He closed the small space between us again with a look of regret and shook his head. His hands cupped my cheeks as he bent for us to be at eye level.
“I didn’t mean it like that,elskan mín. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat and took in a shaky breath. My hands trembled around the sword’s grip, making it hard to hold on to it.
“You don’t know that,” I whispered.
“Nothing’s going to happen to him, female,” Hluti groused. I turned my head in Rune’s hold to peer at the scarred Viking, leaning against a tree where our horses were with his signature scowl and arms crossed over his chest. “It’d take a lot to kill him and more to keep him dead. You have nothing to worry about.”
Then why the hell did it feel like he was going to die after he was shot by that dart? The way Slátra almost lost his cool sure made it seem like Rune was two seconds away from kicking the bucket.
“Don’t fret it,” Rune murmured, his thumbs on my cheeks stroked in gentle circles making me turn back to him. “All I meant was should something go wrong, I want you to be able to use my weapons. They’re made from the strongest and rarest metal. No one else has a weapon made from it, and it can easily slice through weapons with the right amount of force. It’s heavier than anything else, and I want you trained with it to be able to use it.”
There had to be a message in that. Why else would he tell me about it being able to cut through anything?
Rune’s two fingers tapped my cheek. “Focus on me, beauty.”
I snapped out of my fast wandering thoughts and nodded while swallowing hard. My grip on the sword tightened as he continued soothing me with his touch. I licked my dry lower lip and evened my breaths.
“What kind of metal?” I asked softly.
He lightly kissed me before he straightened. “It was never named.”
I bunched my eyebrows bunched. “Why?”
He looked away and blocked his thoughts from me as he gazed at his sword in my hands.
“Just never was. Not a lot of people know about it or made anything from the metal.”
He moved behind me and wrapped his arms around me to grab the sword. Incense and wilderness wrapped around me and helped me relax into his hold as he helped me raise the sword. He took most of the weight as he showed me how to move in a stance for sword fighting.
As he guided me through the positions with his hands on me and his warm breath on my ear, I could barely focus on anything. He was distracting, and I knew he didn’t mean to be. But every time his large hands enveloped my smaller ones, zaps of pleasure shot straight to my clit. Every nerve ending was sensitive, and my breasts ached.
Ached.
I didn’t know how breasts could do that, and from reading about it in books, I thought it was all made up. Like it was some hokey-pokey kind of stuff. But no. They ached and were heavy with my need.
With Rune, my body came to life and everything burned with the need for release only he could give me. I was sure if I took things into my own hands and came from my fingers, it wouldn’t take the edge off.
“Thoughts on fighting, Isa. Or I’m fucking you right here for the others to see,” Rune warned in a rough whisper against my ear. His hand tightened on mine as he stopped moving me to a different position of whatever he was showing. I wasn’t even paying attention anymore and couldn’t recall what he said.
What the hell was wrong with me and my attention span?
There was a low chuckle from where the others were, and if I had to guess, it was Slátra because his mind was always in the gutter.
My cheeks heated, and I forced back the dirty thoughts.
“Good girl,” Rune murmured, then went back to showing me the position before he stepped away and walked around so he was a few feet in front of me. He brought his hand up and smirked as he crooked his finger in acome heremotion. “Attack me.”
“You’ve got this,” Harper said. I glanced at her nervously, then at Hlíf, who watched with a stony face but with kind green eyes. He dipped his chin in a half nod at me, silently telling me I got this and he believed in me. I looked back at Harper, who shot me an encouraging smile. “Take all your frustration out on him. You’ll feel better.”
I wasn’t sure I’d feel better attacking him, but I could see where she was going with it. With a quick glance at the others, I turned back to Rune just in time to see him materialize a sword with his hand reaching out to his side like the main character would in an anime. My jaw dropped from how fluid the movement was, and I scrambled back as he strode toward me, intending to attack me first.
“Wait!” I yelled.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Rune didn’t wait.
