My cheeks warmed as I thought of something I craved for him to do. Because Rune was my first and only, I’d discovered things about myself and the kinks I was into.
He groaned into my mouth, and his fingers tightened in my hair as he dragged me closer to him so my front was flush against his. His erection pressed against my stomach, and all thoughts were gone.
“He’s definitely going to fuck her in front of us this time,” Slátra announced.
There was a thump of a hand meeting the back of someone’s head, followed by a muttered, “Shut it,flón.”
I pushed away from Rune with my hands on his chest. He didn’t allow my escape and curled his arm around my lower back, keeping me against him. He nuzzled against my ear, peppering kisses along my neck, and tasted me after each nip. With every sting of his teeth, I shifted closer to him until I wound my arms around his neck with a shuddering breath.
Rune smiled against my neck, pleased as I melted into him. His lips came to my ear, his hot breaths fanning the hairs tickling me.
“Count this as a repayment for the lonely nights when I stroked my cock while thinking about you,” he whispered huskily.
My face burned, and my ears tingled with the blush. Warmth pooled between my legs, and my clit took that moment to throb, begging for his attention.
He chuckled as he leaned away to look into my eyes with his nose brushing mine. One of his hands found my ass and squeezed.
“I’ll take care of you later.” He kissed me fast and brief. Taking a step back, he smirked at me as I stumbled half a step toward him, needing him now. “I’m going to teach you the basics of sword fighting.”
I blinked, my arousal now on the back burner as I focused on what he said.
“Really?” I asked with a smile.
He grinned, but it quickly fell when his eyebrows drew together as he thought of something. “Do you know how to fight with only your hands?”
Skeletons I pushed into the closet and locked away with chains came bursting out and reminded me of what I’d done.
My smile slipped, and my cheeks warmed as I averted my eyes to stare at the ground.
I didn’t know how to answer because yes and no.
Dad had taught me a few things when I was a teen, but nothing extreme. He taught me how to punch correctly, but I never needed to until recently. When I was in college for that short time, I went to a self-defense class for women at a gym for fifteen bucks. It was discounted for college students, and I didn’t want to pass that up because I’d always wanted to learn how to fight.
While in that class, I learned fast. And that afternoon, I found out something about myself after the coach told me to stop hitting like a girl. I could pack a punch and send someone to the hospital as I did with the coach. After I had grabbed him from behind me as he moved to overpower me, I yanked him over my shoulder and slammed him flat on his back. I had followed him down and sat on his chest, punching him while my head swam and darkness edged my vision like it’d been doing recently.
Since that happened, I forced myself to unlearn everything. To forget it ever happened and that I learned how to fight. I didn’t want to hurt anyone ever again and see their blood on my knuckles and splatters of red on my arm and chest. I didn’t want to hurt anyone ever again.
“Mmm,” Rune rumbled. His surge of lust flooded me and brought me out of my head.
My cheeks warmed as I looked back at him and noticed he was hard. I raised my eyes to his, which were hooded and darkened with his desire. It took all his willpower to not drop everything and take me on my hands and knees. I didn’t realize how turned on how he got from fighting.
Shaking his head with a husky chuckle, he placed his sword on the ground. He worked off his heavy cape and dropped it next to his weapon.
“You fighting turns me on,” he corrected, curving his lips into an amused smile. He purposely took off his armor and shirt slowly to give me a show. And he got what he wanted as I squeezed my thighs together, keeping my eyes on his face.
“What are you doing?” I squeaked as I took a small step back and glanced at the others. They were scattered around us, and I didn’t miss that Harper sat next to Hlíf, who still towered next to her. They looked relaxed, and I didn’t blame her for being comfortable with the silent mountain man Viking. He was easy to be around and had that protective energy about him that was hard to resist.
Rune’s laugh brought my gaze back to him, and I watched as he bent to grab his sword. His long brown hair fell over his shoulders like a braided curtain I now so badly wanted to play with. Straightening, he shot me a smirk as he righted his grip on the sword.
“You’re going to fight me.”
At my sharp inhale, he chuckled and prowled toward me with dark eyes. He easily flicked the sword in a slow twirl, and the setting sun hit the silver of it, giving it a gleam. Before I could figure out what the hell he was doing, he thrust it so it flipped for him and grabbed the blade, offering me the grip of the weapon.
“And you’re going to make me bleed,” Rune said like it was something he was proud of.
His eyes glinted with heated amusement as I stared at him like an idiot. My eyes bounced to his face, then to the sword he held out for me to take, too many times to count.
“What?” I whispered.
