“As I said before, it is time for you to embrace all that you are.” Kjar’s eyes flickered from her to Heidrek. “And I sense there is only one way to do that.”
A shiver of both apprehension and excitement rippled through her. As if she was trapped beneath a closed hatch but suddenly saw a chance to break free…a light at the end of an unnamed tunnel. Her eyes stayed locked on Heidrek. These were his thoughts. And she was at the heart of something only he understood.
His eyes met hers as if he suddenly unlocked a great mystery.
“Kjar, stay here and keep an eye on Bjorn and Matthew.” His eyes never wavered. “Cybil, I will honor what you said you wanted.” He strode toward her. “You are to become mine.”
Chapter Eight
“WHOA, HANG ON a minute!” Cybil yelped as he tossed her over his shoulder, grabbed a satchel and made his way around the waterfall. “I know I said I wanted you but now doesn’t seem like the best time. You’re seriously not yourself right now.”
“No, I am not.” Heidrek set her down by a small closed-in pool that churned with run-off from the waterfall before it poured down some unseen cliff.
With a flick of his wrist, rusted wall torches sparked to life. Still trembling with anger, he stared at her. “You do not need to fear me, Cybil. I might be upset, but it is not with you.” He slowly backed her up against a wall. “I am very proud of you, woman.”
“Um, thanks,” she murmured and put a hand against his chest to stop him. “But you need to slow down.”
He frowned, confused. “Why are you fighting this?”
“Like I said, it’s bad timing.” Cybil shook her head. “You’re clearly upset and think that sleeping with me is somehow going to fix everything.” Her brows drew together. “I guess I didn’t see being with you the first time going like…” her eyes swept over their surroundings, “This.”
She knew he was doing his best to rally his emotions. And she also knew he would not take her against her will. So she wasn’t all that surprised when he went about things differently and far more effectively.
“We will not do anything you do not want to do, Cybil.” He stepped back and pulled off his tunic. “Instead, we will wash the battle from our skin, and I will share with you why I think now is the right time for us.”
Her eyes tripped down his muscular, tattooed chest and washboard abs. Dear God. She braced her hands back against the wall and inhaled deeply as he yanked off his boots then started on his pants, his eyes never leaving hers.
The man meant to seduce her.
And it was working without him laying a finger on her.
“You should undress,” he said softly. “Not to say I do not like the looks of you wearing your enemy’s blood.” An aching throb blossomed between her thighs at the seductive look in his eyes. “Would you like me to undress you, Cybil?”
He was channeling his anger into something else entirely, and she was finding it harder and harder to think straight. Then again, she knew damn well he was pushing his own thoughts into her mind. How alluring he found her. How much he wanted to peel her clothes off and taste every inch of her.
“I need to understand what’s going on,” she whispered. “I need…”
Oh, she needed all right, but she was having a hard time remembering what outside of the obvious.
“Somehow, we are each other’s key,” he murmured, still working at the ties on his pants while he cupped her cheek and stepped closer. “You can unlock something inside of me, and I can do the same for you.”
“Something you’re wary of,” she whispered. “Something dark…powerful.”
“Yet you, someone without the darkness, can release it.” He ran the rough pad of his thumb along her jawline. Hunger flared in his eyes. “And I need it to save my kin and to fight this new enemy.”
Though some might say he was guilting her into sex, it went far deeper than that. While he was certainly attracted to her, he was desperate to protect his family even at the cost of his own sanity.
Her eyes narrowed as his emotions kept washing over her. “What if it’s evil, Heidrek? What if you can’t control it and it ruins you?”
“It is a chance I am willing to take.” His hand fell to the side of her neck and his thumb to her collarbone. “I see no other way to face what comes.”
She thought of the black dragon and its red eyes. Of the extreme power it possessed. How far its reach likely went. “My sisters are in danger too, aren’t they?”
“I think anyone affiliated with my dragon kin are.” His eyes grew troubled. “And because you are here, I think they are too. I believe they are fated to mate with my brethren.”
Cybil closed her eyes and worked to keep her breathing even. “So we’re going to sleep together for all the wrong reasons.”
“I can think of no better reason than to save our kin.” Her eyes shot open when he tilted her head back, his voice whisper soft as his lips came close. “But do not think I have not wanted you every moment since you arrived. Even before that. I only stayed away because I was told you should be with my brother. Now that has changed. I might not be able to claim you yet, but I can lay with you.”
Breathless, she tried to differentiate between the two, but she was too caught up in him. “Then why were you so indifferent on the ship?” she murmured as his lips hovered over hers. “You knew things had changed yet you acted like they hadn’t.”
“Because I love my brother.” His lips brushed hers so gently she barely felt it. “And I do not want anything else to come between us.”
“Yet,” she began, but he cut off her words when his lips closed over hers. It may have only been a few days since she last felt like this but it seemed like eons.
A lifetime.
She could have pulled away, probably should have, but she did not. Could not. No, she sunk against him and returned the kiss with as much passion.
Like the first time they did this, all sorts of emotions blasted through her. Snippets of them together. Naked. Writhing. Taking. It drove her wild, and she pressed against his rigid erection. She was tired of dreaming about this, of envisioning it. She wanted the real thing. Just once. Just to ease the endless aching.
He knew.
He felt it too.
So much for bad timing. Everything suddenly felt pretty damn perfect when he grabbed her ass and lifted her. Their lips never disconnected as he braced her against the wall, and managed to pull his pants off. Then he yanked off her boots and carried her to the water.
“I’m still dressed,” she gasped between kisses.
Heidrek offered no response but continued kissing her while he walked down into the water. She expected it to be frigid, but it was surprisingly warm. It had to be magic. Waist deep in the water, he set her down on the edge and finally pulled away.
Nothing but lust and fire burned in his eyes as he slowly pulled her shirt over her head. His gaze trailed over her chest with avid appreciation before he pressed her back until her upper half was sprawled across the warm grass.
When had grass appeared?
Who cares?
All she could focus on was the hungry look in his eyes and the feel of his warm hands as they caressed their way up her stomach. He seemed enthralled by the dimensions of her body as he palmed her breasts. She arched and groaned when he pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
She whimpered with pleasure and dug her hands into the grass when he leaned over and rolled the nipple between his teeth then suckled it into his mouth.
The ache between her thighs intensified so much she began to squirm. He inhaled sharply, smelling her arousal before he pulled away and yanked her forward enough that he could work her sodden pants down her legs.
At sharp odds with the heat burning her skin, cool mist blew off the waterfall. Once he got the material past her hips, he shifted her back enough that she was supported as he continued the thorough, agonizing process of peeling her pants off.
His tongue, teeth, a
nd lips followed in the wake of his hands, tasting her thighs, knees, shins, ankles and feet. Nothing was left untouched as he familiarized himself with her lower half.
At least most of it.
She felt his intent with every lick of his tongue. How much he enjoyed the texture and taste of her soft skin and was looking forward to tasting something else altogether.
Cybil clamped down hard on her lower lip when he yanked her forward again, sank into the water, braced her knees over his broad shoulders and devoured her.
The feel of his tongue between her legs was so potent that she lurched up, but he wrapped an arm around her and pressed her back down. Meanwhile, he used his other hand in combination with the pure ecstasy-like torture he was igniting with his mouth.
“Heidrek,” she gasped again and again as he drove her to orgasm so quickly, her body completely locked. Then she began trembling so hard everything started to spin.
Then something else happened.
Images started bubbling through her mind as her body let go. Not of the future but the past few hours. Death. Blood. Killing. Murder. Evil.
Blinding fear.
“Oh, God,” she tried to say but couldn’t seem to push anything past her lips.
“Just relax. What you are feeling is normal,” Heidrek said softly as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her down into the water. “Your body found release now you are letting go of what your mind repressed to protect you. To keep you strong for me and my kin.”
He held her tight and pressed her cheek against his chest. “It is not an easy thing to kill for the first time. Or to come face to face with an evil dragon. You became a true warrior today, Cybil. Now you must accept your actions. Accept who you are.”
Accept who she was? A killer? Someone evil wanted? She continued trembling, frightened by her lack of control. She still couldn’t speak.
“I experienced the same feeling after I killed for the first time at fifteen winters. The same sense of fear,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “It was then that my powers started to surface.”
She swallowed hard, ignored the tear that trickled down her cheek and finally managed to whisper, “But you’re a Viking. A fighter. Your religious beliefs honor that…welcome it.”
“Yes, but that did not change the way I felt the first time I took a life,” he said. “It affects everyone differently.” He scooped an arm under her knees, another around her shoulders then lowered them further into the water until her hair was submerged and she was gazing up at the torchlight dancing across the ceiling and cave walls.
“Close your eyes and relax, Cybil,” he murmured. “Embrace what you are as I wash you.”
Cybil meant to say no, that she felt foolish, but instead her eyes drifted shut and more tears fell as she once again saw the carnage of battle at her feet. The havoc she had wreaked with her own two hands. As she floated and he washed away the blood, she felt the rage and anger, the need to destroy and defeat…to conquer.
She watched the life drain from her victim.
She relished the utter power she felt.
Then she hated it.
“Would you like to pull your blade free?” Bjorn’s words echoed through her mind. Did she? Again? But she knew as she stared at the lifeless man that she did and would. Over and over, if it meant keeping her sisters safe. If it meant helping Heidrek and his family. She hadn’t known them long, but somehow they already felt like they were hers.
That Heidrek was hers.
Cybil’s eyes opened and locked with his. He still bathed her but never looked away from her face…from what she was going through. When fire flickered in his gaze, her mind’s eye snapped her to the gorge.
To the evil dragon.
Blinding panic.
“He wants me to have sex with you before I go to him,” she whispered.
“I know,” he murmured into her mind. “I was there with you every step of the way.”
“Why does he want that?”
His eyes narrowed as if he saw something within her mind that even she didn’t. “Because he is hoping the darkness within me will take over, and I will join him.” He kept running his hand over her. “He knows you are the key.”
“You didn’t know this until just now did you?” she asked, her voice growing stronger with concern.
“No,” he murmured. “But it changes nothing.”
“Yes, it does.” She struggled out of his arms and stood, shaking her head. “It’s too big of a risk, Heidrek.”
“You know as well as I do that no risk is too great.” He yanked her against him before she could shift away and tilted her chin until their eyes met. “If we do not lie together, he will come for you.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“You are a Celtic demi-god Dragon Seer,” he said. “If he cannot find an ally in me, he will find one in you. And there is only one way to do that. He will take you for his own, and if you do not prove useful, he will make you his slave.” His jaw clenched. “The torture he will inflict would be…” He shook his head. “It does not matter. I will never let that happen.”
She closed her eyes against the wildly erotic images he pushed into her mind and the heavy erection he pressed tighter against her stomach.
“I am not afraid to face what I might become,” he whispered close to her ear. “But I need your help, Cybil.” He clenched her ass. “I need you.”
“I might ruin you,” she whispered. “And I don’t think I could live with that.”
Yet he had laid out the alternatives, and he wasn’t lying. They were all in grave danger. Their eyes held as she tried to find a way around it but knew this was their only hope.
Before she could second guess her decision, she stood on her tip-toes and pulled his lips down to hers. Needing no further prompting, he lifted her and deepened the kiss. Both groaned as their tongues tangled before he swung her into his arms then laid her down in the grass beside the pool. Seconds later, he leapt up and came over her.
Yet he remained gentle.
Almost loving.
He spread her thighs as he kissed her lips, cheek then down her neck. Despite the feverish need building between them, he took his time and made her feel worshiped.
By the time his lips covered hers again, she had already had several mini-climaxes. When he pulled back, and his eyes met hers, she knew the time had come.
Ragged breath escaped her as he pushed forward slowly. Though his girth was impressive, he had aroused her so much that a few strokes later, he took her completely.
That’s when it began.
Something she couldn’t put words to.
Not just sharp pleasure but molten waves of bliss started to blaze through her veins. The feeling was way beyond orgasmic, and he hadn’t even moved yet.
When his eyes met hers, something deep within let go. She had no idea what it was but needed it desperately. Right now. So she wrapped her legs around him and rolled her hips.
He braced himself with one hand and pulled her arms over her head with the other, gripping her wrists tightly as the dragon tattoo on his neck started to glow. Something broke from her chest that sounded like a half purr, half growl as he thrust hard. Thunder rumbled so loudly, it outdid the waterfall.
She closed her eyes and arched against his hold as he thrust again and lightning zigzagged across her vision.
This wasn’t sex.
At least not in the common sense.
It was something far, far better.
His thrusts increased, and thunder crashed as wind whipped through the cave. Thor’s blood was igniting within Heidrek…growing stronger…coming to the surface.
As it did, his pace increased, his thoughts swirling with hers. The unbelievable way he felt. The power. Desire. Raging lust.
“Look at me, Seer,” he growled out as they moved against each other, climbing higher and higher toward something there was no turning back from.
Her eyes drifted open and met his. Not
human eyes, but pale blue catlike eyes. His inner dragon. A part of him that could never break free. A part that helped him affiliate with dragons...that made him a Dragon Seer.
Or so she assumed based on his thoughts.
Red started to shroud her vision as he thrust even harder. Did she possess some sort of phantom dragon too? Because right now, something inside felt so different. Ferocious and new and part of her in an unexplainable way.
Theirs in a way nobody could take from them.
Whatever was happening grew more and more intense. Thunder roared, and the ground trembled as they struggled to get closer, to merge not only their flesh but everything surfacing.
She felt no fear, only eagerness to set him free.
To set herself free.
“Cybil,” he half growled, half demanded as his powerful body took hers. “Mine.”
A slithering darkness started to seep into her mind, but she dug her nails into his shoulder, shook her head and seethed, “No. You’re mine.”
When the grass heated beneath her, she struggled against him and twisted until he rolled beneath her. She pressed down on his shoulders, dug her nails in deeper and rode him hard, pushing the darkness further and further back.
Lightning began to streak around the cave, illuminating the waterfall as the ground continued to tremble. As the darkness receded and white light started to brighten the ground around them, she began rolling her hips.
His eyes glowed brightly then shut as though he was caught in a spell he couldn’t control. Or just relishing unabashed pleasure. It was impossible to tell as she extinguished the last of the darkness.
He clenched her hips tightly and helped her move faster. Sensation after sensation whiplashed through her and she lost touch with reality.
When an orgasm screamed up, he flipped her beneath him, thrust hard enough to push her back, roared as loud as the thunder and sailed over the edge with her.
Nothing could touch what ripped through her as he locked up against her and shuddered. It was life-altering. World-tipping. Game-changing.
It was astounding.
Rise of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 1) Page 12