Page 63 of Master of Storms
He stroked his thumb over the table barely an inch from her hand, wishing it was her skin. But she’d set the rules. He wasn’t to touch. Not until she allowed it. And he’d spent enough years flirting to know that shewasgoing to allow him to touch her at some point.
Because he hadn’t been the only one suffering last night.
He could be patient.
But the past still needed to be dealt with. “You think I took your power away from you?”
Instantly, the playful flirtatiousness vanished from her eyes. “Nobody takes my power away from me.”
There were a dozen implications to that statement.
Marduk considered her, tapping his fingers on the table. From the very first moment he’d met her, she’d been on guard against him. At first, he’d assumed it was being forced into a mating contract by her father, but he’d seen their relationship—if Solveig truly wished to refuse such a thing, she would have.
Honor and a sense of duty to her clan might have forced her hand, but again, something told him her enmity had nothing to do with circumstances, and everything to do with him.
Power. In some twisted way, she thought he’d deprived her of it. It wasn’t the song. It wasn’t the mating contract. But….
He blinked as a shocking thought occurred.
She was attracted to him. He was male enough to know that. And when he’d kissed her after the mating ceremony, she’d kissed him back. And if Haakon, Tormund, and Bryn hadn’t burst into the room, it might have gone further than that.
His fingers slowed. It was the attraction that was the issue. It had to be. She knew she’d lost control when he’d kissed her, and she hated it.
But he’d never kissed her the first time they met.
She’d stabbed him before his lips made contact, and the fury in her eyes had been a storm of reckoning.
Don’t touch. Don’t touch. Don’t touch.
But maybe… maybe for the first time she’d wanted to, and for a female like her—with such grand intentions of claiming her father’s throne when he weakened—the idea of being distracted was intolerable.
“Are you a virgin?” He didn’t even know where the words came from.
Solveig choked on her tea, spluttering a mouthful of liquid across her plate. “Goddess’s mercy. What the hell kind of question is that?” She slapped her chest. And then both eyebrows rose incredulously. “Oh, I see. Clearly my glacial indifference to you has to have a cause.”
“Mmm. I don’t think you’re that indifferent.”
“Of course you don’t. No, Marduk. I took care of that long ago, and while it’s been a while, I have—on occasion—taken lovers when I cared to. Male. Female. Whoever pleased me.”
“Females?”
“Sometimes I prefer it,” she said, dipping a piece of toast into her egg. “I don’t have to deal with an entire armada ofdrekiarrogance trying to conquer me. It’s just about mutual pleasure and connection.” She laughed under her breath. “Did you think I was pining for you?”
Hardly. “I’m just trying to work out how to proceed.”
She shot him an evil look. “Carefully, I would recommend. Or not at all, if one is to have a preference. I will not be toyed with.”
“Considering you wound up in my arms this morning, I’m not entirely certain of that.”
“Do you know what I think?”
“What?”
She smiled. “I think you hate it when I flirt with you, because you know it’s not real, and it absolutely baffles you that there’s at least one female out there who won’t fall for your charm.”
Marduk reached forward and stabbed a piece of her toast with his fork, his eyes locked on her the whole while. “Oh no, my love. Toy with me. I like it when you flirt. And I even like it when you hold me at bay, because I know you won’t last forever.”
“You’re optimistic.”
