His lips curled with an evil grin as our eyes locked. “Then stop moaning and touchin’ yerself, wee one. I only have so much goddamn self control.”
My cheeks burned with a blush.
The king of the giants laughed, seeing the effect he had on me. He knew just how sexually frustrated I was. We both were. So I was surprised when he did as I asked and released his hold on his cock, stopping mid wank.
There was an awkward beat of silence. His smile stretched wider. “Ready to give yerself to me, Maeve?”
My name in his mouth, all wrapped up in that guttural baritone, sent a shiver skipping down my spine.
I flipped him off with both hands. My poor nails, caked with days worth of sifting through the clovers. Or, was it weeks worth? Time moved oddly here, faster and somehow slower than back home. It’s like the Otherworld moved at its own pace and decided what it felt like doing every morning.
It definitely wasn’t moving in my favor. It felt like I’d been here a whole lifetime.
I sifted through the clovers until my knees were raw and achy, until my fingertips were numb and my eyes felt like they’d short circuit at any moment.
Even when I looked away from the ground to give my poor eyes a break, I saw clovers. Clovers and green cock and that evil eye. In my dreams. My nightmares. When I blinked.
“Give into me, Maeve,” Balor’s voice called one day from where he sat on the pillar. “Let this be over with.”
Satisfaction wound through me at the mere whiff of frustration in the giant’s voice. It pushed me to keep looking. When I got up from my break under a berry bush and returned to sifting through the bed of clovers, he heaved a sigh. “Yer a stubborn wee thing.”
“Yeah, well your ‘little misfortune’ is used to making her own luck. I’ll die looking if I have to.”
“Only ya don’t have to. Ye can choose to give in at any time.”
I scoffed to myself. What kind of choice was that?
When I said nothing, the giant snorted with discontentment. “Suits me fine, girl. Search here for the rest of yer days, for all I care. I’ll watch you slowly rot away…” He gestured to one of the massive rib bones arching over the bed of clovers. “With the rest of those important to me.”
His words had me pausing. My heart skipped a beat and I angrily shook my head, returning to my task.
Don’t be silly. He doesn’t care aboutme.He cares about punishing me for what my family did to him.
“If you’d just kill me, we could both be done with this shit. I can finally rest in fucking peace, and you can get on with swinging your giant dong all over Ireland. Making jam out of bones. Tearing down beanstalks. Rise up and crown yourself as king again. Whatever gets you off.”
Balor chuckled. “I won’t be takin’ over anythin’. Those days are behind me. You are my life now, Maeve.”
There he went again. Why was he making it sound like he actually gave a fuck about me?
I looked up from the endless sea of shamrocks to slap him with a glare. “You mean torturing me is your life now.”
He shrugged a meaty shoulder in my periphery. “The way I see it, yer the one torturin’ yerself now. Like I said, ya have a choice, wee McCrum.”
“Oh yeah, because dying from trying to ride the world’s largest dick is way better than this.” I gripped a handful of clovers and tore them out with a huff.
“Who said anythin’ ‘bout you dyin’?”
My shoulders sagged. I was so damn tired. The weeks being trapped here, the endless searching for that lucky four-leaf clover that I was almost certain wasn’t even here. Tired of fighting my captor and that invisible force pulling us together.
It’s not like I was scared of dying. What frightened me was just how much I wanted to give in to him. Because I knew, I justknewthat he was banking on me softening to him.
My attraction for red-heads and monsters, paired with that magnetic phenomenon pulling us together, and a dash of good ole’ stockholm syndrome was taking its toll on my resolve.
That had to be his game. He was waiting for me to finally give in and when I did, he’d hurt me when I was most vulnerable.
“You think I’m going to shift while I’m inside you.” It wasn’t a question. He knew where my mind had wandered.
I searched his face for any trace of the cruelty I was sure I’d find there.
