The Toll (30 page)

Protesting his hold, I wiggled out of
his arms and stood, doing exactly what I’d wanted to avoid in the
first place.

“
See, that’s just it,”
fists bunching up tight, I paced in front of him angrily, wincing
as I felt a pinch in my neck, “I
don’t
know what you’re talking
about. Good grief, I don’t even know what ‘a bonded’
means!”

Troll opened his mouth to argue, but I
made a cutting motion.

“
I know you don’t believe
me, and I have no idea how I could prove myself to you,” I glanced
at him meaningfully, “not that I should, after seeing as to how I
didn’t kill you for cursing me, and am standing right here, in
fact, trying to have a real, meaningful conversation with
you.”

“
Curse ye?” he snorted, but
wasn’t fast enough at hiding the pain I saw enter his
eyes.

Why? He
cursed
me.

The pinching pain I’d felt turned into
a sting and I stopped and hissed, rolling my shoulders, uneasiness
coursing through.

“
Yes, you gave me a curse
that left those markings on me, having a good laugh as it burned
itself into my flesh.”

Troll got up slowly, eyeing me warily
as he crossed his arms loosely over his thick, wide, naked
chest.

“
It hurt ye?” he asked
curiously, “Like tha’, truly? Bad enough ta burn?”

“
No,” I shook my head, “you
misunderstand, though
you
should know, you orchestrated the whole thing. It
didn’t feel
like
a burn, it
did
burn, very painfully, as if you’d branded me with a hot
iron.” Reaching up, I rubbed my markings absently at the memory. “I
thought you’d wanted to kill me at first, it had hurt so terribly,
it was horrible.” My voice started to falter, but I continued. It
needed to be said. “I’d thought I was dying.” Frowning
uncomfortably, I grunted and rolled my shoulders again, a queasy
feeling washing over me.

Well, he isn’t arguing with
me,
I thought, still distracted,
there is that
, wincing
again as I felt a responding pain in my thigh, just like the one
I’d felt in my neck.

“
We bonded. Can be
uncomfortable, itchin’ or stingin’, even, I’d say, but it isna
supposed ta feel like tha’.”

“
Oh?” I huffed, wincing at
the odd pain. “Do you bond often? Are you trying to tell me you did
that shit to me on accident? You’d what? Meant to doodle on me a
little with a magic, permanent troll fountain pen and then be done
with me? My lesson learned? Haven’t you done that before? The
bonding stuff, I mean.” Scoffing, I waved my hands about wildly and
shook my head. “Please don’t tell me you just went and tried it out
on me, no real intention of causing me so much pain. That makes no
sense... And in some ways, makes it worse.”

“
Bonded? No!” Troll blinked
at me as if
I
was
the one who’d lost my mind. It gave me pause.

“
So...” I eyed him just as
warily, “then, you bonded me, but you didn’t think to test it out
on someone else first, see what it would do?” I was talking out
loud, trying to wrap my mind around, and understand, all of
this.

“
Test it out?” he gaped.
“On who? Ye canna bond more than one. Who have ye been talkin’ to,
nugget? What nonsense be this?”

“
Huh?” I scratched at my
head in confusion. “I’m not following... Why not? Is bonding too
many people, er, uh,
beings,
a really bad thing?” Blinking, my eyes trailed
down the length of him. “Does it, uh, make you...”

“
Why would I
want
ta bond wit’ more?
One is bad enough!”

“
Because
you
were the one on the
receiving end?” I mused dryly. “
Your
skin burned to high hell when
you unknowingly muttered some fancy gibberish left behind for you,
hastily scribbled on a scrap of paper, conveniently placed with a
bag of hush money, hoping you’d find it?” My brow cocked and I
absently rubbed at my throat, wondering at the swarming itch
running about it that I couldn’t get rid of. It was darned
uncomfortable and made it hard to concentrate.

“
Ye bonded me first,” he
clipped out defensively.

“
Did I fall asleep on an
ant mound?” I mumbled aloud, but his words brought me back to the
present. “That’s ridiculous!” I jumped in loudly, “I don’t even
know how to...
bond
,” I waved his accusation off,
“
or whatever.”

“
Ye really expect me ta
believe ye tricked me inta thinkin’ ye were touched, coaxing me
inta bed, and I...”

“
Touched?”
I hissed, stopping to poke him in the chest. “Are
you implying there’s something wrong with me?! Oh, I...”

Troll’s mouth opened and closed,
gaping like a fish’s as I ranted and raved, whirling back and forth
like a mini tornado in the space allotted.

“
Coaxing you into bed?!” I
laughed at the thought. “
I
was not the one who kept suggesting it, if you
remember correctly!” Hissing, I pointed to myself and then him, my
finger waving about accusingly in the air. “You even accused me of
jumping into a river over it, if you’ll remember!” Gasping, I had
to stop when a sharp pain tore through my stomach, yelping at the
sharp force of it.

“
What’s wrong now, then?”
Troll’s frown creased worriedly and he moved forward awkwardly.
“They don’t... they don’t still cause ye pain, do they?” he asked
uncertainly, noting my jerky movements and slow, even
breaths.

Cracking my lids open slowly,
grimacing, I shook my head and gasped.

“
What is it, then? Ye’re
unwell?”

“
I don’t know.” My grimace
deepened and I paused for a minute, and just like that, the pains
were gone. Letting out a long, deep breath, I shooed him away and
stood up, letting out another sigh of relief as my anxious pacing
resumed.

“
We need to have a little
chat,” I motioned between us, my eyes darting to his, “just you and
me.” Warming up to it, I nodded, liking that idea. “Yes, I want us
to meet.”

“
We are meeting,” he
stressed, his head cocking to the side.

“
No more dream meetings. I
want to see you in person.” My eyes shot up to his and I hoped he
agreed.

“
I dinna...”

“
Oh! We could meet at the
bridge,” I thought excitedly, already thinking about how long it
would take me if I ran there. I couldn’t explain it, but though
this felt real, I knew, in a way, it wasn’t
—it couldn’t be!—
and it just wasn’t
good enough for me. I craved a real meeting, seeing him outside of
this, whatever it is—dream realm—needed to touch his true flesh,
feeling it brushing with mine, skin to skin, in real
time.

“
Is this a trick?” he asked
slowly, fighting himself, it seemed, stepping forward and then
back, his hand out and then snapping back, as if he wanted to
approach me, help me, but just truly didn’t trust me.

Trust.
“Would he ever?” I growled, voicing my thoughts out loud,
bending over as another pain wracked me.

“
What?”

“
No,” I gritted out, “and I
can’t believe you’d even think it.”

Rolling his massive
shoulders, he shrugged as if
I
was the one being obtuse. “Ye did manage ta get
here, dinna ye? Ye shouldna be able ta...
nugget?
Ye dinna look so
well...”

Doubling over, I fell to my side,
paling as white hot pain lanced through me.

“
Something’s wrong,” I
groaned and gasped, twitching and jerking as my hand shot up to my
neck and I gripped it, my other hand pressed to the pain in my
lower abdomen.

Troll’s hand came over mine and he
frowned, pulling them away to replace them with his own.

“
It hurts,” I whimpered as
another round of pains stabbed through me. “What’s going on?” Limbs
trembling, I was scared, frightened out of my head, and I gripped
Troll’s hand in a death grip.

“
This better no’ be a
trick,” he gritted out.

My lips trembled and I let out a
choked cry. “I can’t believe you,” I sniffled, turning on my side
so I wasn’t facing him. Curling in on myself, I huddled in a ball,
and a strange sensation pricked at me, the feeling of something
sliding slowly up my thighs. My head jerked and my eyes shot
between my legs. It took me a moment to puzzle it out. “I need to
wake up,” I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut tight, “something’s
not right.”

“
What do ye
mean?”

“
I... I feel something...
something is going on,
to
me
, as I’m asleep. Something’s happening.
I need to wake up.”

Everything in Troll stilled. “Does it
feel like the burning from the bondin’?”

“
Yes,” I bit out, “how did
you know?” I turned to him slowly and my eyes filled. “Did you...
did you do this?”

Rushing over, he picked me up and held
me tight, placing his hand on my stomach soothingly.

“
No,” he all but shouted,
his big thumbs swiping at the corners of my eyes, “I dinna mean for
it ta hurt ye so bad in the first place. Ye willna be seein’ me
hurtin’ ye again.”

“
Wake me up, please,” I
practically wailed, shouting in my head to wake myself up, my nails
digging into his thick grey flesh as I cried out in
pain.

“
Where
exactly
does it hurt,
luv?”

Gritting my teeth, I placed his hands
over the precise spots, and he snarled out angrily. I didn’t
understand why he suddenly looked so pissed, but he started asking
questions quickly, rapidly firing them at me, just as the shooting
pains intensified.

“
Nugget,” he barked, “where
did ye fall asleep?” There were more, but that was the only one I
fully understood.

“
In a field.” My body
jackknifed up suddenly, then relaxed seconds later, then jackknifed
up again as the pains immediately returned. Convulsing as I
squirmed in his tight embrace, I howled in pain with each
one.

“
What field?” he gritted
out, trying to keep hold.

My body started stirring and I felt
it, my sleeping body, my real body, waking up, relief filling me
that I’d soon be awake to figure this all out.

“
I’m waking up,” I mumbled
weakly, turning into his hand as he ran it down my
cheek.

He was trying to say something to me,
a question, perhaps? But I couldn’t tell, the real world
beckoning.

Then he was shouting, shaking my
shoulders, his fingers digging in, as if to keep me there, but I’d
already succumbed, and I let it wash over me, the pull dragging me
over.

As the waking world embraced me, I
gasped and jerked upright, but a heavy weight was on top of me,
holding me firmly down.

The head bent over my neck paused and
nipped at my sensitive flesh, making me cry out in fully felt
pain.

A man was looming over me, a rather
large man, my dress skirts hiked up around my thighs indecently,
his body positioned between my bent thighs, trying to enter
me.

Shrieking, I called out at the
unwanted invasion, smacking the back of the male assaulting
me.

A mop of thick hair popped up,
bringing his face into view as he pressed himself so intimately,
intrusively against me, against my wishes.

“
Sorry, love,” he panted
softly, “was I too rough? It will only hurt for a moment and then
we’ll both feel pleasure, I promise. Only pleasure...” Not
bothering to stop, he kept slipping and sliding through the
evidence of my love making with Troll, our combined juices slipping
out of me.

Determinedly, he pumped against me,
running his raging erection through it, thinking it was all from
me.

“
Mmm, I tried to wake you,
tried to kiss your neck until your eyes fluttered open, crying out
my name, but it was as if you’d already started without
me.”

“
Trystan!” I shouted,
bucking up underneath him as he pulled back a little. It just
served to help him on in his endeavor, gaining him an
inch.

The searing pain I felt at his
unsuccessful tries to conquer my depths made it agonizing to talk,
my words coming out short and fast.

“
You’re so damned tight,”
he gritted out, trying once more to force his way in, “it’s like
you shrank inside there.”

“
No!” I cried out.
“Trystan! NO!”

Shifting his gaze to meet mine, he
tried to kiss me, but I dug my nails into his shoulders, turning my
face away.

“
Don’t deny our love,
Daphie-girl,” he cried desperately, bathing my neck and cheek with
quick, sloppy kisses.

“
I don’t want you!” I bit
out, trying to kick at him. “No! Get off of me!” Screaming in his
face, I felt trapped and helpless, no way out.