Fate Undone (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 5) (28 page)

“None of that will matter if anyone finds the body of the prisoner whose looks I borrow. The spell will knock him unconscious. If he’s hurt, the connection between us could break and I could die. Or be trapped in his image, which would be terrible.” She shuddered at the thought of being trapped in a man’s body. “You’re a god, the only one strong enough to protect the body. No one on the staff will stand a chance against you.”

He walked to her and gripped her arms, his gaze fierce. “No one will hurt that body.”

She nodded. “I know. We can do this. I’m just worried. It’s a risky spell.”

“You’ll be fine. What you need now is a distraction from worry.”

He was so right. What she wanted—him naked beneath her—could only lead to hurt. Everything good that happened between them now just twisted her heart with the impossibility of it all. But she wasn’t going to push him away anymore. Her brush with death had taught her that.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Logan stared down at Sylvi. She was looking at him with an unreadable expression.

They both needed a distraction. Images of them naked together flashed in his mind. He could give her a distraction. He knew exactly how he wanted to do it, starting with laying her out on the couch and burying his face between her legs.

Instead of suggesting what he actually wanted, he nodded to a board game on the bookshelf to their left. “Is that
hnefatafl
?”

She glanced at it. “Yes, though I haven’t played in centuries. No here one knows how.”

“Fancy a game?” He hadn’t played the ancient Viking board game since he’d left Asgard. In fact, the last time he’d played it had been with her. They’d played often when they’d first known each other.

“All right.” She took the board down, carefully balancing it so that the red and white carved pieces didn’t tumble off. It was a strategy game somewhat similar to chess. She’d always been good at it. Better than him, in fact.

She set the board on the coffee table while he dragged a chair up to the side opposite the couch.
 

“Hang on,” he said, and returned to the kitchen. He snagged two cold beers out of the fridge, then popped the tops off and returned to the living room to find her seated on the couch in front of the board game. He took the chair that he’d pulled up to the table and handed her the beer.

She nodded her thanks.

“Red or white?” He nodded at the pieces on the board.

“Red,” she said, and pushed her piece across the carved wooden board.

He didn’t debate long before moving his white piece into place. She made her moves more slowly, just as he remembered.

“I’ve missed playing this with you,” he said.

She glanced up at him.

“Did you think about me a lot while you were in the cave?” she asked.

“Almost every second.” Those years had been the most physically miserable of his life. He’d faced starvation for decades, saved only by his immortality and the memory of her. Racked with pain, he’d been too weak to feed himself, so his healing had slowed even more. Wounded, starving, freezing. Immortality had saved his body, memories of her had saved his mind. The cave had been his crucible. Hardening him. Making him stronger.

“What did you do when you were well enough to leave?”

He didn’t know why she suddenly had questions about his life, but if she was turning a corner in her feelings for him, he would answer any question she had.

“By the time I left, there was no way for me to access Asgard to continue my fight against the gods, which was fine. That was as much about my ego as it was about standing up to those who would abuse their authority. It didn’t have to be gods I railed against. It was the early 16
th
century by then and there were plenty of wars to join.”

“So you fought mortal wars?”

He nodded. “I was a mercenary for several centuries. I took up a different name to avoid any residual wrath of the gods—Logan Laufeyson, the one that I carry now—and I fought battles on behalf of repressed mortals.”

“That’s admirable.”

“Not really. I enjoyed it. Sometimes I fought to settle the need in me to fight oppressors; sometimes I fought for enormous amounts of money. And maybe I was hiding. Burying my past and running from my fate. Some might say I spent centuries running. That I failed against the other gods when I escaped Asgard.”

“Escaping Asgard was just smart. When they were all against you, you didn’t stand a chance.”

“That’s what I told myself.” Was she defending him?

“Now, instead of hiding from fate, you fight it. As you did when we were back in Asgard.”
 

“I like the fight. Running from who I am never did me any good. And I have no choice, now. I was able to hide for centuries as Logan because nothing was coming to get me that I couldn’t fight when it arrived. But this prison… I have to stop it before it ever really starts. We won’t stand a chance once it is complete.”

She nodded. “Did you like your new identity?”

“It does the job. Do you like yours?”

“I do. I’m in control now. I don’t want anything that I can’t get myself. I like that.”

“I like you,” he said.

She ignored that and asked, “Where will you go when this is all over?” She immediately turned her attention to the board.

“Nowhere. I’m staying wherever you are.”

Her hand stilled and she glanced up. “You’re serious about me, aren’t you?”

“Deadly.”

“But what will you do once this is all over? Keep your new identity? Return to your old?”

“What do you think I should do? Which face do you prefer?”

“Your original one. I missed it.” She looked like she didn’t want to admit it but couldn’t help it. “I missed you. A lot.”

She made him happy. It was the oddest feeling, like light filling his soul, and was almost wholly unfamiliar except that it harkened back to their time in Asgard. It was exactly what he’d been seeking when he’d decided to come for her again.

“I’ll see to it that you never have to miss me again,” he said. He’d completely forgotten about the board game. “Just promise me you’ll be careful tomorrow.” Fear for her struck him hard. To be so close to having her again, but to lose her? He couldn’t bear it.
 

He pushed the table aside and pulled her up to stand before him. He couldn’t just sit here and pretend that everything was normal, that he didn’t want to touch her more than he could breathe.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The worry and desire in Logan’s gaze hit Sylvi in the chest. He cared for her. Truly and genuinely. Whatever he’d done in the past, he’d never stopped caring for her.

And she’d never stopped caring for him.

“Be with me,” he said. “Tonight.”

She had no idea if they’d survive tomorrow, and if they did, what would become of them. She was still afraid of him breaking her heart—and she hadn’t forgiven him—but tonight, she wanted to be close to him.
 

“Sylvi,” he rasped. His big hand came up to cup her cheek. He bent his head until his lips hovered over hers, a wordless question.

Oh, how she wanted him. She wanted that glorious heat one more time, to know what he felt like inside her. She wanted to be close to him again—like they had been once. Being with him made her heart feel so full it might burst.

This was their last chance and their future was already going to hurt. It had hurt in the past and it would likely hurt in the future as well. What was a bit more?

He didn’t wait for her response, but instead pressed his lips to hers.

She moaned softly at the taste of him, the perfection of his lips against hers.

The hand around the back of her neck tightened and pulled her closer. His other hand pressed to the small of her back and yanked her toward him. A groan rumbled up from his throat.

He was hot and hard against her and she couldn’t get enough. His erection pressed into her belly as his lips parted hers. Pleasure burst in her as his tongue slipped between her lips.

“So damn sweet,” he muttered against her. His hands ran up her sides, his thumbs brushing over her breasts. “Want you so damned bad.”

Tension and need coiled within her, denied for ages. They’d both wanted this for so long. She’d thought of it hundreds of times since she’d parted from him, wondering what could have been. Now she could have it. Have him.

His big hands ran down to her hips and his lips left hers. Aching loss filled her until he dropped to his knees in front of her and pressed his forehead to her ribs. She gasped.

His hot breath feathered across the strip of skin bared by the gap between the hem of her shirt and the top of her jeans.

“Let me,” he said, his voice and posture that of supplication.

Her knees weakened and his hands gripped her hips harder, supporting her as her legs threatened to go out. She reached down to run her hands through his hair.

Could she make love to him? Not because she needed it for her magic, but because she wanted it?

His lips brushed across the sensitive skin of her lower belly and need clutched at her. Her sex throbbed for him, aching and empty.
 

“Yes,” she whispered.

He surged to his feet and reached for her face, drawing her toward him until he could crush his mouth to hers. There was such ferocious need in him that she could taste it.
 

He drew her shirt over her head and unclasped the bra that bound her breasts. He cupped a breast in each large hand and she shivered.

“You’re cold,” he said before directing a hand at the fireplace behind her. It flared to life, shining golden light on his achingly handsome face and warming her back.

“That’s not why I shivered,” she said.

A devastating grin swept across his face. “I’ll make you shiver some more.”

Within seconds, he had her big wingback chair pulled up in front of the fire and her standing before it.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Need roared through Logan as he struggled with the tiny buttons at the top of Sylvi’s pants. He’d begged for this—so, so willingly—and she’d granted him his wish. As much as he wanted to tear her jeans off and bend her over the chair to thrust his achingly hard cock into her softness, he wanted to make her lose her mind far more.
 

And he wanted to taste her. He wanted her sweetness on his tongue and her pussy clenching around his fingers. Finally, the last cursed button popped free and he pushed her trousers to her knees, taking her panties along with them.
 

Her hands gripped his shoulders to steady herself as he helped her out of the tangled fabric and onto the chair he’d pulled in front of the fire. She reclined, golden light flickering across her skin. Her eyes were heavy lidded and her lips parted on heavy breaths.

“I’ve wanted you so damned badly.” He leaned over her and took her mouth with his.
 

Her lips parted easily, her tongue darting out to welcome him. It reminded him of the feeling of her mouth on his shaft, hot and wet. His cock punched against the fly of his pants and he groaned.

Desperate for a distraction that would let him hold onto his control, he dragged his mouth from her lips to the smooth skin of her neck. She shivered as he laved the sensitive skin with his tongue.