Page 41 of Clash of Storms
Certainly not the strength of his body. Malin squirmed against his chest, and as if to remind her how very strong he was, his arm curled around her waist, the muscle in his biceps flexing beneath his shirt.
He outpowered her, outmuscled her, and outweighed her. There was not a damned thing she could do to thwart him.
Kiss him, whispered a little voice deep inside her that remembered the talk of beds and screaming his name, and could feel the storm lashing through him as if it called to her.
Malin nearly fell off the horse.
"Are you all right?"
He reined Iškur in, the stallion yawing at the reins in impatience. Malin grabbed the pommel, her fingers snagging in Iškur's mane at the abrupt change of speed.
Sirius reined the horse in a tight circle, but she could sense him glancing down over her shoulder.
"What are you thinking?" he asked, in his dangerously husky voice. "You've gone very quiet, sweet Malin."
Sirius laughed as she slammed her shields into place.
"Nothing."
"If I was in your head, you'd know it."
True. Because then she wouldn't be the only one threatening to fall off Iškur. Imagine the look on his face if he realized she'd been thinking of throwing herself at him?
Just how far did her loyalty to her princess stretch? She'd do anything to protect Árdís, but to kiss the Blackfrost?
And would he even desire it?
"I need to stretch my legs," she said.
The road extended before them as he drew Iškur to a halt. "Can it not wait? We've got hours to go, and the light will fade before we know it."
"I need to stretch my legsprivately," she stressed.
An abrupt silence as he took her meaning.
"As you wish."
There was his arm, offering to brace her as she dismounted. Malin took it, swinging her leg over the stallion's neck. There was no avoiding his thigh. She was forced to grab it as he lowered her down, trying not to feel the heavy muscle there and imagine it naked beneath her fingertips in the wake of that idiotic thought of kissing him.
As her feet hit the ground, she couldn't resist looking up to see his face, only to find those dangerously blue eyes locked upon her.
His intense face.
"You have your 'predator eyes' in place," she said tartly. "I'm not prey, Sirius."Instantly he drew back with the faintest of smiles. "My 'predator eyes'?"
"They look like hot little coals," she said, pushing away from him. "Lightning trapped in a bottle. You're plotting something."
"Only your downfall."
There came that dashing smile, and with it, the sudden coarse pounding of her heart. His smile was pure sin. She'd never truly seen it before they fled the court, only a brief mockery of it. It was as if being free of Hekla allowed both of them to shed their courtly armor.
And it bothered her.
Because thedrekishe'd known at court had been the Blackfrost: arrogant, mocking, cynical, and demanding. Yet it was Sirius who'd hauled her in front of him and wrapped his cloak around her to keep her warm; Sirius who'd kept his hands to himself and spoke to her as if he saw her as his equal and not beneath him; Sirius who turned her world upside down when he looked at her as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
"If you wanted my downfall, you could do it. Easily," she snapped, feeling on edge by the realization she almost liked this incarnation of him.
"Oh, Malin, did you think I meant to vanquish you?" he purred.
