Page 57 of Valkyrie Unknown

Her freckled cheeks were pink and her eyes wild. “That was?—”

“Intense,” I finished for her.

She nodded, almost smiling. “You know what you’re doing.”

“So do you.”

“I hope so.” Despite her confident response, she looked pleased at the praise.

Her lips were flushed. Her hair mussed. She looked even more irresistible than in the diner. She grabbed my hand and pressed it to her chest, directly over her hammering heart. “A fight like that always gets me wound up.”

“I know what you mean.” I shouldn’t. I’d never done that before outside of practice. “We worked well together.”

“Like we were in sync.”

It was more than that. “Like I knew what you were going to do—” Fuck talking. I needed to burn off some of this energy. I slipped my hand up to the back of her neck, gripped, and crushed my mouth to hers.

She bit my bottom lip hard enough that the tang of copper mixed with sugary strawberry, and she kissed me back. Her heart hammered hard enough for me to still feel it, when I pressed closer to her. Or that was my heart. Or both. An odd sensation wrapped around me, tying us to each other.

I needed more. I needed all of her.

Sixteen

Azzie

A tiny,rational voice in my brain said I needed to slow down. Be cautious. Consider what might be going on here. My adrenaline-fueled, fighting brain needed an outlet. Needed to be closer to this man who hadn’t even told me his real name.

“Should we be worried there are more of those things?” His question was breathless and punctuated by nibbles along my skin.

This was more than the desire that came with a fight. This was almost like a drug. Like an intoxication I’d lost the willpower to ignore. “Not when there’s only one.” Talking about anything but getting naked took more effort than I wanted to give the task.

“So… Sometimes one just wanders off alone and gets lost?” He dropped his hands to my ass and pinned me to the nearest wall, molding our bodies together. The need was so potent, feeding it was life. If I pulled my mouth from his, if I fought the hunger spilling inside, I might stop breathing.

“Something like that.” The feeling that this moment was all that mattered, that if I let go of Zee or listened to the warning bells clanging loudly behind all the lust, was more terrifying than being attacked by a draugr. I didn’t have control. I didn’t want to. “Besides, we’re safer together.”

Now was when I should stop. Acknowledge that his past and mine being so alike was something I needed to pay attention to. Walk away. Forget Zee and find another blacksmith.

Or now was when we should fuck. That was the only thought I could keep in my head for longer than a second.

He held me so tightly, his erection dug into my hip. I fisted his shirt and ground into his cock, my hips working back and forth.

Zee let out a strained chuckle. “You’re going to dry hump a hole in my dick if you keep that up.”

“So… keep going?” I teased while he tasted my lips.

“Or…” He dragged his mouth up my jaw to my ear. “We move to the part where we fuck until neither of us can walk.”

Yes, please. Was this considered falling off the wagon? Did I care? “You have condoms?” I did, but if he saidno, maybe the answer would be enough to bring me to my senses.

“Bedroom.”

Thank the gods. “Where?”

He half-guided me and we stumbled in a tangle of limbs and desperation to get clothes out of the way. We’d lost our shirts by the time we reached the bedroom door, and my bra fell to the floor before we reached the bed.

He stepped back, and my body whimpered at the loss of contact, but I did like the way he raked his gaze over me. “If I lick hard enough, do the freckles come off?” he asked.

“Only one way to find out.”

---