She nipped him again. ‘Show me how.’
‘With pleasure,’ he rumbled.
She moaned as he deepened the kiss, parting the seam of her lips with his tongue and seizing her mouth. All thoughts spun away from Greta until there was only the thunder of his heart beating against hers, and the ragged gasps of her pleasure as he worshipped her with his tongue.
Time dissolved into nothing as she gave herself to the punishing perfection of his kiss, melting into the king’s embrace like she belonged there. There was a rightness to it, the taste of him setting her soul alight, the sound of his rasping breaths echoing her own.
Her knees began to tremble, buckling under the weight of this stolen moment – this blissful joining – that felt both primal and tender, impossible and inevitable. Sensing her need as if it were his own, he hooked a strong arm around her waist, spinning her away from the door and walking her back towards the bench. He pulled her down on to his lap, and she straddled his hips, neither one of them breaking the kiss as he slid his hands up her back, moulding her body to his own. The heat between them became an inferno, every press of their lips no longer a playful exploration but a searing demand.
A desperate, burning claiming.
Greta could have stayed in his lap all day, drinking down his desire and still aching for more, if only the door hadn’t swung open when it did.
She was too lost in him to hear the footsteps behind her.
He was too lost in her to see the sword sliding from its sheath.
Then a familiar voice erupted, with a cold and rattling fury. ‘Get your fucking hands off my sister!’
Greta froze, her eyes flying open an inch from Alarik’s. She desperately hoped she had imagined her brother’s voice, but the king’s face went slack with horror. Before either of them could react, Tor grabbed her hood and yanked her off Alarik’s lap.
She stumbled backwards, falling against her brother’s chest. She felt it heaving with anger as his sword came around her, the tip of it now pointed at the king’s chin.
‘Go wait outside, Greta,’ said Tor, in a low, dangerous voice. ‘I’m about to murder the king of Gevra.’
CHAPTER 35
Alarik
Alarik’s morning had unravelled spectacularly. One minute, he was kissing Greta, greedily devouring her moans and letting his worries dissolve on her tongue, and the next, he was staring into the seething face of her brother.
His best friend wanted to kill him.
And a small, furious part of Alarik wanted to kill Tor. If only for the interruption.
Greta stood frozen in front of her brother. Her lips were swollen and her cheeks were stained pink, her chest heaving as she searched for breath. Alarik had to fight the urge to pull her back into his arms. ‘You should step outside,’ he said, in a measured voice, as though there wasn’t a sword pointed at his chin. ‘Tor and I need to speak.’
‘I don’t want to speak to you,’ said Tor, in a voice that was all gravel. ‘I want to fight you.’
Greta tried to push his arm down. ‘Don’t be such a brute!’
Alarik carefully rolled to his feet, keeping a wary eye on that blade as he made a wide arc around Tor.
Tor turned on his heel, following his every move. ‘Pick up your sword,’ he challenged. ‘I won’t fight you empty-handed.’
‘I’d rather we didn’t fight at all,’ said Alarik.
‘You should have thought about that before you shoved your tongue down my sister’s throat. I should gut you right now for taking advantage of her.’
‘That’s not what happened!’ said Greta, slamming her fist into his shoulder.
Tor didn’t flinch.
She hit him again, then tugged at the collar of his grey travelling cloak, trying to tear his murderous gaze from Alarik. ‘What are you even doing here?’ she demanded. ‘You haven’t been back to Carrig in months.’
He glanced at her. ‘I’ve just been to Carrig. Imagine my surprise when I returned to our island to find my youngest sister missing. Gone to work as a wrangler for the brutal king she used to fear, to train his beasts for wars that she doesn’t believe in.Freezing hell, Greta, you can’t even pluck a chicken without crying!’
‘What was I supposed to do?’ she said, her own voice rising. ‘Let our family starve because you went away and forgot about us!’
