Page 24 of Storm of Fury
“Get out of the bath,” she said with a snort.
As Tormund grabbed the towel and scrubbed at his head and chest, Bryn let her gaze slide languorously over his clenched buttocks. So, so tempting.
Every inch of him was rock-hard muscle.
A man comfortable in his own skin. A man who held no jealousy toward his cousin or thedrekiwarlord he served. A man who had somehow managed to both put her entirely at ease and charm the pants off her, while they were naked in a bath, without making her feel even remotely uncomfortable.
He was right.
She’d known no other man like him.
* * *
“East of the sun,and west of the moon; North of the earth and south of the ice; Above the fire and below the stars.” Tormund sank onto the bench beside Sirius as thedrekiwarlord stared into the flames of the tavern’s hearth, fingering the compass Bryn had given him. “Do we have any fucking idea where that is?”
“Do we catch the North Wind and ask it where it once blew an aspen leaf?” Haakon sighed. “I have draugar guts on my boots and for what? A fucking myth.”
“I know where Marduk is going now,” Sirius said flatly, stabbing the logs in the fire with a fire iron.
“Where?” Bryn appeared from nowhere, dragging a comb through her long red-gold hair.
It stole the breath from Tormund’s lungs.Just breathe, you idiot. He’d been naked in a bath with her earlier, but he’d been focusing so intently on not staring at her breasts that he hadn’t truly taken the chance to absorb her.
But this was more tempting than any skin, for there was softness there in her eyes and the unguarded way she held the comb. Hints of the woman she refused to let him see.
“Somewhere forbidden, if this compass is pointing the right way.” Sirius shoved to his feet, casting the fireiron back into its corner with a clatter. “Somewhere I can’t go.”
“Fear not, my wicked prince,” Tormund said. “That’s why you brought us. We boldly venture wheredrekifear to tread—”
Sirius rounded on him so swiftly, he almost fell into the fire. “I don’t fear to tread there, you worm. Icannotgo there.”
“Easy,” Haakon murmured, placing a stalling hand on his forearm. “Malin will not be happy if you eat Tormund. She likes him. Remember?”
With a snarl, Sirius tossed the compass toward Bryn and then strode toward the door.
“Well, he’s in a good mood,” Tormund muttered, watching the door slam behind the Blackfrost. “Do you think he’s going to elaborate on the morrow? Or merely swirl his cloak mysteriously again?”
“I think you’re going to be eaten,” Bryn replied, rolling her eyes. “Regardless of his wife’s fondness for you.”
She looked down at the compass, watching its needle shiver toward the east as if it could sense something there.
Tormund winked at her as he reached for his ale. “You just have to get to know him. All snarl and no bite makes for a grumpydrekiprince.”
Bryn shook her head. “You are a madman with a death wish.”
Six
Tormund stompedthe snow in the yard behind the inn, his breath fogging the air. “Are you ready?” he called to Bryn as she stepped into the yard. “You promised me a fight.”
Dawn light softened the firm lines of her mouth and gilded her hair. The merlin fluttered down from the rooftop and alighted on the gauntlet she wore. Bryn seemed a creature made of fire, and the hard leather body armor she wore did little to hide her curves.
His mouth went dry as he beheld them.
The bodice she wore today was cut lower than any he’d seen her wear, and her rounded breasts threatened to spill free. She had hips a man could get a fierce hold of, and a soft, rounded belly he wanted to taste. And those thighs….
“Those eyes don’t look like you’re challenging me to a fight, big man,” she told him, a hard light flaring to life in her pretty green eyes. “They look like they’re contemplating another style of body-to-body combat.”
He couldn’t help himself. He grinned. “Guilty. But you look glorious this morning. And I think this is your first attempt at disarming me.”
