Page 18 of Stolen By the Berserker

“Yes. No.” Damn it. She couldn’t think when he was this close.

He stopped laughing and closed the gap between them. Tracing her jaw with his fingers, he pushed her hair behind one ear. “What else do you need to know about me?” he growled.

That gravelly voice should scare her. Instead, it heated her core.

“How did Freya give me a dagger in a dream?”

He frowned. “I don’t know how the gods work.”

“Okay, then, what are those freaky things we fought in my front yard?” She tried not to enjoy the closeness of him, the warmth of his body.

“They’re genetic wolverine-human hybrids created by Loki.” His hand was playing with her hair again.

“Who?” She refused to lean into his touch, even though every fiber of her body wanted to. She counted backward from ten to still her tingling hormones.

“Loki.”

“I don’t understand.”

He traced her neck and shoulder with the tip of his finger. “If I tell you more, will you kiss me again?”

She looked up. “One kiss. No touching,” she said, secretly thrilled to have an excuse to feel his lips again.

Sten smiled. “If that’s all you offer, I’ll take it.” He leaned in.

Cassie stepped back. “Tell me more about these wolverines and Loki first.”

He studied her for a moment. “I think you want me to kiss you now.”

She shook her head, hoping they would both believe the lie. “Tell first,” she croaked out.

His smirk was smug, but he nodded. “The gods and goddesses are fighting among themselves. They can’t take that conflict tothe human realm, but Loki found a loophole. He has humans produce these genetic monsters.”

“So, your job is to fight these creatures. Like some kind of military unit?”

“My tribe and I are, in a way, like the military.”

“But not a branch of the actual military.” Cassie made it into a statement.

Sten shook his head, smiling. “I’ve answered enough questions for a kiss now.”

She swallowed loudly. A part of her couldn’t wait to taste his lips again.

Another part, the part that handled self-perseverance, told her to ask him to leave until her overheated libido calmed down and her brain worked again. Now.

But she felt so much better being close to him again. The fever had disappeared, and energy flooded her body.

And she needed to taste those lips again.

Wait, no. She shook her head to clear her mind.

A self-satisfied smirk played on Sten’s lips again, as if he knew her internal struggle.

She had never backed down from a challenge, though. “Okay. One kiss, but your hands stay where I can see them.”

He lifted one hand.

She stepped back, but there was no more space behind her, so she hit the wall. “I said no touching.”

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