Page 79 of Master of Storms
“This means war.”
Her laughter floated back down the stairs. “I thought you wanted to be realistic? It worked, didn’t it?”
Yes, it had worked, but as he stomped after her, he winced. He could still feel her fingernails digging into his erection, and by the feel of it, it wasn’t going away anytime soon.
14
They’d barely returned to their rooms before the summons came. Only, it came from a different angle than the one she’d expected.
Solveig held the small note Andromeda had sent her, arching a brow at Marduk. “The queen wants to see me.”
Marduk had been through the bath, and his wet, shoulder-length hair clung sleekly to his scalp. In the wake of that kiss, it was terribly distracting. Or maybe that was the towel wrapped around his waist, because he’d clearly given up on discretion. His eyes practically gleamed with the desire to haul her into the bathing chambers and dump her in the bath.
Naked.
“The queen?” The look in his eyes banked like a hearth that still smoldered. There beneath the surface, but pushed aside in the wake of such news. “What does she want?”
“She wishes an audience.”
“Draco?”
Solveig tapped the letter against her lip. “I don’t think so. I think if the king knew we’d been caught in the tunnels where his brother is ensconced, then he’d be a little more direct.”
Grabbing a second towel, Marduk scrubbed it through his hair. “You’ll be careful.”
“The queen’s not going to attack me. She knows who I am.”
Their eyes met.
“Be careful,” he warned.
Solveig paused in front of him. Every inch of him lit with tension as if he wasn’t entirely certain what she intended. “Always,” she promised, before tucking the edge of his towel back within itself. “Here. You’re going to lose it.”
Marduk froze.
Her knuckle brushed against the hot, sleek skin of his abdomen. Solveig looked up, and his gaze held her hostage.
Both of them grew still.
The room fell into silence. She barely dared take a breath. But she forced herself to smile as she withdrew her finger from the lip of the towel around his waist, and idly trailed her fingernail across his chiseled abdomen.
“There was a part of me that wondered if what I felt the day of our mating was a fever dream,” he breathed.
“And was it?”
His lashes grew heavy as his gaze dropped to her mouth. “No. It wasn’t. You taste like a drug. Wild, addicting, dangerous. And you feel like you’re going to ignite under my touch.”
She dug her fingernail into the hard muscle beneath his navel. “Never,” she promised.
A dangerous smile curled over his mouth, as he tossed the second towel aside. “We’ll see, Solveig. I’m not the only one who aches. I know I’m not. Because I could hear the catch in your breath, and I could feel the way your nails dug into me. You’re fighting a war on both fronts.” He leaned closer, his lips almost grazing her ear. “And you’re going to lose, because you can’t fight your own need too.”
A little flutter went through her abdomen. But she hated the idea that he saw her as such easy game. “Do you know what keeps my strength up?”
She trailed her finger lower, letting it catch in the towel again.
Amber flame turned his irises molten. “What?”
“The thought that when this mating is dissolved,” she purred, “it will break you to know that you couldn’t have me. You will dream of me forever, Marduk. Every night you will yearn. And it will ache far more than anything I feel now.” She couldn’t stop herself from stroking her finger lower, trailing her nail along the hard ridge that tented behind the towel. “That is true vengeance, Marduk. And I will have it.”
