Bridgette’s smile took on a hungry edge as she looked down at him. Her fingers traced the lines of his muscles, the remnants of his bruises, leaving a trail of fire in the wake of her touch. And when she started to rock her hips, Garrett was lost.
He didn’t know what to do, but it didn’t seem to matter. Bridgette took control as she rode him, her hips working against his in a steady rhythm. Garrett lost himself in the sensation, his hands doing little more than hold her hips.
Every time Bridgette had brought one of her callers upstairs, he’d imagined what it would be like to go in their stead. Yet being with her was beyond any fantasy he could have thought up. There was no way he could have imagined the pleasured furrow of her brow, the sound of her moans, the feel of her heat encompassing him. Seeing her above him was like a dream brought to life.
Bridgette arched and leaned back, her walls clenching around him. The slight adjustment opened up a whole new world of sensation, and Garrett couldn’t help but tighten his grip on her hips. He thrust up into her, trying to match the rock of her hips.
“Just like that,” she said, and the pleasure thickening her voice sent a thrill through him. “Keep moving just like that.”
Garrett couldn’t help but obey. He thrust to meet her, and it only took a second to find a rhythm between the two of them. As they did, that energy seemed to swell, making them gasp in unison.
“Do you feel that?” she asked, breathless.
Garrett nodded and Bridgette seemed nearly giddy as she pitched forward to capture his lips in a searing kiss. The change of position gave him room to move, and he used it to his advantage as he grabbed her hips before thrusting deep. Bridgette cried out against his neck, but before he could even ask, she said, “Don’t you dare stop.”
The pleasure in her voice made a low growl emerge from his throat. He held her tight, anchoring her as he thrust again. Bridgette’s cries of pleasure spurred him on, quickening his pace. The pressure in his groin built even as the energy between them shivered like an avalanche about to break loose.
Bridgette clung to him, teeth nipping his shoulder as he worked himself into her. It only took a moment longer before she tensed on top of him, a choked cry of bliss escaping her. The rippling heat of her was Garrett’s undoing, and he was quick to follow, swearing as his end crashed through them.
Over the sounds of their mutual pleasure, the energy between them suddenly… released. It rushed outwards in a quietwhoosh, making the lanterns gutter and die as if caught in a sudden wind. Garrett blinked at the unexpected darkness as Bridgette nuzzled against his neck, lips trailing gentle kisses down his skin. He shivered, lost in the aftermath of pleasure, too content to move. After a moment, Bridgette shifted, and he watched her straighten up, illuminated by nothing but moonlight.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
Garrett gave a breathless laugh. “More than alright.” He lifted a hand to his head, struggling to regain his senses after they’d been thoroughly fucked out of him. “Is sex… always like that?”
“No,” Bridgette chuckled. “Do you know what that was?”
“That… energy? I have no idea,” he said, mystified. “Do you?”
Garrett groaned as Bridgette leaned over, shifting around his softening length. He grabbed her hips to try and still her, but she struck a match before the lamp next to the bed flickered back to life. When she looked down at him, her expression was a mix of joy and disbelief. “Garrett… I think that was magic.”
For a second, he wasn’t sure he’d heard her right. Magic was a rarity among the orc clans, and one that was carefully propagated. Clan Boric didn’t have a single magical bloodline among their numbers, though they’d been in negotiations with the neighboring Clan Hadresh for ages to try and marry into one. The idea that a spark of it had been lying dormant in him was -
“Impossible,” he said, his voice cracking.
Bridgette’s excitement only seemed to grow. “Do you know how I hid those coins?”
Garrett searched her face, trying to find the lie, the jest, but her smile was nothing but earnest. “That wasmagic?”
“For a long while, it was just a tear in my mattress that I hoped Monika wouldn’t find,” Bridgette admitted, and Garrett shuddered at how dangerous of a prospect that was. “But then Arthur started visiting me. He’s the kind of man who tries to hide from his shame, so he had me wear a blindfold every time he was in my bed. After my first time with him, I swiped a coin from his tip. I didn’t even realize the tear was hidden until after I went to stow the coin. I always heard that magic came from sex, but that was when I started to… wonder about myself.”
Garrett let out a long breath, his thoughts boiling like a cauldron. “But what about me? No orcs in my clan carry magic in their blood.”
“But you’re not a full-blooded orc.” Bridgette put her hands on his shoulders, a smile lighting up her face. “Garrett… I think we’remagic.”
With that single word, Garrett’s fundamental understanding of himself shifted. Healer, murderer, and, impossibly… magic. The realization left him reeling. He lifted a hand to his head. “I… can we check? Is there a way to be certain?”
Bridgette lifted herself off him, and he groaned in protest at the loss. Instead, he tightened his arms around her, not allowing her to stray far. He felt unmoored in this new reality, but Bridgette kept him grounded as she settled against his side. Her head rested on his shoulder as her fingers started to trace through the hair on his chest.
“I’ve heard rumor of a place. A wizard’s tower near the capitol.” She looked up at him, her eyes full of hope. “If anyone could tell us for sure, it would be them.”
Garrett ran his fingers through her silken hair as something in his chest seemed to release. “Then we should go,” he said, enjoying the way the word ‘we’ felt on his lips.
Bridgette looked up at him, a painful kind of hope on her face. “How?”
After the whirlwind night, reality caught up to him in a blink. Monika had likely already found the constable. They’d be looking for them. A shiver of fear rushed through him at the thought of what would happen to them if they got caught.
“We need to get out of town,” he said. “Before sunrise.”
