Page 10 of One Night with Her Grumpy Orc (Toothsome Monster Romance #3)
Betty
T he ride home takes forever. Grev keeps one hand possessively on my thigh, and it’s the most luxurious feeling ever. The occasional squeeze shoots straight to my lower belly, awakening all the butterflies that have been hibernating since the morning after the blizzard.
Parked in my driveway, I pull Grev’s thick neck toward me, eager to get my lips on his. He tastes delicious, a mix of something sweet and mint. Probably the after dinner tea they served us in a demitasse cup that looked like an acorn in Grev’s massive hand.
There’s no resistance from him and it takes no time for him to pull me onto his lap, though we have to pause for him to slide his seat back as far as it goes after my ass honks the horn. He runs his fingers through my hair and chill bumps erupt everywhere, under all my layers. As his hands run down my side and back, his callouses snag on my coat.
“Take it off,” I whisper into his mouth, too busy tangling my own fingers in his hair to bother with my buttons.
With each button undone, he kisses a different spot on my neck. His lips are soft, and his tusks scrape gently at the tender skin. The juxtaposition is perfect. I’m halfway out of my coat when he pulls away, his hands on my shoulders to stop me from chasing his lips. I catch myself pouting. Not sure I’ve done that since I was eight and couldn’t have a second piece of dessert.
“Are you expecting company?” Grev asks, a rasp in his voice. It shakes me out of my reverie of how good it is to be this close to him. To feel his neediness for me, just as I need him.
There, in front of my house, is a patrol car. My stomach drops and a groan escapes from me. I crawl out of his lap and straighten up, re-button my coat. Run my fingers through my hair as if nothing earth-shattering was happening.
“It’s Jake,” I say, mad at having my date crashed. Grev’s grunt sounds like disappointment. I’m sure it is. “Thank you for a lovely night. I enjoyed every minute of it.”
My lips sting slightly, raw, from our kissing session. Damn winter skin. A deep breath in and I untangle myself from his lap and crawl out of his truck, sliding down to the hard, cold ground of my driveway, where Jake glares at us as he leans against the side of his patrol car.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, my voice sharper than I want it to be. How long was he watching us? Could he see us in Grev’s truck? Looking over my shoulder, the windows are steamy, but still see-through. Grev lumbers over and stands beside me, arm around me, keeping me close and warm.
“Hey, Betty. Just wanted to check on you. You didn’t answer your phone.” There’s a weird pause. I wait, lips twitching. The desire to tap my foot like an angry schoolteacher is strong, but I resist. He isn’t wearing a winter coat. Neither does he have a massive warm orc body to huddle against. His breath is visible from the porch lights. “Okay, your mom called, and she was almost hysterical. How could you do this to her? To them? To me? I thought you knew better.”
He takes two steps toward me, as if he’s going to berate me more, but a low rumble emanates from Grev, and Jake stops, hands in his pockets. “I’m not going to hurt her. She’s my friend. We’ve been together since childhood. I just need her to understand that her behavior is unacceptable.”
“And which behavior is that?” I ask, annoyed at him and the quiver in my voice. How dare he show up on my doorstep at night, interrupt my date, and chastise me like I’m a little girl? “And what do you mean, ‘we’ve been together’? We’re friends, yes. But we’ve never been together . Do you really think I want someone who goes yapping to my parents every time I do something or make a mistake?”
The silence envelopes us all. It strikes me hard that my words might be misconstrued. “And this—Grev and me—we are not a mistake.” Grev’s hand squeezes my arm, then shifts me to the side, just enough to step slightly in front of me—separating Jake from me.
“Seems to me that you’ve got quite the double standard, considering the fling you and Cercy, the wood nymph, are having.” Grev says it simply, this little bomb dropped into Jake’s lap. I see the flash of surprised horror on Jake’s face. Slowly, I turn around to gape at Grev—quiet, hates to talk or socialize Grev—and realize that there’s a lot more to him than I thought. His eyes glance down at mine, and he gives me a half-shrug, like it isn’t a big deal that he just spilled the juiciest tea on the man who is trying to stake some sort of claim on me.
“How?” Jake asks. It’s a question I’d like to know the answer to as well.
“I listen. Maybe you should try it.” Grev runs his hands up and down my arm to warm me up when I shiver. “You should go inside,” he murmurs in my ear.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Betty, it means nothing. It’s just a fling, like Grev said. I just got so tired and lonely waiting for you to finally look at me the way I want you to. But we’re done. Say the word and I’ll never see her again.”
“Jake, that’s awful. No. I don’t want anything to do with you. I thought we were friends,” hating how small my voice sounds to my ears. I truly believed we looked out for each other because we were friends. Was he really using my parents as a way to control me? To force me into a relationship with him? I can’t even breathe the same air as him right now.
“Her parents are adults. You are an adult. Betty is an adult. If her parents decide to keep their heads up their asses, then that’s their fault. But you don’t get to come here and be all mightier than thou and make her feel small, or like she’s done something wrong. Betty doesn’t answer to you. She doesn’t belong to you.” Grev’s chest huffs as he speaks. His deep voice, though angry, is soothing to me.
Hmmm, that might be the most words I’ve ever heard Grev speak to someone else. And I love every single one. Jake flounders a bit, his hands and mouth both moving, but no action taking place. It’s weird. Until now, I would have said Jake was one of my closest friends, no questions asked. But now I have to view at our history through this new lens of what was his real motivation. And that he called my parents to get me in trouble for being close to Grev? How dare he?
He turns away from us to walk back to his car, but Grev stops him with one sentence. “You need to apologize.”
Shoulders sag at those words. Jake knows Grev is right, and he also knows I would never have demanded an apology. He turns around to look me in the eyes and says, “Betty, I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” I say, as there’s nothing else to say.
I stand there, Grev still keeping me warm—except for my toes—as Jake gets in his car and drives away.
“You really should get inside before your lips turn blue,” Grev says softly. There’s something incredibly sexy about his soft, raspy voice.
“Will you join me?” I turn away from Jake’s taillights to search Grev’s dark, brooding eyes.
“If you want. I wasn’t sure if I overstepped.”
“Really? I thought it was perfect. I had no idea he felt that way. All this time. I’m an idiot.”
“No, you aren’t. But it helps when people are direct and clear with you. Let’s get you inside,” he says, but I can hear the amusement in his voice. Leaning close, his tusk scrapes gently against my cheek as he gives me a quick kiss.
“What do you mean? Are you saying I’m oblivious? Or that I miss subtlety?”
“You know, I have found a new appreciation for the culinary pursuits of Pixies. Tonight was quite spectacular.” Grev says as I unlock the door. I groan as I step through and into the warm house.
“Don’t say that. I never want to eat there again.” I laugh at him and hang up my coat and kick off my boots. “And don’t think I missed that you changed the subject. See? I notice things.”
That’s as far as I get before Grev spins me around, pulling me into him, then pushing me up against the wall to kiss me. A deep, ravenous kiss. When he pauses so we can breathe, he asks, “Did you notice this?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Good. I’d like to pick-up where we left off in my truck.”
“I’d love that,” I pant before he kisses me again.