Page 14 of Storm of Desire
"I think you want to tortureme."
"As you tortured me then?" Árdís crossed her arms over her chest and turned to face him. "I married you because you asked me to. Weeks went by. Months. You would kiss me. You would touch me. But it never went any further. And then you said if I wanted to be in your bed, I had to marry you, for it wasn't the sort of thing one did outside of marriage. I didn't know what it all meant. Not truly. Marriage is a word thedrekido not use. We take lovers when we wish them, until the storm between us is burned out and we wish to move on. We mate for the sake of producing children. And sometimes we find the other half of our soul, and we promise them forever. I thought thismarriagemeant you wished to claim me as a lover. And by this stage, I was madly in lust with you, and frustrated, and here you were, saying I could have you if we stood in your church and said these words.... I didn't realize it meant forever to you, until it was toolate."
He looked like she'd hit him. "You didn't think toask?"
Unease rippled through her. She rubbed the back of her neck. "I wasn't thinking at that stage,no."
"And you didn't wantforever."
Her head bowed, and she rested her hip against the table.It was never a matter of what I wanted."No. I-I couldn't. Itwasn't—"
His sword belt had been leaning against the table, and as she knocked it the sword began to slide toward the floor. Árdís snatched at the hilt, trying to capture it before it clattered to the floor, but it was toolate.
The chain around her throat slithered between her breasts as she leaned forward, and the ring slipped free of herbodice.
It hit the end of its length and dangled between them. Árdís snatched at it, but she wasn't quickenough.
Haakonfroze.
Slowly his eyes lifted to hers, and her breath caught at the look in them. A single look, but it held a wealth of meaning in it—a thousand questions she didn't know how to answer, much lessdecipher.
"What the hell is that?" he askedhoarsely.
"It'snothing."
She tried to shove the blasted ring back inside her gown, but Haakon moved abruptly, his hand snaking out toward hers and locking around her wrist. She closed her fingers around the ring, but he wasn't doneyet.
"Showme."
"It's nothing." Panic flared within her breast, and Árdís tore her wrist free, and darted beneath hisarm.
She made it two steps before he snatched her up around the waist, tossing her down on thebed.
His knee drove onto the mattress beside her hip. The heat of his body momentarily overwhelmed her and Árdís fell back on one hand, the other clenched tightly around the ring, as her heart started racing. If he saw it, she was lost. His face was shockingly close to hers, afternoon sunlight staining the tips of his lashes blond. The scent of leather and steel invaded her nose. He loomed over her, his broad shoulders almost blocking out the light, and his knuckles pressing into the bed beside her other hip. Árdís found herself trapped. Caged in. And a sudden panic roused withinher.
He couldn't see the ring. He'd never let her go if he thought there was anyhope.
"Show me," hedemanded.
"It'smine!"
"I can make you, but I'd prefer notto."
"To make me, you'll have to hurt me," shedeclared.
"Maybe not." His hand curled around her palm, his breath rasping through his chest. "Show me what you'rehiding."
She wriggled beneath him, trying to escape, but his weight simply pinned her down, and Árdís finally slumped onto the mattress as his palm pushed down on hershoulder.
"The one thing you didn't count on is the fact that holding you contained is not the only thing this manacle does.Haldorðr.Binda íér."
The words purred over his tongue, locking down on something deep insideher.
Golden light lit up previously invisible runes on the manacle's surface. They were neither Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark, or the Anglo-Saxon bastardization they called Futhorc. Recognition lanced through her. She'd seen this once. "Are you insane?" she hissed. "You bargained with thesvartálfar?"
"There's no such thing." He was far too close to her now. Far too menacing. "I bought it from a sorcerer in Hólmavík. He promised me it would keep you in human form, and it would force you to obey me and speak the truth. The second I have what I want, I'll releaseyou."
"You fool!" Árdís pulled at the bracelet, pain searing through her wrist as it tightened. She cried out and jerked her handaway.
