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Troll-y Yours BBW Erotic Curvy Fantasy Romance (The Centaurs)

Page 10

by Fredricks, Sheri


  Ella extended her senses, searching the ground beneath her feet.

  Empty.

  Why wouldn’t someone live in this gorgeous home? Shaking her head, she used her hand to shade her eyes and searched the sky for the sun. She could neither smell nor hear the Boronda stream from where she stood, and this sector of the forest wasn’t familiar.

  A twig snapped and Ella swiveled her pointed Troll ears. Footfalls stepped in her direction with an offbeat pattern and caused mental alarm bells to sound. Visions of the human hunter rose to frightening heights, and she glanced around quickly for her options.

  Climb the steep boulder, or dive into the brush?

  Not relishing the thought of hot-to-trot Wood Nymphs using their lateral branches to feel up her boobs, she opted for the vertical climb. Her gaze crawled up the rock wall, gauging foot and handholds along the way.

  Or dare I twirl into the empty den behind this wall?

  A quick dissolve beneath the Earth’s crust. . .nobody would know. She wouldn’t touch a thing and she wouldn’t stay long.

  Chills skittered up her spine. Like a horror movie, the stomp and drag drew closer. Her heart beat faster and Ella squeezed her eyes shut. She concentrated on delving below layers of soil, separating herself into droplets of light and energy. Warmth grew from her feet and rose up her shins, past her knees.

  She lifted her arms to start the spin that would ensure her dissolve—

  “Ella!”

  Fourteen

  “Not only is she worthless, your daughter is a tramp! Stephen, you need to do something about her.”

  Eli instantly bristled upon waking to the shrill tone of his mother’s voice. Pan’s cloven hooves! Does the sow know of no other way to speak? He thought of pulling the warm blankets over his head but knew from experience, it would do no good. Awake now, after only—he glanced at his watch—four hours of sleep, his mother’s rant would continue until she lost steam.

  In other words, this could go on for days.

  “She’s hopeless, utterly hopeless.” Dishes in the cooking room rattled as if tossed on the stone countertop. “Praise the mythic gods for Eli. How can two cubs from the same womb be so different?”

  “Keep the sod on the roof, Judith. You’ll wake the boy. He worked last night, you know.”

  Too late for that, Dad. Eli rolled to sit on the edge of the bed, his erection nudging his flat belly. He fisted himself, then thought better of it—there’d be no happy ending with all the ruckus going on outside his bedroom door.

  Always cold and slightly damp, the floor beneath his bare feet sent chills skittering up his legs as he walked to his closet and pulled open the bi-fold doors. Poor Ella, she could never catch a break with the folks. As the eldest child, they ought to concentrate on her more than him. His erection deflated with the thought.

  He reached inside, pulled a shirt off a hanger, and stuffed his arms through the sleeves. Ella was neither hopeless nor a tramp, but there’d be no convincing his mother of that once her tirades began. As a result of their parents’ butt kissing his ass for so many years, now he was a bad guy, too. Didn’t matter if he meant well or not.

  A mental checklist of things to do crowded his tired brain, and he yawned while tugging on his jeans. After lacing his boots, he left the privacy of his bedroom and entered the fracas of the family nest.

  “Good morning, sweetie. I hope your father didn’t wake you.” Sugary sweet, his mother greeted him with a plate of bacon and eggs.

  “Uh, no. Dad didn’t wake me.” Eli glanced at his father, who sat hidden behind a three-week-old newspaper. “And thanks for the food, but I don’t have time to eat.”

  “Don’t have time…why?”

  “Judith, leave the boy alone.”

  “It’s my cooking, isn’t it? Eli wait, I’ll make you something else.” She dropped the plate on the table in front of his father.

  Eli grabbed his leather jacket off the hall tree and stood under the front rock. “You cook just fine. I—I have a breakfast meeting I’m late for.”

  “Did you hear that, Stephen? Eli has as breakfast meeting.”

  “Yes, dear. Very proud of him.”

  His mother patted her reddish mane in place, pushing at the silver threads woven into her frizzy mixture. “Unlike Ella, who didn’t bother to fix her hair before she—”

  Eli hooked the toe of his boot in the dirt and spun a revolution, dissolving away from the negative energy of his parents and refracting in the pure forest air. He didn’t blame Ella for wanting to leave. Hell, he wanted to move away, and he was the one they fawned over.

  It was all a bunch of scattered gravel anyway. Not once had his parents asked where he worked, or for whom. Sonofabitch, it irked him that they never asked what he did for a living. It had to make one wonder—did they really even care?

  The worn jacket slipped on easily, and Eli inhaled the familiar scent of leather. He flipped up the collar against the morning chill and set off, walking alongside the stream to hike off-trail. Mist blew in sparkling patches from the cascading water and helped wake him up.

  Long dark hair shimmered in unseen currents beneath a smooth pocket of water. Hope swam beside him, mouthing words he couldn’t understand, her blue eyes frowning. His mother must have thrown rocks at her again for coming too close to their shoreline. She lifted a finger out of the water and pointed up the trail.

  Eli shook his head. “I’m headed upstream.”

  She swam a circle and splashed water at him, gesturing toward the trailhead.

  “I don’t have time today, Hope. We’ll talk later.” Seriously, the pretty Water Nymph could mouth words for hours, and he didn’t have the time or energy to sit on the bank to lip-read this morning. Eli waved good-bye and turned to climb the faint trail leading away from the stream.

  He figured he’d stakeout Phranq’s place for a few hours and observe who or what came and went. It was time to venture closer to the Minotaur, time to infiltrate and get involved.

  Pennelope expected his report tomorrow and no way in hell would he let her down. In order to advance in rank, Eli needed to prove himself as a worthy undercover agent.

  Water splashed and hit the back of his shoulder, but he kept hiking, heading toward his morning destination.

  *~*~*

  Aleksander all but poked his eye out from the clawing thorns of a honey locust tree while pushing a branch aside. “Ella!”

  Relief washed over him and momentarily took away the pain in his leg. In all her dirt-grimed glory, hair wild and willful, Ella’s shocked expression was a beautiful sight.

  She stood frozen with a foothold on the side of the boulder and seemed ready to climb out of there.

  “Al—for the love of Pan, what in Tartarus happened to your leg?” Ella dropped her sneaker to the ground and came closer, her eyes never leaving his injury.

  Having her heated stare at a spot near his crotch made Meat Wrench come tingling to life. Alek glanced down, certain he was sporting a tent. Dry blood caked his makeshift bandage.

  He grimaced and supposed it did look gruesome. Lucky for him, there was no telltale bulge, so he took a deep breath and relaxed. “I got shot.”At Ella’s gasp of horror, he quickly added, “I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I’d say better than you.” Though, her words were sarcastic as ever, the underlying bite wasn’t there.

  “I’ll need to dress my wound, could you help me?”

  Uncertain, Ella bit her lower lip. She looked apprehensive and slightly green. But by the gods and all that’s mythic, his little Troll bucked herself up. Chin raised, her determined eyes met his. “What do you need me to do?”

  A grin pulled at the corners of Alek’s lips. He limped to her side and reached for her hand. “Let’s go inside first.”

  Ella looked around. Confusion knitted her brows. “Inside where?”

  Aleksander hobbled closer to the giant boulder and stood where Ella had climbed down moments before. Alongsid
e of the rock, he traced his fingers over a vertical crack and stopped at an innocuous piece of grey stone that jutted out at an angle.

  Temptation too strong and relief too great, he kissed her check and pushed down on the lever. Spring-loaded, the rock face popped ajar. Alek hesitated a moment, taking in the sounds of the forest around them. He filtered through the different tones and not finding any signs of danger, opened the door.

  “Holy hooves of Bacchus.” Ella’s breathy words of awe came from beneath his uplifted arm. “How did you know this was here?”

  “It belongs to a friend of mine.” One of Nubbs’ safe houses used for underground activities, but Alek didn’t see a need to make a full disclosure. If ever there was a time he and Ella needed to be safe, it was now.

  Typical of a rock house built into the side of a hill, a short carpeted incline connected the front door to the foyer. It’d been decades since Alek was last here and by the look of things, little had changed. The same worn-out furniture, decorated the same patches of dirt.

  Dreary and colorless…but safe.

  “Let’s go.” Alek motioned for Ella to step inside, but she hung back, again biting her bottom lip. He tried another approach. “True, this is the Centaur way in. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll close the door and you can dissolve under the rock.”

  Let her try and say no to my macho charisma. Aleksander waggled his brows and smiled his charming smile, showing all his even white teeth.

  “Stop it. You look like a hissing possum.” Ella gave him the once over and leaned closer to peek inside. “You sure it’s okay for us to be here?”

  His smile faded. A possum? “Yeah, it’s not used anymore.”

  He ran his tongue over his front teeth, feeling for anything possum-like. This female was like no other he’d ever met, it was as though she were immune to him.

  With her back to him, Ella didn’t seem to notice his discomposure. Spine straightened and regal as a queen, she walked into the house as if she owned the place.

  Baffled and treading on unknown ground, Aleksander followed her and shut the door behind them. The only thing he was one hundred percent sure of was the rounded globes of Ella’s butt that wiggled under her tight blue jeans.

  Meat Wrench noticed them too.

  Fifteen

  The heavy rock door weighed no more than his Bowie knife as it swung closed on smooth ball bearing hinges. Aleksander waited for the tumblers to click into place before he threw the deadbolt and limped down the ramp to the front living room.

  Ella stood next to a tattered rocker-recliner, her arms crossed and hip resting against the winged back. Ripped and worn, stuffing seeped from the outdated checked squares.

  “At first glance, this place is a wreck.”She pushed away from the chair and her eyes searched the room. “But it’s clean in here. Look.” She unfolded her arms and swept her fingers over the lamp table, then held them up. “No dust.”

  “My friend is a bit of a clean freak.”

  “I thought you said he doesn’t live here.”

  “He doesn’t. That’s how anal he is.”

  An itch tickled the spot where his horsetail grew, and Alek glanced at his watch. Forty-five minutes and counting. His leg would completely heal in the next twelve hours with his oncoming transition. Camouflaged behind his zipper, Meat Wrench twitched as if to say, “That’s plenty of time for me, old friend!”

  Aleksander ignored the other rooms to his left and hobbled across the hand-woven area rug. He passed the kitchen, then turned to his right. At the end of the hall was the latrine where Nubbs kept the medical supplies. What lay in-between were the doors of four stallrooms. The burning sensation in his thigh signified he needed to clean and check the injured area.

  “Help me with my leg?” He flashed a smile and indicated with a motion of his head for Ella to follow.

  Her gaze flicked to his bloodied wrap, and she nodded.

  Overhead, luminescent stones of irregular shapes softly lit the ceiling of the arched stone hallway. Their glowing ambience, like sparkling stars, cascaded to the walls then down to the floor. Someone had added a long maroon carpet runner to stretch the length of the hall—probably to soak up blood that dripped from injuries.

  Inside the bathroom, he opened the mirrored medicine cabinet and moved aside a bottle of aspirin. “In the bottom cabinet on the right, would you take out the green tub for me, please?”

  Aleksander sat on the rim of the old-fashioned bathtub and carefully unwound the wrap from his leg. Bomani’s initial field dressing saved him from excessive blood loss; he’d have to buy him a brewskie later.

  Head inside the cabinet, shapely ass in the air, Ella spent several minutes digging around in the dark.

  For a moment, he wondered what he’d ever seen in cantaloupe-sized breasts when a pair of perfectly presented apples jiggled and strained against the fabric of her tee. In his mind, he saw her, stripped bare and lightly blushed with a hint of a spank or two. He finished unwrapping the bloodstained t-shirt, then dropped it to the floor. The medicinal plant had done its job and stopped the bleeding.

  “What the—are those weeds?” Ella’s expression was aghast.

  Alek chuckled. “Yes. Good weeds, though.” That side trip through his imagination’s eye, gazing at Ella’s perfect breasts, with her nipples straining against the sheer white fabric of her bra, had his body heating in places it shouldn’t. “There should be some washcloths in the cupboard over there. Would you get one wet for me?”

  His thoughts reworded the question. Would you get wet for me? All he could think about was marching her into the back bedroom and seeing if he could remove her shirt with just his teeth.

  She’d kill him if she knew what he was thinking, but oh, what a sweet image. Only this time, if he had the chance to actually taste her nipples— and if they tasted anything like her scent of night-blooming jasmine.... Well, he swore night-blooming jasmine would be planted inside the palace and top his list of favorite flowers.

  In a futile effort to confine the erotic thoughts his mind produced, Alek nearly groaned when he cupped his throbbing flesh for a second.

  “You have five minutes,” Meat Wrench threatened. “Then, I’m taking over.”

  The blood on his pants had dried to the wound, making the removal difficult.

  Ella found the cloth and turned on the tap. After squeezing some of the water out, she handed it to him.

  It took a moment for his pants to absorb the water from the towel, and when he could lift the material off his skin, he stood and unzipped his pants.

  “I’ll just, uh—wait out there.” Ella pointed behind her shoulder with her thumb and started to back out the door. A pink stain crept onto her cheeks.

  “Not yet. I still need you.” Alek unsnapped and shed his tactical vest, then laid it on the bathtub’s edge. Next, he slid his BDU’s off his hips and left them to pool around his knees before sitting on the tub’s cold rim again. For her sake, he pulled the vest over his lap for modesty, because he favored the commando style and didn’t wear banana hammocks. “Could you please help me unlace my boots?”

  Ella wrinkled her nose, but returned to kneel between his outspread feet. Her coppery curls shimmered like a fiery angel’s halo as she bent to perform the task of unlacing each boot. Between tugs, her face turned redder. No doubt, she’d caught a view. Her many freckles blazed like neon pinpoints on smooth skin he longed to touch.

  Meat Wrench longed for a touch, too.

  Not now! Alek pushed aside his growing reaction to the sight of Ella’s bobbing head between his wide-open knees. “I’m sorry to ask for help one last time,” he whispered with a strangled voice.

  Ella dropped the second sock and boot, and gazed up from her lowered position.

  “Would you help me get the shower started?”

  “Are you sure you don’t need the Remedy Maker to look at your leg?”

  I need a certain Troll to look at my... “I’ll be squared away tomorrow. Once I
’m in my true form, I’ll heal fast.”

  Doubt drew her brows together, but she nodded. “Alright.”

  *~*~*

  Great horns of Bacchus!

  Al sported a hard on that would take her into next summer. Moisture immediately flooded her panties at the sight, and she swallowed hard.

  “Ella.”

  Oh gods. Her name on his lips was like sweet music blown from Pan’s golden flute. She lifted her gaze, dragged it over his swollen cock, and let her eyes climb his perfect chest to reach his face.

  Heat emanated from his intent look—dark and unfathomable.

  The look in his eyes backlit the fire blazing in her body, and she licked her dry lips.

  “Help me into the tub and I’ll pull the curtain closed.”

  Above their heads, a silver oblong track circled the tub. The white shower screen hung discreetly off to the side.

  Al held his hand out to help her up.

  Such a small act of chivalry, but Ella could have wept at his offer. Since when do Centaurs, the most elite of mythic people, act courteous toward the lowly Troll?

  Hesitantly, she put her hand in his and watched as his palm swallowed hers up. The roughness of his hand, calloused from hard work, slightly abraded her skin and sent shivers along her spine.

  Pulled to her feet, she in turn helped Al to stand. Their eyes met and held. Without breaking the connection, she reached between them and grasped his thick military vest. Reaching her arm back, she laid his body armor on the counter next to the sink.

  Don’t look down! Don’t look down. Ella sidestepped to the tub’s faucet and leaned to twist the hot water knob. With thermal heated water readily available, it was only moments before steam began to rise. She turned the cold knob and kept testing the water until it was a nice sultry temperature.

  And her naughty gaze stretched to the far corners of her eyes…and peeked.

  Blessed hooves, he’s large! Straightening, she stepped back.

  His hand came up and traced the outline of her jaw, the shell of her ear, the column of her neck. Al’s eyes smoldered. “The moment I saw you between my arms in the mall, I wanted to rip your clothes off and kiss you senseless.”

 

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