Queen of His Heart (The Brides of Mordenne #3) - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,3

my head and my heart insisting this was true. The Troll felt safe, smelled safe. I wanted, needed so badly to have this, for him to be safe.

I gave him dirty looks, but that was my natural response to how insanely, just how damned much, I wanted to climb him like a tree and claim him. Those kinds of possessive thoughts, I’d never felt anything like it before. It made me scowl on principle alone at the very idea.

And, yes, the Troll may twist things, choose his words carefully, but if I asked him something point blank, he wasn’t going to jerk my chain. My skin still tingled from where his wide hands had met my flesh. I’d felt cold for so long it threw me. The sudden loss of his warmth had left me even more chilled. My hands started to sweat, another occurrence of my genetic predisposition. Mama had told people it was some type of glandular thing, but it wasn’t literally sweat. When I got nervous, I leaked water, sometimes fresh, sometimes straight up sea water. I was as aquatically damaged as I was socially awkward.

I’d been so touch starved I’d soaked his affection up like a damned dandelion soaking up all that sunshine he liked to delude himself into thinking I poured out of my bum hole like a living ray of it. Troll boy was the sunshine-y one, he just wasn’t aware of this super power of his—his power over me. I itched in my seat to creep closer to him and crawl in his lap, beg to be petted and squished by the lumbering male. God, I was pathetic. My reaction to him scared me the most. I craved. Once wasn’t enough. It was potent, heady. I was hungry for a Troll? I could barely wrap my head around it. Yet I felt it and the need to be near him all the same.

“How do Others have to do with dreamwalking, as in what, in what way, my Queen?” Segrid kept glancing my way, I noted as I spied on him through the reflection in the side window and windshield, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible in my peeping of the male.

He was so damned fascinating, and comfortable to me. I couldn’t help but think of the deranged male who’d kidnapped me like some kind of savior. I’d dreaded going to bed and closing my eyes, or worse, falling asleep on the couch with Pen so close. Could he save me from him?

Was it delusional on my part to hope? Perhaps. I’d wished for someone to come drag me out of this meager existence I’d been reduced to, then he’d begun to demand more of me, and I’d wanted out of it all altogether. Horrible thoughts and ideas had crept into my head. I’d grown desperate. And just when I’d thought of acting on those dark demands, Pen had come tromping up the steps, running home from what she’d thought was an inconsiderate, asshole mate. And then I’d found my house ransacked by a mate seeking Cyclops and his buddies, my Segrid among them.

My Segrid. Was he my Troll, truly? Daring a peek at the male to find him watching the road, I took that moment to study him. Much as I liked to feign indifference in front of others, I saw nothing truly wrong with the male beside me.

Much as I protested, I’d gotten a sick thrill out of the past… Damn, how long has all this been going on? How long had I been chumming around in Mordenne with the likes of his purple-eyed-ness? Blinking as a yawn threatened to overtake me, my gaze darted back towards the passenger side window. Scenery whizzed by. We were nearing a spot along the edge of the woods and the swampy marsh. I hadn’t slept in over twenty four hours. The trees were growing funny colors, lavenders and cornflower blues with white and black leaves, blood red and deep orange blossoms on black and white speckled bushes loaded with pink berries. “What kind of acid trip is this?” I muttered under my breath.

“Soil’s as brown as the Human world’s, but richer. Glitters with magicks of The Helm.” Segrid’s chest puffed up proudly. His gaze caught mine and he winked.

Not quite sure what overtook me, but a tiny smile lifted my lips. Catching this, he smiled widely. My cheeks flushed and I blushed. “Uhm…” Clearing my throat, I licked my lips, looking anywhere but at