Page 51 of Sky and the Grumpy Troll

“Not strange at all. We’ll take the long way around, if that’s what you need.”

“But your family.”

“They’ll be okay. They’ll learn that I’m fine, and they’ll be happy again. And right now, I don’t want to pressure you if you’re not ready.”

“And Pip?”

Sky chuckled. “Something tells me he’s behind this requisitioning. I can’t say for sure, but Pip has a way of drawing people in and making them want to fight for him. It gives me hope that someone else is investigating the same thing we are. I have to believe that he hasn’t been alone this whole time. So, if you need to go the long way, we’ll go the long way. And we’ll keep going the long way until you are ready.”

No troll would have said this. Trolls did not take their time with feelings. We built our cities into mountains, barreling through any obstacle without a second thought, and the same went for our emotions. Everyone expected me to forge on, make a life, and bury anything that got in my way.

Sky didn’t, and that almost broke me harder than the spanking.

“I’m sorry I took the long way and didn’t tell you,” I said. “I should have known you would understand. I’m not so used to the human way of doing things.”

“We’re just learning each other,” he said, leaving his hand on my horn. “It hurts me to think I’ve been gone for so long. My family is on the other side of that mirror, running tai chi for grandmas without my help, mourning me, or maybe even searching for me.”

“You’re close, you and your family?” I asked.

“Yes, I am. I’m a middle child with too many siblings, so it’s not perfect, but I love them all. Connor, my older brother, is my favorite. We share an apartment. Are you not close to yours? Your sisters certainly meddle. What about your parents?”

“My parents passed when I was young. I don’t remember them much. My sisters raised me, hence the tendency to meddle. But like you, I hate thinking of them fretting.” The guilt of understanding what his family must be going through was specific and earned, and I would carry it. “That’s part of why I made the soulmate story up. I knew it would ease their worries.”

Sky smiled and nodded. “I love hearing all of this, understanding all of it. I just wish you would share it right away. You understand that, right?”

I wrapped my arms around him, and he slid his hands down to my jaw, holding me in place while he kissed me, long and slow. The tenderness in his expression stayed, and a warmth crept underneath it. The kiss deepened, growing hungrier, and the ache from the things he’d been doing to my body returned.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s have a bath, soothe the ache from your spanking. And then, if you’re a really good boy, I might fuck your hole.”

I stared at him. My cheeks went hot and my cock, which had been softening during the confession, surged back to full attention with a speed that was frankly embarrassing.

“Oh,” I said. “Oh.”

I sprinted to the bath so fast that Sky was still laughing when he caught up with me, a grin on his face and a look in his eyes that promised the thing I had been thinking about for days: his cock inside me. I was still crying a little, and I did not care. For the first time in five years, the stone in my throat was gone.

Chapter 16

Moerrven

The bath took forever to fill, as if mocking my rush. It was a simple mechanism, letting in water piped from an underground thermal spring, and as I watched the water slosh into the tub, I snuck a glance at Sky, whose eyes were on my ass.

His cock was hard, and I felt my whole body flush as I stepped into the water, which was now waist-deep. I gingerly lowered myself, hissing as the hot water touched my tender skin. Sky’s grin softened.

“Sore?”

“Yes. If only we knew why.”

He laughed, and the sound of it, bright and unburdened, loosened something in my chest that was still tight from the crying.

“Slide forward,” he said, and I did, wrapping my arms around my bent knees and making sure he had room to step into the bath behind me. His knees bumped my ass, and his hands settled on my shoulders, thumbs digging into the knots of tension that had set up permanent residence in my trapezius muscles.

“Let me take care of you.”

“Shouldn’t I take care of you?”

“Where I’m from, we call this aftercare. I need to take the time to make sure you are okay, to give you a soft landing.”

“But your cock is still hard.”