Misconstrued (Mistaken)

by Pixie Unger

  “Slowly,” he growled again.

  “Maybe not this slowly,” I suggested.

  He shook his head no. I searched his face. His whole body was tense, his eyes were squeezed shut. And I had just made a joke about men cumming too fast. Oh. Oops. Okay, I needed to relax and give him a moment. I took a breath and tried to stop squirming.

  I ran my hand over his back making his hips buck. He whimpered a little. “It’s okay,” I assured him.

  He opened his eyes and leaned down to lick my lips as he carefully pushed the rest of the way in. I groaned and tilted my hips to rub my clit against him. He reached down and put one huge hand on my hips to hold me in place as he sat up a little.

  “I don’t want to be too fast,” he whispered.

  “You won’t be,” I assured him.

  He flashed me a skeptical look before he started to rock and his eyes fluttered closed. He kept an even pace, which was surprising given how every muscle I touched was straining to hold back. I squirmed enough to wrap my legs around his ass and try to encourage him to speed up a little, which he did once my hips bucked. The new angle was perfect with him in exactly the right spot. As I was writhing beneath him, he was growling a steady stream of orcish in my ear.

  I clenched and grunted as I came, and that was what he had been waiting for. Suddenly, he was moving fast and deeper and pushing me into the mattress with every thrust. He came with a snarl, both hands holding me tight to him, as his hips bucked erratically.

  His eyes opened and he watched me as he panted. I smiled as he hugged me tightly to his chest, then rubbed my back until I drifted off.

  ----

  I woke up in the big spoon position with Iago between me and the door. I smiled at that; Iago thinking too hard was always something I could count on. I groaned softly as I realized that this probably meant days of overthinking this on his part. And mine, to be fair.

  “Are you hurt?”

  I snorted a little and opened my eyes to see him cranking his head around to try to see me without rolling over or jostling me. I gave him what must have been a fairly sardonic smile. “I’m fine. I was just thinking that we’re both at risk of freaking out right now.”

  Iago stiffened. “You are upset?”

  “Please be teasing me now!”

  He narrowed his eyes at me, but cracked a tiny smile.

  I laughed and hit him with my pillow, then laughed again at the shocked look on his face. That was when I got to see that Iago must have been really good at his job. I was disarmed of my pillow and had both wrists pulled over my head and pinned in one of his hands in an instant. Then he went absolutely still, his face mere inches from mine, and he sniffed me.

  “You smell good.”

  “I suspect a female orc wouldn’t let you get away with this,” I mused.

  He grinned and let go of my hands. “No. She would scream and have me killed.”

  “So, why try it with me?” I asked as I sat up and rubbed my wrists.

  Shrugging, Iago explained, “Because I would try with a friend.”

  “Really? And what would a friend do?”

  He grinned harder and moved away from me before he answered, “Headbutt me and smash my nose.”

  “Oh, really?” I crawled toward him and cupped his face in my hands. He was very still, but looked a little worried. He was completely shocked when I placed a quick kiss on the tip of his nose before leaning away. “No breaking each other's bones in this family, okay?”

  “Yes, Mina,” he rumbled. It made me shiver. He just kept watching me. “Not hurt, right?”

  “I’m fine,” I assured him.

  “Good.”

  “Mina?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you.”

  I was a bit taken aback by that and wasn’t sure what to say. I got all weird and formal and said, “You're welcome?” which earned me a happy orc sound at least. There was something that had been in the back of my mind for a while.

  “Iago?”

  “Yes?”

  “You guys talk about having sex with me?”

  His face was calm and serene, but he stopped breathing for a moment. “We talk about how to make you happy,” he hazarded. “You do not like being seen or interrupted. That is important. You were very upset when Erika saw you and Romeo.”

  “Well, that is true,” I conceded.

  “After that, you did not choose him again. Mac was not interrupted and you still favour him.”

  “Wait, no! That’s not how that worked!”

  He nodded and fell silent, apparently waiting for me to explain.

  “Wouldn’t it bother you if someone was watching?” I asked before I remembered. “Did you watch me and Romeo the first time?”

  His face fell. “I didn’t know it would upset you. You came to our room instead of taking him to yours.” His voice was flat and calm. He was just explaining, not accusing.

  “Yeah, I did,” I agreed. He relaxed a little. “I wasn’t expecting to have sex with him when I went in there.” Iago looked uncertain at that.

  “You didn’t want that?”

  “Well, there’s a loaded question if I’ve ever heard one. Yes, I wanted that,” I assured him before I admitted, “I just didn’t plan it.”

  Iago gave a contemplative hum. “It would not bother me if they watched. They could stop me if I was … incorrect.”

  I snorted and pulled the pillow over my face. He gently lifted a corner and peeked at me. “The absolute last thing I want is the peanut gallery commenting on the performance,” I snapped.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “No cheering section giving you directions. If I don’t like something, I’ll tell you to stop, understand?”

  He still looked confused, but nodded his agreement anyway.

  I groaned and covered my face with the pillow again. “I wasn’t planning on being grumpy,” I mumbled into the pillow. “I wanted to ask you how you thought this would work.”

  He took the pillow off my face and dropped it on the floor. “What would work?”

  “All of us sleeping together. Or not sleeping together. It’s going to feel weird sneaking around and more weird taking you away from the others for a quickie. Or not-so-quickie or whatever.”

  He was still watching my face, waiting for me to start making sense.

  “It will not bother us, and after a while it will not bother you either. Erika is fine. You will be fine. This is normal for us.” He thought for a moment. “We will make sure Tybalt is polite to you. He is feeling left out, but we aren’t children where everyone gets a treat.”

  “Tybalt is feeling left out,” I echoed.

  Iago nodded.

  “Are you?”

  He looked helpless for a moment. “You talk to me. You, um, touch me. That is more than I hoped. It is less than he expected.” I got a calculating look, followed by a question I wasn’t prepared for. “Are you doing this because you think you have to?”

  “Doing what?”

  “Having sex. You are always upset after. With Romeo, you cried, but you blamed Erika seeing. With Mac you were very upset and didn’t touch any of us for days. I thought it was the attack,” he explained, “but you just tried to hurt yourself with the pillow.”

  “I’m what with the pillow?” I asked.

  “Pillow over your face so you can’t breath. I am worried.”

  “What? Hell no! I’m embarrassed and didn’t want you looking at me!”

  He sat up and moved to the edge of the bed so his back was to me. “You don’t want to look at me,” he corrected. “I can understand why you are embarrassed. I am not a good choice.”

  “It’s not like that,” I hurried to assure him, putting my hand on his shoulder. “Women don’t usually have four boyfriends at the same time.”

  “You don’t have to,” he repeated. “Everyone can just pretend you like us.”

  “I do like you, dummy!” I insisted. “I just don’t always understand you.”r />
  “Romeo will be your favourite. I’m okay with that,” he explained. “I’m happy just to be here.”

  “What makes you say that about Romeo?” I wondered, then I kissed his shoulder just because it was there.

  Iago gave me a happy hum. “Lots of reasons. He changed his voice for you. He went first. He will fix your stove.”

  “He’ll fix my stove?”

  Iago tensed under my fingers. He just sounded worried when he added, “I did not let you and Erika move into the building she wanted.”

  “Thank you,” I murmured. “This isn’t a trade, you know. I really am here because I want to be.”

  “That is kind to say.”

  “Well, I was right. That’s you overthinking this.” I shivered and hugged him. Part of it was wanting comfort, part of it was wanting warmth. “I’m cold. Come warm me up.”

  I ended up using Iago as a heated and weighted blanket. His head on my chest and the rest of him splayed out over me. I ran my hands over his back and tried to just relax into his warmth.

  “I don’t like being watched, either,” he admitted. “That is a problem.”

  I looked over at Romeo’s empty bed. “No one’s watching.”

  He hummed against my chest, then. It was like feeling the bass line at a good concert, but it wasn’t entirely a happy sound. “This isn’t allowed.”

  “What isn’t?”

  “Me holding you down,” he explained. “But I learned how to read.”

  “You aren’t making any sense, Iago.”

  He chuckled, darkly and rubbed his face against me, warm skin and cool, smooth tusks making an interesting contrast against my breasts. “Females— orc females— use us. They don’t want to be covered. It is too much like the bad parts of our history. Then I found books about humans mating. It is different. I want that.”

  I suddenly had so many questions but was almost afraid to ask, “Are we talking about sex ed books here or porn?”

  He stretched up and nibbled my neck without answering my question. “If Romeo was here, he would make me stop.”

  “I don’t want you to stop.”

  ----

  When we got up in the morning, the house was empty. Iago was unconcerned. He led me through the shower and fed me breakfast. Eventually, I insisted he tell me what was going on and we went to the orchard.

  It was swarming with orcs. They were carefully stripping the trees of the last of their fruit, and a team with shovels was already digging out the floor for my new house. Jo was buzzing around shouting orders and being obeyed. I headed over to talk to her first.

  “Good morning, sleepy head!” she called when I got close. It caused a number of orcs to look up from what they were doing and briefly smirk at me before going back to work.

  “Um …” Shit. I had no idea how to respond to that.

  “Feeling better?” she continued. “I hear the final rusting place of your stove was really dusty. You could have come to the med bay for help with that, but I guess Mac is trained, too.”

  “What’s going on here?” I asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject away from me.

  “Oh! The stove is going there,” she explained pointing to the excavation site. “It will be fairly open. Sleeping room in the back. The garden has to go on the south side, so once Romeo mapped out how big you wanted it, we just started to work. If the weather doesn’t completely mess us about, it should be up and running in short order. Which is good, because we have to get the plants in before it’s too cold to move them. Fortunately, these boys work a lot faster than us humans were. Part of that is we have a better idea of what we’re doing now.

  “We’re getting the barn fixed up for alpacas rather than sheep. There’s a herd we will move here once we have the orchard fenced off. There’s a lot of debate about who will be the other family to take care of them. Erika could have it if she wants, but between you and me, I’m not sure she’s up to farming.”

  I blinked and tried to get my head around the idea. “She might try because they’re cute. She wasn’t interested in farming animals to eat, but this would be for wool, right?”

  Jo wrinkled her nose at me. “Mostly wool,” she agreed. “I’m not sure she would be happy if we eat some of the babies. The orcs don’t have the resources to make lab meat for all of us.”

  I was almost afraid to ask. “Lab meat?”

  She blushed and looked away. “Yeah. That's how I felt when I found out, too. The meat the orcs eat is either meal worms or grown in a petri dish. They don’t have enough for all of them. Orcs in charge of humans are higher up the food chain— ha!— and so they eat better than the average orc, who gets the same cafeteria-style meals they serve in the camp.” Jo thought for a moment, then leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “Us offering to raise our own food helped, but I think there was already a raging debate among the orc elite about how to feed us all before we started talking about farming.”

  “Huh.”

  She nodded. “They’re so precious about the idea of taking care of women that they forget that we can do a lot to take care of ourselves.”

  We watched the builders for a moment. They could pack a tire full of earth in a fraction of the time it had taken the human team.

  “Do you have plans for the house I can look at?” I finally asked.

  “Back in the office,” she assured me. “I also have a copy of your list, so that kind of dictated how the build would go.”

  I froze. “How did you get a copy of my list?”

  She snorted. “Honey, any of your boys can recite the damn thing. They’re all taking this very seriously.” Jo must have seen something on my face that made her add, “It’s a good list though. Well thought out. Practical.” She nodded at someone over my shoulder. “That one insisted on a bigger-than-standard bathroom, so you’re getting the sort of thing that makes me think of the word ‘grotto’ in the cheesy 1970’s sense of the word. I’m trying to keep it tasteful for you.”

  She kept talking, but I was staring at Tybalt shoveling dirt into a tire and had stopped listening.

  “Mina?”

  I realized she had said my name more than once and I turned back to face her again.

  Jo gave me a worried look. “This isn’t my place, but you have no one else to tell you.”

  I panicked a little at that. “What?” I demanded.

  She looked away and chewed her lip for a moment before making eye contact again. “Rumour has it that you aren’t overly fond of that one, but he has been working his ass off to get things set up for you. Just … give him a chance, okay?”

  ----

  There was a new blank book sitting on my pillow when I got home. It had a purple cover and thick cream coloured paper. There was a fountain pen in a pretty box and a bottle of green ink on the bed side table.

  When I opened the book, there was a note on the inside in bubbly, girly handwriting.

  “To Mina. You deserve the best. All my love, Tybalt.”

  There was no way he had written that, but I didn’t want to demand answers from him when it had already been a long day.

  Erika confessed that she had printed the dedication for him when I cornered her to talk about it at breakfast at her house the next day.

  “I don’t think it’s cheating!” she insisted. “He found it. He picked what to say. He just can’t write in English. Hell, they don’t read in English, they use a little translator thingie when they need to.”

  I thought about that, but she wasn’t done.

  “I wanted to print it on the inside cover, you know. Tybalt was the one to insist on a separate piece of paper. Do you know why?” Erika demanded.

  “Why?” I asked dutifully.

  “So you would keep the book when you got rid of him! My heart nearly broke!” she explained, punching me in the arm.

  “Ow! I didn’t say I was getting rid of him!” I protested.

  “Did you tell him you were keeping him?” she countered.


  “Yes!” I insisted, but I was starting to wonder if I had.

  I was getting my house, but it was time to start getting my house in order. That was easy to say, but I wasn’t sure how to actually do it.

  “Romeo is in the garage, obsessively tinkering with the stove. Everyone else is out at the orchard. I don’t think I can hitchhike on one of the bigger transport units by myself, and I don’t know how to use the smaller transport the guys usually borrow. How do I even get out there to see him?”

  Erika laughed at me. “As though Romeo won’t drop everything if you asked him.”

  I frowned. “I don’t want to interrupt,” I protested. “Besides ‘stop working on that thing you are doing for me and drive me to talk to another guy’ isn’t exactly—”

  “Yes it is,” she interrupted. Then she looked over my shoulder. “Lucky! Go get Guildenstern! I want to fuck him until he’s walking funny!”

  I blushed. She took me by the shoulders and turned me to see the absolutely delighted look on Lucky’s face.

  “It really isn’t going to be a problem for him,” she assured me gently. “Just like it won’t be a problem when they come back and I tell them I changed my mind. They’re different.”

  Except, maybe they weren’t. Maybe they were just pretending to be. Iago had told me he wanted things that weren’t socially acceptable in their society. The orcs we got weren’t the choir boys, they were the prisoners sent for transport.

  “Do you let them watch?” I asked softly.

  Erika shrugged. “Sometimes,” she admitted. “Sometimes they let me watch. That took longer to negotiate. I get the impression that everyone does it and no one talks about it.”

  I thought about seeing Mac and Tybalt together early on. We hadn’t ever talked about it. Lucky had been aware of what I had seen and was more worried about me being left out than about what they were doing.

  Guildenstern walked in, looking pleased. Erika waved him away for a moment. “How do we get Mina out to the orchard safely without interrupting Romeo?”

  “I will take you, if it pleases you Mina,” Lucky offered. “Guildenstern will be busy.”

  I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

  “Or Rosenkrantz, if you prefer,” he continued.