Font Size
Line Height

Page 19 of A Darkness So Sweet (The Kingdom Below #1)

Chapter Nineteen

MAIA

Maia slept for longer than she thought she would. After Ragnar had left the room, she’d been certain that she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. After all, how was someone supposed to close their eyes after the creature she was married to said... that ?

She had a million questions. Did he find her that distractingly beautiful? No one in her life had ever mentioned that she was even pretty. Did he want to buy her gemstones? Maybe that was why he’d gotten the new earrings for her, which was rather lovely of him, even though he hadn’t been the kindest throughout this experience. Did that mean that he was going to be nicer from now on? Should she forgive him for how he’d acted?

Maybe that forgiveness was coming, but also she wanted answers for why he’d acted the way he had. Historically, Maia was too quick to forgive. She liked to smooth things over with people because she hated anyone being upset. Even when it was at her own detriment, she would rather someone else not be upset, even if that meant she had to be.

But not this time. This time, she wanted an apology. This time she would be stronger than she usually was, and she would make him apologize for being rude and for all the things that he’d done to terrify her.

Just... she would have to figure out how to do that. Or maybe how to be the kind of person who could do that.

With those thoughts on her mind, she had drifted into a dreamless sleep and then woke as the wisps started blinking on again. She wasn’t sure why they were doing that, or if she should be concerned. What if they were giving her some kind of warning?

She sat straight up in bed, her heart thundering and a cold sweat spreading over her body. What if this was a warning? What if, after all this, she was supposed to listen to the wisps?

She didn’t hear a single thing. The entire room was as quiet as a tomb, and that in itself was rather unsettling. So she stood, padded over to the door, and opened it. Peering into the dark hallway was more than terrifying. She swore there was something moving in those shadows at the end of the hall. Sure, she was working on being brave.

But she wasn’t that brave yet.

Closing the door quietly, she looked around the room and tried to get her bearings. She’d given it a quick glance last night, but mostly she’d been looking at him. Ragnar. Kneeling in front of the fire and then kneeling in front of her. Those heated eyes looking her up and down, telling her that a troll wife was most beautiful wearing nothing but gemstones.

A shiver trailed over her body and all the hairs on her arms rose. She had to get a hold of herself. If she didn’t, she was going to lose her mind in here quickly.

Rubbing her hands over her arms, the chill set in through the holes in the shirt. Now that the fire he’d set was out, Maia had to admit, it was very cold in this room. The stone didn’t retain heat, it seemed. Which left her shivering in this shirt that wasn’t much of a shirt at all.

The wisps dimmed as she stood there, looking around. She thought for a moment maybe she’d stood still for too long, but then she noticed they were dimming so she could see light under the cracks around another door. The walls of this room weren’t carved, so it had been hard for her to notice the first time that there was another room attached to this one.

She pushed the door open and sucked in a deep breath. It was a bathroom. There was a lovely clawfoot tub carved out of white marble in the dead center. It was large enough to fit two people easily, likely three if they were friendly. The feet were carved into roots that sank into the floor. A lavatory in the back was the first thing she put to good use, before coming back to stare at the tub.

She would give anything to get into the bath right now. Half asleep and chilly, she wanted to wash the grime off her skin and the travel that likely lingered. Ragnar had said trolls bathed every single day. She wasn’t used to that.

But she didn’t feel sick after bathing nearly every day on the journey out here. So maybe he was right. Maybe she wouldn’t fall ill and die if she bathed every day.

There was a metal arm that curved up and over the tub as well. What that was, she had no idea. She supposed it could be a handle to get in and out. But as she circled the tub, she didn’t think it was that.

Maia mused what it could be until she heard a faint noise from the doorway. Startled, she spun around to see Ragnar leaning against the frame of the door. His arms were crossed over his chest, all those bulging muscles on display for her to see.

Her initial fear at being startled bled away as she looked at him. So far, she’d only seen him as the warrior. The troll in leather laced pants who had stolen her away from her home and carried her over his shoulder for most of the journey. Seeing him clothed was an entirely different experience.

Tight breeches clung to his legs, although he still wore no shoes, which was entirely improper. A loose white shirt tucked into the breeches, but wasn’t buttoned, so she could see the powerful structures of his pectorals and the interesting hollows of his collarbone. He wore a thick necklace of silver around his throat and had bracelets tightly woven around his wrists.

He’d traded out all of his earrings as well for silver jewelry. All of this made her realize without a doubt that this was not a monster in the slightest. Every single thought of him as something other and wrong disappeared at the sight of him standing in front of her like this .

She swallowed hard, trying to figure out what she was even supposed to say to him. Her mouth wasn’t working right. Words stalled in her mind as she tried to guess who… what…

“I’d like to take a bath,” she said, only realizing after she’d said the words how much work she’d just asked him to do. “I mean... If you show me where to get the water for the bath, I’m happy to heat it myself. I’ve done so many times in my life, but you’ve repeatedly told me that I smell, so I assume I must be quite offensive at this point. I don’t mind doing all the hard work myself.”

One of his brows lifted, and yet he did not stop her rant of words that flowed from her mouth. He just listened to her mumble even more about how she really didn’t mind at all and then strode into the room.

Every single word dried up on her tongue that was stuck to the roof of her mouth as he walked right up to her. She stumbled backward, her lower back striking the tub hard, and still he continued to lean. He moved ever closer—by the gods, was he going to kiss her?—before twisting something behind her back.

Suddenly, the sound of water filled the room. She was frozen where she stood, grabbing into the tub behind her for balance as she stared up into his features that gave away nothing of what he was thinking.

“How?” she asked. “Magic?”

“Your people are far behind ours. We do not use magic for everything. The trolls long ago figured out a piping system for the entirety of the city. The hot pipes are affixed to a hot spring nearby, as there are many of them and we will never deplete them in our lifetime. The cold water is run off from the top of the mountain and the snow that builds there year round.”

His gaze never left hers. She had no idea what to say. The steam from the hot water was building behind her, clinging to her fingers in warm droplets.

The trolls were far more advanced than her own people could dream of. Water in pipes? She’d never thought she would hear the day that was even possible, let alone that it had already happened.

Breathing in slowly, she turned to look at the steaming water filling the tub.

All she would have to do was step into the water. Whenever she wanted a bath, she could have one. No waiting. No need to boil water and carry the heavy buckets over to the tub.

This changed everything.

The hot steam coiled into the air, and she was so focused on tracking those small plumes that she didn’t notice he’d leaned closer. But then his voice rumbled in her ear and every nerve in her body fired white hot.

“Get in, fire hair.”

The hairs on her arms rose. Her breath caught in her lungs because surely he didn’t mean... “Now?” she squeaked.

“Is there any difference from the river?”

Yes, there was a difference. In the river, she’d always been in her clothes. Or he’d left her alone to her own devices, and she’d gotten undressed quickly and dunked herself in the water before anyone could see her. That much was easy when it came to bathing. But this...

Still, some unhinged wild woman inside of her said to do it. A part of her soul that had been trapped by society’s rules and the expectations of others unfurled its wings and cried out for her to be the woman she’d always wanted to be. A wanton, needy creature who bared her body to the man she desired and, against all odds, she wanted him.

She wanted the warmth of him at her back. She wanted those big hands to touch her. She just wanted everything he offered that she’d never been able to grasp in her life.

And he was offering.

She knew he was offering.

“Would you like me to help?” he murmured, that dark, sensuous voice plucking at her senses. She didn’t have to look at him at all, and somehow that made it easier.

Easier to do all the things that her father had warned her about. It was a sin to want. It was a sin to indulge herself in all of her senses, and yet...

There was an ancient hunger in her veins. An age old need that had long been denied. And sometimes, the old ways were best.

Maia nodded, answering his question.

As the steam billowed out from the tub, she felt his fingers at her shoulders. The backs of his fingers brushed against her skin, dragging down her spine as he slowly worked her out of the shirt. Her entire body shuddered at his touch as he moved down to the base of her spine, and then the shirt just slipped.

It moved down off of her shoulders, free from her form to pile at her feet. Then there was nothing left to cover her but her undergarments that had seen better days. The small strip between her legs had seemed to be the only rebellion she could have when she was still back in the human kingdom. She didn’t stay true to the old undergarments that were little more than a dress. These were new and different from what other women wore. But they showed far more of her skin as well.

She thought to cover her breasts with her arms, but then that brave part of her that he’d awoken decided no. She wasn’t going to do that. She was going to see what he would do next.

Ragnar groaned, the sound echoing through his chest and into her back. He leaned forward, ever so slowly, and removed the last remaining barriers between them. The fabric gave so easily to his touch, and those clawed hands came up to cup her breasts. The sight of them was enough to send heat flooding between her thighs. They were massive, clawed, and striped with colors that were so inhuman. To see those hands carefully holding onto her, to see those fingers moving to grasp her aching nipples? She wasn’t sure she would survive this.

Breathing hard, she arched into his touch. It pressed her back to his chest while displaying her body for him to see. With his head leaned low, he whispered dirty things into her ear that made her see stars.

“Someday, when you are ready to earn new piercings, I will place my mark here.” He pinched her nipples hard enough to make her stop breathing. “You will wear my bars, troll wife. Soon enough, I will see you dripping in gemstones.”

Her heart raced as one of his hands trailed down her stomach. His palm was so big that his hand spanned the space between her hip bones, but then his fingers slid between her legs and she ceased to think.

“Troll wives are more than just pretty things to decorate,” he murmured as his fingers moved. Slickly playing with her clit as he rocked his fingers back and forth, the speed too slow and yet somehow burning where he touched her. “You are an instrument to play. Your moans are a symphony to my ears, fire hair. Let me hear them.”

What was he doing to her? The moment he said it, she let out a moan that made her turn bright red with embarrassment. But as a reward, he pressed his thumb down on her clit and circled it in a way that was so perfect she made the sound again.

“I will be your slave,” he rasped. “I will do all that you require and more. All I ask is for one thing.”

She’d give him anything at this moment with her entire body on fire and her heart thundering in her chest. “What?” she gasped.

“Tell me what you want, fire hair. I would hear you say it.”

She couldn’t. But the creature who lived inside of her could. She heard herself moan and then cry out, “I want you to make me come, troll.”

The sound he made was part animal, part man. And suddenly he spun her. Turning away from him was easier, but now she was leaning against the tub with him on his knees before her. He gave her one long stare before he opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. She had only a moment to blink at the piercing in the center of that pink appendage before he was on her.

He licked her long and deep, that tongue flicking over her clit. His tusks pressed against her thighs, the sensation foreign and yet somehow so right. Just as she thought she was going to explode, suddenly she felt that warm metal ball sliding against her as well.

The things he could do with that tongue. She hadn’t expected him to be so talented. Obviously, she’d touched herself with her fingers before, and she’d thought she was rather good at that. No one could do it better than herself.

But this man poured every ounce of who he was into devouring her whole. He wasn’t a gentleman about it. He was loud and messy, almost embarrassingly so as he groaned into her pussy and lavished her with attention. His fingers spread her wide, making her hold herself steady on the tub so she didn’t tumble right into it.

He hooked one of her legs behind his shoulder, using it as an anchor to pin her in place when she ground against him. But he didn’t rush her. He just enjoyed himself with pleased sounds and echoing groans that mingled with her own as the sound of this immoral act filled the room. This was wrong, but damn it, it was so right.

She wanted his fingers inside her. She wanted his tongue to plunge into her depths. Fuck, she wanted him to push his cock between her folds and make her see stars.

“Please,” she whimpered, trying to rotate her hips against him. “Please, I need more.”

“You’ll earn more later,” he gruffly replied, before palming her ass and squeezing it too hard. “This is all you get for now, troll wife. Soon you will have more than this. But for now, all we both get is the taste of you on my tongue and the bliss beyond.”

With a tortured sound, he attacked her again, this time with a frenzy that made her see stars. And suddenly, impossibly, she could feel herself tighten. She wound more tense with every strong flick of his tongue, every lingering lick.

Then... There it was. Her entire body clenched as she cried out and gripped his hair. She arched in on herself, likely a horrendous sight to behold, but her entire body felt like it was seizing as the pleasure coursed through her. He didn’t stop. He licked and sucked until she was shuddering and begging him to stop. Only then did he give her a break, easing back on his knees to look up at her.

Maia still had a solid grip on his hair. She loosened her fingers, almost apologizing for how she’d tugged on those strands before he silently pressed a kiss to her thigh.

Saying nothing else, he pointed to the tub and then... left. Like what they had done hadn’t changed everything forever.