The Toll (43 page)

Holding out for a full minute as I
nipped and kissed at his lips distractingly, he gave in with a
groan before cuddling me to him tight, titling my head to the side
to accept him as his tongue stroked in to meet mine, cupping my
neck in his large hands to hold me still.

When I reached for the front of his
pants, he pulled back, breathing harshly. “The crone,” he muttered,
licking the taste of me from his lips as he stared at mine, “she
have a name?”

“
I-I don’t remember,” I
mumbled, gripping his wrists tight where they kept me back, trying
to pry them loose, desperate to turn his attention towards more
important things. “I just, I need you.”

“
Think, nugget,” he
murmured between frantic kisses as he slowly lost control of the
situation. “Need ye ta think.”

When I’d finally managed to wedge my
fingers into the front of his pants, gripping him tight to give him
a few good strokes, I muttered hurriedly, “Niniane, I think. She
said ninny something before I fell asleep. Now let’s-”

Troll let out a sharp curse, a
horrified look on his face as he gaped down into mine. “Niniane?”
Shoving me back and away from him sharply, tumbling back a few
feet, voice barely above a whisper, a haunted, hunted look crossed
his stark features.

Eyes widening when his legs hit the
bed and he stumbled back, I ran towards him, ready to launch myself
at him. He was too fast for me, though, and dodged, sending me
belly first into the bed. Shocked as I hit a huge stack of animal
furs, I rolled over, glaring up at him as the folds of my dress
swirled around me.

“
Hey!” I barked. “Why are
you running from me?!”

“
No,” Troll muttered,
shaking his head wildly, “tis trickery. There’s shite afoot,
nugget. We willna, canna, be doin’ this. Nothin’ more than a trick,
alright. There be assholes playin’ where they shouldna be. Dinna ye
see?” But the huge erection in his pants, the head popping out
through the top, a deep angry purple, twitched and
jerked.

“
Explain it, then?” I
purred, not meaning a word.

“
There’re Elementals. Four
arses runnin’ their corners, see? They...”

I wasn’t listening as he talked on. In
the back of my mind I must have known this was all too damned
strange and weird—a trick, like he’d said—but I was running on pure
instinct. At least, I assumed it was instinct.

“
Bearer!” Troll bellowed,
groaning, cupping his hand protectively over his cock as I eyed him
lustfully. “Show yerself! Now!” The hard grit in his voice only
served to turn me on more, my nipples hardening to tight, throbbing
points, jutting out towards him, as if to beckon.

Crawling forward on the bed, I got up
on my knees, chin lifting stubbornly as I met his fiery
glare.

“
I thought you wanted sex,”
I huffed, crossing my arms belligerently over my chest. It just
made my breasts stand out more. “Well?” Arms spreading out wide, I
made a show of slowly pulling the ties at my shoulders, letting
them fall with a soft smile, revealing the round, creamy swells of
my breasts. “Come on, then. Take me.”

Swallowing thickly, Troll let out a
strangled, choking sound, hands slapping behind him, white
knuckling one of the chests pressed up against the wall. Eyes
narrowing, I cupped a plump breast in offering, holding it out for
him.

There was a loud crack as his fingers
clamped down and dug in, destroying the trunk lid’s top, eyes
blazing bright orange.

“
Niniane! Now!”

An idea struck then and I slowly
turned, presenting him with my backside as I slowly bent at the
waist, head falling towards the bed.

“
Don’t you want me?”
Wiggling my ass in invitation, I let out a low moan. Troll roared
and shot across the room. Within seconds my skirt was over my head
and I could feel him, hot and hard, pressing at my entrance
demandingly. Gripping the sheets, I let him lead, ready for him to
take me hard.

Before he would have taken me fully,
the fat head of his swollen cock nudging my wet slit, slowly
forcing its way in, he snarled and stopped, bellowing out in
frustration.

Why won’t he mount
me?
My senses prickled, runes humming
low.
Doesn’t he want me?
That niggling, insidious voice whispered through
me, spurring me on. It was vital somehow—he must have sex with
me,
now.

Though I was following my
body’s natural instincts without question, I still couldn’t pin
point what, exactly...
Why was it so
detrimental?

That gave me pause.
Why, though... why now? When did I become driven
by urges?

“
Fates preserve you,
woman!!!
Now!!!”

As fast as I felt us spiraling towards
the inevitable—a long, hard fuck—the floor dropped from beneath us
and we both shouted out as we fell.

Screeching as my stomach dropped, the
world morphing and changing, whipping around me as my hands flung
out, reaching out graspingly for anything.

I screamed, eyes opened wide as I
free-falled, dipping into black, blank, open space.

“
Troll?! Troll!” My voice
echoed, howling and scared, but I’d already stopped picking up
speed, my dress, still over my head, slapping at my face, suddenly
flying down to my ankles. Tucking into a tight ball as I felt the
world shifting again, I screamed.

I felt it before anything else, a
tingling across my skin, a hint of something in the air, and then I
was smashing soundly into a blob-like, watery, ice cold, thick
mass, finding myself suddenly surrounded by it, encased
inside.

That fire that felt eternally lit in
my belly extinguished as I sank towards the jelly like substance’s
bottom. Struggling back to the surface, it wouldn’t give, the
gelatinous mass swiftly suctioning me towards the opposite
end.

Expecting to find rocks or sand along
the bottom, I gasped as I hit open air. Then, body free once more,
I was hurtling out into the wide open blue.

Shrieking again, I had to pause long
enough to take a deep breath, then start it up all over again as I
tumbled, limbs flung out like a flying squirrel, wind whipping past
me, flapping my wet hair behind me wildly as the world whizzed
by.

The sky was the wrong
way.
Or was I?
The problem solved itself as my body rolled, my panicked
shrieks throbbing in my ears as earth rushed towards me, the sky
properly above.

Coming to a stop, more like a hard
flop, on a large patch of wet, green grass, I howled as my ankles
buckled under my weight, tumbling me to the ground.

Troll landed with a bellowed curse and
a thump, skidding through a dry patch of ground that sent him
tumbling at a roll, and right into a large body of
water.

Stumbling to my feet, I shot off after
him, diving in when he landed with a heavy splash, sending wave
after wave rushing over the small embankment to smack at my skin
like a harsh slap.

I didn’t give it a single thought as I
dove in after him, diving straight down until I saw his large body,
sinking fast, headed right towards the bottom.

As my skin met his, he jerked and his
head shot up. Reaching up, eyes flashing black with sparks of blue,
he gripped my wrist and shot up off the bottom, taking me with him
as he swiftly sliced through the deep, clear blue water like it was
nothing, our heads surfacing at the same time.

As I took in a few big gulps of air,
not realizing I’d been under for so long, I gasped in
exasperation.

“
Oh, my god!” I blurted.
“Will this night never end?”

“
Feelin’ frisky still,
then?” Troll rumbled worriedly, a hint of anger lacing his tone, as
if my wanting him was the worst thing to ever happen in the history
of existence.

“
No, actually,” I muttered
thoughtfully, glancing down to where his eyes had strayed through
the slow moving water, eyeing the small gap that separated us. “And
is that such a bad thing? I’m your bonded, you big, dumb oaf. Is
the idea such a travesty? God forbid your mate actually want you!
Ugh! Ruined, my left tit, hah! That fall must have scrambled your
brain, troll!” And then I muttered much lower, eyes narrowed
warningly on the behemoth wading around a mere foot from me, “I’ll
never understand you, and I’m beginning to wonder why I ever
tried.”

“
Hmm. Really? Ye dinna.”
Glancing down at himself thoughtfully, face pulled down into a deep
scowl, thick arms and legs pumping to keep his large, hefty frame
afloat, he just shrugged.

“
No.
Really
, I don’t, okay.” Face
scrunching up tight like I’d just sucked a lemon, I glared at him
scornfully.

Tilting his head to the side as he
lifted it to stare at me, he watched me a moment longer before
giving a firm nod. “Must just be me, then. Alright, so it
worked.”

Huh? What’s he talking
about?
Suddenly I felt like we were having
two entirely different conversations.

“
You really are nuts,” I
muttered, beyond irritated, giving his face a sound splashing. When
he didn’t react right away, I swam a little closer, wondering if he
truly had bumped his noggin a little too hard on the way down.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you, and what are you babbling
about?”

“
The water.” Lifting a
finger up and out, he flicked a bit in my direction.

Flinching, I swiped a
droplet from my forehead, ignoring the small smirk my instantaneous
reaction produced. “Yes, I see it,
oh,
slick and mighty grey one.
What about
it?”

“
It worked,” he said
simply. The look on his face was as if he thought
I
might be getting a
little slow.

“
Worked... to do what?” I
demanded, tossing my arms up in the air, body shooting up a little
bit in the process.

About to answer, his mouth clamped
shut and he grunted, eyes glued to the area just below my
neck.

“
Well?” I wasn’t in the
mood for this, still prickly from all the dream hopping.
What next?
I
wondered
. I don’t think I can handle much
more.

Licking his lips, he glanced up at me,
clearing his throat hard before he muttered, “Ye know ye’re naked,
nugget, right?”

Snorting, I sent a finger flick of
water back at him. “Hardly.”

Rolling his big, overbearing troll
eyes, he grumbled, “Fine, ye’re fully clothed, ye daft wench. That
get up ye got on is the newest thing. Call it a birthin’ suit.
Carry it wit’ ye always. But, just sos ye know, yer tits are
jigglin’ about when ye flap yer arms like a wet chicken like that.
Damned distractin’.”

“
A wet chicken?” My face
flamed bright red and I growled in the back of my throat. “Naked?
Why, no, I’m not! I’m-” Blinking down at myself, it took a moment
before my current attire, or sudden lack thereof, finally clicked.
“I’m naked.”

“
Yep, so ye
are.”

My skin prickled as his voice dropped
a few octaves, growing super deep and gravelly—a sexy, husky
growl.

Sinking down a little deeper, my
shoulders sagged. “I shouldn’t be naked.”

“
No, ye shouldna. Not right
now, an’ not wit’ me.”

Frowning and a bit confused by his odd
ramblings, I asked curiously—purely for curiosity’s sake, of
course—“Uhm, and why not, exactly?”

Swallowing thickly, Troll reached up
with a heavily muscled arm and rubbed at the back of his neck. His
eyes were back to that spot—or namely, my breasts—glued to the
lapping water keeping them neatly hidden from hungry troll
eyes.

“
No’ gonna lie, nugget,” a
deep, shuddering breath wracked his massive chest as the water
around us suddenly churned, “it’s doin’ things ta me.” Thick grey
nostrils flaring, he swallowed hard, bright eyes melting to molten
lava.

Blue eyes widening, I glanced at the
shore line, watching as thousands of tiny bubbles surfaced from
nowhere, bubbling up all around us. “What is? And what is that? The
water? Is it tainted or something? Should we get out? Ack!”
Swimming fast, I gripped his arm and started tugging him towards
dry land.

When he didn’t budge, I pulled harder,
grunting with the effort, but ultimately ended up slapping wetly
against him, slamming into his slicked up chest.

His arm banded around my
waist and he snarled, hot breath tickling my ear. The bubbling
water subsided a little, but I was still wary
. What had just happened?

“
Troll, is there
something... down there?” I whispered, eyeing our
surroundings.

“
Yes,” he gritted out,
adjusting me in his arms as he settled me better against his wide
chest.

“
What are we in here for,
then? It’s not safe! Come on, let’s go!”

“
Canna.”

“
Well, why not?” Turning
slightly, I glanced up at him. It brought the right cheek of my bum
close to a very aroused part of his anatomy. Troll was naked as
well. Very naked, and very warm.