Linza was eating dinner at a bench by the docks when a greenish shadow loomed over her.

It was the half-orc man from lunch. He still wore just the tight leather shorts, still moved with self-assured swagger.

Her heart surged to a thunder in her chest, her cheeks heating with the memory of not only lunch, but also her subsequent long session in the break room. She hated how hard—and how many times—she’d cum, thinking of the sweat on his chest and his look of enraptured relief. He had no right to affect her this much, and certainly no business just waltzing up to her like he had to the madame.

“Hey,” he said.

She wanted to snap ‘what do you want?’ but she was always so much sassier in her head than real life. “Hello,” she said. Apparently he decided that she existed after all. If he even remembered her from earlier.

“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked. 

She did mind. But she said, “No, it’s fine.”

“Great!” He sat down next to her, and the bench creaked.

He was so broad that his arm nearly touched hers. He smelled like musk, leather, and vanilla. Half of her wanted to lean closer into that smell. Half of her wanted to press as far to the other side of the bench as possible—or just leave. She sat stiffly in the tension between those warring desires.

He looked out over the docks and then the main street. “This place is amazing, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty special,” she said, and she knew he had no idea just how special it was.

“You seem pretty special,” he said. 

She gave him her most skeptical look.

“I just mean, you know the madame?” he said.

So, he did remember her. “Sort of. I’ll be under her tutelage shortly,” she said.

“I’d love to be under her titty-lage…” he said with a smirk.

Linza was too polite to roll her eyes, and she certainly did not find it funny enough to laugh. 

His eyes scanned her face, and he seemed to notice and recalculate. He cleared his throat, smirk fading. “It’s just… It means a lot to see a half-orc be successful here, y’know? And not despite our nature, because of it.”

“Your nature?” Linza tilted her head. She was sure she knew what he meant, but she wanted to see what he’d say if she played dumb.

And he surprised her by going a bit shy and putting a hand to the back of his neck. “We tend to be… really horny.”

Linza scoffed a laugh. “I hadn’t noticed.”

He smiled. “They must keep them really well sated here, then!”

Linza wasn’t sure whether to clarify that she’d been sarcastic.

An awkward moment passed. 

“I’m Grun, by the way,” he said.

“Linza.”

“You worked here long?” Grun asked.

“Three months or so,” Linza said. She still wasn’t sure that she wanted to be in this conversation, but she wasn’t creative enough to lie either.

“Only that long and you’re having lunch with the madame?” He looked genuinely impressed.

“Well…” Linza faltered. His current behavior was making his earlier imposition seem more like ignorance than arrogance. Was he just trying to flatter Linza? Or get through her to the madame? Wyn would have already handed him his ass, but Linza couldn’t bring herself to be quite so brazen.

And Grun looked at her patiently, despite her long pause. She half expected him to continue on with whatever other questions he had in mind, but he didn’t.

“… I guess I’m a bit of an oddball around here, myself. I’m an alchemist by day, actually. I’m a numbers person. So that’s mostly why. More of a tutoring in… economics than erotics, you could say.”

Grun chuckled. “You’re clever.”

Linza blushed. “Well, math is like anything, it’s just all practice.” She didn’t know why she was deflecting the compliment, other than reflex. He was right! She was clever! Wyn was always telling her that she should stop selling herself short, but whenever the occasion arose, the rules of polite conversation held her captive.

He said, “I know you haven’t been here long yourself, but…”

Here it comes, Linza thought. He’d be asking about the madame, for sure.

“…I looked over this terms thing, and… well, it all seems very thorough, but I’m not much one for paperwork. I was hoping for an inside opinion. Do you think I should work here?”

Linza blinked. It took her mind a moment to wind back from the answer that she’d already been preparing to comprehend his actual question. Then she said, “Are you willing to learn?”

“Of course,” he said.

“To do things differently than you have before?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he said.

“To consider every aspect of your work with the utmost care?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, with that same attentive expression that he had given the madame.

“Then… yes. I do think you should work here. It is a special place. If you come at it selfishly, it’s not a good fit. I could see that you…” Linza looked for the right words. The memory of his quivering obedience surged to the front of her mind. Her arousal flared. “That you, well, you listen. That matters here.”

He didn’t seem to notive her flustering. He just nodded thoughtfully. His eyes were blue—she hadn’t noticed that before. She didn’t know if that was rare or usual for half-orcs. 

He turned those eyes to her, smiling. “Well. I’m going to join, if only to have you as a coworker. I think we’ll be a good fit.”

All she could imagine was the immense fullness of him inside of her, and her arousal flared again. Words failed her.

“I’ve already bothered you enough today,” he said, pushing to his feet. “Thanks for the advice. See you around, coworker!”

And then he strode away, back into the estate.

And her eyes followed the muscles of his ass under those tight leather shorts.