Page 57 of Master of Storms
“Then why are you prowling around the room as though you’ve just sighted adrekiintruder in your lands?”
“I am not….” He paused. He was pacing. And there was no point lying about it to her. “He didn’t set your teeth on edge?”
Solveig poured herself some wine, one of those dark brows arching. “Not quite the impression I gained, no.”
And then she smirked into her wineglass.
He was going tomurderthat prick—
“Marduk!” A hand caught his shoulder, and he realized he was almost at the door, reaching for the doorknob. “What is wrong with you?”
“He challenged me, thesecondhe put his hands on you.”
Solveig shoved him against the door, and his breath slammed out of him. In two seconds, he had a furious femaledrekiat his throat. “It was just a little game. Draco was sounding out our relationship since he couldn’t smell your scent on me.”
“Yes, but….”
Words failed him as he caught a tantalizing sniff of her skin—and realized there was another scent laid over the top of it.
A cold, viciousmalescent.
Allover her.
He grabbed a fistful of her hair and breathed it in. Sudden rage exploded through him. He bared his teeth at her. “I can smell him on you.”
The world vanished in a conflagration of fury.
He’d never felt like this before. A complicated mix of jealousy and arousal sounded through his head, obliterating his vision for a second, until all he could see was Draco smirking at him.
A hand pounded against his chest.
He captured it and pinned it there, Solveig’s face slowly coming back into focus. He was reaching for the door again and he couldn’t remember moving. It took physical effort to restrain himself
“Don’t you dare,” she said. “You’re acting like a jealous, possessive male.”
“I amnota jealous male, but the king needs to learn that you are—”
“What?” she demanded.
Mine. He couldn’t say it, but the word blazed through him as though it had set some part of him alight. “My mate.”
Solveig hissed, and there was a wildness within her eyes that made his cock clench. “He’s not truly interested in me, you fool. He’s baiting you. He’s trying to see how strong this alliance is. Nothing more.”
Well, it worked.
Marduk captured her other wrist. And gods it felt good. To get his hands on her. To back her against the door. “If you think Draco’s not interested in you, then you should take another look at the way he watches you, my love. Don’t find yourself alone with him again.”
Solveig threw her head back and laughed, the sultry sound echoing through their chambers. “Or what? You think I won’t kick his teeth through the back of his head if he tried to do something to me?”
“I don’t think he means to attack you.”
She fell still, and this time when their gazes locked, there was a predatory stillness within her. Her back was to the door, and the urge to shove her against it, to lean down and capture that dangerous mouth was almost all-consuming—
“No,” he continued, trying to rein in thedrekiwithin him. “If he seeks to test our alliance, then the king won’t hurt you. He’ll charm you. Woo you. Think to seduce you.”
“He’s not interested in seducing me. He’s merely sounding me out about a potential alliance.”
“How the hell is that not seduction?”
