“You shouldn’t do that,” he said, his voice thick with such intensity I arched my back farther, more of my body brushing against his
“I know,” I said.
He angled my head back, his eyes on my lips. “Weshouldn’t want this.”
“I know.”
He flattened his hand against my back, merging our bodies entirely, his lips not even an inch away. “It’s against the rules. We vowed not to do this.”
“I know.”
He shamelessly pressed his cock against me. “We should leave this room.”
“I know.” I slid my hands over his muscular arms like I’d wanted to for a while now, weaving them into his hair and tugging him so close his lips brushed mine. “But I’m not going to.”
A groan resounded in his heaving chest, and for the first time since I met this stupidly attractive, lethal, insanely impossible Viking warrior, his resolve snapped.
“Fuck it.”
He lifted me at the same time I reached for him, and our lips crashed together as he slammed me down on the table. The hand on my back moved to shove my legs apart and he stepped in between them, crushing my chest against his own. His mouth was hot on mine, and he dragged my head back by my hair to deepen the kiss.
I moaned into his mouth when his chest rumbled with a groan, and he hauled me closer, fusing us together so hard I would have bruises later. Heat pooled in my core, setting my entire body aflame.
“I needmore.” I pulled at his hair, wrapping my legs around his back and using his hardness to relieve some of the burning want that consumed me worse than anything else I’d ever felt.
“I’ll give you everything you fucking want,” he growled, moving to my neck and pressing lazy hot kisses there that made me tighten my grip on his hair to get him back up to my lips. “You only need to ask and it’s yours.”
Darcke captured my whimper with his mouth, his tongue playfully dancing with mine until I couldn’t think about anything else but this—him.Us.
I slid my hands beneath his shirt and explored the cordedmuscles I’d admired so many times. Somehow his tunic disappeared, and it was his turn to moan when I leaned forward and nipped at the scarred water rune on his chest, letting my tongue follow its outline until it was imprinted in my mind.
“Fucking Hel, Elvara.” His breathing was ragged, erratic, primal, and my core clenched until I had to shut my eyes at the look of desperate need on his face.
Hel was right. That was where we were going for doing this.
Darcke’s hands slid under my ass and he lifted me from the table, holding me against him until my face was level with his. “You sure you want this?”
I rocked against him, letting him feel the fire taking every rational thought and all willpower within me, and howI didn’t care.
“I want you,” I said. “I want this.”
He kissed me again, and my stomach hollowed and roared and roiled at the same time, because the way his tongue mapped my mouth, his lips covering every inch of my own, kissing from corner to corner, trailing more along my jaw, was with the desperation of a man drowning—knowing the end was near but refusing to believe it.
“I’m not a good man,” he warned me. “I’ve done bad things, and I will continue to do them. This. Us. Doesn’t change that.”
“I know.” I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist, letting my hands whisper over his wide shoulders. “I’m still sure.”
“I can’t say…” He swallowed hard, his eyes darkening for reasons I didn’t want to think about. “There are things you do not know.”
My fingers trailed his neck, and even though I couldn’t see the collar, hatred burned through me as I fisted his hair, forcing his eyes to mine.
“I do know,” I said hotly. “Still. Sure.”
He might not be able to tell me everything—that magical leash held his tongue—but even if he was behind the attacks,which I fucking doubted, given he’d nearly died today as well, I wasn’t sure I would have cared at this point.
We’d murdered his entire people.
Did we not deserve this? Did the king not deserve it?
