He’d been given a second chance with her. And if it meant casting his own spell over Elena, tempting her until she could no longer think of anything but him, so be it.
Chapter Seventeen
“Take me somewhere,” Elena asked softly. She wanted Ragnar desperately, but not here. Not surrounded by so many.
“Unless you want to go back to your home, this is all we have,” he admitted. They were shielded from view, and Elena didn’t doubt that no one would interrupt them.
He moved to whisper against her ear. “Can you be quiet?”
The thought of making love to this man a second time, while other people surrounded them, was both terrifying and stimulating. Elena nodded, and Ragnar removed his tunic and chainmail corselet.
She was transfixed by the sight of his muscled body. His brown hair was tied back with a thong, and he had leather braces on both arms. When he caught her staring, a slight smile played upon his mouth as if he wanted her to remember the stolen touches from the last time.
His hardened muscles were ridged, and she ached to touch him.
With this man, she had never felt unworthy. Instead, he stared at her as if she were as necessary to him as the air he breathed.
“I shouldn’t have married Styr,” she confessed, her hands resting against his chest. “I was so taken by him when I was a girl, but we weren’t right for one another.”
Ragnar’s face tightened, as if he didn’t want to hear any of this. And yet, she needed him to know it. This man had been her best friend, and she had sensed something between them long ago. He filled up the loneliness within her in a way Styr never had.
“Styr cared about you,” he said at last. “He wanted to keep you safe. When we were at Gall Tír, he made me swear to protect you.”
“He liked me well enough, for an arranged match.” Elena traced her hands over the hard flesh of his abdomen. “But it was never right.”
She let her hands fall away, wanting him to know the truth. “Do you know how awful it was, trying to mold myself into a woman he could love? I did everything I could to change myself, but it never worked.” The bitterness in her tone was harsh. “And then I couldn’t even give him children.”
“Don’t do this to yourself.” He caught her by the arm. “We don’t need to talk about it.”
He didn’t understand, and she took a breath, gathering her courage. “I wanted you to understand that…it was never a good marriage. Even in the beginning. I could never talk to him the way I talk to you.”
“He was blind to what was in front of him,” Ragnar said. He pushed her back against the wall, and when he trapped her hands, she inhaled sharply. “But I’m not.”
In his eyes, Elena saw the open yearning. It reached into her, past the heartache of a husband who had never been able to loveher. She’d tried so long to change herself to be the woman Styr wanted. And here was a man who didn’t want her to change at all.
“Perhaps I was the one who was blind to what was in front of me,” she said.
And it was true. She’d sensed all along that Ragnar had feelings for her, though he’d been careful not to show them. “Or am I wrong?”
He framed her face with his hands. “What do you think,søtnos?”
His words gave her a boldness she’d never imagined. She pulled him down to kiss him, but instead of the familiar, soul-stealing kisses he’d claimed before, this one was softer.
It was an awakening, a sense that she’d known this man for so many years…and yet she didn’t know him at all. Her breathing quickened, and the rush of arousal that filled her was one she’d never before experienced. There was no guilt or remorse. Only a new beginning.
He was learning her, tracing his hands over her hair and face. And when he bent to her throat, she leaned back, shuddering as his tongue flicked against her pulse.
She pulled back to look at him, and for the first time, she realized how much Ragnar had come to mean to her. He’d stood by her when she’d been taken captive and they’d managed to survive. He’d been there for her during the worst of times.
Yet she wanted to know him better.
His hands were moving over her, gently loosening the laces of her gown. But she didn’t want a hurried night of lovemaking—at least, not now. She wanted to slow down, to open her eyes to the man before her. To know him, the way he’d known her all these years in secret silence.
“Slow down,” she whispered, stepping back.
There was a fleeting look of surprise on his face, but she touched his bare chest, caressing him.
“I always admired you, even when I was a girl,” she admitted. “Even when I was already betrothed to Styr…I enjoyed watching you.” She traced the outline of his muscles, where skin and sinew joined to a harsh pulse at his throat. “You moved like no man I’d ever seen before.”
