Page 78 of Master of Storms
And hehadthought of little else since their mating day.
Their mouths clashed, and he could feel her fighting for control, their tongues lancing against each other in a swift stab and parry. Her body was a battle, and the only way to conquer her—the only way to win—was to hold nothing back.
He forgot everything.
The guards.
The mission.
The plan.
Instead, he kissed her as if the world was burning and this was his last chance to taste forever. He kissed her as if he’d been poisoned and she was the antidote. And maybe, in some ways, he had been. Because the taste of her surged through his veins, bringing him back to life. His heart was tripping over itself, and the pressure in his cock left him lightheaded as she squeezed her hand, and—
“What are you doing down here?” a voice demanded.
A voice that sounded very much like a frustrated, overprotective guard.
The guards.Fuck.
They broke apart with a gasp.
Light flared. A torch.
Marduk winced and tried to shield his eyes, as Solveig set both boot heels on the ground.
“Goddess’s breath,” Marduk growled. “Where the hell did you come from?”
“How did you get down here?” the guard countered.
Marduk fumbled to stuff his eager cock back inside his trousers. He shot Solveig a hard glare. Nothing like leaving him as vulnerable as she could. “We were… uh….”
“Looking for some place private,” Solveig smoothed her own rumpled shirt back into place. She offered the guard a winsome smile. “Someone gets a little needy when he hasn’t had a taste of me for a few hours.” She looked around. “I swear we were just in the garden, were we not? Where the hell did you drag me, Marduk?”
“You shouldn’t be down here,” the guard ground out, though he shared a faint smirk with thedrekibeside him.
“Sorry.” Marduk flashed him a winning smile, still tugging his belt into place. “You know how newly mated females are.”
A set of hard nails dug into his backside.
But the guard laughed.
It was one thing to be caught in a place they ought not be. Quite another to be caught with his trousers sliding down the back of his thighs.
“Go on with you,” the guard said, shaking his head. Suspicion died in his eyes. “I won’t mention it. But you ought not stray again.”
The guard would mention it all right, but it would be over a barrel of ale, with a laugh at Marduk’s current predicament. “Thanks.”
The guard gestured up the stairs behind him, and then glanced down the stairs.
Nobody hadseenthem down there. They might almost get away with it, unless there was some sort of tracker within the other set of guards who’d scented them.
Exhilaration burst through him. The kind that usually only showed itself when he leaped off a cliff, shifting intodrekiform at the last moment. The kind that roared through his veins when he was being chased. The kind that wanted to throw Solveig over his shoulder and haul her back to their rooms, where hecouldset his hands on her again.
His cock ached.
“Solveig.” He stared at her lean back as she slunk up the stairs ahead of him.
“Yes?” She glanced over her shoulder at him.
