Orcs of the Severed Tusk

I forged a letter, stole a seal, and talked my way into an orc trade caravan as a diplomat I invented three months ago.The commander looked at my letter. Looked at my hands. Included me anyway.Gurn doesn't talk. He grunts. One-word answers. I've been reading people since I was fourteen, and he's the first person where the surface and the interior are the same thing.I can't read him. I can't stop watching him.Every night the best portion of meat arrives at my place by the fire. He caught me on a mountain ledge and held on longer than the catching required. And when I stop performing long enough to sit beside him in silence, he says one word.Better.The lie is going to collapse. When it does, and the commander asks who I am, my answer is the worst one possible.I don't know. Con artist heroine in over her head He knew the whole time Strong, silent, touch-starved hero One-word love language Forced proximity on the march Slow burn to explicit He says "mine" and means itFor fans of Finley Fenn and Ruby Dixon who want a hero built from silence and a heroine who's never met a truth she couldn't outrun.Gurn's story. Book two in the Healer's Debt world. Can be read as a standalone.Heat Level: Explicit POV: First person, heroine Ending: HEA