He'd laid back beside her and thought about that even as they continued their conversation. The soul endured. It was almost a softer way of looking at death, in knowing that... Well, he would not be alone. Ever, really. The dead could return and their spirits could guide him for centuries to come. Even his children would be seen by all those who came before.
Eventually, though, Gunnar thought about leaving this room. He wasn't even sure how long they had been indulging themselves, but they had a life out there.
Someone was going to think they'd died. And it wasn't that far of a stretch. Her hunger for him, and his hunger for her, could easily consume the two of them.
Sex wasn't always easy for Rose, but he would spend the rest of his life working through every single one of those memories, and also learning what would make her uncomfortable. There was a list a mile long, but he remembered every single time she tensed up or didn’t like what he was doing.
But then came a knock that was as insistent as it was annoying. Whoever was knocking didn't stop, and finally Gunnar had the choice of leaving taken away from him. Grumbling under his breath, he made sure that Rose had a blanket wrapped around her before he stomped over to the door.
"Clothes, Gunnar!" Rose said with a laugh.
"If they're interrupting us right now, they damn well know I'm not going to have any clothes on."
He flung the door open, caring very little if it was his new sister-in-law who was overstepping her bounds. It was not, though. Instead, it was Magnus who stood in the opening.
A little dramatically, the prince waved a hand in front of his face. "You really need to air this room out. It positively reeks in here."
And then he walked in.
Right into the room. Without being invited.
The prince strode over to the wardrobe, perched himself on top of it, and then declared, "I need both of you to help me. There is a lot going on and the two of you need to be informed about it."
"We are newly bonded. We will be doing no such thing." Gunnar kept the door open, and then waved his arm as though ushering the prince out. "The door is still open, your highness."
"Yes, it does need to be. Again, the smell." Magnus then dismissed him and instead looked at Rose.
Gunnar had never been more furious to have another man's eyes on her. Her hair was all mussed from his fingers carding through the pretty locks. Her cheeks were still flushed from the attention he had been giving her with his mouth buried between her thighs. She had scratch marks on her shoulders from his claws, and she was still very much naked underneath the blanket that she currently held against her chest.
Gods, he could see her legs. Sure, it was only from the calf down, but Magnus was looking at her and talking to Rose when she was unclothed and Gunnar was going to gouge his eyes out for such a thing.
"Magnus!" he thundered, and both of them went quiet to stare at him. "Get out."
"I'm the prince. I can be wherever I want. Besides, I need you both to listen. Not just the lovely Rose."
"She is not lovely to you, she is just Rose." Gunnar was about to throw him out of the room. "Magnus, I am giving you one more warning before I remove you myself."
"You could put pants on. That might make you more intimidating." Magnus rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Rose. This concerns you, but I'm not sure that you will be able to help very much. Were you close to the princess at all?"
She situated the blanket around her ribs a little tighter, sticking the ends under her armpits and clearly considering his question as though he had any right whatsoever to talk to her right now. "I had a lot of interactions with her while I was in the labyrinth, but I wouldn't say that I know her at all. She's a little confusing to the best of folks. Lived a very, very luxurious life and had everyone at her beck and call, but for some reason was still deeply unhappy."
"With a father like that, I can't say I blame her."
"Well, King James was a large part of that I am certain. And perhaps another part would be the fact that she was surroundedby so many powerful women who looked just like her. I'm sure she had a suspicion that most of us were her bloodline."
"Interesting. I don't suspect that's a good enough reason for the absolute bloodthirsty monster she actually is, but I digress." He waved a hand in the air. "She is working to take up her father's mantle, apparently. She wants to unite the remains of his forces and attack us."
"There aren't many of his forces left after what Astrid did."
"Precisely. But what if she had something else under her thumb. Some kind of special weapon."
Gunnar was done listening to this. He slammed the door shut so hard the wall shook with the force and then stalked toward Magnus. "You're leaving."
"I need someone who was in the labyrinth, and Rose spent a considerable amount of time there."
"Ask Torbin," he snarled, grabbing Magnus by the shirt and hauling him toward the closed door.
"I tried to ask Torbin. The man refuses to work through any of his trauma, thus making him almost impossible to talk to. He just said that the princess was a horrible person and that I should give up trying to understand her." Magnus stopped talking for a brief moment when Gunnar yanked the door back open and threw him out. Not for very long, though.
