Page 28 of Master of Storms
“If you can manage to set me on my ass, what makes you think I’m going to tell anyone? I’m not the sort to tuck tail and run bleating to my mother.” A darkness edged his fading smile. “And she’s not the sort of mother to respect a son who would do such a thing.”
“Wise woman.”
Something about his expression made her think something was amiss. “Mmm, not the word I would generally use to describe her. Now, are you going to fight with me, or would you rather we skip straight to kissing?”
Kissing?Was he serious? “I thought you had no intentions of courting me?”
“What do kissing and courting have to do with each other? Because you might hate me, but there’s a part of me that wonders if all this arguing is merely foreplay.”
Her jaw dropped open.
What?
Marduk rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. Surely you know angry sex is the best kind of sex there is. And your gaze lingers on my backside often enough that I’m not unaware you find me physically pleasing.”
Despite the fact he’d guessed correctly—or truly had been doing his research—she was flabbergasted.
Angry sex.
Him.
Her.
Teeth and nails and hard fucking up against a wall.
The breath slammed out of her even as wetness slicked between her thighs.
“If you bring those lips anywhere near me,” she growled, “I will kick you off the top of this tower.”
“Still won’t kill me, sweetheart.” Marduk spun around, heading for the rapier rack. He hauled his silk coat off his shoulders, tossing it aside carelessly as he reached for a blade. “Are you going to fight me? Or are you too afraid you’ll ruffle my pretty blond hair?”
Solveig was still struggling to recollect herself in the wake of not murdering him over the “foreplay” comment, and that “sweetheart” almost slipped right past her. The sight of his white shirt caressing the broad planes of his chest was enough to steal what was left of her wits.
He was gorgeous. All golden hair, leonine grace, and power bunched into a spectacular set of muscles.
She hated it.
She hated everything about him, from the flashing white smile to the dimple on the right side of his mouth. The stupid, careless way he didn’t give a damn about her insults. She’d been frightening males away for years with the merest snarl, and it was incredibly frustrating to come across one who simply plowed through her warnings without a care in the world.
But most of all, she hated the way her body flared with interest the second he threw the concept of hate sex into the air between them.
Running his fingers along the rapier, he gave her another look. “Well?” he demanded with a wicked little smile. “Are we dueling?”
“Oh, we’re dueling.” Her entire body practically vibrated with tension. “No mercy, Marduk. I’m going to beat you so badly you go flying back to your mother with your tail tucked between your legs. I’m going to make you cry tears of pure fire.”
“So many dirty promises.”
Solveig lunged forward.
A little metallic ping echoed somewhere to the left as she recovered, and Marduk looked down to where his shirt was suddenly missing a button. There was not so much as a tear in the linen.
“I thought you weren’t trying to get me naked?” He countered with a ruthless attack.
Solveig brushed it aside, but his response came lightning fast, and she was forced into a stiff retreat, countering vicious blows she barely managed to deflect.
A second button pinged.
Marduk retreated with a courtly bow.
