“Oh.” A small blush pinkened my cheeks and I lost a little momentum. “What did you mean, then?”
Yanking me tight against his groin, his fingers danced up my neck, gripping my chin to turn me to him for a harsh, quick kiss. “Was thinkin’ somethin’ more along the lines ‘o’... me name,” chuckling huskily, he smiled against my lips, “but I’m likin’ that too.” Nipping my chin while his hands explored my body, he grunted at my half-dressed state, annoyed at the obstacles keeping him from me. “Silly wench. Now, let’s see if we canna even this up a bit, eh?”
Hands, rushed and trembling a little, worked quickly to divest me of the rest of my things. When my skirt proved too difficult, he reared up, gripping it with two hands, splitting it right down the middle as a shiver rushed my exposed skin.
Ripping his way through my clothes like a demon possessed, he shoved what was left to the floor, pooling beneath me, and gripped my waist tight, fingers digging in, nipping at my neck as he growled throatily.
At the sight of all my pale, exposed flesh, he rumbled out a sexy growl. “Mine.”
“Yours,” I whispered softly, voice trembling with barely suppressed excitement.
“Canna hold much longer, Nugget, ye understand? I’m losin’ it, an’ fast. Stay still until the first one is over, an’ no matter what, dinna run.”
“The first one?” I peeped. Was that my voice squeaking like that, high pitched and anxious? My sex clenched, a rush of wetness overtaking me.
“Dunno, maybe the first two,” he gritted out. “Been awhile an’ I’m startin’ ta lose it.” Reaching up, he cupped one of my breasts as they swung in front of me, a heavy weight in his palm. “Love yer tits, Nugget. Big and round, bigger since the wee beastie came.” Circling a nipple with his thumb and forefinger, he gently rolled the tip, groaning when I moaned aloud, arching my back, pressing my breast harder into his palm, begging his attention. “Like that, luv?”
“Yes.” I had lost all sense of shame—there was none here, not between he and I—bold and brazen when I reached back and gripped his hip, trailing over his ass, short nails digging in, urging him to take me right now, fast and hard.
“What ye be wantin’ me ta do to ye, luv? This?” Hot and hard—a thick, heavy length, pressing against the seam of my backside—his cock throbbed hard enough for me to pick up the pulse, blood pumping thickly through his veins. Nuzzling my neck, biting down hard enough to make me jump, he adjusted himself accordingly and ran the underside of his shaft teasingly along my slit, pulling back to let it slide between my plump, wet folds.
“Mmm. Yes, that.” My ears started ringing, blood pounding in my head as he pulled back and readjusted himself once more, hands sliding to grip my hips, bumping just the tip of his thick shaft against my clit.
“Better?” He was teasing, beyond teasing, enjoying the way my body trembled beneath him and my voice went hoarse, catching as I tried to breathe, think, and talk at the same time. I was finding those tasks quite improbable at the moment. Really, who needs to talk at a time like this?
When he went in for another teasing sweep, I bucked my hips, lodging the head of his shaft inside my sheath.
Not about to wait a moment longer, I dug my hands and knees into the unforgiving ground, and thrust back. He slid right in, my body fisting him like a glove, and I didn’t let up until he was fully sheathed, encased completely in my pulsing heat.
Bellowing out unintelligibly, his garbled shout had me purring. Pressing back farther, I ground my pelvis with his, delighting in his increasing thickness.
“Fuck,” he muttered, burying his face in my nape, growling against my flesh as his teeth latched on. Pulling my hips forward enough to force them back down as he began to thicken exponentially, his cock hitting just the right spot, it took only two short thrusts, fully reciprocated when he laced his fingers with mine and rammed forward, sending us sliding through the dirt, and then I was off.
“Gersthart!”
Biting down hard enough over my mating mark to make my runes light up, they pulsed electric blue as he groaned and held on tight, the tang of iron and sex scenting the air as I reached orgasm. Squeezing his shaft tight, clenching him rhythmically as I pulsed around him, he exploded moments later, his warm seed filling me, moaning my birth name.
Eventually, as our bodies cooled, he flopped against my back, a dead weight pinning me down as my limbs gave out. “Oomph.” Cheek pressed against the floor, I mumbled, “You’re squashing me.”
Lifting up enough to let me ease up, but not dislodge him, he wrapped an arm around my torso, grabbing my left breast for a long, languorous squeeze.
“You bit me,” I panted, covering his hand with mine when he froze.
“Claimed ye again,” he rumbled out, in way of explanation.
Leaning back a little, I pressed my cheek soothingly to his. “I liked it.”
His shoulders relaxed, slumping in relief, brushing against mine in a skin tingling caress. “Might’ve got ye in the family way again,” he warned, “canna help it wit’ a claimin’.” There was a cautious wistfulness to his tone, a small spark of hope lighting it that surprised me. “Think ye can handle another Ornthren pup?”
“Can you?” I murmured back. We’d never really talked about how he’d felt about all of that, or any future children we might conceive, but Ketik’s thoughts on his own birth, though heated when spoken, had my hackles up.
“Wouldna mind it,” he said after a long pause. “Wee beasties runnin’ ‘round, clippin’ ankles, fiery orange hair like their mum, tempers like me.” Gripping the hair at my nape as his fingers sifted through it, pulling my head back a little roughly, he licked a slow, sensuous path along the column of my throat. “They’d drive those two rat bastards I’m kin to mad.”
“You’re not worried about us bringing more baby Ornthren into the world that will be... that will be cursed?” My skin prickled with gooseflesh, dancing across my cooled skin as his lips trailed teasingly over his fresh bite marks. Laving the spot, he inhaled deeply.
“Selfish, maybe, but I want a brood wit’ ye. Want ta feel ‘em kick in yer belly, watch ‘em grow.” Fingers reaching around to cup a breast, his thumb stroked across a nipple. “Wish ta watch ‘em feed, sucklin’ at these.”
“Even knowing when they mature and the runes kick in they’ll...” I didn’t even want to say it, “they might hate us?”
“Willna be that way wit’ us,” he swore, pausing to release my breast, pulling back from his languid nuzzling along my back to hug me to him tight. “Ye forget, Nugget. I’m Ornthren.” Fingers stroking along the runes circling my belly button, he murmured, “An’ ye’re certainly as close as a wee, piddly human can get, eh?”
A smile in his voice, I pinched his forearm. “Cheeky.”
“Aye,” his deep voice rumbled, fingers gently strumming my ribs, as if to count every single one, “but tis truth.”
“You really think it will be different?” I whispered worriedly, a small catch in my voice.
“Yes.” He sounded so sure. “An’ if the little whelp thinks ta forsake his mum an’ sire, I’ll beat the love inta his fledgling little arse wit’ me fists.” Muscles bunching, he flexed, squeezing me and letting me go, tickling my ribs, until I could hold it in no more and laughed. “Och, now there’s me feisty wench. Giggle like a naughty maid fer yer troll, luv. Makes me dick hard as a fuckin’ rock.”
Bursting out laughing, I shoved him off, stifling a moan when he slipped from my depths, rolling over to grin up at him.
“Ye give me things,” he rumbled softly, eyes roaming my face, “things I dinna even ask for, but wouldna trade for all the pretties in Hegtrag.”
“Or Under?” Making small swirling patterns on his chest, fingers tracing his runes when I reached his shoulders, I peeked up at him softly.
“Eh.” He shrugged, putting on a serious face, as if to trick me. “Let’s not get crazy now, eh, woman? Said I be thankful, no’ a fool.”
“Right, w
ell, then same for me,” I shot back, nuzzling his chest to hide the slow, mischievous smile spreading across my face.
“Then Under, Hill, Hegtrag, an’ Hearthe, it is,” he grumbled out. Tugging my hair, his chest rumbled deeply, right into my ear, massaging my cheek as it rested against him.
“Oh? Even Hearthe, huh? You’d trade in all the pretties from a human plane you’ve never been to?” I teased.
Fingers sliding under my chin, he tugged it up until I scooted up, his orange, fierce eyes boring into mine. “For ye, Nugget, I’d trade all me baubles,” he took my lips hard, nipping my full lower lip gently as he pulled back, “every last one.”
With small, sharp gasp, I shivered, gooseflesh dotting my prickling skin. “It’s settled, then,” I panted as his shaft twitched, hot and hard, brushing my inner thigh, “more children for us. Tons of them. Let’s have an even dozen.”
Releasing my hair, tangled in his fingers as he cupped it during our kiss, he almost toppled me over again as he bellowed out a deep belly laugh, shaking my entire body with his mirth. “A dozen Ornthren babes? Ye gone mad, woman? What are we ta do wit’ a small army of ankle biters?”
“Take over the surface world? Rule Hegtrag?”
“Nugget.” His head shook, just off to the side of me, and he snorted. “Be serious, woman.”
Grinning, I laughed along with him, “Two or four more, then?”
“One or two.”
“Two or three?”
“Nugget.”
“What?” Really, what? I wanted to know. I carry them half the time, they grow too fast for my liking, and making them is more than half the fun.
“They’d still be cursed, much as it might be different wit’ them fer us, it wouldna be fer them.”
The reminder, softly yet pointedly spoken, had me sobering immediately. “Is it such a curse to be made from love?”
“Dinna know,” he rumbled thoughtfully, “haveta wait an’ see.”
“They could find mates above ground, couldn’t they?” I mused, thinking of the world up top, magical and different, full of the diverse, right above us.
“Mm. Never thought to try. Dinna get along so well wit’ others meself, eh? Dinna mean they willna, though.” The worry etching his dark features lifted. “Could work, I guess.” But then his frown came back, full force. “Maybe.”
“Mmm.” Rubbing my nose along his cheekbone, I ventured, “Can I bite you back?”
Blinking, Troll turned his head, not expecting it when I sealed our lips in a sweet, tender kiss. “Bite me whenever ye want, mark me up good,” he murmured huskily against my lips, “just not on me good bits.”
I chuckled at the tease in his tone, basking in our shared sexual euphoria as it crashed through our newly strengthened bond, blanketing over us.
“Nugget?” he rumbled out as our kisses started to heat up, hands gliding, hips sliding.
“Hmm?” I hummed faintly, gasping when he gave a sharp thrust, pulling back and ramming home.
“One,” he muttered, kissing along my new claiming mark, “you’re mine for at least... four more.”
“Four?” I chuckled. “How about three?”
“Two.” He punctuated his point with a pump of his thick hips, pulling out and nudging my core, his thumb pressed tight to my hardened bud.
“One,” I gasped out, just because, holding myself perfectly still as he utterly consumed me.
“Two, an’ not a one less.” Gripping my shoulders, he rolled me over and entered me swiftly, taking me fast and hard, slamming his cock into my heat repeatedly, over and over, hips pistoning fiercely, until I thought I might tip over or break. Just at my peak, he stopped. “Three, luv, an’ I’ll fuck ye just like this, over an’ over, ‘til ye canna scream me name no more.”
Pulling his hips back, I thought he meant to separate us, screeching out, “You win! Four! Four!”
Tipping my lips to meet his as he pounded into me, sucking my lips into his mouth, he let go, panting, “Blood thirsty bonded, better make it an even dozen.”
“A dozen?!” My eyes widening as I cried out, spasming around him, had him smirking triumphantly as I took him over the edge, right along with me, his hips jerking steadily as he gave over to his own release.
“Drive a hard bargain, luv,” he muttered as our hearts pounded in our chests, in time to one another’s as his heartbeat thumped wildly against my back. “Ye win. A dozen it is.”
“You can’t be serious.”
The look in his eyes as they blazed, burning into mine, bright and fiery, coupled with his rock hard erection, had me swallowing hard. Growling softly in the back of his throat, he nipped my chin. “Watch me.”
****
“That wasn’t a dozen,” I mumbled tiredly, rolling over so I was flat on my back.
Limp as a noodle and a bit sore, I let out a long breath and let my head fall to the side, sweat glistening from my skin as I flopped down lifelessly.
“Close enough,” Troll muttered, hefting me onto his chest as he plopped down beside me.
“What was the surprise?” I managed to croak out, voice gone and dry, cracking as I tried to speak, just as he’d promised.
“Canna say,” he muttered tersely, “isna ready yet.”
“Will it be ready soon?” Walking my fingers up his thick chest, up his even thicker neck and around his chin, right across those lips I enjoy kissing, he nipped my fingertips playfully.
“Dunno.”
At his vague answer, his hands stroking my back idly, I lifted my head enough to stare into his face. “You don’t know?”
Troll quirked a brow at my expression, so I quirked one right back. “And you were going to make me wait how long?”
My bonded shrugged, but I could make out the faint outline of a smile, trying to tug up the corners of his ornery lips.
“Tease,” I muttered, slapping his chest playfully as I let my head fall, placing it right over his heart as it beat strongly, thumping steadily under my ear.
The quiet we descended into—a comfortable silence—long overdue, was more than welcome.
It’s funny, thinking back, when you’re faced with a situation, discovering you might lose someone in your life, someone who came in unannounced, upending everything, turned your world upside down, shooting you right out of your comfort zone, and you right along with it, but the thought of losing them, never having that person again, and you’re upended once more, merely at the thought—it’s crushing. The more you think on it, the more you come to realize how much that, whatever it may be—maybe not a who, but a what, or a place—has come to mean to you, grown on you, how deeply you’re tied now, so thoroughly, how you’ve come so far, through it all. Swiftly following on that, was the thought of how hard the idea of losing them would be. That’s what it was like for me, having had to watch Troll slowly waste away, bit by bit, losing little pieces of who he is, what he’s on about, one bit at a time, as the mate madness slowly consumed him. I cringed inside, just thinking about it. He’d been so close, and I’d almost been too late. Fingering the thick scar where he’d ripped into me, I cringed again.
Sure, I could’ve learned to live without him, maybe, and would’ve gone on to do just that, if I could—nothing would ever be as it had once originally been, I knew that, but I didn’t want my old life back, before any of this, anyways. I wasn’t that person anymore—I wanted him back, chose to be with him. I chose him—chose to love him, as he’d chosen, at some point, despite what he’d thought I’d done, to love me.
Sensing my discomfort, Troll brushed my hands away, fingering the thick, scarred skin. A discontented noise rumbled his chest, and I wrapped my arms around his barreled chest tight, squeezing my eyes shut tight. As my tumultuous emotions eased, so did his.
“It was worth it,” I whispered, nuzzling his wide chest.
“When I said before ye were ruined...” He stopped and started. “I dinna mean it like that. They’re beautiful, if ye willna flay me arse fer sayin’ so,
an’ they make ye stronger, whether ye realize it or not. That’s what the runes do,” he whispered hoarsely, “it was me bearer’s concession to the curse. She was able ta offer us the protection of the runes, her power flowing through ‘em. There’s a price ta them, but I never thought... I dinna know...”
“It’s okay,” my hands stilled, “you don’t have to explain anymore.”
“No Ornthren has ever bonded completely before. I dinna know. None of us did. Part of the curse, I s’pose. Twisted, but I think it’s part of not forsakin’ the bond.” Disgust and self-loathing filling him, he spat, “Fated bitches never figured on it goin’ the other way ‘round, an’ ye not havin’ a choice.”
His admission shocked me, stilling me completely.
“I’d take them all,” he rasped softly, tracing the swirling, raised markings running along my neck and shoulders, trailing over my body. “I’d take every last one of ‘em an’ wear them for ye, take all the pain along wit’ ‘em, if I could.”
The knot in my chest loosened, and I finally remembered to breath. “I know you would.” I knew it deep down in my soul. He’d gone crazy for me, the stubborn male, to try and let me go, giving me what he’d thought I’d wanted.
From what I’d gleamed from Quaz and Ketik, he’d given up after the first few weeks, once the signs of him losing himself started to show, but he’d tried. He’d thought he was protecting me. I was glad his siblings hadn’t listened, and while I’d never tell them so, I was glad they’d found me.
He’d thought to save me, the ornery Ornthren. Stupid and stubborn, he truly was.
Isn’t that what love is sometimes? Stupid and stubborn? Staying with the one person that drives you absolutely mad, stupid crazy, makes you feel stupid in love, and you stubbornly choose to stay by their side, day by day, night after night, a part of every moment, good or bad. Well, maybe not for most, and maybe not all, but my stupid, stubborn love, and all its eccentricities, was just fine with me.
The Toll Page 51