Lord of Fire and Ice (16 page)

Brandr’s broad-shouldered form was framed by the doorway for a moment as he accepted some lewd advice with a good-natured laugh. Then he firmly closed the door on the crowd gathered on the other side, not even allowing them a peek at Katla in the bed. He slid the latch home with a loud click.

He turned toward Katla. Brandr’s face was fixed with a look of intense concentration as he met her gaze, the raw-boned lines of his features divided into light and dark planes in the flickering flame of the lamp. Then he pulled his tunic over his head and stripped off his undergarment, baring his chest and arms.

“I thought we had an agreement,” Katla said. “You said you were leaving as soon as the iron collar was struck.”

He shrugged. “I’m a free man, am I not? I’ll leave when it suits me.”

He toed off his boots and pulled off his socks. Then he turned his back to her, untied the drawstring at his waist, and peeled out of his trousers. The smooth skin of his tight buttocks was kissed by the lamplight. Corded muscles stood out in stark relief beneath the skin of his thighs and calves. When he turned back to face her, his cock rose.

If he’d had to claim her before witnesses, he was certainly equipped to do it.

Katla drew a ragged breath. He was even more beguilingly male than she remembered. Or maybe the punishing pace of work she’d set for him had burned away the last traces of softness, leaving him even more hard bodied and deeply sculpted. She cleared her throat loudly. If she didn’t speak now, she’d lose the will to.

“What if I want you to leave?” she asked.

Brandr narrowed his eyes at her. “If you want me to leave, I will. But you’ll have to convince me that’s truly your desire.”

She sat up straighter. “That’s truly my desire.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“How can I convince you?”

“Only your body can do that. If you don’t want me to stay, I’ll know.” He took a step closer to the bed. “If you’re lying when you say you want me gone, I’ll know that too.”

He dove onto the bed with her. The ropes beneath the straw tick creaked in protest. The sheets smelled of her, cedar and warm woman and just a hint of musk. He slid under the linen and hitched a possessive leg over hers.

“Brandr, I don’t think—”

“Good.” He nuzzled her neck and nipped an earlobe. “You do too much of that as a general rule.”

“But we need to talk about—”

He silenced her with a hard kiss. Once her body unstiffened and her lips softened and parted in welcome, he suckled her bottom lip for a moment and then drew back. “No more talk. And nothing else can stand between us either.”

He hooked a finger over the neckline of her night shift and traced along the edge, teasing her bare skin. Then he gave the bow between her breasts a hard yank. The thin fabric parted, baring her to the navel.

Her lips parted softly, but she didn’t protest.

She
wants
me
to
look
at
her
, he thought, almost giddy with lust.

Her skin was a wonder, warm and smooth. Gooseflesh rose in the wake of his fingers. Her nipples became taut as he teased around them. Her breath hitched, and she made a small, needy noise in the back of her throat when he bent to taste them.

She arched herself into his mouth.

Sucking one, gently pinching the other, he worshipped her nipples until she moaned. Then he ran his hand over her ribs, past her belly, and pulled up the night shift to invade the dark curls at the apex of her thighs.

She was slick and wet. When he slid into her soft folds, she tilted into his hand.

He drew a bit of her moisture out with his fingertip. Then he put the finger in his mouth and sucked off her salty sweetness. Her breath came in short pants as he traced her lips with the same finger and then sealed her mouth with a soft kiss. The taste of her made his cock twitch.

“You see,” he whispered. “You don’t want me to leave, do you?”

She shook her head. “I don’t want you to leave.”

Katla reached behind his neck and pulled his head down into a blistering kiss.

***

She couldn’t get enough of him. It was as if a gaping maw had opened inside her, ravenous and needy. She had to have this man or die.

The ache, oh gods, he’d made her ache before but not like this. She never dreamed she could ache so. The emptiness overwhelmed her. If she didn’t feel him between her legs soon, she’d fly apart in all directions.

She rocked herself against his hip, grinding against his pelvis. She throbbed to feel him inside her. What was the man waiting for? Did he want her to beg?

Probably.

Katla pressed her lips together in a hard line as he kissed his way down her body. His tongue found her sex, and he traced all her little folds with the tip. Her wanting grew more desperate, pounding in tandem with her heart.

His mouth was soft and wet on her. If she hadn’t fisted the linens, her nails would have cut into the heels of her palms.

He growled with pleasure as he suckled her and she whimpered.

Damn the man for making her need him so.

The heaviness in her groin weighed her down. She thrashed on her pillow. Incoherent sounds escaped her lips.

Her mind wandered between the worlds. She was the earth, a cavern, a secret, deep place only the bravest ever dare.

Then when she thought she could sink no lower, the tight heaviness inside her burst forth into vibrant light. Her body shuddered with the force of her release.

Before the last spasm faded, Brandr had moved up and filled her so she convulsed around his thick length. Once she finished pulsing, he began to move. He reached down and hitched her legs up over his shoulders, so he could plunge into her without the least gentleness.

Good.
She couldn’t bear gentleness from him now. Gentleness might give her space to think.

She needed him hard and male and demanding. She needed the slap of his balls against her. She needed his hoarse cry of triumph when he emptied himself into her, his body strained and as taut as a bowstring while his seed pulsed hotly.

The ache was stilled. The emptiness fled away. For a moment, the cares of the steading, the coldness of the cradle in the corner, the fact that her new husband wasn’t really the sort of man she should have chosen at all—none of those concerns signified a thing.

All that mattered was the thud of Brandr’s heart on her chest and his breath on her neck.

He slid her legs off his shoulders and settled down on her, his breath coming in short gasps. When Brandr looked down at her and smiled, her chest flooded with warmth.

She still had no idea if she and Brandr could make a marriage. But by the gods, they could make love.

***

“Brandr, whether you will it or no, you and I must talk. Now,” she said another coupling later.

“Katla, I—” He meant to plead exhaustion, but his throat closed up. She’d let the sheet drop, and her nipples peeped through the open slit in her night shift. He could still taste them, sweet and responsive in his mouth. His cock rallied for a third time.

Her lips were moving. She was undoubtedly saying something, but all the blood in his brain seemed to have fled, taking his understanding with it. He was fully engorged.

“Don’t stand there gaping at me like a codfish.” Her tone turned strident, demanding his attention. “I asked you a question.”

Had she asked something? He hadn’t caught a word. All he could do was grit his teeth as his erection grew so intense the aching pleasure was a knife’s edge from pain.

“Aren’t you going to answer me?”

“
Ja
,” he stammered, shaken by the lust that lanced him. The punishing pace she’d set for him had kept desire at bay of late. Now, even though he’d already slaked his need not once but twice this night, it rushed back into him with the force of a cataract plummeting into a fjord.

“Give me a moment,” he said as he plumped up his pillows and laced his fingers behind his head beside her, hoping she’d repeat her question without his having to admit he hadn’t been listening when she asked the first time.

By the time he’d decided it was safe to look on her again, her wide eyes glistened with unshed tears.

“So you care for me not at all, then,” she said in a small voice. The hurt, the desolation he felt emanating from her slight form squeezed his heart.

“Not care for you?” Where had that come from?

Love talk had never passed her lips before this night. He hadn’t imagined her capable of it, let alone craving it. He expected a ripe and randy bedding, not talk of something as murky and changeable as a person’s feelings.

His chest ached at the hurt on her face, and this time he recognized the cause. It made no logical sense. It simply was.

Not care for her? He’d sooner not breathe.

“How can you say that?” he asked, mystified. He leaned toward her, stopping with his lips mere finger widths from hers, fighting to bridle himself. If his cock had any say in the matter, he’d be on her like a stag in rut yet again. He wanted so much more for her this time.

For both of them.

A tear trembled on her lower lid then tumbled to slide down her cheek. He lifted a hand to caress it away from her pale skin.

“Katla, how can you say I don’t care for you?” Brandr said softly.

Her night shift neckline fell forward, revealing the shadowed hollow between her breasts. He forced himself to meet and hold her gaze.

“I wouldn’t blame you. After all, I enthralled you,” she said.

“I might have done the same if our situations were reversed.” In the interests of peace, he decided it might be wise to appease her a bit by being agreeable.

“I know I’m not the most amiable person.”

He chuckled. “No, you’re not.”

She shot a wounded glare at him. Obviously, he wasn’t supposed to agree with her all the time.

“I don’t know why it should be so. Maybe why isn’t important, but there’s something about you that fits me.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind the pink shell of her ear. “We may not always have smooth sailing weather, but I’d rather fight with you than live in quiet, stagnant peace with anyone else.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.”

“How can I believe that?” Her chin quivered, and her night shift slid off one shoulder to bare a breast completely. “You’ve not said more than a handful of words to me for days. You didn’t seem to even see me anymore.”

Loki’s Hairy Backside, he was certainly seeing her now. He ran a hand over her head, willing himself to focus on just her emerald eyes.

“I see you. And I see what you want.” Brandr inhaled her scent. She smelled as fresh as new-cut grass. “Every soul longs for love, for
inn
matki
munr
.” Her long hair curled around his fingers as he stroked it, running his hand over its silken length. “’Tis the stuff of maidensongs and skald’s tales, not at all the kind of life a man clapped into thralldom can aspire to.”

“And you don’t want to settle for less now. I understand,” she finished for him. “Don’t let me trouble you a moment longer. My body is telling you to go.”

She threw back the covers and would have bolted, but he grasped her arm and held her fast.

He lifted her chin with his other hand and forced her to meet his gaze.

“I don’t pretend to understand the mighty passion, but I know love is not something that comes in half measures. Either it is or it isn’t,” he said, refusing to release his hold on her even though she attempted to wrest herself from him. “For me, it is. I do care for you, Katla.”

She ceased struggling. “How can you?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve puzzled over it for weeks, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense. All I know is while I draw breath, all I am is yours.”

She froze, as still as a carved rune stone, just looking at him with those enormous green eyes of hers. She was clearly weighing his declaration for truth.

It seemed strange, even to him, who felt it firsthand, but there was such a lump of caring in his chest for this woman, he thought he might choke on it, gods help him.

“If that’s the way of it, then, I take you at your word,” she said with a trembling smile. “And just so you know, I care for you too.”

He placed a hand around her waist and drew her close. Then he caught one of her hands and pressed it against his chest, letting her feel the pounding of his heart.

“You consume me, Katla, and I don’t care a whit. Let the fire burn.”

Brandr had meant to hold back, to wait for her to respond, but something primal surged in his blood, singing the chaos of lust. He had to obey the savage call or burst out of his own skin.

He plundered her mouth, nearly overcome by her sweetness. Her scent surrounded him, intoxicating him, his senses dazed and reeling. When she answered his kiss and leaned toward him, brushing her taut nipples against his chest, blood pounded so loudly in his ears he thought she must be able to hear it.

Then the drumbeat moved much lower, to his swollen cock, throbbing with the rhythm of his life’s blood in ever-quickening pulses.

Brandr pressed her body against his, knowing he should be more gentle with her. She was so small, so fragile seeming, he was afraid if he didn’t hold back, she might shatter to pieces in his arms.

Katla didn’t seem to think she was that breakable, though. When he started to release her, she pulled his head down with a soft groan, urging him to stay.

They took each other’s mouths, vying for supremacy with their entwined tongues. Katla nipped at his lower lip in a tiny love bite, and it made his groin ache all the more. The desperate little noises she made at the back of her throat nearly drove him mad.

His hands roamed over her, finding and exploring each dip and valley, the exquisite curve of her back, the plump lushness of her bottom. He worked her night shift up, hearing the seam part at her hip, but unable to stop till he dragged the flimsy garment over her head.

When Katla lay back on the sheets, he paused for a moment, drinking in the sight of her. Her pale skin was gilded with light from the guttering lamp, setting her aglow like some ethereal being.

That’s it
. She was an elf-maiden who’d strayed far from the delights of Aelfham, the elfin home world. She graced his life with beauty beyond a mortal’s capacity to comprehend.

“You’re not stopping?” she asked, her voice dusky.

“Not for all the nine worlds,” he promised. “Guess you don’t want me to leave, after all.”

She shook her head, and her breasts shuddered with a sigh. “Now what?”

“Now, princess, I show you what caring feels like.”