, though I’m beginning to understand her reaction. A week ago, I assumed most humans lived in spaces this large. “Don’t forget, if you don’t like it, we can find something smaller.”

“No, it’s beautiful. It just…it’s going to take some getting used to.”

When we step back inside the cat greets us in the foyer.

“We should get Sterling settled,” Corrine says. “He gets cranky if he doesn’t have his snacks and his favorite bed.”

She picks the cat up in her arms and I lead her upstairs, carrying her bags and feeling the weight of this moment. She’s here. In my space. About to claim parts of it as her own.

“The guest bedroom next to the primary suite should work for Sterling,” I comment, opening the door to reveal a room I’ve never set foot in. Like most of the house, it’s perfectly furnished and completely impersonal.

Corrine sets Sterling down. He immediately begins his inspection of the new territory. “This is temporary, handsome,” she tells him as she sets up his litter box in the adjoining bathroom. “Until we figure out what we’re all doing.”

The way she says “we” sends another surge of possessive heat through me.

Sterling investigates this new placement of his food and water bowls, then claims the most expensive chair in the room as his new throne. Within minutes, he’s purring and washing his paws, clearly adapting faster than any of us.

“He likes it here,” I observe.

“He has excellent taste,” Corrine says, scratching behind his ears. “Don’t you, Sterling?”

Watching her care for her cat in my space creates an ache in my chest I’ve never experienced before. This is what family looks like. This is what home feels like. “Come,” I say, my voice rougher than I intended. “Let me show you where you can put your things.”

Back in the primary suite, I lead her to the bathroom first. She was shown this space when I gave her the tour, but this time she hesitates in the doorway, taking in the double sinks, the enormous mirror, the shower that could fit four orcs.

“This is all yours too now,” I tell her.

She looks up at me, and I can see uncertainty in her blue eyes. “Harken…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just…this is really happening, isn’t it? Me being here. Us figuring out what this is between us.”

“Only if you want it to happen.”

She nods and moves to the counter, pulling items from her small toiletry bag. A toothbrush that she sets next to mine. Face wash and moisturizer. Feminine products that mark this space as belonging to a female.

My female.

I watch, fascinated, as she organizes her things. The bathroom smells different now. It smells like her. My hands itch to touch her, to pull her against me and breathe in her scent.

“Your bathroom seems bigger than my entire apartment,” she says, catching my eye in the mirror.

“It’s our bathroom now.” The words slip out before I can stop them. She doesn’t correct me, though. Instead, she reaches for one of the cabinets.

“May I…?”

“Corrine. You don’t need to ask permission.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“The closet is next,” I say when she finishes putting her items away in the bathroom.

If she thought the bathroom was large, the walk-in closet renders her speechless. It stretches the length of the bedroom, with custom built-ins that are mostly empty.

“Holy shit, Harken, I can’t believe how huge this closet is. I got a quick glance when you gave me the tour, but walking inside is different. This is like something out of a magazine. My clothes aren’t nice enough to be shown off in such splendor.”

I chuckle at her amazement. “I also find it confusing. I’ve never owned much because life on the commune didn’t encourage personal possessions, and a week isn’t long enough to accumulate the kind of wardrobe this space was designed for.

The decorator said I needed a closet this size and had all this cabinetry and lighting installed. ”

“For what? You own like six shirts.”

She’s not wrong. My section takes up maybe ten percent of the available space. “This area is yours,” I say, gesturing to an entire wall of empty shelving and hanging space. “All of it.”

She stares at the vacant area for a long moment, then she opens her bag again and slowly hangs up a shirt. Seeing her clothes next to mine, even just that one item, does something to me. It’s a claiming as powerful as any mark.

“Even if I’d brought all my clothes with me, I don’t own enough to fill a quarter of this,” she says.

“Then we’ll get you more clothes.”

She turns to face me, and suddenly we’re standing very close in the intimate space.

“You keep saying ‘we,’” she whispers.

“Do you want me to stop?”

Instead of answering, she steps closer. My hands find her waist automatically, and she doesn’t pull away.

“I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and this will all be a dream,” she admits. “The mansion, the money, you being interested in someone like me.”

“Someone like you?”

“I’m nobody special, Harken. I work in marketing. I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my cat. I can’t cook. I drive a used car that’s older than some of my coworkers.”

I cup her face in my hands, marveling at how soft her skin is.

“Corinne, I am honored that a female of your obvious worth wants to mate with me . You stood up to me when I marked you without permission. You apologized when you realized you’d hurt me.

You love your family fiercely. You’re a hard worker.

You brought your cat to meet me because his opinion matters to you. ”

“Harken…”

“You’re perfect, Corrine. Exactly as you are. Come,” I say, emotion making my voice rough. “You should get comfortable. It’s been a long day.”

She nods and retrieves a small nightgown from her bag, something silky and blue that makes my mouth go dry just imagining her in it.

I step out to give her privacy and use the bathroom.

When I walk back out Corinne exits the closet and I nearly forget how to breathe.

The nightgown is even more devastating than I imagined.

The material skims her curves and stops at mid-thigh, revealing miles of smooth leg.

The color makes her eyes look impossibly blue, and the way it drapes over her breasts makes my hands ache to touch.

And I suspect, since I tore off her panties, that she is completely naked underneath.

“You’re staring,” she says, but there’s no complaint in her voice.

“You’re beautiful.”

“It’s just a nightgown.”

“It’s not just anything when you’re wearing it.”

She blushes but doesn’t look away, and I can scent her arousal starting to build. It takes every ounce of control I possess not to cross the room and claim her mouth with mine.

“I will be back soon.” I head for the closet to change out of my pants and toss them into a basket that is meant to hold dirty clothing. Then I pull on a pair of black pajama pants.

I walk back out and find Corinne in my enormous, king-sized bed with is large even by orc standards. We both get under the covers and it feels intimate. Cozy. Right.

She settles on her side facing me, and I lie on my back, not trusting myself to face her directly. I must take this at Corinne’s pace but her proximity is testing my control.

“Do you want to watch TV?” I question.

“No.”

I use the remote on my nightstand to turn on the fireplace and turn off all the rest of the lights.

“This is nice,” she says softly.

“It is. This bed is the one thing in this home that is indeed much better than what I slept on in our cabin. I like this.”

We lie in comfortable silence for a moment, and with my heightened orc hearing I can hear Sterling settling in his room next door, his contented purring a distant rumble.

“Tell me more about your work,” I say, needing the distraction of conversation.

“My work?”

“You said you do marketing for orc businesses. I want to know everything about your life.”

She shifts closer, and her head finds my shoulder.

I lift my arm and drape it behind her so she can snuggle closer.

The casual intimacy of it nearly undoes me.

“I started specializing in orc-owned businesses after Mia married Kavin,” she explains.

“I realized that a lot of orcs who are new to the human business world get taken advantage of by unscrupulous marketing companies. They charge huge fees for basic services and don’t deliver results. ”

“So you decided to help.”

“I charge fair rates and care about their success. Plus, I’ve learned so much about orc culture through Kavin and his friends. It helps me understand what my clients actually need.”

Pride swells in my chest. My female has a good heart. A protective instinct for those who might be vulnerable.

“What about you?” she asks. “Will you keep working at Heat & Ink?”

“I enjoy the work. Creating traditional marks that matter to orcs, helping them commemorate important moments in their lives in the ways of our culture, even while they are living in the outside world, amongst humans.”

Her hand finds mine under the covers, and our fingers interlace. Such a simple touch, but it feels monumental. “Harken?”

“Yes?”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.”

She’s quiet for a long moment, and I can feel her gathering courage for whatever she wants to say. “Today, when I was holding baby Rhys, something clicked for me. I realized something.”

My heart starts pounding. “What’s that?”

“I want to be a mother.”

The words hit me hard. Images flood my mind of Corrine pregnant with my child, her belly swollen with my orc son, holding our baby in her arms. The fantasy is so vivid, so perfect, that my cock hardens instantly and seed leaks from the slit.

“Corrine…” I growl, my voice thick with desire.

“I know it’s crazy. We barely know each other.

But being here with you, seeing you with Sterling, imagining a future…

I can’t stop thinking about it. I used to think I wanted to focus on my career first, date for a while, get married eventually, maybe have kids someday.

But I don’t want someday anymore. I want now. I want you.”

“Corrine,” I rasp, barely able to form words.

She shifts closer in the bed, turning to face me fully, and her leg brushes against my shaft. She gasps at the contact and gazes at my tented erection. “You want that too. I can feel how much you want it.”

“You do this to me every time you are near,” I explain.

Her hand slides across my bare chest, and moves low, towards the band of my pants. I have to grip the sheets to keep from flipping her onto her back and spreading her legs.

“Then why are we waiting?” she asks.

“Because I want you to be sure.”

“I am sure.”

She rises on her elbow, looking down at me. Her glorious hair falls around her face like a curtain. “I want you, Harken. I want everything with you. The house, the future, the babies. All of it.”

My control, already hanging by a thread, starts to snap. “Corrine…”

Instead of answering with words, she leans down and kisses me.

It’s soft at first, tentative, but when I respond, she deepens it.

Her tongue traces my lower lip, and when she encounters my tusks, she doesn’t pull away.

She explores them, runs her tongue along them like she’s claiming every part of me.

The kiss turns desperate, hungry. My hands tangle in her hair, and she presses closer, her breasts against my chest through the thin silk of her nightgown.

When we break apart, we’re both breathing hard.

“I need you,” she whispers against my lips.

“I need you too. More than I’ve ever needed anything.”

Her hand slides down my chest again, over my stomach, and I know where she’s headed. I should stop her. Should maintain some semblance of control. But when her palm presses against my erection through my pants, I lose the ability to think. “Fuck,” I growl.

“Yes,” she breathes. “That’s exactly what I want.”

Her fingers find the band on my pants, and she looks up at me for permission. I nod, not trusting my voice. She tugs the fabric down just enough to free my green cock, and when her hand wraps around me, I nearly come.

“You’re so big,” she whispers, stroking me slowly. “My fingers don’t touch.”

“Corrine, if you keep doing that…”

“What?” She squeezes gently.

A groan escapes my lips.

“What will happen if I keep doing this?”

Instead of answering, I capture her mouth with mine again, kissing her with all the pent-up desire I’ve been holding back.

She responds with equal passion but her hand never stops sliding up and down. “I want you inside me,” she whispers against my lips. “Right now. I can’t wait anymore.”

“Are you sure?” I manage to ask, though every cell in my body screams for me to claim her.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

She straddles me then, her nightgown riding up her thighs, and I can feel her heat against my cock. She’s soaking wet, ready for me, and the scent of her arousal fills my senses.

“Please,” she breathes. “I need you now.”

My last thread of control snaps completely.