After he removed the sword strapped to his back and set it in the sand, he stalked toward her, his jaw clenched and his expression inscrutable.She could sense the roil of emotion he was keeping tightly leashed and gulped, taking a slight step backward.The departing tide nipped at her heels, and she stood her ground instead of lifting her hands to ward him away.
“You would run from me, wife?”
She shook her head, and squared her shoulders.“You risked your life for me,” she said as she took a deep breath.“And as Lysandra was leading me away, I thought I heard my father’s laughter.”
Toran regarded her solemnly.
“My father is here?”
Her mate nodded.“We spotted his fleet in the Kraken harbor.”
Brunhild closed her eyes.Of course she’d been a pawn in a gambit she didn’t understand.“If my father has reneged on his bargain with you and allied himself with your enemy, I am of no use to you now.”
He stopped a handsbreadth away, his brow furrowed.“You believe you are of no use?No use, when the little growl you make when you’ve bested someone on the sparring field haunts my dreams?No use, when the lithe strength of you, and the memory of how you arced beneath me in my bed makes me tremble?No use, when I want nothing more than to bend you to my will, and bend to yours, when the thought of our mutual surrender had me fisting my cock every night you were gone?”
Her eyes skated over the ridged muscles of his abdomen, latching on the dark trail of hair that began at his navel, and strayed between his thighs.He was fully aroused, and she imagined him gripping himself, just as he’d described, and snuck out her tongue to wet her suddenly parched lips.
Brun didn’t know what possessed her to whirl into a dead sprint.
The sand spun beneath her, the salt spray stung her face, and her heart thundered in her chest with excitement and exhilaration.She had no doubt he would catch her, and the low hum of his laughter as he gained ground, rang in her ears.She dodged his grasp and switched direction, careening inland toward the cliffs.
He caught her by her braid, and hauled her body flush against his own.He propelled her toward the cliff face, and when they reached it, he kicked her feet apart and circled her wrists in an iron grip, pressing them against the stone.The gap he created seemed to have been made for the wedge of his body, and she felt the warm damp of his bare skin through her thin tunic.
The scent of brine and arousal was nearly overwhelming, and when he scraped his teeth against the mating scar, she bit her lip to stifle her moan, tasting blood.
He didn’t smell of fish or seaweed.This close, with him hovering over her shoulder, the scent of stinging salt spray and sun-kissed waves was intoxicating.
“If you’re offended by my scent, Fireheart, we needn’t wait to indulge in our sea bath,” he pronounced as he slid his hands around her waist.When he hoisted her aloft and she was dangling over his shoulder, he sprinted back across the sand, laughing merrily.She half-heartedly thumped his back with her fists.
He leapt into the water as if he was still prancing in his four-legged form, and set her carefully down in front of him.
“What if I don’t need a bath?”
He dropped his forehead to hers and shook his head slightly.“You are in graver need of a bath than I.You reek of my enemy’s fortress.I’ll wash you and you’ll wash me, and we can let each other know when we are no longer offensive.
Brun could hear the head of teasing in his voice, so she didn’t bristle at his assessment.At least not as much as she would have a fortnight ago.
He swiped his thumb across her bottom lip before letting the pad of it rest in the middle of her chin.She cleared her throat.“Shouldn’t we go a little further if you intend us to bathe?”The water lapped just above her knees, the tide swirling in and out, a blue so clear she could see the outline of every pebble smoothed and rounded by the waves, and the pale gleam of her toes.
“The footing is treacherous, with a sudden drop beyond the edge of the reef.We brave the deeper water only if you are fastened to me like a barnacle clinging to the belly of a giant fish.”
“And how are we to accomplish that?”
“If I transform so you can ride astride, I’ll smell of the seaweed you claim to despise.So you’ll have to cling to my waist or lock your legs around it.”
Brun knew locking her legs around his waist would intensify her yearning, but she needed to see his face instead of the back of his head.She took a deep breath to steel herself.“I’ll lock my legs around your waist.”
“Good choice, wife,” he smiled as his hands cupped her arse.
She nearly flailed backward when he hoisted her in the air, until she remembered to lock her ankles the base of his spine.“You could have warned me,” she muttered.
“Hold on, leannan,” he chuckled as he began walking backward.
“Shouldn’t you be looking where you’re going?”She asked as she threw her arms around his neck in a panic.
He laughed again.“I’ve been swimming in these in the waters around these shoals for nearly a thousand years, and you needn’t worry I’ll drop you or drown us.”
“I don’t know if I should trust you,” she admitted somewhat breathlessly.