Page 53 of Storm of Desire
"No, I like it. It's a worthy name. You've killed three dragons. There are few men who could claim such athing."
"Hell, Árdís. I didn't do it for the bloodyaccolades—"
"I know." This was not going the way she'd hoped. "He told me you went mad when I left. You drank too much. You didn't eat enough. And you insisted upon rescuing me. You gave yourself over to hunting dragons and searching for word of me. Tormund had to ride along with you to keep yousafe."
"Tormund rode along because he thought it would be a grand fucking adventure," Haakon snapped, "and he wanted to hear his name sung in the ballads they'dsing."
"There are ballads sung aboutyou?"
"No. There are no ballads." A vein throbbed in his jaw. Firelight gilded the sharp slash of his cheekbone, as he turned to look at her. "If I'd known he'd dribble such foolishness into your ears when you boarded that ship, I wouldn't have bloody put you upon it. What did he do? Tell you everything that's happened in the last sevenyears?"
"Not everything." She twitched herskirts.
He hadn't, for example, answered the question of whether Haakon had ever had another woman in hisbed.
"You want to know the answer to that, Princess, then you're going to have to ask himyourself."
"Bloody meddling fool." Haakon yanked his knife out of the log, and swung the rabbit off thefire.
"He did, however, bet me a golden crown and a fistful of emeralds that we're going to fall into bed together by the end of thisjourney."
Haakonfroze.
His stormy eyes found her, but they didn't linger on her face. A swift glance dipped lower, stroking over her lips, her hands, her breasts. Then away. "I swear to the gods, I'm going to killhim."
A thrill lit through her. This was one way to fight his coldness. Árdís straightened, letting her cloak fall away from hershoulders.
"You didn't ask," shewhispered.
"Ask what?" He tore a joint from the rabbit with impatient hands, and set it on a tin plate to cool forher.
"Whether I accepted hisbet."
Haakon stilled. "Árdís. Are youtryingto tortureme?"
A flush of heat went through her, like the glide of heated honey across her skin. "I wouldn't consider ittorture."
His eyes darkened. He'd finished separating the cooked rabbit onto a pair of plates, and licked his fingers and thumb. Slowly. "No? What would you call itthen?"
Árdís bit her lip. She suddenly wanted to lick those fingers herself. "I would call it... an openinggambit."
Haakon straightened to his full height. The leather of his body armor flexed as he stiffened. "An openinggambit."
It was hard to gauge whether she was making any headway. If he were a castle, he might as well have just drawn up the drawbridge. But the soft way he repeated the words.... And the way he crossed his arms over his chest, while staring down at her, didn't feel like he'd slammed the cannons into the breach. Wary, yes. Defensive,yes.
But he was alsolistening.
Intrigued.
"Making amends,perhaps."
A muscle in his jaw ticked. "And how would you begin to makeamends?"
"I could kiss it better," she whispered. "I could kiss it allbetter."
The heat of his gaze had weight now. Firelight caressed him from head to toe. He shifted and she could make out the faint, hard shape pressing insistently against his leathertrousers.
She liked them much better than the wool he used to wear. They did terribly tempting things to his strong thighs and firmbackside.
