Page 25 of Heart of Fire
“That’s quite all right,” Rurik replied, lazy-lidded in front of the fireplace. He looked like he was soaking up the heat of the flames. “It wouldn’t be right for me to share a roof with a young unmarried woman anyway. So I bargained with your father for room in your stables. I can pay goodcoin.”
In the stables.... For a moment she almost felt guilty. But then he gave her that faint smile that rubbed all her hairs the wrong way, and guiltevaporated.
“Freyja will see you to the stables,” her father agreed amiably, leaving her with little recourse. “Won’t you,Freyja?”
She’d see him to the door, in any case. Freyja jerked her head at Rurik as he stood, and then tried to paste a smile on her face for her father. “I certainlyshall.”
After all, she couldn’t say what she really wanted to say with her father in the room, couldshe?
* * *
“What are you doing here?”Freyja whispered harshly, the second they were inside in the barn. “And don’t feed me that lie about abook.”
“Who says it was a lie? I am considering writing a book. There are too many wrong stories aboutdrekiincirculation.”
She ground her teeth together. “I’m not an idiot. And I detest it when men think they are smarter than I am, and try to smugly protest otherwise. If you continue to pretend you have not asingleulterior motive in being here, at my home, when last I saw you was many miles to the north, then I will be done withyou.”
Rurik paused, assessing herface.
“Why are you here?” she demanded. “Truly?”
“You’re right. I didn’t come here for a book. I came here for you. Fate, Freyja.” He stepped forward, touching her cheek. “That’s why I’m here.” His breath warmed her lips as he loomed closer, and her heart gave a kick behind her ribs as he smiled at her. “Our destiny isincomplete.”
Rurik’s fingers tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Freyja froze. She’d thought what happened between them at Akureyri was simply a result of the storm pounding through her veins, igniting the passionate fury in her blood. But the second his touch landed on her skin, her blood seemed to fire again, and a shiver ran through her. A distant storm, but one that could be stoked with but a few simpletouches.
“Oh no, you don’t,” she muttered, ducking beneath his arm and whirling in a storm ofskirts.
The damned man simply stood there with a smile, crossing his arms over hischest.
His rather impressivechest.
Freyja growled under her breath, pressing her fingers to her temples. She didn’t want to examine her anger too closely, just in case it wasn’t entirely anger. Fluster might come closer. “You have your head in the clouds. Fate and destiny... what a jest. You’re no better than any skirt-chasing scoundrel, though your words might be prettier. My mother would have likedyou.”
“Youlike me,” he pointed out. “Or else you would have thrown me out the second you saw meinside.”
“I didn’t wish to cause a scene in front of my father,” she retorted. “That’s the only reason you’re still here. He believes in guest right still, and expects me to upholdit.”
Rurik’s biceps flexed. “You are a most vexatious female. Why can you not admit you want mehere?”
She refused to look at his bulging biceps. Simply refused. “My mother taught me never to utter alie.”
Slowly he prowled around her. “You liked my kiss. You begged me for more, and curled your fists in my hair. I do not understand what you find so distasteful about the idea. You wanted me. You still wantme.”
Every word drove straight through her abdomen, bringing little hammer-flashes of memory with it; the dance of raindrops on the roof; the feel of that hard body driving her into the wall; the lush stroke of his tongue against hers. “I often want things that are bad for me—ginger cakes, ale, books I cannot afford.... It doesn’t mean I give in to thefeeling.”
He took a step towardher.
She took oneback.
Rurikfroze.
“Perhaps I enjoyed your kiss, but that doesn’t mean I will lie with you.” She could see from his expression he did not understand. But then, he wasn’t the one who might risk being left behind with a bastard child and a ruined reputation—what little there was left of it. “You’re persistent, I shall give you that, but all men want the samething.”
“Your heart?” hechallenged.
“A swift tumble in thehay.”
“I am not all men,” he replied. The shadows around him seemed to lengthen. “And you know little of what I want, Freyja. The second I saw you, I wanted to possess you—body andsoul.”
