Page 32 of Master of Storms
She prowled the room like adrekiwhose tail was lashing behind her. “Surely the court has more bedchambers.”
“It does.” He scrubbed at his mouth, wondering how much to say. She was an ally, but revealing any weakness to Solveig was like showing your throat to a predator. “However, you’re to stay here with me. Whatever the real nature of our agreement, in the eyes of the rest of the court we are mated. My brother feels appearances need to be kept until the mating lines are formally dissolved.”
There. That sounded plausible.
And it was true. Rurik had insisted she reside with him.
Narrowed eyes locked on him, as if Solveig could almost sense he was hiding something. “I see.”
Marduk waited for her attention to return to the bed, and sure enough, there it was.
A wintry chill settled over her expression. “Where am I sleeping?”
“In the bed.”
It was probably a good thing herdrekigifts turned more toward Air rather than Fire, because if they did, he was fairly certain he’d have been immolated on the spot.
“If you think—”
“It’s an enormous bed, Solveig. You won’t even know I’m—”
“No.” The word rang through the room but it was the tension in her shoulders that made him growl under his breath.
Damn it. She wasn’t going to back down. And he liked his bed. He’d spent more than enough years snatching sleep on the rocky surface of a cave floor or in a bedroll that smelled distinctly of horses.
All those pillows. The thick weight of his blankets, spun from the finest wool…. The mattress itself, which came the closest to imagining what it would be like to fall asleep on a cloud.
And the look on her face when she’d captured him three months ago and one of her father’s guards had sniggered about bear traps.
It had been barely a flinch, but he’d known she’d heard about the song, and the second he opened his mouth to apologize, she’d walked past him and hissed that she was going to see him dead, no matter what it cost her.
This was the cost of youthful pride.
And maybe she wouldn’t accept his apology, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep offering it.
“Fine.” Marduk tossed a pillow on the floor before the hearth with a sigh. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“You?” Hard eyes watched him. “Thefloor?”
He dragged a blanket from the bed and made a nice nest with several of the furs there. “This hard thing beneath our feet.”
“You’re not the sort ofdrekimale who enjoys such roughness.”
“Then take ease in the realization that I’ll spend a miserable night,” he growled.
* * *
Solveig lay awakefor long hours, trying to ignore the flicker of light from the slowly dying fire. The bed was the softest thing she’d ever slept in, and her wretched body yearned to succumb to sleep, but every time she relaxed, she could smell his scent in the pillows and the blankets.
It felt like being cocooned in his arms.
And worse, if she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine the brush of his silk sheets against her skin was the faintest kiss of his lips….
Damn it.
Every inch of her remained tense.
It was him.
