Page 123 of A Light So Blinding
Then he moved. Sliding out of her until he was all the way out before drifting back in. Slowly. Like the sea ebbing and flowing against the shore.
His pace was maddening. When she wanted him to slam into her, to hear the resounding slap of their flesh against flesh, he built her back to that starlit place with the slow patience of a manwho knew he had all the time in the world. He didn’t rush her. He didn’t rush himself.
Bjorn took his time getting to know her body and to allow hers to get used to his. He breathed her in, whispering encouragement that made her very soul glow.
“You are perfect for me.”
“Look at how well you take me.”
“There is no better troll wife.”
“Fuck, bright one. You undo me.”
She’d never felt more powerful than this moment, when she decided enough was enough. Astrid pushed on his chest, forcing him to stop as she turned around beneath him. With her back to his chest, she arched her spine. She knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore such a sight. Bjorn palmed her ass and let out a little curse before he was inside her again.
This time, there was no soft pace. He surged around her, consuming her even as his hand came around to frame her throat and pull her back against him. He rode her hard, slamming in and out at the pace she had been wanting since the beginning.
They both came together, shattering around each other as she rippled around his cock, feeling him pulsing inside her body, jetting out so much come that she could feel it leaking out between her thighs even as he continued to groan in her ear.
And then they fell together onto the mattress, breathing hard and more tired than she had ever been in her life.
But there was nothing better than feeling his arm wrapping around her waist and tugging her tightly against his thundering heart.
“I really do love you, you know,” he whispered against her hair, pressing a kiss to her head. “More than any troll has ever loved a woman before.”
She didn’t think he could claim that, but some part of her soul whispered he had to be right.
“I love you just the same,” she replied. “You call me bright one, but you are my sanctuary, Bjorn. My safe place in this world.”
Forty-Seven
Astrid
“Bjorn, darling, can you bring the blankets outside as well?” Astrid called out, her arms already full with a basket of food that she was moving.
The entire plan had been to host their friends here, but then it had rained. She’d spent the morning trying to prepare their home for the amount of troll bodies that were going to take up the space, but then the sun had come out again. It had even dried out the new fire pit area that Bjorn had spent a ridiculous amount of time working on.
It really was pretty. The logs surrounding the stones were carved into comfortable seats with animals playing along the bottom. One even had rolling acorns that somehow looked like they were moving. She still wasn’t sure how he’d done that. And the fire pit itself was surrounded by stunning crystals larger than her head.
He’d made this place a home, and they continued to add more and more to it. She’d never thought life in the troll kingdom would be so quaint, or that she would like it so much.
Astrid was trying her hand at gardening. She wasn’t very good at it, but Maia made the trek up to visit her once a week so she could give Astrid tips on why her plants were dying. Having someone who could talk to the plants helped.
And she was learning how to bake. Never in her life had she thought she would be cooking so much, but at least she had some familiar training for that. The priestesses knew how to cook, and it was a nice way to get Rose out of her hidden places in her mind that she still often found herself.
Bjorn walked by her, a mound of blankets in his hands as he grumbled about people visiting when he didn’t think it was necessary.
“We want visitors,” she reminded him.
“You want visitors. You enjoy seeing other people.”
They were working on that as well. He didn’t like being in crowds, and she didn’t blame him for that. After all, ten years had been stolen from him. Ten years spent wondering who he was going to have to fight next. Now, he had the chance to make relationships with them, but Bjorn was better at doing it on his own terms.
Soon, she’d have a good reason to have people over. They were going to get some pigs from his mother and her people. The grotto trolls had claimed the fairy pigs, as Bjorn called them, would thrive on the mountain even in the winter. It would give her husband not only something to do, but an excuse to distract himself when visitors became overwhelming.
Heading out of their quaint little cabin, she was accosted by sound.
Countless people had been invited, and now she got to see all the trolls celebrate. It had been a long time since she’d seen that happen, and Astrid hadn’t even had time to be introduced to anyone. She’d been in the troll kingdom for all of five minutes before they were back out to war.
