Page 12 of Her World In His Hands

“Hear me out. I agree it would be a bad thing for your cosmetic company to be associated with a BDSM club, however upmarket, and the last thing you need is your photo plastered over the media. You don’t want people looking at your picture and your previous identities and coming up with a suspicious tale about you. Let me be the front of this venture I have not been as well-known as you over the years, and with the different fashions and facial hair trends, it has been easy for me to alter my looks. My company is also relatively new, whereas yours dates back generations.”

He ascertained she understood that what he said made sense, but she wasn’t yet ready to accept him as a part of her life. The fact his physical presence made her pulse race and her panties wet, was obviously not a reason to allow him a second chance. It had taken him hundreds of years to find her, and by hook or by crook he would find a way to lower her defences.

“I’ll give it some thought and get back to you. In the meantime, please ask the Gods to vacate their positions and I’ll get onto an agency to look at hiring more staff.” She gave him a stiff polite smile and rose to her feet, hand held out, indicating their meeting was at an end.

He could see that it infuriated her when he ignored her hand and remained seated.

“Is the chest still filling with coin?” he asked.

“It is, but since I cannot explain where the ancient gold coins came from, it would be claimed as treasure by the government and I would become suspect should I attempt to use it. You can remove it from my cellar since it is redundant to my needs. Now I really have to go. Thank you for coming.”

“Sassa… ” he stood and before she could blink, he held her in his arms pressed up against his chest.

Her eyes closedas the effects of his scent and touch of his body seared

her flesh and befuddled her brain. The feel of his hands cupping her face took her back to another time. His mouth lowered to hers, a soft sigh escaped her as their lips met. In that instance heat flared between them. It took every ounce of self will for her to push her shaking arms up between them and shove him away. “No,” she gasped, panting as though she was out of breath, “No, Njord. This ends here. You have to understand there will never be anything between us not now and not in the future. It was over hundreds of years ago, and I will not be a pawn in your sport.”

“You don’t really believe that, you can’t believe that is all you were or are to me?” he asked hoarsely.

“I refuse to be your little puppet. I don’t need you, and I won’t play your cruel and shallow games of love. Please just go. Leave!”Yes, leave before I weaken, and you smash my heart into a trillion tiny fragments which will take me another several hundred years to put back together except there will be more piecesmissing this time.

A sudden terrifying darkness descended. She shrieked into inky blackness.

“Stay calm, Sassa, I’m here–”

“Where the devil are we?” she interrupted in panic.

“In the dungeon below the house. Hold on, I have a torch on my phone.”

A beam of light caused her to blink. “I hate the way you do that!”

“Turn on my phone?”

“No, you ass! Suddenly transporting me somewhere else… warn me next time, or better still, stop doing this to me! Why have you brought me down here anyway?”

“I don’t want a certain God to overhear what I’m about tell you.”

“Odin?”

“No.” He seated himself on the money chest and leaned towards her.

“Loki,” he breathed the name conspiratorially and placed a finger over her lips before she could respond by speaking his name.

“Your foolishness evoked him and that means danger to all mortals who visit the club,” he explained.

Understanding dawned. She’d set the club safe-word as, ‘Loki,’ which meant every time someone called out his name, the malevolent God could enter the club. “Ohshit!”

“I warned you not to swear, I won’t tell you again, this is your final warning.”

“Or what? This is not the dark ages, you neandertal! Nowadays you can’t just pick up a woman and spank her without her consent, not anymore, not in this day and age!” She sneered scornfully.

He picked her up and deposited her on his lap facing him, her legs dangling on either side of his knees.

“Really? Why are you denying your feelings for me, Sassa? We both know how we feel about each other. We’ve already had so much time stolen from us by Odin’s decree. Let’s not waste any more time. I want us to get on with our lives. I have no qualms about spanking you, with or without your consent. I’m a God after all and such niceties don’t concern me. You’re my woman and you know it, so why not simply admit the truth?” His voice held a determined edge which she recognised.

Her first and third husband had all been judicious spankers and had used a similar tone with her, but that was a different era, one where men controlled their women. It made her furious to think that after hundreds of years, Njord expected to simply waltz back into her life thinking he had the right to order her about.

“Fuck off, Njord!” Before she could blink, she found herself lifted and flipped over, landing face down on her stomach with a loud, “Oomph!”

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