The Lonely Troll

by Harpie Alexander

  However, unlike the men from her village, she felt safe in his presence and wondered if her attraction to him was solely based on his ability to protect her.

  He’s also sweet and charming in his own way too...don’t forget that.

  Delilah sighed and took a deep breath. She honestly hadn’t expected to kiss him, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision and, in hindsight, perhaps a bad one. The problem wasn’t the kiss itself, but the lack of response he had when she pressed herself against him. There was even a moment where he stiffened beneath her touch and she couldn’t blame him.

  It was all so sudden, out of nowhere, perhaps even out of character. She herself was surprised. Never in a million years had she thought she would kiss him. Other than the small glances and secrets they shared, she hadn’t indicated an interest in him. Had she? Or maybe his issue went deeper than that.

  She gasped loudly. Was it because she was human? Had she broken the trust between them by forcing him to break the laws of his tribe even further? Guilt ate her from the inside out until her foggy memory reminded her of something she’d forgotten.

  After she’d kissed him, he’d taken her back to her furs, cleaned her wound and massaged all the aches and pains out of her legs and feet. It was the most amazing thing she’d ever felt in her life, and it left her wanting more despite the near worry of things almost getting out of control. Especially when she remembered his promise to her when her eyes became so heavy she could no longer keep them open.

  “I will wait for you to come to me again.”

  Delilah bit her lip, her cheeks blossomed and a powerful surge of lust rippled through her body straight to her core. Instinctively she squeezed her thighs shut, but immediately regretted her decision. It only intensified the aching need that was growing and she didn’t know how to deal with it. Not that she understood what was happening to her anyway.

  “To have you so close, but not able to claim you.”

  Her breath hastened at the implication.

  He wants to claim me.

  I want him to claim me.

  And yet, she had no idea what that entailed even though she was considered an overly ripened old maid at twenty-eight. All she knew was that after marriage, men and women would lie in bed together and that men took a woman’s virginity. She was smart enough to understand that what happened in the ’hay’ as people called it had something to do with female anatomy, but her guess was as good as any and was thankful she never had to find out through rape; the stealing of someone’s virginity or the ’taking’ of women without their consent.

  It wasn’t her fault she knew so little. The age-old tradition of a mother explaining her role as a wife to their daughter on their wedding night was stolen from Delilah the moment her mother passed. The tradition would've been explained by someone else had she been picked during the Suitors’ Ball and her father approved the marriage.

  It’s not like she had seen what a man looked like and even if she had, were trolls any different? Could she lie with Skarde the way a woman was meant to with a man?

  She occasionally heard the whisper of sexual urges so powerful it was enough to bring someone to their knees. Was that what she was feeling now?

  Desire? Sexual urges? Had her body come alive just because of Skarde? A combination of horror, fascination and curiosity swept through her. She was so inexperienced that her mind didn’t stand a chance to deal with the assailing feeling.

  Her body was hot. Goosebumps trickled along every nerve as the hairs on the nape of her neck and on the backs of her arms stood erect. Delilah shuddered and removed her dress, unable to handle the heat burning her alive.

  The moment her dress dropped to the floor, someone emerged from the curtain of rain blanketing the mouth of the cave.

  “Skarde,” she whimpered his name, not even moving to cover her naked body.

  His golden yellow eyes spoke of a dangerous hunger, one that threatened to devour whole as they swept up and down until they finally met hers.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Skarde

  Something smelled divine. Whatever Delilah was cooking, had his mouth watering faster than the river next to his cave could flow downstream. It was so good he was tempted to beg the gods to make it rain more often just so she’d stay locked up in his den and cook.

  I must know what she makes so she never runs out.

  The instant he stepped inside his den, he was flat out shocked.

  In the center of the cave—barely ten steps from where he was —stood his female, nude as the day she was born. Dropping whatever she held in her hands, her trail gazed over his form and then she licked her lips.

  “What in King Erike’s name…,” he muttered low, baffled.

  He didn’t care. Oh heavens, he really didn’t care. Not when he dropped his kills to the ground. Not when his eyes trailed every inch of her body as the light from the fire flickered against her creamy skin.

  “Skarde,” she painfully whimpered.

  Her voice was all it took to pull his gaze from her succulent form. He rushed toward her, fear replacing his hunger quicker than his spear could kill. Placing an arm behind her back, Skarde lowered her to her furs. All he wanted to do was care for her in any capacity she allowed him. No, scratch that. He didn’t care if she allowed it. As long as she still lived and breathed, he would care for her.

  Delilah’s brilliant sapphire eyes looked up to him pleadingly. “I don’t understand what’s happening to me.”

  His eyes roamed over her body, searching for whatever ailed her. His mind and his cock were at odds, fighting for power in his mind. He desperately ignored her womanly charms as best he could, his eyes kept wandering despite his efforts.

  She is not well! he roared internally, mentally chastising himself for his selfish desires.

  “I see nothing wrong,” he grunted, clasping her hands in his, but it didn’t stop him from seeking answers he required.

  His mind spun round and round. What was happening to her? And why in the name of the gods was she naked? He couldn’t concentrate on anything else but the curves of her breasts and their dusty pink tips, the curves of thighs where they moved inward and her cunt was hidden beneath a thatch of more brown curly hair, and those succulent lips. How he wanted to taste those lips right now, plunge into her mouth and taste all the glorious flavors she offered.

  Did she not know how her body taunted him? Did she not understand how badly he ached for her in this moment.

  Had he known this female would drive him to insanity the moment he saved her, he would have taken her the moment she had awoken and was feeling better. He would have never allowed himself to scare her, or forced the will of his gods upon her. Things would have been so much different, but none of that mattered now. From this moment forward, he would put all of her needs before his own and prove his worth to her.

  How they ever came to this moment, would forever elude him, but this goddess was his and his alone. Nothing would stand in his way now that he was so close to having her.

  She continued to whimper, her skin flushed red. He reached for her ankle where she had stepped on something a few nights prior, wondering if it somehow became infected, but when the skin had already healed over and there were no signs of infection he found himself stumped.

  His frustration came out in a growl. “Tell me what bothers you and I will do my best to aid you.”

  Seeing her like this tore at his heart. The thought of her ill again made his stomach recoil. He couldn’t watch her on the brink of death again. He just couldn’t. What if she didn’t make it?

  No! I refuse to lose her. She is mine.

  Getting up, he ransacked every inch of his cave looking for anything with a hint of medicinal properties, and grabbed a bowl of water. Water always helps. Right?

  “I feel hot, my body is burning up. I can’t cool down.”

  He nodded his head. Water would definitely help. By Erike’s axe, it better help.

  Rushing back to her, he
dipped a fur cloth into the bowl and wrung it out before placing it against her forehead, cheeks, and back of her neck, just as he had done when she was ill. If only his sire could see him now, tending to this human female. He would be ashamed of him. Consorting with the enemy, breaking his sacred vow. Desiring and lusting after the vilest of creatures that roamed the earth.

  If only he could show them how wrong they were. Not all humans were bad.

  Delilah’s hands clasped around his own, pulling him out of his turbulent thoughts. “Not that kind of hot,” she stated, her breath fanning his face.

  And then it hit him.

  The scent. The blush on her cheek. Her quaking body that only seemed to shiver more the closer he got to her. The needy look in her eyes. She wasn’t ill, on her deathbed and dying. She wasn’t hurt, in pain or suffering. Not unless she was in so much need she could barely handle it, but then he looked closer. It appeared she wasn’t handling it well after all.

  Skarde growled low in his throat, closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

  “You are aroused. You are in need.” he rumbled as all the built-up fear and tension left his body replaced by a growing desire of his own.

  “I don’t know what I need. I just know I need it badly.” Her voice was but a whisper. Gentle, soft and full of lust.

  She leaned up until their noses were mere inches apart, her beautiful eyes boring into his own. By the gods, he couldn’t handle this. Her full breasts just mere inches away from his chest. It took everything he had to not grab them and pinch their puckered tips or pull them into his mouth. His cock ached painfully. It was too much to bear. He wanted her so badly, but he needed to hear her say it. To tell him she was his in every way he desired her to be. To come to him with a sweet kiss like she planted on his lips days earlier.

  How he needed her so badly, her very essence was more important than his vow, more important than the blasted varduush. His resolve of waiting for her to come to her was cracking like wood splitting down the center from a sharpened axe.

  “Tell me you’re mine,” he demanded of her. He had already claimed her, but she needed to claim him back. While it came nowhere close to the way things were done in his tribe, he found he didn’t care. He was beginning to understand that he would abandon all of his ways for her, not that she would ever demand that from him.

  Gazing up through her thick black lashes, her pupils dilated, but her lips remained silent and unmoving much to Skarde’s dismay. His body tensed again, for good reason. Every sight, every sound, every sense except that which came from her, blasted him in his slowly dissolving patience.

  “By the gods Delilah, I must have you now, but you won’t claim me,” he snarled as low as he could without scaring her.

  It’s not that he wanted to sound so feral, he just couldn’t help it. Seeing her like this did things to him. Things he couldn’t control and he feared he would snap and make things worse as he had before.

  Regretfully, he pulled away, feeling as though it was his only option.

  “Wait,” she quietly begged, grasping onto his forearm so tightly, her nails dug into his skin. It was as if she’d slip away into nothingness if she could find nothing to hold on to.

  Upon contact, his arm prickled with awareness until it burned, but it wasn’t a painful burn. It was more of a yearning for her hands to touch him elsewhere; anywhere. All because of her touch. Skarde paused. At this point, he was so in-tune with her that he could scarcely say no, denying her was like denying the gods. Difficult, foolish and certainly weighed heavy on him, but unlike the gods, he never wanted to deny her.

  His heart beat twice as fast in his chest when he observed her trembling lips.

  “Please don’t go.”

  “As much as it pains me, I can’t stay like this. You are doing things to me and I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.” His voice was gruff and rigid and tightly restrained, just like his posture. “I need you.”

  Her eyes grew wider still. “Why didn’t you kiss me back?”

  The tips of his ears twitched, trying to gauge the painful pitch lacing the tone of her voice. Sorrow, regret, sadness.

  How could I’ve been so foolish? She thinks I don’t desire her.

  “You caught me off guard,” he admitted truthfully knowing that his words were safe with her. “It is easily the biggest regret of my life.”

  Delilah gasped. “Even more than losing your tribe? Your family? You can’t possibly mean that. You barely know me.” Her eyes closed again, her body shuddered.

  Watching her on the edge, losing control drove him wild. He could taste the blood from where his tusk pierced his upper lip. The wound would close soon, erasing the evidence of how tightly restrained he was right that very moment.

  “And yet you’ve dug your hands so deep they grip my very soul.” His eyes narrowed on her lips. “Claim me,” he urged with everything he had, grazing her face softly, tucking one of her curly brown stands behind her rounded ears.

  Her mouth parted only a fraction. Skarde watched for eternity until finally she spoke.

  “I’m already yours,” she said almost as softly as a whisper. “Take me,” she added with more conviction.

  Time stood still as his heart froze in his chest, like his heart had skipped several beats as he processed her words. It was clear she didn’t want him to wait for her to make the first move. She was imploring him to physically claim her now and that realization made his heart beat in full force.

  He gripped the back of her neck and pulled toward him before crushing his lips to hers, carefully aware of where and how his tusks grazed her soft skin. Her lips molded to him perfectly, deliciously and for a fraction of a second she opened her mouth and Skarde took that as an invitation to slip his tongue inside. Whether it was one or not, he didn’t care, not when she tasted utterly delicious.

  She is my...mate.

  As they continued to kiss, she relaxed further and eventually wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him. Then she boldly flicked her tongue against his, making him shudder. The sensation crept along every nerve in his body until finally, it reached his painfully hardened cock.

  He could feel her breasts and their perky tips scraping against his skin and it took every ounce of strength to resist the urge to touch them or spread her thighs so he could plunge deep inside her body. But he didn’t want to take from her like so many others had done before, he wanted to give.

  “I need you to touch me, please,” she begged between kisses, grabbing one of his hands and placing it on her breast. “Put out this fire.”

  Skarde groaned. Her nipples tickled the palm of his hand so he retaliated by pinching them in kind.

  Delilah broke the kiss as her head leaned back and she moaned. “Heavens, do that again.”

  He growled low in his throat, overcome with such need his cock threatened to spill, but doing as she requested, he simply placed his mouth on her instead.

  First he licked the little, protruding nub, then pulled it into his mouth, sucking it between his lips. His other hand reached out, lifting her breast in his palm as if to weigh it.

  “Oh...heavens. That feels...I can’t even describe it,” she moaned and writhed against him.

  When he was satisfied, he trailed down to the curly thatch of brown hair between her thighs. Eagerly he looked up at his beautiful match. “Can I kiss you here too?”

  Lifting her head, she gave him an odd look before nodding. Skarde grasped her thighs and nudged her legs apart. A waft of fresh tangy berries blasted his senses and he groaned. Originally he planned to take her slow, devour her sweetness slowly, but he just couldn’t resist. Her scent called to him, beckoning him to have a taste and drink his fill.

  Without hesitation, he latched onto her cunt with his mouth and held on for dear life.

  “SKARDE!”

  Delilah yelped, her spread legs attempted to close around his head, but his shoulders were too wide.

  "Don’t resist me. I must have you on
my tongue."

  He grabbed her legs and tossed them over his shoulders, letting her calves rest on his back. Then he lapped at her cunt, exploring every moist fold. When every lick, nip, and lap, he paid attention to how her body melted and moaned against him. Then he doubled his efforts until she screamed his name once again, but this time in pleasure, not surprise.

  A gush of fluid poured straight from her channel and into his tongue. The tangy sweetness quickly became his favorite.

  "What just happened?" she asked, trying to sit up, but her body was too depleted from her orgasm.

  "You came. And now, my mate, I will make you come again with my cock instead of my mouth.”

  She sat up and eyed him warily through her lust-filled eyes. “Mate?” she asked with a hint of uncertainty, then her eyes trailed down his body to his loincloth, where his throbbing member jutted proudly from his body.

  “Yes. I’m not claiming you how my people would, or how humans would, but make no mistake. I am claiming you as my mate. Right now, in fact,” he announced as he wedged himself between her thighs, then trailed kisses from her stomach all the way until he reached her luscious lips.

  Skarde felt every touch, squeeze and caress as his mate’s hands roamed his body in curious appreciation. As far as he was concerned, she should never take her hands off him, but he knew that was impractical with all the things she kept herself busy with. It was all the more reason to ensure he pleasured her well, so she’d keep coming back to him.

  “I like the sound of it. I don’t care how you claim me, I’m yours,” she said with lust-filled eyes after breaking away from the kiss.

  And with that, Skarde grabbed hold of his cock and rubbed it against her quivering cunt, slipping it through her wet folds until he was satisfied he wouldn’t hurt her on entry. While he’d never done this before, he understood the mechanics, but he didn’t want to hurt her. He had nothing to compare his size to.