"You take advantage of my worries. There is no skill in that!"
He threw his head back and laughed. When he stopped, yet still chuckling, he grabbed her arm and drew her near.
"Do you challenge me?"
Freyja, help me now."Perhaps."
"I accept. You will be screaming my name soon, this I promise."
He leaned in for a brief, yet possessive, kiss, his tongue sliding along her lips in a tantalizing tease before he drew away. He stood, reached for another one of the grouse and cut a piece off. He chewed noisily, laughing again when she fixed a disgusted sneer on him.
Thankfully, he said nothing more while they ate. Reaching for a handful of the berries, Thora kept watch over her wolves, but they seemed content. Kata once more slept, still weak. Thora estimated at least another three or four days before the wolf could comfortably travel modest distances. Three or four more days with Ari. Surely by then, he would be tired of her. The thought was accompanied by another uncomfortable twinge she found difficult to understand or ignore.
He stood, drawing her from her reverie. Her entire body tensed, wondering if he planned to seduce her now.
"I go to the stream to bathe. When I come back, you had better be ready for me."
He turned and stalked into the forest, and the tightness in her muscles eased. Be ready? Ha! She would set her pallet near the wolves. Falling asleep before he returned posed a very different dilemma.
***
Ari reached the stream quickly, needing the cool water to calm his raging desire. His plan for tonight depended on his ability to retain control. In this state, it would be over before he even had a chance to begin digging to uncover the true depths of her passion. Anger at his weakness roiled through him, making it easier to subdue the hunger.
Stripping off his tunic and hose, strode straight into the stream, diving when the water grew a little deeper. The coolness surrounded him and he floated for a few moments, savoring a return to sanity.
Which wouldn't remain once he returned to camp, and Thora. What was it about this woman that had him so bewitched? He sighed, turning and stroking his arms against the current. The brief activity also served to expend some of the intense energy keeping him on edge. When he rose out of the water, his thoughts ran clearer. Now calm once more, he shook his head, shedding much of the water from his hair.
He reached for the cloth from his pack and quickly dried off. The last of Sol's chariot had winked out on the horizon some time ago. The fact they had lost so much of the day in slumber also troubled him, but he wouldn't let Thora know that. While true her wolves would have alerted them to intruders, the heavy sated slumber could turn out deadly for a warrior. He must find a way to contain this lust that overtook him every time he was near her. Hel, he didn't even have to be near her. Just the thought of her had his cock poised on full hardness.
He'd never met a woman like her before. At times, she seemed lost and afraid, and the urge to protect her, care for her, surged through him. But when she showed her fiery temper, she set him alight. He sensed she'd been quite troublesome as a child. Clearly much of that still guided her actions.
The image of her dark eyes, wide in passionate wonderment as he'd brought her to climax left him breathless and aching to have her now. She waited for him, had she obeyed his instruction? A smile pulled at his mouth. Probably not.Good.
He tugged his trousers on but didn't bother with the tunic, needing the cool evening air on his skin. With his pack slung over his shoulder, he turned toward the camp.
As he'd suspected, she lay on a fur near her wolves, still fully clothed. He grinned. Stepping slowly and quietly toward her, he studied her supposedly sleeping form, her back to him. Her long dark hair cascaded across the fur and he fought the urge to bend and gather the tresses in his fingers. Not yet.
Instead, he dropped his pack noisily near her head. She jerked, but didn't rise.
"I know you are awake. And you disobeyed my order."
Her shoulders went rigid and he almost laughed imagining how hard it was for her to restrain her response. He crouched behind her. Reining in the impulse to haul her up and against him took a few moments. He leaned in close to her ear, taking another couple of seconds to linger, savoring her sweet and musky scent. The slightest tremor passed over her and he smiled. He kept his voice low.
"We had an agreement and you keep trying to break it. I won't allow it."
She moved so fast, he had to jerk out of the way to avoid being bashed in the head.
"Who in Odin's name do you think you are? You cannot allow or disallow me anything!"
He laughed, knowing the coming hours would be even more powerful than last night.
"You owe me." Another laugh punctuated his taunt.
"You oafish bastard!" She punctuated each word with another jab of her finger into his chest. "Yes, I do owe you. However, I have already given you what you want."
"Again, you seek to twist the terms. There is much more that I want from you."
Her lips pressed together and he fought the need to kiss her into compliance.
