11
Bella
* * *
As Kaiser carries me back to the house, I have to consider if I’ve made a mistake. Maybe I am gullible.
But this is so much better than rereading Viking Thunder for the eleventy-hundreth time. Or binge-watching seasons one through three of Vampire Varsity.
I can poison him tomorrow. Right now, I want to know what he has planned for me. I want to know more about him. I didn’t win this round, but I’ll take the L in exchange for intel behind enemy lines. Lose the battle to win the war, right?
Or maybe I’m just telling myself that. The chase left me exhilarated. Excitement always makes me reckless. I ride the feeling like a runaway train and make bad choices.
But… making good choices is so boring. I love that crazy, fluttery feeling I get when I’m being reckless. The crazy fluttery feeling I get whenever I’m around him. I love it! I want more.
Bad choices for the win!
He’s got me over his shoulder, draped like a mink stole. My braids are now a lost cause, and my face is turning red from being upside down, but I have an excellent view of his butt.
I poke it to see if it’s really as round and firm as it looks.
Slap! His hand claps down on my rear, and I stiffen. “What was that for?”
“Behave.”
“You behave.” His gloved hand didn’t spank me hard enough for it to hurt, but my finger throbs like it’s broken. His glutes are like granite. I tell him this, and he grunts.
A smarter person would stop sassing the man who might kill them, but what’s the fun in that?
I’m giddy like I’m in the grips of a sugar rush and cannot be held responsible for my actions.
He swings by the front door, picks up a black duffel, and carries me upstairs to my ensuite bathroom. He flips me upright and sets me carefully on the sink counter. “Stay.”
I stick my tongue out at his back. The second he moves away, I’ll run again.
“What are you doing?” He’s removed the gloves he borrowed from my greenhouse and set his black duffel back beside the sink. “What’s in the bag?”
He’s set it out of reach. Now he’s rummaging around under my bathroom counter. “Do you need a tampon? I only have a Diva Cup. I’m on birth control that stops my period.”
“I know,” he says. That gives me pause.
“Did you look at my medical records?” That’s unsettling. I don’t want him knowing so much about me, but I am flattered he did his homework. I’ll need to find a way to use the information he knows against him.
He emerges with a new bar of soap. He unwraps it and sets it in the shower, then starts to strip.
Just like that, I can’t move. He starts with his shirt, whipping it off and revealing all the glorious muscles rippling under his tattoos. His skin has a golden tint to it, like he works outside. Maybe when he’s my husband, I can get him to mow my lawn shirtless.
New kink unlocked.
Next, he puts his hands on his belt. I press my legs together and whimper.
He glances at me.
“Don’t mind me,” I say, waving a hand. He’s been doing a good job of ignoring me so far, but there’s a glint in his eye that tells me he knows exactly what he’s doing.
I can’t even be mad! I’m only human, and his body puts Thorbjorn’s to shame. And Thorbjorn is a fictional character!
If I had the body of a demigod, I’d use it as an unfair advantage, too.
