Page 2 of Storm of Desire
He could barely look away from her, as he tried to loop the clasp on his cloak closed, so she would feel less naked. Every inch of her was perfect, though he was trying like hell not to stare. "Who areyou?"
"Atraveler."
"Do you have aname?"
She cocked her head on the side. "You may call meÁrja."
Árja. It had the ringing tones of destiny written all overit.
"My name isHaakon."
Thunder rumbled, as if the gods themselves heard his name—and accepted it as apledge.
The storm faded into the distance, the cold and the wetness evaporating from his awareness. She had a heart-shaped face, her wet hair clinging to a smooth throat, and those stormy eyes full of a thousand mysteries as she consideredhim.
"Are you hurt?" he whispered, suddenly aware his knuckles brushed each other just below her chin, where he held his cloak firmly aroundher.
The beautiful stranger eyed him as thoroughly as he'd done to her. The storm began to blow out. "No."
"What are you doing outhere?"
"I was hunting these cows," Árja said, and tipped her chin up as if to defy him. "I'm hungry and there are many cows in thisvalley."
Cows?He shook his head. "If you poach one of my father's cows, he won't take kindly toit."
"These cows belong tohim?"
"Most of them." Haakon cleared his throat. He couldn't quite place her accent. "Where are your clothes? Do you have a bow? Anyweapons?"
She curled her fingers into claws and smiled a vicious little smile. "I am theweapon."
Maybe she'd hit her head. Or maybe she wasmad.
His heart began to beat again, and suddenly he was freezing, and she was naked and probably even colderand—
"Come," Haakon whispered, swinging her up into his arms, where she eyed him with dark suspicion. Mad or not, she was his. And it was a freezing cold night, with both of them wet to the skin. "Let me take you to the healer to examine you, then I'll take you home. My mother has stew on thestove."
"I wantcow."
"It's beef," he said dryly. "Beefstew."
And he couldn't let her out of his sight. Not now, when he'd only just found his futurewife.
For him, this chance meeting meant his future was carved instone.
It would take him many years before he discovered that for her, it was nothing more than a safe haven for a year or two... before she suddenly vanished as swiftly as she'd come, in the heart of another ragingstorm.
And the only clue to her disappearance was the flapping wings of a goldendragon.
1
Nine yearslater
Reykjavik,Iceland
There weremany ways one could woo an estranged wife, and as Haakon Haraldsson nursed his ale at an inn in Reykjavik, he heard themall.
"...gift her with flowers," Bjorn argued. The boy had swollen into a giant of a man in the past two years, but he was still barely able to grow fluff on his chin. "It's a time-proven method to win a woman'sheart."
