The Toll (75 page)

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, well, 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.”