Page 34 of The Rake OR The Orca Who Met His Match in a Selkie Desiring Revenge
1. Considering Jokith’s rowdiness at the time, I am still shocked that Aegir left him with the boat.
2. Over subsequent years, we’ve been able to contact thirty-four other settlements, representing a host of different colorings, though with a generally consistent culture.
3. We were gratified to locate and welcome wood elves into our ranks when we were able, and their ability to integrate into elvish society has been an invaluable asset.
Chapter twelve
Aegir
IN WHICH AEGIR TRANSLATES HIS NICKNAME FOR ELSPETH… MOSTLY
“For example, if youordered it, I would dance on the bed.” He waggled his eyebrows and ducked past her, crawling onto the bed to stand. He raised each shoulder in concert, pursing his lips as he brought his hips into it, shaking from side to side.
Elspeth squealed and clapped her hand over her mouth and Aegir decided that this was a grand idea. Her cheeks pinkened and her eyes squeezed shut in laughter.
“Get down from there, are you daft?”
“I can’t, I must dance for my lady’s amusement!”
Elspeth’s giggles fueled something within him, driving him to more outrageous moves, to sillier faces. He waved his arms about, switchingto smoother, more graceful movements, as if he were a dancer at the ballet.
“I’m not your lady, aren’t I your mate?” she called up at him, shaking her head.
“Ah, yes, you’re so right! All the more reason then!”
Elspeth reached for him, presumably to stop him, but he danced away to the other side of the bed. It wasn’t large by any means, but it was big enough that he was out of reach.
With the most adorable scrunched up face of fake anger, she crawled onto the bed after him. For a brief moment, he stopped, arrested by the sight of her on her knees before him. She tugged at his pants, telling him to get down, but his mind was overwhelmed with her.
Instead of the shy smiles she’d been giving him, her grin spread across her whole face revealing dagger sharp canines. Was thisactuallyworking? He’d meant to cheer her up, and obviously it was working for that, but was this working as a method of seduction? Who’d ever thought making a fool of oneself would serve to make someone want you?
Elspeth squealed, grasping at him harder, and it was no hardship to let her pull him down onto the bed, though he pushed out his bottom lip.
“You ruined my dance!”
“Oh I’m so sorry.” She giggled her way through her faux apology, though it trailed off and her eyes widened. Her eyes roamed his face, so wide and deep he thought he could fall in and swim forever in their depths.
The air thickened between them. They lay stretched out beside one another, and the shoulder of Elspeth's chemise had dipped down to reveal a tantalizing expanse of shoulder. He'd seen her completely naked, but as any shifter would tell you, there was an etiquette with shifting and nakedness, and it had been ingrained in him. One didn't ogle people when they were naked before or after a shift.
Laid out on a bed though? Spread before him like the most tempting feast he'd ever seen? He did more than ogle. Aegir drank in the sight of her. Gulped her down with heaving breaths tinged with her sultry scent. The warmth of the gas lamps wavered and flickered, playing patterns across her skin and the paleness of her chemise. The sun had set only recently, plunging the world outside their window in a haze of purple. It surrounded her head, peeking through strands of her hair when Elspeth tilted her head to the side.
"What's on your mind?" he asked, eyes focusing on how her lipspursed.
"It's just, we've found ourselves in this very odd situation, and we don'treallyknow much about one another..."
Ah, so they were talking. Mentally, he willed his cock to relax, tapping his lunula to pull blood to other areas. He couldn't help his attraction to her, but he could help the annoying visual indicators of it.
"True, it's all been quite rushed, hasn't it?"
"Yes, and I don't even know... well, anything!" She sat up, sitting cross legged with elbows propped on her knees. "Like, where are you from, really? Do you have a family? What is your job? Where is your boat and Jokith?"
"Not keen on letting me actually answer anything?" he teased. He sat up to better meet her eyes, instead planting one foot on the mattress so he could rest an elbow atop it, his hand flat against the side of his head. "Let's see... I am from somewhere even farther north than you, which is really all I can say. I'll take you if—well if this turns out to be permanent. As for a family, I've quite a large one, actually. I'm the middle child of seven, all sisters other than me."
Mentioning his family made his heart pinch in his chest. He missed them, he always did. His oldest sister, Arina, would be popping out a pup any day now, and he'd wanted to try to hurryhome to be there for her, though that seemed unlikely to happen now.
"So many of you!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, aye. My mum's shifted form is a rabbit, and my dad's a wolf, so I think breeding was one of their favorite pastimes."