Page 75 of A Light So Blinding
“All right, I’m heading to bed.” She gave him a meaningful look. “You’re welcome to join if you’re done acting weird.”
“Acting weird?” he repeated.
“Yes. Like you’re trying too hard.”
Then she disappeared into the tent.
“Trying too hard,” he muttered as he kicked dirt over the fire to put it out. “I’m not trying too hard.”
But maybe he was. And maybe, just maybe, she wanted him to be himself without attempting to be the best troll husband he could be. But even as the thought occurred to him, he shook his head.
It couldn’t be that. No one wanted that from him.
Twenty-Eight
Astrid
Astrid didn’t know what was going on with him. One moment Bjorn was full of lust, kissing her in a wheatfield like he was a starving man who would do anything for a taste of her. But then he had her to himself, and he froze.
She wasn’t sure what he was trying to do. With every step he was hovering around her. He helped her over rocks. He gave her water. The man had even pressed the back of his hand against her forehead like he was checking her temperature and then insisted she step into the shade for a little while because she’d felt warm to him.
It had been a slow, arduous journey. She hadn’t been prepared for the uphill portion of it, but she could have gone faster on the flatter bits. But he was so concerned about her welfare that it had slowed them down considerably.
Was this what he thought it meant to be husband and wife? That he needed to treat her like a fragile little thing who could shatter at any minute? Astrid didn’t want that.
Which was why she’d told him how she had been trained. She knew how to control people, manipulate them, and get them to do what she wanted. But she wasn’t some fragile little doll like everyone wanted her to be in the human kingdoms. Out here, she didn’t have to be either.
Sighing, she headed into the tent as a plan formed in her mind. Usually, she would let the man take charge. Sure, the few sexual encounters she’d had in her life had never led to actual sex. The men had been well aware that they could only touch her in a limited fashion, and none of them had seemed all that disappointed by it in the end. She just needed to figure out how to do this and getthisman to take the lead if she wanted any of this to end up where it should.
Which was... sex, she supposed.
Astrid had rarely felt this way around men, if at all. Human men were lacking when it came to gaining her interest. No one had made her feel warm and liquidy inside like Bjorn did, and certainly not just by a kiss.
It was their first night alone together. She was sore and tired, but she was doing this.
A part of her needed to know if the kiss was a strange phenomenon that only happened when his lips touched hers, or if there was something far more compelling happening here. What if he could make her see stars with more than just his lips?
Well, she supposed, he was welcome to use his mouth in other places.
She could hear him outside, doing something to put the fire out. It gave her time to prepare herself. The poor man wouldn’t know what was about to hit him.
Tugging at the knot that tied the wool dress around her, she pulled it free from her waist. The fabric fell open like a robe, and there was very little beneath it. The troll maidens who had given her this clothing had been adamant that she neededundergarments as well, but the grins on their faces weren’t as innocent as she would have expected from young women.
She understood why now. Astrid had come from a culture where undergarments were long, covered most of her body, and were only there as structure for the garment that would cover them. Apparently, the trolls in the grotto did not feel the same. These garments were helpful when it came to moving quickly, but the bindings around her chest pushed her breasts up. And rather than a petticoat, there was only a small strip of fabric between her thighs.
She’d revealed the same amount of skin in many of the dresses she had worn as a priestess, but somehow this made her more nervous for Bjorn to see her like this.
Still, this was what she wanted. Astrid knew she was only nervous because she actually liked him. If it were any other man, she would have scoffed at these feelings and tugged her drooping dress even lower. She knew how to convince a man that she was the only woman in the room that he would ever dare to look at, and yet this troll had her twisted up in knots.
Blowing out a steadying breath, she turned as the flap to the tent opened and Bjorn entered.
“The fire is out,” he muttered as he heaved his bag in through the door. “Should be safe enough tonight if we... we...”
His gaze was like a physical touch. His eyes lingered on her feet, sliding up her calves to her thighs. His gaze heated as he reached the small strip between her legs and then heated even more as his eyes wandered up her stomach, to the swells of her breasts perched just so. By the time he met her gaze, his look could have burned her from the inside out.
“Astrid?” he asked. His voice had deepened into a low growl.
Oh, she hadn’t planned for this part. How silly. She was shaking as she watched his hands curl into fists, like he wastrying not to touch her though he wanted to. And she wanted him to.
