Page 56 of Master of Storms
Solveig took a deep breath. “Not at all.”
The king laughed under his breath. “Just… a possible treaty.”
Marduk looked like he wanted to murder someone. Snagging his arm, she squeezed his biceps. “I believe the king said you knew the way to our chambers?”
His attention jacked toward her at the use of that “our.”
He didn’t look like he wanted to take her back to their chambers at all. He looked like he wanted to either fight Draco or fuck her. Anything to reclaim her as his own.
“Come,” she whispered, sliding her other hand up his chest. “I want to get out of these constricting clothes and bathe. Maybe you could wash my back?”
And then she pushed him back toward the stairwell even as he cut a fierce stare over her shoulder toward the king.
11
“Wash your back?” Marduk demanded the second the doors to their chambers slammed shut. “Now Iknowsomething was going on up there between the two of you.”
“Yes.” Solveig rolled her eyes at him. “Two posturingdrekimales were about to start snapping and snarling over me like a pair of dogs with a bone. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me.” Marduk tore his coat off and threw it on the bed, still feeling the urge to hit someone.
Preferably the king.
The bastard had had the audacity to smile at him the second Solveig’s back was turned.
Indrekiterms, Draco had just thrown a gauntlet between them.
“You were rude to the king we’re trying to deceive,” Solveig told him.
“Draco was practically salivating over you,” he growled.
“He is mated.”
“That didn’t seem to bother him.”
“Well, it bothers me,” she snapped back. “I don’t play those sorts of games, especially not when there is another female involved—even if the match is only political, andevenif there’s a possibility it’s going to end. And the idea that you think I would is insulting.”
Marduk slammed to a halt. “I didn’t think you would—”
“No, you weren’t thinking at all. You saw another male sniffing around yourproperty, and you turned into some idiot who had to stake his claim.”
“I donotthink of you as my property.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I wasn’t…. I was just…. He’s the enemy!”
He couldn’t even understand it himself.
Solveig wasn’t his. This wasn’t real. He had no idea why he was even acting like a cat who’d suddenly found an enemy tom in his territory. It felt like all his hackles were on edge, and he couldn’t offer a smile so much as bare his teeth.
“Really?He’sthe enemy?”
“Oh, please.” His voice came out in a growl. “If I was your enemy then you wouldn’t be here.”
“There’s a threat to my court. You’re a means to an end. And I thought we were here to find the key to close the portal to Álfheimr? I thought this was a matter of life or death.”
“It is,” he snapped.
