Page 66 of Storm of Desire
Haakon sighed, and turned Sleipnir east. "Let us hope your great-grandfather doesn'twake."
* * *
Thunder rumbled.
Árdís scrambled up the slope at Haakon's side, tugging the hood of her cloak over her head. "Youhadto question the lack of rain, didn't you?" sheyelled.
They’d dismounted to give the horses a rest, especially on the shale-coated side of the mountain path theytraveled.
"Curse the gods," he muttered under his breath. "It doesn't feel like adrekistorm."
"It's not. It's the cold northern wind meeting the warmer air from down south. Or perhaps Thor took exception to yourtone."
Haakon slicked his wet hair back off his face and led Sleipnir forward. Rain washed runnels in the dirt track. "We need to takeshelter."
Árdís scrambled along behind him. He had to grant her this; she had a will of pure iron when she set her mind to something. Every step she took was stiff with the ache of sitting in an unfamiliar saddle, but she’d barelycomplained.
He helped her crest the top of the slope. Sleipnir bounded over the stone lip in their path, and then hauled up short at the end of the reins. Árdís bent over at the waist, sucking in breath. The hems of her skirts were a soddenmess.
Haakon turned and surveyed the valley. The storm wasn’t going away anytime soon, and she was wet through and exhausted. The horses needed a resttoo.
"There!" He pointed along the valley to where a black mouth gaped in the side of the mountain. "We’ll take shelterthere."
The cave afforded them some shelter from the weather, though it wasn’t deep enough for more. Haakon unsaddled the horses, moving brusquely as he rubbed them down and settled their nosebags over theirfaces.
Árdís's teeth chattered by the time he returned to her side. She’d unrolled the bedroll, but hadn’t moved beyond that. Strands of her hair hung in a bedraggled braid. She looked wet, sore, and hungry. His lips pressed together. "Sit."
"I’mwet."
Cold could kill a man faster than a gut wound, in these lands. "We both need to get out of these clothes and dry off. I’ll get the firestarted."
His store of kindling was small. He’d need to keep an eye out tomorrow. But he set a small fire, and turned to find her unmoving. "What'swrong?"
"Can you...?" She turned around, presenting him with her back as she dragged her damp hair forward over oneshoulder.
Haakon stared at the row of buttons tracing her spine. Hunched over and shivering, she didn't precisely present the picture of a woman determined to torment him, but you never knew what she had inmind.
Still, she was wet and cold, and judging from the long periods of blessed silence in the last hour, probablymiserable.
"Truce," he muttered. "Just fortonight?"
"Are you trying to say you find my drowned lookirresistible?"
He smiled a little atthat.
"Utterly. If I gave you some soap, you could simply walk outside." They'd both bathed in a frigid river that morning, one at a time, but it had been swiftly done, out ofnecessity.
She sighed. "I don’t think I even have the energy for that, let alone seducingyou."
Moving to her side, Haakon wiped his hands, then began to undo each small button with shriveled fingers. She’d managed the task herself this morning, with some small help, but the wet wool of her dress constricted hertonight.
"I like rain better when I'm in mydrekiform. I forgot how cold it is to wear skin rather than scales. I miss myvolcano."
He helped her strip her dress down her arms, then paused and encircled them with his hands. She was freezing. Haakon rubbed briskly, and she tilted her head forward in surrender, her eyes half shut. A soft purring sound echoed in her throat. Pleasure. Only, not of the erotic kind. If he didn’t hurry, then he was going to have a sleepingdrekiprincess in hisarms.
"Here," he muttered, kneeling at her feet and tugging her sopping gown down over herhips.
Lightning flashed behind her, highlighting the wet press of her chemise to her body. Every single curve was seared into his retinas as the world plunged back into darkness. He could even make out the darker circle of hernipples.
