The Orc and the Innkeeper (Elderberry Falls, #1)

by Cora Crane

Think about Robert, think about Robert, I tell myself. Robert doing belly flops into the fountain in town square. Robert going to a magical salon and having his hair turned a rainbow color.

“Pour us some samples, love?” she says, her tone light and playful. Fuck, back to being stiffer than actual wood.

If we were really together, I’d shut the bar down for the night and fuck her on every surface, giving her orgasm after orgasm until she couldn’t see straight.

My head jerks up and my heart free-falls straight to the floor. Standing in the entrance, wearing near-identical expressions of stony disapproval, are my parents.

Mariah stiffens beside me but she stands her ground, meeting my mother’s glare head-on. Her fiery defiance is so damn sexy. It takes all of my self-control not to grab her and kiss her senseless, audience be damned.

Da’s eyes flash dangerously as a deafening silence descends over the taproom. “What do you mean, fiancée?” he growls. “You’re engaged? To a human?”

Da takes a menacing step forward, his bulky frame cutting an intimidating figure. “She’s a human, Thorak! What can she possibly know of our ways? Of your responsibilities to our clan?”

I know my parents’ prejudices run deep but I won’t let them disrespect the woman I love. Love. The realization hits me like a war hammer to the gut. I’ve fallen irrevocably in love with Mariah Parker.

“Mariah isn’t just some passing fling. She’s the love of my life, and I’ll be damned if I let anyone, even my own blood, disrespect her.” As the words come out of my mouth, all I feel is a sense of...rightness. Completion.

My mother hesitates, her gaze darting between me and Mariah. Something like regret flickers in her eyes. She opens her mouth as if to speak, but no words come out.

“Thorak,” she whispers, her voice rough with emotion. “Did you...did you mean what you said?” I swallow hard, fighting the urge to brush away the single tear that escapes down her cheek. “Every word.”

I feel split in two, past and present colliding in a way I can’t begin to process. But I force the turmoil down. I can’t think about that now.

Thorak clears his throat. “I don’t want to create excuses for my parents, because there is no excuse. But to put some context to it, they carry a lot of pain. My grandparents on both sides were driven out of the human lands when they were just children during the Great Exile.”

“They watched as their homes were burned to the ground, their belongings stolen or destroyed,” Thorak continues. “They fled for their lives, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and sought refuge here in Elderberry Falls.

I realize that Krag and Mor’ghan’s hostility towards me is rooted in this deep, generational wound. They’ve spent their entire lives fighting to protect what their parents and grandparents had sacrificed so much to build. The thought of their only son marrying a human must seem like a betrayal of everything they stand for.

Just like this history doesn’t excuse Krag and Mor’ghan’s behavior, it does not excuse the way Thorak treated me. But the context adds a different color to our past.

“When you love someone,” I say softly, looking up toward Thorak, “that love has the power to overcome any history, to heal any wound.”

“Why me, Thorak?” I ask softly. “What did I do back then that made me a target? Was it really just because I’m human? Or was there something else?”

Then, slowly, he leans in closer, his voice low and rough as he confesses, “I had a crush on you, Mariah.”

A laugh escapes me, soft and disbelieving. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Thorak nods ruefully, his tusks glinting in the low light of the taproom. “I know. I was a fucking idiot.” He runs a hand over his face, his shoulders slumping.

“You could have just told me,” I whisper, my voice thin and reedy to my own ears. “About Lucius or…about how you felt.”

“I know that now,” he murmurs. “But back then…I was drowning under the weight of everyone’s expectations. You were the only human in our grade, but I was the only orc. Everyone saw me as a brute, and I didn’t know how to be anything other than what they wanted.”

Almost of their own accord, my hands come up to rest on his broad chest. His heartbeat thunders beneath my palm, betraying the calm facade he’s trying so hard to maintain. Slowly, deliberately, I trail my fingers upward, skimming along the curve of his neck. Thorak’s eyes flutter closed as he leans into my touch with a shuddering sigh.

It’s intoxicating, the way he surrounds me—his taste, his earthen scent, the solid heat of his body pressed so tightly to mine. It feels like coming home.

Thorak settles between my thighs, kissing me until I’m breathless. His hands are everywhere—roaming across my waist, skimming up my ribs, cupping my breasts through my dress.

Thorak slides my green dress up to my waist and then kneels down on the ground. He’s so large that at a kneel, his face is perfectly aligned with my inner thighs.

I gasp at the sensation of his tusks holding my thighs open for him—the slight bite of pain mixed with intense, bone-melting pleasure as his tongue delves between my folds. I cry out, my head lolling back. Thorak licks and sucks at my most sensitive parts with single-minded focus, like a man on a mission.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” Thorak groans against me, the vibrations sending sparks shooting up my spine. His tongue swirls around my clit before he sucks it into his mouth and I nearly come undone right then.

“Yes, yes, right there,” I pant, my fingers tightening in his hair, holding him in place. Thorak redoubles his efforts, licking and suckling with an intensity that has my thighs quaking around his head.

Thorak laps at me through the aftershocks, his deep, satisfied rumble vibrating against my sensitive flesh. Finally, he pulls back and gazes up at me. His green skin glistens with my arousal, tusks flashing as he licks his lips.

Gruna pulls up short as she takes in the scene before her—me hastily adjusting my dress, Thorak’s face glistening, the charged energy still crackling between us. Her eyes widen.

And then, like a coward, I flee into the night.

“I’m aware this is unexpected. For both of us. But I need you to know that what happened between us wasn’t just physical for me.”

A battle rages inside me—the primal desire to surrender to the undeniable pull between us, and the self-protective instinct to guard my battered heart behind impenetrable walls.

“Hey,” he says softly, ducking his head to catch my gaze. “We don’t have to figure it all out right now. I just...I wanted you to know where I stand. That this means something to me. You mean something to me, Mariah. And if you decide you don’t want something romantic with me, that’s okay. I’d like to be in your life and I’ll take that role in whatever way works best for you.”

“But, Mariah, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

“I haven’t seen chemistry like that since I accidentally mixed salamander spittle and dragon horn dust and nearly blew up my house!”

Love is a risk, babe. A leap of faith. No one can ever know for sure how it’ll turn out. But if you don’t jump, you’ll never fly.”

“Just don’t forget a harness, if you know what I mean.”

Finn glances away, fidgeting with a blade of grass. “Ah, I would but I have...other plans tonight. Perhaps another time.”

I predict the sister

Or he’s seeing someone that he doesn’t want to tell me about.

Your sister

“I’m saying that I’m not ready to put a label on it, but…I want you, Thorak. I’d like to see where this leads.”

“I’m sure. I was giving into fear and I’m done doing that.” A wave of joy crashes over me, so intense that it nearly brings me to my knees. I take her hand in mine, pressing a fervent kiss to her palm.

I pour every ounce of my longing, my devotion, into the kiss, my hands roaming the curves of her body, mapping out the contours I’ve dreamed of touching for years. Mariah matches my fervor, her tongue tangling with mine, her teeth grazing my bottom lip in a way that has my cock twitching.

“Come with me,” she murmurs, her voice low and husky.

I fumble with the key, my hands shaking, before finally getting the door open. The moment we step inside, Thorak spins me to face him, crushing my mouth to his. I moan into it, melting against his massive, hard body as he kicks the door shut behind us.

“Don’t you dare stop,” I pant. “I want this. I want you.” A low, approving growl vibrates through his chest and then his mouth is on my neck, his tusks pressing into me as he licks and nips a fiery path to my collarbone.

Thorak’s hands find the zipper of my dress and he pauses, pulling back to look at me with a question in his eyes. I nod breathlessly and he slowly draws the zipper down, his knuckles brushing against my spine and making me shiver.

He grips me firmly and lifts me up, urging my legs to wrap around his waist. I comply eagerly, locking my ankles at his lower back. The hard, thick ridge of his erection presses against my core through his pants, making me gasp.