Page 38 of Heart of Fire
Rurik stilled, and then something hard and predatory slid over his face. Something she didn’t quite recognize. Then he shook his head, his expression tinged with regret. “As much as I would like to comply, you’re not ready yet. And I have no wish to rushyou.”
“Am I not the judge of that?” Freyja clapped a hand over his, then urged it back beneath herskirts—
“Freyja!” Her father’s voice cut through theirreverie.
Freyja froze, her hand on Rurik’s, even as her pulse beat out of control. Their eyes met, his dark andpredatory.
“Looks like we have little choice,” Rurik rasped, his head twisting toward the window. The sun was beginning to set. “Damnit.”
“Freyja?” her father calledagain.
Freyja shoved Rurik off her and rolled out from beneath him, her cheeks so hot she could rival a sunset, she imagined. Oh, my goodness. What had she been about to do? Lose her virginity in the barn? She tugged hay from her hair and out of her dress, yanked her laces tight, then pulled the material over her bare breasts. Everything in her body trembled, including herknees.
What would her fatherthink?
What hadshebeenthinking?
Clearly, she had notbeen.
“Don’t give me that look,” Rurik growled, under his breath. He groaned, and then slumped back onto the blankets, rearranging the fierce erection in his trousers. “What we just shared was notwrong.”
“Be silent!” she hissed, scurrying to the ladder. “He’ll hearyou.”
“Freyja.”
She paused at the top of the ladder, her knees stillunsteady.
Rurik sprawled on his blankets, his chest bare, his golden hair tangled across his brow and his smile dangerous. “This isn’tdone.”
“Oh, yes it is!” she shot back, and fled down theladder.
Ten
RURIK CLASPEDHIS hands under his head and stared at the shadows of the barn roof as night settled in. He’d dined with Freyja and her father, though Freyja barely looked at him. Every time she did, he could see thoughts racing through hereyes.
She’d let him touch her, please her... and now she wascurious.
But the stubborn part of her nature had reared its head also. Freyja was not the sort to accept such a vital turning point in her seduction so sanguinely. She would turn herself in knots, no doubt all night, and in the morning their dance would beginagain.
He could hardlywait.
Rurik could be patient, even as his body ached with the lack of release. Freyja was worth it, and today had been a concession he hadn’t expected her to make justyet.
Closing his eyes slowly, he let his spirit hover just inside his body. Tonight he had another debt to repay, and if he felt perhaps a little frustration, then this would assuage the hunter withinhim.
A long time since he’d walked the dreams of man. A long time since he’d wantedto.
Rurik let his spirit separate from his mortal flesh, and rose high above the world. The little barn lay beneath him, and lights flickered merrily from the main house. He drifted above its grassed roof, and then turned his sight upon the nearbyvillage.
One thought and he was there, the world rushing past him. Dozens of spirits flickered below him as men and women moved through the village, banking the fires for thenight.
Rurik sorted through them, his predatory senses touching and discarding several souls before finally alighting on the one he sought. He circled the fine manor house, sensing the snoring pig that awaitedhim.
“Benedikt,”Rurik whispered, feeling the other soul waken to his call, the man turning fitfully toward him inbed.
Not quite all the way awake, but not lost in sleepeither.
Rurik formed within the room, staring balefully at hisnemesis.
