“Olivia.” My name rumbled from him, rough and low. “You’re all right?”
“Yes,” I whispered. He was, too. The gash on his side had already healed, leaving nothing but blue skin and taut muscle. “What about the body?”
“Odin’s ravens will come for it at dawn. You just need to get the hell out of here.” His jaw like granite, he stepped back. “Are you heading east or west?”
“East.”
“So I’ll go west for as long as I can.”
My breath shuddering, my throat a solid ache, I nodded. “I want fluffy biscuits tomorrow morning,” I said hoarsely. “Don’t forget.”
The anguish bleeding through his faint smile seemed to mirror the agony inside me, but though I could hardly bear to see his, Erik didn’t look away from my face. “I’ll try, Olivia.”
I knew he would. But I couldn’t respond—he was already gone. Heading west as fast as he could.
Wiping the tears from my cheeks, I rolled up the window. Carefully I drove past the splatters of blood that were all that was left of the Hound. And there was a wolf, lying dead against the snowbank. Erik hadn’t covered it with snow—maybe because a dead wolf wouldn’t raise as many questions as the Hound’s body would. I slowed, looking at it. That was the spot where the Hound’s arm had landed, too. I didn’t see the thin limb now. Just that wolf. It must have attacked Erik when I’d looked away. Everything had happened so fast.
But I wasn’t going fast enough now. I didn’t know if I could go fast enough. But there was one way to find out—and now that I was on the road, I should have cell reception again.
Even as I reached into my bag for my phone, it rang. Of course it did.
“Hi, Mom,” I answered, my voice breaking with sheer relief when she returned my greeting. “If I keep driving, is Erik going to catch up with me?”
“Yes.”
My heart stopped. I stared through the windshield. The highway was coming up. So what now? Stop somewhere and just wait for him? Try to get a hotel room? But it was the holidays and ski season; I probably couldn’t find a room anywhere along this corridor.
Would he catch me in the truck? “Am I going to be okay?”
But even as the question left my mouth, I realized how stupid it was. Of course I’d be okay. If my mother had seen a future in which I wasn’t going to make it through this, if I was injured or hadn’t consented, then she and my dad would be here already—or she’d tell me to pull over and take aim as soon as I saw Erik coming.
Her heavy sigh sounded through the speaker. “I don’t know what to tell you, Liv.”
I blinked. That wasn’t the answer I’d expected. What couldn’t she tell me? There were only two choices: Yes, I’d be hurt; or no, I wouldn’t.
But hurt wasn’t always physical—and Mom never protected my sister and me from our own hearts.
“It’s okay.” I’d deal with the emotional stuff when the time came. Until then, there were more important things to worry about, such as not getting fucked by a frost giant in the cab of a truck. Erik would take me wherever he found me, and the dimensions of the front seat weren’t exactly ideal. The Gulbrandrs’ fortress was close, but the remains of the giant snake were still splattered through the tower room. “Can I make it home?”
She paused before answering. This time, she wasn’t looking ahead at a future lying on a course that was already plotted. Instead she was feeling out alternatives, which was harder for her.
Finally she said, “Drive fast.”
I hung up the phone and drove.
Chapter Ten
I reached Denver just before eleven. Two hours still remained before the solstice. Not much time, and my gut was screaming that Erik wasn’t far behind me. I sped through the snowy streets as fast as I dared. Never had I been so grateful for my job and the contacts I’d made in real estate and development, because when I’d decided to move out of my apartment a few years ago, I’d called in a few favors and gotten dibs on a property that was as isolated as one could get in the city without spending a fortune. My house sat alone on a dead end street near a nature preserve at the south end of the city. There was nothing behind my place but a few trails, deserted at this time of night. And I had a pretty good arm, but I couldn’t throw a stone and hit the nearest house.
Erik had said he’d tear apart mountains to get to me. That was fine. I just didn’t want him to tear apart my neighbors. Luckily, mine didn’t live too close.
The house was freezing. I clicked on the heat and rushed to my bedroom, tearing away my coat and sweater as I went. With skin prickled and shivering, I moved to the French doors that opened my room to the deck overlooking the preserve. The full moon shone above. Beyond the back yard, there was nothing but snow and trees, but I didn’t know which door he’d use to enter the house…if he used a door at all. My house might have a gaping hole in the wall within a few hours.
I looked to my bed. Blankets—I needed more blankets. Over my comforter I spread a quilt and an unzipped sleeping bag. Ugly, but I didn’t think Erik would notice or care. With the heater cranked up, the wooden floor had lost its chill on my bare feet by the time I finished, and I stripped down to my panties and a tank. I considered waiting naked—making my consent as obvious as possible, no matter the state Erik was in. But if everything went horribly wrong, I didn’t want to be nude.
Hoping that this night would go right, I placed a box of condoms on the nightstand near my bed. Preparing for the worst, I hid my gun in the nightstand drawer.
Now I only needed to prepare myself.
I turned off the lights and crawled beneath the top quilt, pushing my hand into my panties. Erik had said he wouldn’t be able to slow down long enough to prepare me, so I pictured it now: his tongue slipping through the wet and warmth, his fingers tugging at my nipples. Falling into this daydream was easy; in the past year and a half, I’d been here so many times, imagining him with me.
Soon he would be. I closed my eyes, letting go of doubts and fear, remembering his hardness behind me, the taste of his kiss, the heat of his skin. Remembering the gentle, devastating glide of his fingers over my clitoris.
Biting my lip against a moan, I mimicked the same touch. I was already as drenched as I’d been then.
You’re in need, Olivia.
So much. Though desperate to rub harder, faster, I only teased, imagining each light touch was a flick of Erik’s tongue. God. God. Even going slow, this fantasy was going to make me come.
Too early. Better to keep myself primed. Groaning, I pulled my hand away, thighs squeezing together, my flesh empty and aching. I stared up at the ceiling and tried not to picture Erik’s head between my legs.
The room abruptly dimmed, as if the moon passed behind a cloud. I glanced at the French doors and gooseflesh rose over my skin. Frost climbed the panes in a thick, crystalline layer. Though the opaque glass, the full moon outside was nothing but a diffused glow. My breath steamed in front of me, each pant visible in puffs.
He was here.
Pulse suddenly racing, I clutched the blanket to my chest and shot a look at the door leading to the darkened hallway. I hadn’t lied when I’d said that if he’d broke through solid wood, I’d be terrified. Maybe scared enough to shoot him.
So I’d left every door in my house open. Inviting him in before inviting him inside me—and it wasn’t fear that gripped me now, but anticipation and hope. Until this moment, my whole being had been focused on getting through this night. But I didn’t just want this night. I wanted more from him. Erik called himself mostly a man, but he was everything that I wanted in a man. If there was more to him….I would soon see what that was, too.
Waiting, I stared into the dark, intensely aware of the hardness of my nipples beneath the soft cotton of my tank. I didn’t know if it was in reaction to the cold or the arousal blooming through me, but the sensation deepened the needy ache between my thighs.
Shadows moved in the hall. Abruptly Erik filled the entrance to my room—bigg
er and taller than he’d been only a few hours before, his head almost even with the top of the door frame. My breath stopped as the diffused moonlight struck his muscled form. His naked form. Not blue now, his skin was as pale as sculpted marble, but there’d never been a statue so perfectly made. His broad shoulders narrowed to a ridged abdomen. Dark hair led a trail to his groin. His rigid penis jutted from between powerful thighs.
Oh…my God. The condoms weren’t part of the plan anymore. If I’d been prepared properly, I’d have bought the larger size. The giant size.
But it was okay. I wouldn’t panic. I was on birth control. I’d just pray that ‘frost giant’ wasn’t a STD—and that he wouldn’t rip me in half. Because I’d been with my share of guys, but none of them had been swinging around anything like that.
“Olivia.”
His deep voice was the low thunder of a cracking glacier. His hands gripped the sides of the door frame, his arms straining. Muscle and sinew stood in sharp relief.
Still holding himself back, somehow—even though the power of the curse was almost at its height.
“It’s all right, Erik.” I needed to ease his mind about this, if nothing else. “I want you. I want this.”
Wood splintered beneath his hands. The door frame cracked as he came through, as if he’d forced his way inside instead of trying to stop himself. His eyes glittered like diamond chips in a hot blue flame.
I tossed back the quilt to welcome him in.
He didn’t come around the bed, as I expected. Long strides carried him on a straight line to me, up over the foot of the mattress. With a sweep of his arm, he tore the bedcover completely away, baring my legs. Big hands circled my ankles. I cried out when he suddenly dragged me toward him. My back hit the sleeping bag spread out beneath me, my tank sliding up to expose my stomach and friction a soft burn against my skin as he pulled me closer. Then he was pushing my legs apart, his big body rising over mine.
My breath came in sharp pants. My brain struggled to catch up. He’d said he wouldn’t be able to prepare me. I still hadn’t expected this so fast. But he was truly just going to fuck me.
Claws slipped under my panties and pulled; my hips jerked upward, lace biting into my skin before ripping free. His breath was ice on my face, his body a heavy furnace above me.
Powerful thighs spread mine wider. He braced his hands beside my shoulders, his glittering eyes locked on mine. Hot and blunt, the head of his cock wedged against my entrance.
Holding on to him, my fingernails dug into the steely muscles of his biceps, my mind racing. This was going to happen, it was happening now—
He surged forward. I was wet and aroused, but nothing could have prepared me for his size. So big and deep. My lips parted on a shocked cry, cut short as his cock drove into me again. I gasped for a breath and already he was pushing inside me again, filling me, each thrust strong and deep. Not pounding into me, there was no pain, I was just full, so full, and each stroke seemed to strike sparks across every nerve within the sensitive flesh stretched tight around his big invading shaft. All at once an orgasm ripped through me, shock and pleasure and heat rolled up into an avalanche of sensation, my inner muscles rippling around his thick cock and he didn’t stop, but fucked me relentlessly as I came, writhing uncontrollably beneath him.
And he still fucked me as the orgasm receded, leaving me wetter than I’d ever been. My body suddenly felt boneless, my legs falling wide. The tension gone, the incredible sensation of Erik inside me was utter decadence. My back rose in a languid arch, relishing the steady rise and fall of his powerful form, of his thick penis driving into me in long, endless thrusts.
I needed to touch him. My palms slid over heavy muscle, fevered skin. Above me, Erik was rigid and shaking, even as he rocked deep into me. His head was bowed, his teeth clenched, and his features a mask of desolation and defeat.
“Hurting…you.” Each broken word sounded like an anguished echo from the pit of Hell.
Didn’t he know? Had he mistaken my shock for pain? Maybe even my orgasm seemed like the writhing of a woman in agony, and he’d only seen what he’d expected to see. I caught his face between my hands.
“You’re not hurting me, Erik,” I said softly, holding his tormented gaze even as my body welcomed each heavy thrust. “Feel me. Feel how good it is, how wet I am.”
I linked my legs around his hips, holding him close and rising to meet every surge of his body into mine. Slowly his torment seemed to fade, though each thrust was just as hard, his muscles just as rigid, his rhythm just as relentless. My own languid ease was slipping away, my body tightening with need. The tension renewed, each stroke left me breathless.
“See?” Panting, I couldn’t manage more. “Not hurting. You feel…amazing.”
“Olivia.”
His voice was still rough, as if simply speaking was another battle against the curse—but no longer anguished. Just hungry.
God, so was I. Starving for his touch, for him to give me more than his cock, but the curse forced him to fuck me and I didn’t know if he could offer any more while in its grip. It didn’t matter. I had a lot of practice imagining that my fingers were his.
Back arching, I cupped my breasts. My nipples were tight and the sweep of my thumbs a delicious tease. But not only for me.
Erik’s eyes flared white-hot as he glanced between us. My gaze locked on his face, I pinched the throbbing tips and his ravenous groan was the sweetest reward.
With pleasure trembling through me, I pinched them again, right to the edge of pain, so that every sensation sharpened. The thrust of his cock into me. The feverish heat of his skin. The chill of the air upon my sweat-slicked flesh. I moaned his name and his stiffened arms beside me suddenly flexed, elbows bending as he lowered his head.
Cold breath whispered over my breast. For a bright, frozen moment I remembered the sharpness of his teeth, then his cold tongue slicked a path around my nipple and the icy shock of it tightened every inch of my skin. I cried out, my back arching higher, my hips tilting to take him deeper, and he was fucking me just right, just right, my flesh a taut shiver beneath the coldness of his mouth and my pussy clenching around his thick shaft, coming hard and harder and still he fucked me, thrusting deep, his cock feeling even bigger inside me or I just couldn’t feel anything else.
Tears streaked my face as I came down, shaking and spent but the exquisite ache already building again with every thrust.
With a groan, Erik lifted his head. His thumb brushed my cheek. Wiping away the tears.
Torment filled his voice again. “No.”
I caught his hand, shaking my head, wrapping my legs tighter around him. “It’s not pain, Erik. I’ve just never come that hard before.”
His growled response held a note of possessive satisfaction. A short laugh escaped me, then I bit my lip on a moan as his next thrust was deeper, harder. God.
“Lift me up a little,” I told him breathlessly. “Help me take you.”
His hand wedged under the small of my back, angling my hips up and relieving the heavy weight between my thighs. He was fucking up into me now, not just fucking me into the bed, and the new angle was perfect. My fingers slipped between us, gliding over my clit. I was so wet, my slick arousal painting my inner thighs and glistening over his cock, and soon I was writhing and crying out again, because it was too much, too much, but even when I pulled my hand away he didn’t stop, just fucking me, making me come until I had nothing left and my entire body was languid again.
Then I simply clung to him, loving the sensation of him moving inside me. I didn’t know how long I held on to him. Minutes. Hours. Forever. Not long enough. I closed my eyes, and then I was lost again, lost to the surge of him, the endless need that wrung everything from me, crying his name until my voice gave out, exhaustion a heavy weight on my flesh, my mind a fog of pleasure that only cleared briefly as Erik suddenly stiffened with his cock wedged deep. He shuddered and I gasped as the frigid pulse of his seed filled my heated shea
th.
Then he rolled onto his side, his arms wrapping around me and pulling me close. Despite his orgasm, his cock was a hot steel length against my thigh. His body was a solid furnace, and the bedroom air icy cold. But even if the doors were closed and the heater blasting, I knew that I would be far colder when he let go.
How long had it been? I couldn’t make the effort to look at the clock. I didn’t want to move from his embrace. “Is it over?”
His rough reply followed me into sleep. “No.”
* * *
Hot fingers were lifting me, sliding a pillow beneath my hips. I stirred, my mind heavy and slow. I lay on my stomach, head cradled in my crossed arms. And Erik was—
Behind me. Positioning me, his hands pushing my thighs apart, tilting my ass higher.
Preparing me.
I jolted fully awake, then gasped out a strangled cry as ice slicked through the folds of my sex. Licking me. My fingers curled into the blankets beneath me. My hips bucked against the pillow and then against the grip of his big hands as he caught me and held me still for the thrust of his tongue.
“Erik!” I cried out. Then “Oh my god. Oh my god.”
Icy and slick, he delved deeper and found my clit, soothing my tender flesh, inflaming me all over again. I screamed, but this time he didn’t stiffen and shake, tormented by worry. Instead it was if he knew exactly what he was doing to me when his cold tongue lashed my clitoris, then was followed by the caress of his broad thumb, his skin burning with curse’s fever. Hot and cold, slick and rough.
Shuddering with desire, I couldn’t keep up with the sensations coursing through me, couldn’t think, could only cry his name as the ecstasy overwhelmed me, and he growled his pleasure against my convulsing flesh as I came.
He licked until the orgasm released me and I collapsed against the pillow, still trembling. The mattress shifted as he rose between my legs. His hands gripped my hips and I moaned in desperate anticipation as he pulled me up to my knees, my face still cushioned on my folded arms. His body covered mine, heated lips pressing a kiss to my shoulder.
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