Page 17 of Loving the Blacksmith
“But if she didn’t want anyone to try and save the hut, how did Björn end up trapped inside?” Agnes asked, moving the wet hair to his other shoulder.
“Because all of a sudden Dunne’s daughter ran into the inferno, crying that she wanted to save her cat.” Magnus remembered the horror on everyone’s face when Dawn had escaped her mother’s grasp. There had been no need to do anything, however, because Björn had moved before anyone else could react. Quick as a flash, he’d rushed after the little girl. The door had collapsed just after him, blocking their retreat. For a moment it had looked as if all was lost.
The hands at his back stopped and he heard an intake of breath. “She didn’t!”
“I’m afraid she did, but Björn was able to lift her out of the window. Both of them are well, as is the cat,” he reassured her. “Wolf and Sigurd hacked a hole through the wall just in time to get Björn out.”
Silence followed his declaration. Then slender fingers slid down his spine, before stopping just above the water surface, and dangerously close to his loins.
“Shall I continue?” Agnes rasped when he didn’t react.
Yes.No! Please.
“I... I think it might be better to use a cloth to rub at my face and hands,” he said in lieu of an answer. “The soot will come more easily that way.”
That, and the fact that he could not imagine feeling her bare hands gliding over his chest. Because this time, she would be facing him and she would see the hunger in his eyes. He was too weak to put an end to the moment, but he could at least put a barrier between their skins, flimsy as it was.
“You’re right, I should have thought.” Agnes sounded as breathless as he was. “Let me go get one from your hut.”
Alone in the rapidly cooling water, Magnus tried to calm down the beating of his heart. Or rather, the pulsing in his groin. That was as excruciating, as delicious as he had feared. What had possessed him to accept Agnes’ offer? Come to that, what had possessed her to offer such an intimate thing as to wash him? The woman was full of surprises. Shy as she appeared at first glance, she had agreed to his suggestion that they should sleep next to one another mere days after having met him. In the cave, she had behaved with the most disconcerting brazenness, even though she had been new to such caresses. And now she was running her hands all over his body as if it were the normal thing to do. Didn’t she know where this could end?
Where itwouldend if he had his say?
No. It wouldn’t lead anywhere. Officially, he was here to wash the soot away, and that was all he would do if it killed him. She had washed the only part of his body he didn’t have access to. The rest, he could bloody well wash by himself, starting with his hair. He could not risk having her hands anywhere near his throbbing member, because then he would lose his mind and make her do what he had already made her do back in the cave, when he should have asked why she was afraid of bats instead of using her to slake the lust raging in his blood. Anything but that.
One moment of folly might be forgiven, two would establish him as a despicable lecher who thought nothing of using innocent women for his selfish pleasure.
That sealed it. When she came back with the cloth, he would tell her he would finish washing on his own. Nothing would happen today.
With decision, he plunged his soapy head under the water.
Agnes clutched the piece of cloth tight against her chest as if by doing so she could prevent her heart from exploding. Touching Magnus’ back, even if she had tried to keep her gestures brisk and efficient, had been heavenly. His skin had been so smooth, the muscles underneath so taut, vibrant with power. How would she cope with touching the rest of him?
With touching the part she had already stroked once and was desperate to stroke again? She had not missed how he had kept his hands in his lap while she washed him, so as to hide his member from view.
Had he been hard? Had he simply wanted to avoid her seeing anything she wasn’t supposed to see? She had been unable to think of anything else until she’d asked him about the fire.
Shouldn’t she give him the cloth and leave him to finish his bath alone? Yes. Would she be able to? She wasn’t sure. In any case, she needed to go now. She could not leave him to wait for her indefinitely.
When she entered the forge again, Agnes thought for a moment that Magnus had finished his ablutions without her and left. It would make sense, considering how long she had taken to build up the courage to get back to him. The water would be cold by now, and who liked to linger in a too small, no longer warm tub? Then she saw the long legs draped over the rim. No wonder she had not seen his head and neck. They were submerged under water. Dread spiked through her, like hundreds of ice shardspiercing her skin all at once. Had he fallen asleep and drowned while she was getting the cloth? Dear God, no!
She rushed to him, hoping not to be too late.
“Magnus!”
Kneeling on the floor, she put her hands into the water to lift him up. At the exact same time, he resurfaced of his own accord. What happened next was inevitable.
Their lips met, his warm and wet from the water, hers cold and stiff from the fear she had just experienced.
It was not a kiss, precisely, more an accidental collision of lips, but she knew instantly it would become a kiss. And maybe more. As soon as they touched, she was seized by the irresistible urge to let Magnus take what he wanted from her.
And take it he did.
Thinking she deserved to experience at least some of the things men and women could share together, even if she didn’t mean to marry, Agnes had kissed a boy from her village some years ago, and it had been nice enough. This was not nice. It was hot, it was fiery, it was scandalous, it was... well, like Magnus himself, wild.
The relief of knowing he had not drowned, the pleasure his touch created within her, the thrill of being in the proximity of a naked man, everything conspired to make her melt.
His wet hands grabbed the back of her neck at the same time as he raised himself up to a sitting up position in order to devour her more fully. She moaned, and had to place her palms on his slippery shoulders to steady herself. The kiss deepened, and he started to use his tongue was well as his lips, massaging hers, transforming her into a liquid mass of limbs. She felt as if she were floating in a tub of warm water herself.
