“But this will affect you in other ways.”
Understanding finally dawned. “Pregnancy? I’ve never considered that a vulnerability—and it won’t happen, at any rate, because I haven’t taken his seed. I hope to, though. Some day.”
“I was thinking of your reputation, not of babies,” Vashon said dryly. “Though now I wonder if this would only solidify the reputation you’ve already gained.”
For being improper? Annika knew it best not to smile, but could not stop the twitch of her lips. “I believe that my reputation
is safe, Captain. I have never thought less of any woman who lies with a man.”
“Yes, but it is not usually what we think of ourselves that makes our lives harder or easier; too often, it is what others think of you.”
“I will take that risk.”
“Godspeed to you, then.” Vashon paused at the hatch, straightened again. “
Trolls
, Fridasdottor?”
Annika shrugged. “They’re big and frightening. You have sentinels.”
“So we do.” Humor lifted the corners of her mouth. “I suddenly feel as if I might have been concerned for the wrong person. You will let Mr. Kentewess know that you hope to take his seed?”
“I won’t do it while he’s asleep, I assure you. He’ll know.”
“I suppose he will.”
With a short laugh, Vashon dropped through the hatch. Annika started the engine, then glanced out. David was embracing his aunt, who was looking up at him with teary eyes and a determined set of her chin. Oh, Lucia. What must she be feeling now? After years aboard
Phatéon
, she’d been forced off twice: first into a town full of the dead, and now into a town full of people who might be, if they didn’t soon receive food and help.
Whatever she was feeling, Lucia managed to step back, give him a pat on the chest as if to send him off. After a quick word to Dooley, he strode to the troll, holding Annika’s gaze. She backed up as he came inside, closed the hatch.
He unbuckled his coat. “Are we ready, then?”
“I am.” She watched him take in the changes she’d made, as his gaze lingered over the mattress. “You’re not upset that we overruled you?”
“You had a better option. A real choice.”
“Yes, but I’d have been angry anyway.”
He grinned. “On principle?”
“Yes.” She climbed into the seat, opened the eye louvers, and sighed at the sight of everyone gathered in the street—their expressions hopeful, worried. Some afraid. “I wanted more time with you. I didn’t mean to get it this way.”
“No. But I won’t waste the opportunity,” David said. He waited until she hauled the troll around before adding, “Go as far as you can. When you stop, I’ll lick you.”
Her feet almost missed the step. Heat flared through her belly, her heart speeding up. “Be careful,” she warned. “With incentive like that, I might quit early.”
“No, you won’t.”
“You know me that well?”
“Yes.”
So he did. Too many people were depending on her to push as hard as she could. Rest would become a physical necessity at some point, and she could be with him then. But if she stopped early, the guilt wouldn’t let her enjoy it.
She didn’t think David would enjoy anything that came at the expense of their friends, either.
The troll ambled past the last farmhouse, started up into the hills. Pushing the stompers took more effort, but she wasn’t yet out of breath. “Is it cruel to make you wait for me?”
If he ached even half as much, Annika thought she must be.
“In bed?”
“Yes.”
“No. I would be cruel to pressure you before you’re ready.”
She
was
ready. And hoped for so much. But did she love?
How could she know?
She knew this: “I want to scream from wanting you.”
“God.” Warm lips opened against the side of her neck. “I do, too. I would love to be inside you, tasting your mouth, listening to every moan.”
“David—”
His teeth closed over her earlobe, a tiny erotic pinch. Gooseflesh erupted over her skin. Annika’s hips rocked in the seat. She slowed the troll before she tipped it, her breath coming in desperate pants.
“I can’t, David. I can’t drive when you do that.”
“Then I’ll wait.” His voice was husky, low, sending another delicious shiver through her. “I’ll always wait, Annika. I’d rather take the time to learn what you like, what you don’t—so that by the time you love me,
if
you come to love me, I can make certain it’s good for you.”
A little bite had pushed her near to climax. She didn’t see how the rest wouldn’t be good, too. “Do you truly think it might not be?”
“I don’t know. You asked me about others once. I had to pay both of them. They didn’t enjoy it, I didn’t enjoy it…but each time was nothing like it has been with you.” He was quiet for a long moment. “I wish that I’d waited to fall in love, too.”
Her throat ached. “You can wait for it now.”
She felt his laugh against her hair, the shake of his head. This time, the kiss he pressed to her neck wasn’t openmouthed and hot, but soft and sweet.
“I’ll just wait for you,” he said.
It couldn’t be long. But if she began to dream of loving him, they’d probably find themselves tumbling over a cliff. She pushed harder, concentrating on the ground ahead.
When they reached the river and turned north, David asked, “Are we heading in the same direction?”
“Yes.” Though her lungs ached, her breath had evened out enough to speak. “That waterfall marks the route to the pass between the glaciers. We won’t stop there tonight, though.”
And it was slower going past the falls. The ground became rougher, a near-constant incline. Abrupt ridges threatened a wrong
step, boulders lurked under the snow to trip and roll. Twice, she backtracked to find gentler slopes to climb.
Hours passed. The ground evened out when they reached the valley that served as the pass, but Annika couldn’t go on any longer. She found a sheltered spot and sat the troll down. David pushed the engine to stop. Annika remembered his promise to lick her now, but lovemaking seemed to be the last thing on his mind.
It was the last on hers, too. While he opened the hatch, she picked up a spanner. None of the mangy curs had been in sight for the past hour or so, but she hoped the dogs didn’t surprise her with an attack while her ass was bare. She hurried through the necessary, used snow melted against the troll’s belly to wash. Covered again, she lingered for a few more seconds, looking up.
David joined her. Though the sky was clear, no lights danced across the heavens tonight. She studied the man beside her, instead—the strong line of his jaw, the slight bump in his throat that so many men seemed to have, and that became more apparent when they tilted their heads back. Was their throat more sensitive than a woman’s? She would kiss him there, and find out…though not now. The top of her head only reached his chin; she’d have to leap up to put her mouth on that spot. He was so very tall. Never had she been more aware of the breadth of him, his height.
He glanced down at her, and she saw the change in him as his gaze slowly fell to her mouth. He hadn’t been thinking of licking her when they’d stopped, but he was now.
“Do you want to go in?” His voice had deepened. Her belly suddenly seemed to hollow, then fill with heated anticipation.
“Yes.”
Heart pounding, she climbed through the hatch. David followed, caught her against him, his hard chest against her back, his arm around her waist. With his long body pressing against hers, he slowly unbuckled her coat, unwrapped her scarf.
His lips found the side of her neck. “This has become my favorite spot while you drive.”
Hers, too. With a soft moan, Annika’s head fell back against his shoulder. David nipped at her exposed throat. Need rushed through her, sensitizing her skin, bringing every touch into sharp awareness. His strong body behind her, the rigid length against her back. His arm at her waist, and his other hand sliding up her side beneath her chemise.
His large palm cupped her breast, his thumb sweeping over the hardened peak. Her knees went weak, her nipples achingly tight. His mouth opened over the skin below her ear. Light suction joined the gentle tease of his fingers, a line of fire that raced from his mouth to her breast. How could he do this so easily? And yet she still wanted, needed, so much more.
Panting, Annika arched into his hand. “David—”
“I know. God, I need to taste you.”
She tried to turn and find his mouth but he lifted her, instead—carrying her not to the mattress, but toward the troll’s head.
“Tell me if you don’t want this.” His voice was rough as he set her feet onto the third ladder rung, halfway up to the driver’s chamber. “I’ve thought of nothing else this entire way.”
“Thought of what?”
“I watched you climb in earlier. You have the most incredible bottom.”
He pressed gently against her back, as if urging her to bend over.
Oh.
Realization struck, followed a wicked stab of need. Suddenly trembling, she leaned forward, gripping the back of the driver’s seat. Though she could only see the driver’s chamber, Annika could too easily imagine the picture she made, bending over the top of the ladder, her backside at a height with his mouth. She wore trousers now, but soon she wouldn’t. This might be improper even by Hannasvik’s standards.
She didn’t care. David’s groan echoed through the hearth chamber, as if the sight of her tested his control. Strong hands smoothed down over her wool-covered bottom, his thumbs sliding closer together as they delved lightly into the crevice between her thighs. Annika shook, her fingers clamping on the seat.
He paused. “All right?”
“Yes.”
So very much all right.
His left hand found the buckle at her waist. Breathless, Annika stared blindly into the forest of pistons and levers. She would never see them again without remembering the tug against her side when her trousers loosened. Without remembering his fingers hooking beneath wool and linen, the gentle rasp of steel and the graze of his nails against her skin as he slowly drew them down to her knees. Without remembering the warm air of the hearth chamber slipping over her bared cheeks, and his humid breath.
Firm lips pressed to the sensitive crease at the top of her thigh. Annika groaned and closed her eyes, waiting in a torment of anticipation and need.
His hands gripped her hips, adjusted her angle. His tongue swathed a sudden path up her inner thigh. Annika cried out, her body clenching, an unbearable ache filling her heated sex.
“God. And you’re already so wet. You can’t know how much that means to me.”
He palmed the back of her trembling thighs, to hold her still or to support her, she didn’t know. Kisses trailed up her inner thigh, ever closer to her center. Desperate whimpers rose unbidden from her throat, became a needy gasp when she felt the brush of his fingers over her clitoris.
“This is where I rubbed you.”
“Yes.” It was more moan than word.
“This is where to lick?”
Please.
“Everywhere.”
His mouth covered her. Annika cried out, her body stiffening, surprise pushing her onto her toes. He followed her up, his tongue rubbing, rubbing, until acute pleasure bordered on pain. She gripped the seat harder, fighting the need to writhe against his mouth, to push away. Then he released her, but that was a new torture, a slow lick up through her slick folds.
Rough palms smoothed over her bottom again, as if reassuringly, and she realized that her breaths were coming in keening sobs.
“Those sounds you make—God, Annika. That’s exactly how I felt with your mouth on me. I want to do this to you forever. And so much more.”
Inside her? Oh, but she wanted that, too. She’d always thought to wait for love, but this act had to be just as intimate—and she’d be devastated if he did this with someone else.
Was that love? Or just desperate need? Did she want him so badly because she was falling in love, or because she was already there?
Another lick chased that question from her mind. His hands caught her hips, held her still for his tongue, and for the longest time there was only that, only that, until he eased back, as if realizing that even though the sound of her moans bordered on agony each lick was the sweetest torment, and he meant to draw it out.
Then his mouth covered her again and she came in a rush, screaming and crying his name, the gentle suction against her clitoris the most painfully intense, incredible bliss. He held her upright when she drifted down from it, her body limp.
He carried her to the bed, laid her down. When she reached for his trouser buckles, he caught her hand.
“I want to give you the same pleasure, David.”
He tucked her against his chest, her head pillowed on his arm. “You already did.”
Perhaps it was for the best. A yawn overtook her, a heavy
lethargy. She turned her face into his neck, inhaled his smoky scent. So wonderful. “I want to do this every night.”
A laugh rumbled from his chest. “I’d be glad to oblige.”
She could so easily imagine being with him. No good came of such dreams—but for tonight, the rest of the world could go to hell.
The troll suddenly seemed to sway, then settled into a gentle rocking. Annika tensed. “Do you feel that?”
“Yes.” He pulled out his watch—not just to note the time, she realized when he didn’t immediately put it away. He was seeing how long the quake lasted. “How stable is the troll?”
“I’ve been through rougher earthquakes inside one. We’ve never tipped.” And even if they did tip, it was better to be inside than to have the enormous machine fall on top of them while escaping.
After almost a full minute, the rocking ceased. David tucked away his watch, settled against her again.
“Do you have to write that in your journal?”
“I will after you’ve fallen asleep.” He pressed a kiss into her hair. “You’ve a long way to drive tomorrow.”
They were away long before dawn, roasted potatoes for
breakfast leaving him pleasantly full, and Annika the best company that he could imagine. The sun rose midway through the morning into a brilliant sky, the reflection on the snow almost blinding. His smoked lens only helped a little; before long, his head ached from the brightness and constant squinting. Annika repeatedly wiped her eyes, lowering the louvers as far as she could without closing them. The head of the pass stretched before the troll, almost flat here but rising toward the rougher highlands. Chunks of ice and boulders dotted the ground. From the valley floor, the glaciers to the east and west appeared like mountains, the edges of the ice standing in jagged, black cliffs.