Page 26 of The Viking Blues

The big man grinned at him as they exited the kitchen. “Was it something I said?” he called after them.

As he stalked across the backyard to the forge, practically dragging Mia behind him, she asked, “Is he always like that?”

“Wolf? Not usually. Usually he’s a pretty good guy.”

“Usually?”

“Hmm.” Ollie’s lips twisted and he let go of Mia’s hand. “He’s just being a shit-stirrer because—”

Mia raised an eyebrow at his sudden silence. “Because why?”

Yeah, why was Wolf stirring up so much trouble?

Ollie pressed his palms against the forge doors, closed his eyes and shook his head. He knew why. He also knew no amount of deep breathing was going to help him get through what he was about to do, so he opened his eyes again, and grumbled over his shoulder, “Because he knows how much I want to fuck you.”

It was true. He did. Because Ollie had told him one night, months ago, when they were half-drunk on his father’s homebrew. Wolf had asked him why he hadn’t settled down yet, and Ollie had spilled his guts about the one that got away.

There had been other women in his life—too many to count—but none he’d ever shared any sort of meaningful connection with.

None except Mia.

He couldn’t explain why but he still felt a pull towards her, stronger than anything he’d ever known. Like supercharged magnets.

The attraction was intense.

Laying her hand on his back, Mia said, “Why does Wolf know that?”

The warmth of her hand soaked through his T-shirt and into his flesh. Her touch was gentle, yet he knew she wasn’t always that way. Mia could be demanding, challenging. She was born to take charge but wielded her power with care.

“Oliver, look at me.”

Her stern command sent a shiver through his big body, filling him with a joy, a serenity he hadn’t felt in almost two decades. It was a feeling he never thought he’d feel again and he almost laughed out loud at the return of it, bewildered by the realisation it had never really left him.

He’d tried to find someone he could share that part of himself with, but in all the years, and all the women, no one could make him submit.

No one except her.

Slowly he turned to face her. “Yes, sweetling?”

She lifted her chin and locked her gaze with his. “Why does Wolf know you want to fuck me? Why does he know anything about me at all?”

“Because I told him about you, how I feel about you. How much I missed you.”

“And?”

Ollie smiled as he realised everything he’d told Wolf that night was true. He also realised it wasn’t prudent to tell Miaeverythinghe’d told Wolf.

He didn’t want to scare her off again. Not now that she was finally back.

“And that you’re the only woman who ever brought me to my knees.” When she broke eye-contact, he added quickly, “And you can’t tell me you’re not interested. That you haven’t noticed this pull between us. I see the way you look at me, Mia. I know you feel it, too.”

Taking a chance, he grabbed her hand and pulled her body into his, slid his arms around her waist and cupped her arse, held her to him. Pressed his growing erection against her belly.

“I definitely feel something,” she murmured, rocking her hips against his cock, making him harder. “But we’ve gone from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye,” she said, pushing out of his embrace. “Ollie, we haven’t seen each other since we were kids, and I know it feels like everything’s the same between us, but it isn’t. We’re not the same people we were back then.”

“I know that, but I also know what I feel is real.” Anchoring his hands on his hips, he dropped his head forwards and sighed. “Mia, I’ve tried to forget you. Fuck knows, I’ve tried.” He looked up from under the veil of his lashes and caught her gaze. “But no one, not a single woman in the last eighteen years has ever made me feel the way you do.”

To prove his point he lowered himself to his knees and stared up at her.

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