The Toll Read online

  “Mouthy wench,” he muttered, chuckling at my obstinacy. There was a hint of affection there that I rather liked, a distinct note of fondness that hinted at the odd relationship we’d fostered.

  Smiling a little, the first real one I’d felt since I’d left to go home, I let my eyes drop, staring into the filmy, dirty colored, foul smelling witches’ brew. My smile slowly fell as my fingers circled the rim of my cup. “I thought you would have been glad I wanted to stay...” I let it hang, the rest left unsaid.

  “Ye couldna,” he stressed.

  Glancing up, I frowned. “But you said I could, if I... if we... if I, uh,” cheeks burning, heat fanning them as it ran up and across the tips of my ears, down my neck, “if we... you know.”

  “Twas different.” Not elaborating, he fiddled with one of the furs on the edge of the bed, thrusting a finger out at the cup I held, warming me up as my clammy hands soaked up the heat steaming from it. “Drink it up now. Aint got all day, ye know. Canna have ye dyin’ on me.” Voice hardening, he growled softly, “Or tryin’ ta again.”

  “How was it different?” I had a strong sense hounding me, a niggling hint that this was all wrong. Something was off.

  “Just was. Now, drink that shit so ye can sleep.”

  “But... different how?”

  “Would ye just drop it, eh? Doesna fuckin’ matter. Ye said no, it dinna happen. Bit glad it dinna, if ye go jumpin’ off bridges at the first kick in the tits life throws at ye.” Giving me his back, he eased down onto his side, ending our conversation—his version of dismissing me.

  “Why couldn’t I stay if I didn’t... sleep with you? Why did I have to in order to stay?” I knew I was pushing, pressing for things he’d rather not discuss now, but my gut was riding me hard, and, if only for my own piece of mind, I wanted to know.

  “No’ gonna let this go, eh? Fine.” Rolling over, he glared at me, orange eyes blazing angrily. Jerking his chin, arms crossed, lips thinning, he growled low, “Drink yer swill an’ we’ll have this out.”

  Trying to decide if it was worth the effort, I closed my eyes, plugged my nose, and chugged it all down, letting the cup roll to the floor once it was all finished. Gagging dramatically, I shuddered, fanning my hands in front of my face. “Oh! What was in that? Argh! Blech!”

  Eyes still narrowed, his lip ticked in one corner, “Guess ye could say it’s a sort of fire brew. Me own special blend.”

  “Maybe you should rethink the recipe,” I wheezed.

  Running a hand down his gruff face, I could have sworn he was fighting back a laugh, but then he sobered, pointing to a small, oddly shaped pillow. “Lay down.”

  Knowing I’d pass out soon enough anyways, at his mercy, I did as instructed.

  Huddling down, I cradled my cheek on my hand and waited.

  “We made a deal, a toll was paid. Tis done. Has ta be seen through, no two ways about it. Done. Ye see?”

  Yes and no, but I nodded anyways.

  He paused for so long I thought he wasn’t going to continue, a sneaking suspicion he’d tricked me just so I’d drink his death broth.

  But, then, if what he’d said made sense, we’d just made a deal. So... technically, he couldn’t back out on it, if I have this all right.

  Blue eyes focusing on him, I just stared and waited as Troll reached over, watching as he licked his thick fingers, pinching out the flame on the single candle light dimly illuminating the room.

  “Tired yet?” he grumbled.

  “No, and I thought you said a deal is a deal.”

  “Is for me, anyway,” he muttered under his breath.

  “Is it a troll thing?” I murmured quietly.

  “No.”

  “Oh.”

  At the confusion suffusing that one little word, he snarled, “I’m no’ a troll, no’ really. Just a fuckin’ human word to explain us, but I’m no gettin’ inta that.”

  Scratching at my scalp, trying to work that one out, I started to feel the first sign of the effects of the swill kicking in.

  “The deal I made after, woulda let ye stay,” Troll said slowly, as if measuring out each word carefully.

  “So you were helping me... by offering to sleep with me?” Completely inappropriate at the moment, but a small, hysterical giggle tickled my throat, bubbling up and out as it burst from my lips.

  Grunting, troll nudged me when I rolled a little, clutching my stomach as I broke out into full, belly aching laughter.

  “You can’t be serious?” I guffawed. “And you expect me to believe that?”

  The sound of his jaw grinding, teeth gritted as he hissed, orange eyes lighting up in the dark, told me he was mad at me, if I hadn’t already guessed, but I was feeling blissfully numb at the moment, and couldn’t have cared less.

  “I said ta warm me bed” he ground out. “Dinna necessarily say fuckin was a requirement, nugget.”

  Laughter slowly tapering off, I snorted. “It was implied, which is just the same. You meant for me to sleep with you. You know this as well as I do.”

  Chest vibrating with a harsh growl as he punched his pillow a few times, maybe imagining it was my giggling mouth, he grunted something under his breath and rolled away. “Fuckin’. No’ sleep, Fuck. That’s the word. Say it, Nugget. Fuck.” Bluntly stated but aptly put.

  I wasn’t about to answer. Still shaking, limbs trembling uncontrollably as I shivered, I gave him my back as well, rolling closer to the edge as I hugged my sheet tight.

  “Willna say I dinna want ta fuck. Been a while.”

  Yawning loudly, I blurted, “How long?”

  “Long while.”

  Hesitating slightly, I ventured to ask another question, “How many winters are you?”

  “Hell of a lot more than ye think.”

  “You’re being evasive.” Sighing as my lids drifted closed, I tucked my hands underneath my arms, searching out a bit of nonexistent warmth. The heat pouring off of him, drifting towards me, was rather nice, but I wasn’t going to do anything about it. He’s just fine where he is, thank you.

  “Like the way ye smell.

  Eyes popping back open, widening, I stared sightlessly into the dark room.

  “I smell?”

  Barking out a sharp but short laugh, he snorted. “Go ta sleep, wench. An’ no more dyin’ bullshit. The world is fucked, but there’s shit worth livin’ for, just haveta find it.”

  His words echoed in my head as his medicinal drink took full effect, lulling me right to sleep.

  A Reason

  Waking up warm, blanketed in heat, wasn’t how I’d imagined emerging from my death broth slumber, nor was I prepared for the large frame hunched over me. The feel of a thick, strong thigh over my hip, groin pressing into my lower back, his foot twitching in sleep, arm thrown haphazardly over my waist as he snored quietly into a mound of my thick, frizzed about hair, had me frozen in place. While uninvited, I couldn’t say the feeling of another cuddling me in such a way wasn’t completely unwelcome.

  Blushing furiously, I winced at the small thump that beat hard in my chest at the thought, the picture we must make. Lovers entwined. At that thought, coupled with memories of Trystan’s beginner’s lessons on the marital bed, I quickly flew into a startled panic. If I can’t do that with a man, a human man, why am I entertaining such wicked thoughts of doing acts of that nature with a troll?

  Squeaking out loud enough to startle Troll awake, I threw a leg out, the room still too dark to see clearly, just knowing I needed to get away.

  “Hm? Whuh?” Troll shot up, rolling me over until he had me squashed beneath him, snarling towards the entryway to his sleeping quarters. “Who be there?”

  “No one. No one! It was just- Oomph. Me. Now let me up!”

  Waiting a moment longer, shaking his head hard a few times, he slowly eased back down to his side, but not completely off of me. Thigh and arm still pinning me down, thick body molding to mine, only separated by my sheet, a thick lump, long and obvious, poking at one of my round
ed cheeks, was rather telling.

  “You’re naked!” I screeched indelicately.

  “Ye felt like ice. Got sick of ye shakin’ the bed,” he muttered groggily, in way of explanation. “Waited ‘til ye passed out first ta strip. Dinna usually sleep wit’ clothes on anyways. Too bloody hot.”

  “And you thought to warm me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I’m, uh, plenty warm now.” I was, wriggling against him doing things to me I’d never dare voice aloud, if ever.

  Teeth clacking, as if he was snapping his jaws at me, he tucked me right back where I’d squirmed away. “Dinna fight me,” he warned, right before he yanked me to his chest and pinned me down. “Too bleedin’ cold still.”

  “No! No! I didn’t... I don’t want to...” His proposed ‘deal’ ran through my head and I started fighting in earnest, kicking up a real fuss. “I didn’t agree to anything!” I shouted, refusing to go down without a fight.

  “I’m not,” he grunted, easily subduing me, growling as if he was mad, but I sensed there was no real heat behind it.

  “You…” That gave me pause, but I was worried it might be a trick. “No?” Shifting slightly, I peered up at him blindly through the darkness.

  “No.” With a hard grunt, he adjusted his arm around me and let out a long, deep breath.

  After a long pause, nothing happened, and I willed myself to relax a tiny bit, but not much.

  “Promise?” I whispered, my voice cracking as I started to sniffle.

  “I said I wasna, dinna I?” he snapped.

  Shrinking back a little, I nodded, feeling my sheet slide down my chest from all the wriggling and wrestling around I’d been doing.

  Hand shooting out, I started feeling around desperately, fingers grazing the soft furs mixed up with the thin, soft material. Licking my lips, I swallowed hard, reaching out as far as I dared towards my bed partner without actually making contact. This went on for a while, and I frowned as my hands continuously came up empty.

  “Uh, Troll?” I mumbled, trying to find the end of the sheet so I could tuck it back around myself.

  I assumed he might be laying on it at this point, since most of it seemed to magically vanish from my respective side, but I couldn’t be too sure.

  “Troll,” I scoffed and snorted, “here I am—here we are—naked, lying in your bed, and I don’t even know your damned name,” I muttered into the darkness.

  Fumbling around in the pitch black, sitting up a bit, Troll was oddly silent as my hands ventured perilously closer to his person, searching fruitlessly for that darned wayward bit of material. As he shifted and I lifted myself up slightly, an odd groan grumbled out of him. I had a funny feeling he might not have quite the disadvantage I did with the lack of light.

  Eyes widening alarmingly, my hands slid up my torso slowly to cup my breasts. “Troll?” Another funny noise from the usually snarky, surly troll. It almost sounded pained. What is he doing over there?

  “Gersthart.”

  “What?” My skin pricked as he murmured to me, dangerously close, his voice gone low and disturbingly husky, beyond its normal gravel deep, as if he was speaking around a mouth full of rocks. Skin tingling at his proximity, he was much closer than I’d first thought as his breath coasted over my nape, ghosting along it in a soft caress.

  “Gersthart,” he repeated, his hand tentatively reaching up to run through a hank of my long, slightly damp hair.

  Skin prickling, I shivered, the feel of my cold, wet locks a drastic contrast with his warm, furnace-like fingers, sending goose bump like tendrils along my spine. He didn’t touch me, just my hair, not at first, but I didn’t stop him or protest either.

  Thick knuckles whispering across my face, he gently placed a hank of orange behind my ear, his fingers having sifted through the frizzy mass, marveling at the strands. Humming deep in his throat, his notable bulk shifted closer, until he was pressed up right behind me.

  I should probably say something, open my mouth and protest, but I found myself momentarily speechless, breath catching in my throat in nervous anticipation as my stomach flip flopped.

  Shocking to say out loud, it sifted through my mind—I want him to touch me.

  Warm breath cascading over my shoulder, his hand reached up to cup over mine, his huge mitt encompassing my entire breast, tugging my own hand away as his nose nuzzled my shoulder.

  “I don’t know what you…” Mumbling, I gasped as his lips breezed over my neck, teasingly close, but never touching. They were warm but tentative at first, like a butterfly kiss, grazing my skin searchingly.

  “Me name,” he grumbled, taking our cupped hands and resting them gently over my thigh.

  “Your name?” I mumbled stupidly, letting him do as he would, shifting restlessly as he ran my fingers down along the length of my knee, then slowly, teasingly back up, guiding it towards the ‘v’ and all the secrets hidden within.

  “Aye, me name.”

  Fingers trembling with a mixture of trepidation and excitement, I let him lead me, his hand covering mine once more to slip down to my sex, mastering me skillfully as he used my fingers to manipulate my clit.

  “I thought you said you weren’t,” I gasped, head falling back, letting him lead the dance, up and down a few times and then, when I was just starting to feel a little light headed and breathless, he slid our combined fingers into my slit.

  A low moan slipped from my throat, unbidden, and my hips jerked, my body shuddering as his thumb teasingly stroked my swollen, hidden pearl.

  With a deep, guttural growl, he nipped at my neck, pressing our conjoined fingers in farther as a rush of wetness bathed them.

  “I’m not,” he rasped low, his deep bass doing horrible, wonderful things as it vibrated into my back, strumming its way to my core where I felt myself tighten reflexively.

  He worked our fingers in a little deeper, making me take more, and I couldn’t help but thrust.

  “Ye like that, dinna ye, luv?” he purred, as if my lusty responses were exactly what he’d been searching for, delighting in every tremble and moan, every soft cry or groan. A pleased rumble bubbled up in his throat and he whispered encouragement, crooning to me softly.

  The way he touched me, so gentle, so sure, determined—eager, even—it was as if I was the most precious thing to him in the world, and he wanted nothing more than this, right now. Swallowing hard, I squeezed my eyes shut and ignored that particular thought, focusing on only the pleasure.

  He doesn’t care, I assured myself. They’re just words. He doesn’t mean it. We’re being intimate. It’s lovey talk. Nothing more.

  A hand came up and cupped over my other hand, pressing it against my breast, lightly pinching the nipple.

  With a harsh gasp, I jerked and pressed myself down a little harder on his thick fingers, snug inside my sheath, impaling me farther. They felt so good pressed inside of me, moving in time with mine.

  He pumped a little faster, in searching sweeps, rubbing something inside that had me biting my lip hard enough to bleed, and I felt myself quickening, headed towards completion.

  Before I’d registered exactly what he was doing, what we were doing, what I was about to do, his hands stopped suddenly and he pulled back.

  “No!” I cried out, reaching for him blindly in the darkness. My sex felt swollen and throbbing, aching for him to finish what he’d started. Come back!

  Shooting away from me, he grunted and groaned, shaking the bed with a jarring thump, gasping as he jerked quickly across the bed.

  “Troll?” I asked tentatively, my pussy throbbing with incompletion, sweat dotting my body.

  “Gersthart,” he snarled, the ‘thwack-thwack’ of meaty thumps rattling the makeshift bed, alarming me enough that I reached forward, following his arm as it moved fast, too fast, between his thick, heavy thighs.

  “Gersthart?” I whispered, my hands tugging at his arms as I tried to stop him.

  “Dinna stop me,” he snapped, shoving me off, �
�or ye willna like what I do ta ye!”

  “But... what are you... are you hurt? Can I... Can I help?” I realized, belatedly, that he was touching himself, the motion familiar, his hand running up and down his length rapidly, as Trystan had done with mine in the field.

  “Wrong thing ta say, nugget.”

  Jumping back with a shocked squeak, I scrambled backwards as he groaned and snarled simultaneously, sniffing the air noisily as he took in several deep lungfuls.

  “Oh, I didn’t, I mean, that is to say...” I couldn’t help the little skip-jump my heart did at the promise in his words, or my body’s reaction as it tingled in all the right places, his voice grating along all my sensitive nerve endings, rocking me to my core.

  Snarling gutturally, he turned fast and gripped my parted legs, tugging me towards him. Eyes full of black and swirling orange, blazing like living fire, they lit up, visible as he prowled towards me hungrily.

  A whoosh of air knocked right out of me and I felt him coming down on top of me heavily, his hot, hard male flesh pressing up against the lips of my sex, rubbing the underside of his fat shaft up and down in an imitation of the act itself.

  His wide, thick chest pressed heavily to mine, but it was nice, his body enveloping mine in a blanket of heat and male musk.

  “Say it, nugget,” he commanded, groaning as his cock twitched, rubbing my tightened bud just right, gliding up and down my nether lips slowly in a sensual tease, sliding slickly through my juices.

  “Say what?” I panted, pressing myself back against him grindingly, gripping his forearms as I held on tight.

  He hissed through tight lips, the sound of his teeth gnashing audible, even to my weak little human ears, when I didn’t give him what he wanted. He ground to a halt at that, stilling and jerking slightly, as if he was about to pull back.

  “Don’t you dare!” I protested, my legs shaking uncontrollably, wrapping around his tight to hold him in place, I was so close. Searchingly, I thrust my pelvis up, hoping to reconnect with that bit of glorious male flesh I was loving up against.

  “Ah, jeez-us, nugget,” he groaned out, his own body shaking as I unintentionally pressed myself onto the fat head of his penis, impaling myself on him about an inch or so.