Unexpected Sting by Viola Grace (free reads .TXT) 📕

“Arthur, let go.”

He growled, and she used herfinal option. She brought her armour out, and it pushed his teethout of her skin. She threaded her fingers through his hair, and shewrenched his head back. “When I say let go, you let go, ogre.”

His eyes were wide as he staredat her. “You are beautiful.”

“In certain eyes, yes, but I amnot certain what your other half would think.” Glossy blacksegments of her natural armour covered all of her but her face,which was framed in thick jewel-like scales.

“He is startled but asenthralled as I am. Can you feel like this?”

“No. That is the idea. I have nofeeling on my armour whatsoever. You can beat at it, claw at it,bite it, nothing is getting through.” She eased off him. “And if Ido that, you aren’t getting in, either.”

His eyes went wide, and hereached between her thighs where the armour had smoothed over. Hisnails clawed at her with the sound of metal on glass, but sheremained where she was.

He pulled at her, clawed at her,and she waited until his frustration had burned itself out. She gotoff him and left the bed.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“Downstairs to get my computerto do some work. You drew blood without asking permission. That isthe biggest turnoff I have experienced yet.” She went down to themain floor, and when she returned to the bedroom, he was bowingwith his head pressed to the mattress. The two aspects of him musthave had a chat.

“What I did was rude andunacceptable. You are within your rights to deny me your touch andyour body.”

“I know.”

“Will you forgive me?”

She paused and set her computerdown on a bedside table. “I suppose I could. You appear to have thegeneral idea of things. I don’t know who Arthur let you hook upwith before, but I expect a certain amount of manners in mypartners. I don’t mind the biting, but make sure that it isauthorized before we start.”

He lifted his head. “Would youlike compensation for the injury?”

“No, it has healed already.” Shesighed. “I would just like to cuddle and watch a movie.”

“I am a very warm companion.”His yellow eyes were bright as he looked up at her.

She dismissed her armour, and itfaded off her in a slow undulation that he followed with his gaze.“No funny stuff, right?”

“No. And as for the women thatArthur took to his bed, none of them lasted more than an hour. Theycame and went.”

She snorted, and he sat up,revealing an erection as intent as any that she had imagined. Hesighed, and she got the remote, flipping through the channels untilshe was watching her favourite movie.

“Are you serious aboutcuddling?”

He moved against the headboardand put a pillow across his lap. She curled up against him andsettled in to watch the movie. He stroked her arm and her back, andshe pressed her head to his chest. She watched the characters meetand miss and meet again and slowly fell asleep.

* * * *

Let me take over. Arthur’s tonein their mind was calm.

No. I can keep her warm whileshe sleeps.

Arthur was surprised by that. Ifthe ogre didn’t have a chance for physical exertion, it usuallyleft things to him. When he took lovers, the ogre got the energybenefit, but he did not manifest. The introduction of Stinger hadbeen a novelty that he had wanted to try for himself. Arthur hadbeen caught by surprise and then lightly stunned when Stingerdidn’t bat an eye at this other part of him. The ogre had beendelighted.

Now, that ogre was watching anAsian romance with subtitles and a lot of cuts for dramatic pauses.Surprisingly, he was enjoying it, but he was also getting drowsy.Arthur would be able to return to control when he nodded off.

He had heard what Stinger hadsaid about the breeder contract, and now that he was in part of hismind where logic reigned, he guessed that her father being missinghad been harder on her than she let her family know. She would notrisk her child being left without resources. She would not risk herchild being in the same situation she was without an identifiablefather. It was a fair requirement.

The thought of Stiila carryinghis baby filled him with heat. He had no idea where she was in hercycle, but he hoped that she didn’t get pregnant for a while.Stovos wouldn’t send him out of town with the contract bindingthem. There was a conference call with him tomorrow morning todiscuss it.

The ogre was a lot more carefulwith Stiila than he had thought. It set his mind at ease and madehim smile. If Stiila bore a child with black hair, his mother wouldbe delighted.

Oh, shit. His mother andher family would want an introduction, but they wouldn’t accept itif she was just a breeder. He had better propose just to finalizethings.

* * * *

Stinger changed to her next favouriteanime with a petite girl and a huge cyborg who used to be herpartner.

She went back to relaxingagainst ogre-Arthur and was surprised to hear the ogre ask, “Whatwould you say if we asked you to partner with us permanently?”

She rubbed her cheek on hischest. “That sounds nice, but I am not trying to trap anyone. Wedon’t know anything about each other. Sex is not a good place tostart.”

“It is an excellent place tostart if you are what we are. Why would you think otherwise?”

“Because no one needs to bestuck in a situation they didn’t choose. I needed a place for powerto go, and he offered it to me. It wasn’t because I was a goodconversationalist or anything.”

“Is that what makes a union? Inthe ogre clans, it is authorization from family and nothing else.In the local warlock families, it is consent between the partiesand registration with the guild.” He chuckled and smoothed his handover her back and hips. “How long do you think that takes?”

She shrugged. “More than twodays.”

The voice changed. “It’s true.The current average is that they lock in after twelve hours andformalize the union within two weeks.”

“But, Nessa had a wedding, andMeredith is having one.” She took the hand that Arthurextended.

“Their families had a need