CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE（Untitled）Grace

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Grace

I've never had a morning after—no one's ever wanted to spend the night before—so I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but I assume Branikk will be kind of cocky and distant, having so clearly mastered me in bed.

I'm so very, very wrong.

Oh, he's cocky, all right, but if anything, he's even sweeter than before.

He gets up before I do, rolling from the warm furs to start a small fire to make me a nice cup of hot mint tea.

I stay snuggled down in our bed, watching him, my body still sleepy and relaxed. I've never come so many times or been completely satisfied before. And the tentacles! I blush, remembering how they touched me, even in places I never thought to ask for—they just knew what to do.

Magic, as he'd say.

One thing's for certain—he's ruined me for all other men.

A bird sings, and a flash of yellow wings darts through the air to land on a hanging clump of purple flowers, setting them swinging. Morning sunlight bathes the air, making the flowers glow, and warming them enough that the lovely scent of lilacs fills the air. "This is such a lovely spot. I didn't realize wisteria could be trees like this. I thought they were vines."

"They often are, unless planted away from other trees to climb. Yet for a grove like this, I assume wood nymphs have helped them along."

I sit up, clutching a fur to my chest, my head swiveling. "There are nymphs here? They saw us last night?" My voice ends on a squeak as embarrassment tightens my throat.

"Do not worry. Contrary to myth, most wood nymphs like to range across a large area of forest, visiting various types of trees. I don't sense one here now."

"Oh, good."

While the water heats, he brings me the waterskin and a cleaning cloth and one of his spare shirts to wear. I pull it over my head, surprised to find my skin soft instead of sticky, and it's the same with the furs. All that orc seed just… soaked in, leaving the furs feeling conditioned.

I wonder if it'd do the same for my hair, and my mind immediately pictures Branikk standing over me, fisting his huge cock until he comes all over my face and head. Guh. My thighs clench. Why is that so damned hot? One night with a gorgeous guy, and I'm about to turn into one of those women who can't think about anything but sex. A grin tugs at my lips. I don't hate it.

His care continues through breakfast, where he offers me teaberries carefully gathered from the forest floor to go with the hardtack. Small, smooth red balls, they taste surprisingly like wintergreen candy and complement the peppermint tea well.

Aurora and Rune join us, the unicorn saying, "Good. You're awake and dressed. I wasn't sure what I might find after all that fuss last night."

Oh, god. They could hear us? A blush heats my cheeks.

But Branikk just laughs as he attaches the saddlebags to the saddle. "Did we offend your delicate unicorn sensibilities?"

"Hardly." She stomps a hoof on the ground. "I'm no prude. I'm just too long between mountings by a fine stallion."

Did she just say that? My mouth drops open.

She sees my expression and rolls her ice-blue eyes. "Bah, bipeds! As if you invented sex."

Rune barks a laugh.

They're all still laughing as Branikk lifts me into the saddle and swings up to settle behind me. His hand splays across my stomach, pulling me back into his body until he surrounds me just like last night.

I gasp, tingles rushing through me. God, I want him again already.

And he knows it. His chuckle turns dark and wicked.

Aurora trots forward, carrying us out of the magical glen. I reach out and let the wisteria flowers flow across my palm. Then we pass the last tree, leaving my hand empty, reaching for something that may never come again.

Sunlight hits my face, blinding me for a moment until my eyes adjust.

What am I to Branikk? He calls me his bride. He treats me well, but I'm also the only human/orc-shaped woman on this journey. What happens when we're back among his people and the most beautiful orc maidens come on to him? What am I then but the plain human wife he didn't even choose to marry?

He's called me amazing every time I successfully use my power, and he said his goddess brought me to Alarria because of that power. Is that why he likes me? What if it has nothing to do with me as a person? Certainly no other guy has ever been this interested.

Last night was a lovely, magical dream, and now we ride into the bright reality of day.

A few hours later, when Branikk finally asks me why I'm so quiet, I plead fatigue. It's not even a lie. I am tired. Tired of being on uncertain ground.

My brain has not been able to let that tiny seed of doubt go, and it's grown it into a whole damned tree. Hell, it's grown it into an entire forest. Bad brain!

I got completely swept up in the romance and the "thank god we're alive!" sexiness of yesterday. But today, my mind won't stop worrying about the future. It keeps replaying every time a guy's said something mean about my height or my shoulders or that I don't wear a dress to work, even though I'm a mechanic. It dwells on every time a guy dumped me, because I was always the dumpee, never the dumper.

God, when I first got to Alarria, I was able to handle Branikk flirting with me because I wrote off everything as a hoax. Now that I know he's not doing it as part of a reality-TV stunt, I'm looking for the actual catch.

I want to take it all at face value and enjoy things while I can, but what if I'm right? If I keep opening myself up to him like I did last night, it's only going to hurt hella worse when he leaves.

Teenage me curls up inside, humiliated and hurting from a prom prank done by one of the football players. He wasn't even the quarterback or anything, but him asking me out was the most exciting thing that had ever happened in my young life. When he stood me up in front of a gym-full of high school students, I was crushed. The fact that I ugly cried right then and there only made them make more fun of me.

I trusted Calvin because we spent months together and he was a fellow mechanic who seemed to respect me for my job. But it turns out my work was the only thing about me he actually liked, and I got fooled again.

I've only known Branikk a couple of days. What if I'm repeating the same old pattern? What if it's my power that fascinates him instead of me ? What if all his kindness is because he's grateful my net guns saved our lives?

Ugh. I scrub at my face. Here I am, a confusing mix of emotions again. God, I hate emotions! I can kind of see why my parents and aunts and uncles and everyone in my family never want to deal with them. Why does feeling things have to be so damned messy?

"Are you okay?" Branikk asks, his hand tightening on my stomach.

It's all too much. I lean forward, trying to get a bit of distance, but there's nowhere to go. "No, I need to get down. I need to use the bathroom." God, I don't even know what I need except a bit of space to clear my head.

The unicorn slides to a halt on the pine-needle covered ground, and Branikk hops off and lifts me down. He pulls out a waterskin and cleaning cloth for me.

I snatch them up and hurry around a large rhododendron bush until I'm hidden by the waxy, dark-green leaves and heavy white blooms.

Rune trots past me, looking for his own private spot.

Once he's out of sight, I sink to the ground and sit, closing my eyes.

I wish I had something to work on, something to repair. No matter what else went wrong in my life, my job always gave me the satisfaction of being able to fix things.

My crystal warms on my chest, and a bubble blower pops into existence on my lap. It's one of the ones we use at the carnival, a bright-pink plastic cat with a wide-open mouth that shoots soap bubbles when you pull back on its upright tail. I repaired one only last week, a really simple fix, where the lines from the fluid tank to the nozzles needed to be reconnected. I crack open the access panel in its stomach, and yep—that's exactly what's wrong with this one. I slide them back into place, shoving the rubber tubes up over the hard plastic ones as far as they'll go, and shut the panel.

Then I raise the cat and shoot bubbles of all sizes into the air, their rainbow surfaces swirling with colors.

"That might be the best thing a feline has ever done in the entire history of Alarria," Rune says, his tongue lolling from the side of his smiling mouth. "No, make that all of Faerie."

I laugh.

"Having said that, I cannot discern its purpose."

"It's a toy." I make a few more bubbles and reach out to pop one with a tiny splash of wetness on the end of my finger. "The bubbles are for fun. Kids like them."

"Then the pups will love it." He comes over to sniff at it, then licks my cheek in a doggie kiss. "Thank you."

I stand and shoot some more bubbles as he continues back to the others. Yay. I fixed it. I snort and touch my crystal. "Thanks," I whisper. It was a stupidly easy fix on something cute and pointless, but I do feel better.

My heart skips when Branikk's face lights up upon seeing me with a new creation. Bad heart! Is it really so eager to be broken?

When it happens, I better hope there's a fix there too.