Bjorn considered her words. “Does this not keep people from reuniting with their spouse? Does your influence not destroy all hope of that?”
Samantha’s brows drew down as something occurred to her. “Even if in some strange way I was the reason your wife didn’t return to you, Bjorn, you can’t fix something that wasn’t whole, to begin with.”
Taken aback, he realized she thought he found her work unsavory because he took it personally. About to bite back, he stopped. Did he? Had he all along? Setting that revelation aside, he said, “So when your former husband was unfaithful, you divorced him and started this line of work because of it, yes?”
“How did you know about that?”
“About what?”
“That Rick cheated on me?”
While tempted to skirt the truth again, he did not. “Because you implied as much while you were dreaming...when you slept.”
“Dreaming implies I was sleeping, Bjorn,” she quipped, her eyes narrowed. “What else did I say?”
“You were upset.” He took another swig of mead. “About what happened to my father.”
She frowned and nodded but didn’t probe further.
Instead, she said, “In some ways, yes, I started my business because he cheated on me and I was broken afterward but mostly it was about moving on.” Her voice softened and became sterner at the same time. “I had to learn how to let go of the pain. I had to realize there was still a lot of life ahead of me. That he wasn’t the only fish in the pond.”
“Fish in the pond?”
“Man in the world.”
When he saw the flash of pain in her eyes, he turned his gaze back to the fire. Perhaps he had judged her a little too strongly.
“There are other men in the world,” he murmured.
After that, they sat in strained silence. And he didn’t like it. He would rather argue with her than this. Yet every time he started to speak, something stopped him. He didn’t want to upset her further and push her away, but at the same time, he didn’t want to say the right thing and pull her closer. She needed to keep her distance. Because if she didn’t, he might very well go beyond telling her there were other fish in the pond and go straight to showing her.
Which said a lot.
If nothing else held true at this point, it was that he likely had misjudged her.
And that was something he never did.
Yet he had misjudged her and he just realized why. She was absolutely right when she used the word safe to describe his actions…his thoughts. Because he was. He had been for a very long time. And he didn’t want to be anymore.
He was ready to take a risk again.
Find not just friendship but something more.
Bjorn frowned, overly surprised at his thoughts as he cast Samantha a sidelong glance. Could he find something like that with her? Or was she only meant to remain in his dreams? No. There was more. This was more. And he’d be foolish to deny it.
He might have honored her no earlier when they kissed, but if she found her way into his arms again, he suspected no would be the last thing on their minds. He became more convinced of that when they finally lay down, and he pulled a fur over them. It was far too cold for her to sleep separately and he wanted her close in case something happened. Or so he kept telling himself after she dozed off and didn’t turn away but toward him. Had he been smart, he would have closed his eyes and gone to sleep.
But that was not what he did.
Instead, he made the mistake of admiring her face by firelight. The way her curls fanned around her delicate shoulders and her eyelashes fluttered as she dreamed. Her lips were a deeper pink than usual as she murmured something in her sleep. Agitated by whatever was happening, her brows slammed together.
When heat flared beneath his skin, he knew it was her dragon…calling out to his.
Desperate to touch her, needing to understand, he cupped her cheek and closed his eyes. Seconds later, his eyes shot open. Samantha was still there, but everything had changed. She was younger, and he was looking through his dragon eyes.
It was that fateful day he lost his wife and son.
Everything came back to him. Long repressed memories held by his dragon. Samantha had been there. Either in her dreams or through time travel. Not the work of Näv at all but Samantha’s inner dragon. A dragon heartbroken to see what he went through. One desperate to get to him when his life nearly drained away.
That’s when he knew without a shadow of a doubt.
He could fight it until the end of eternity, but Samantha was his mate.
Chapter Ten
“LET ME IN, Bjorn,” Samantha screamed, still on her knees as she looked at the bloody man lying on the ground. “Please let me in,” she whimpered.
She was back in the Forest of Memories on that awful day. This time, however, Viking King, Naðr Véurr, didn’t blow smoke at her. Instead, he eyed her for another long moment before he stepped back and watched her closely. He meant to carry Bjorn home but would let her go to his son first…if she could. Because if one thing was for sure, she was part of some sort of dream world and couldn’t get any closer unless Bjorn’s dragon let her. A dragon that couldn’t surface because its human was broken. So perhaps it was a matter of getting through to Bjorn’s human side.
Either way, she was desperate.
It felt like her heart was breaking in two.
“Bjorn, please,” she cried, infuriated with her inability to get closer. Sadness soon gave way to outrage as she struggled against unseen bonds. “Let me in,” she ground out. “Let me get to you.”
That’s when it happened.
His head turned, and his eyes cracked opened. Dragon eyes that locked on her. Red skirted her vision as she pleaded with him. He had the control. Or so she assumed. Pain flickered in his eyes. Heart-wrenching pain that had nothing to do with his physical injuries.
“You,” he whispered. “No.”
Even back then, Bjorn told her no. Well, she was over it. This time, she refused to take no for an answer. Yet the harder she tried, the more he seemed to push her away. It was infuriating and incredibly sad. It felt like a part of her was withering. An unnamable part that made her chest heavy and her insides twist.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
“Then choose that life,” she finally cried and started to walk away…or flee the dream.
“Samantha,” Bjorn whispered. “Do not go.”
When Sam turned back it wasn’t to a bloodied teenager lying on the ground but Bjorn at his current age, beard intact. He was just as grievously injured, but she knew the wounds she saw now weren’t physical but mental. Manifested in this strange place, this misplaced memory, as blood and gore and awfulness.
“Bjorn,” she whispered.
This time, when she ran to him, there were no barriers. She was about to fall to her knees beside him when reality shifted…and her eyes snapped open. Not to Bjorn lying bloody on the ground but wound-free and beside her in the small cave, his eyes locked on hers.
Her heart pounded.
She could barely catch her breath.
Neither said a word as he ran the pad of his thumb along her jaw. Whatever just happened had changed everything. Somehow, through their dragons or otherwise, he had let her in. He was pulling her closer.
Little did she know just how close until he propped up on an elbow and threaded his fingers into her hair. No easy trick considering how thick it was. But he seemed to know his way. In fact, though electrifying, his touch felt like second nature. Wonderfully familiar. As though she had felt it before and would feel it a thousand times more.
His eyes stayed with hers as he drew closer, as he let her in. There was something uniquely sensual about the way he watched her. Firelight flickered in his blue eyes as he made a promise with a mere look. He didn’t kiss her. Not yet. Rather, he made her lips throb with anticipation. Heck, he made everything throb.
“Bjorn,” she groaned, eager to kiss him. To taste him.
Every last bit of him.
When she tried to kiss him, he tightened his hold on her hair, angled her face back and exposed her neck. Then he began kissing her. Not on her lips but down the delicate, exposed column of her neck. She might have thought she hated facial hair, but damn, was she wrong. There was something sinfully erotic about the feel of his hot lips and tongue combined with the slight abrasion.
“Oh, dear God,” she gasped as he palmed a breast then sucked her nipple into his mouth. Eyes closed, she forgot to breathe as he slowly pulled one leg up until her foot rested on the ground. Then just as slowly, he guided her leg until she was far more open to him. As his hand inched up her inner thigh and his lips made their way back up her neck, a familiar warmth started to fill her.
The same warmth she had felt after their rowboat excursion.
Except this time he wasn’t warming and drying her clothes with dragon magic. No, he had removed her clothes altogether. By the time their eyes reconnected, cool air slid over her skin at delicious odds with the heat of his hard flesh just centimeters away. His fingers trailed and teased until he found what he was looking for.
Sam arched and bit her lower lip against a harsh gasp as he began working her flesh with far more talent than she anticipated. Bjorn might seem detached, but she should have known he was capable of this by the way he was using his eyes.
The man knew his way around a woman.
And if she wasn’t mistaken, he truly enjoyed bringing her pleasure. The more she squirmed and moaned and tried to keep her eyes open, the more avidly he watched her and the closer his lips came. So close their breath mingled, his as harsh as hers as he continued to admire her and work his fingers.
She had never felt so beautiful.
So desired.
Something about that sent her right over the edge. She cried out, arched and gripped his arm when an orgasm ripped through her. As she floated down from euphoria, his lips finally found hers. Though they had kissed earlier, it was nothing like this.
Not nearly as powerful.
Once Bjorn kissed her, really kissed her, he gave her everything.
All of him.
And saints above was he delicious.
Their tongues wrapped, sought and tangled, desperate to get closer. To taste more. Sample and consume. It went from passionate to ravenous in a heartbeat as he came over her. She was so distracted by his kisses that she was only vaguely aware that he’d spread her legs.
His mouth left hers, and his soft words came close to her ear. “I let you in, Samantha,” he whispered. “But will you do the same for me?”
While most women would think he referred to the act of sex, she knew it went deeper than that. Much deeper. Something she would soon learn not only mentally but physically.
Seconds later, his lips were again inches from hers and his gaze intense. Would she let him in? Could she truly after the heartache she had suffered in the past? She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure. One thing she did know was she was willing to try.
Thankfully, he didn’t expect any answer beyond what he saw in her eyes. At least not right now. So he would take, but only what she was capable of giving. Not her heart, but her flesh. Not the woman but maybe the dragon.
Whatever it was, whatever this was, it was a start. A place they had decided to go that felt more genuine than anywhere she’d ever been with a man. Emotionally and now physically. Because there had only ever been one other. Rick. And she wasn’t just referring to a karmic connection, but the act of sex. Since Rick, she had put on a takes-no-prisoners, somewhat promiscuous front so that Cybil wouldn’t worry about her. It hadn’t been all that hard either. She really enjoyed flirting with men, just not sleeping with them. Not yet. Not until she knew they wouldn’t hurt her like her ex had.
As if he sensed Rick creeping into her thoughts, Bjorn stilled.
Their gazes held as he waited for her to find whatever she needed within her mind…and heart. He wouldn’t take her to push thoughts of Rick out. He wouldn’t be second best. No, Bjorn wanted this moment all to himself.
He wanted a part of her she hadn’t given to anyone else.
Thoughts of Rick faded as their eyes held.
“Yes,” she whispered, not entirely sure what part of herself she would be giving to Bjorn but eager to find out. Desperate to share.
“Yes,” he echoed. His eyes never left hers as he spread her legs further then thrust. Not hard, just enough to begin entering her.
Sam quivered then tried to relax. Though he had her extremely aroused, she wasn’t used to his girth. Sensing her unease, his lips dusted hers again before he deepened the kiss. Ensnared once more in the otherworld of passion he took her to, she finally relaxed and opened up to him as he thrust and drove deeper.
Strange feelings started to wash over her. Almost like pleasure mixed with something indefinable. Sensations far greater and intense. She felt them from her very center right out to the tips of her toes as he finally filled her.
“Samantha,” he groaned into her mind, his body flexing over hers as he clearly felt the same sensations.
Hearing him in her thoughts as he filled not only her mind but her body, was just too much, and she fell over the edge again.
“Bjorn,” she cried out and locked up against him, only somewhat aware that she didn’t say it out loud. But he must have heard it because he growled then groaned, his eyes shifting between normal and the dragons, as he shuddered and tried to maintain control.
Sam’s eyes widened with certainty as her dragon responded.
As her dragon made sure she knew it was true.
She had just spoken within his mind.
And that, it seemed, created a short-fused ticking time bomb in Bjorn because he quivered again before he bit out, “I cannot hold back anymore.”
A blink later, he began thrusting.
Not slow and measured, but fast and desperate. Though alarmed by his pace at first, his ferociousness, her worries soon faded away beneath the feel of him. Not only the weight and power of his strong body but the unparalleled sensations that ebbed and flowed through her.
It felt like bliss and pain and rapture all wrapped into one.
He had a way of rolling his hips and thrusting at the same time that drove her crazy. Matching his rhythm, she groaned and dug her heels into his ass. Her body started to tremble as pleasure swelled.
High.
Higher.
When he shuddered, released a low growl and thrust one last time, she locked up and cried out as a remarkably strong climax hit her. Red shrouded her vision as well as swirling colors. Almost like curvy, elegant fireworks.
She had never felt anything like this.
A complete sense of release.
Everything was gone but her and him and this endless pleasure mixed with peace. Eventually, the red faded as did the other colors, and left her in an utter state of relaxation. Head bent beside hers, Bjorn seemed to be caught in the same enrapturing place. When his eyes finally found hers, she wasn’t surprised to see a flash of his dragon. That searing shade of blue that was as beautiful in dragon form as it was when he was human.
“Blue,” she murmured and ran her finger along his strong brow. “You’re one of those dragons whose shade is closer to your eye color.”
“Yes.” He rolled off of her. “My eyes are more sensitive to sunlight. Those with sensitive skin or eyes are typically close in color to what makes them sensitive to begin with. My eyes are blue, so my dragon’s coloring is the same.”
“Interesting.” Sam fingered a curl. “I guess I assumed I’d be red based on my hair color, but it’s my skin that’s sensitive to sunlight.” She frowned. “So does that mean I’m going to be a flesh-toned dragon? That doesn’t sound too appealing.”
It was still hard to imagine becoming what Bjorn had been. Such a magnificent beast.
“Your skin color is…” His eyes swept over her body, and he cleared his throat as he stood. “Your coloring is beauti
ful, woman.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, unable to tear her eyes away from him. God, the man was in good shape. Tattoos curled down his arms. Not an obscene amount but enough. And they suited him so well. Yet again, she was surprised she was into him. She had never been into guys like him. Rough-strewn, muscled men with tats just weren’t her thing.
Until now.
Now it was safe to say she was really into them. Most specifically, him. Which made her wonder, what would come of this? Because it was hard to imagine any kind of future with a man like Bjorn. He seemed too reclusive. So determined to be on his own.
Instead of using magic to dress, he yanked on pants and nodded at the satchel. “Get dressed. We need to leave soon.”
“Wow, you’re pretty cold after sex, eh?” she muttered as she stood then rummaged through the satchel.
When everything grew silent, she looked his way only to find him staring at her. Hands frozen on his pant strings, his eyes seemed to devour her. Though acutely aware of her nudity, Samantha felt a little rush. A thrill that had everything to do with being looked at like that by him.
It was intoxicating.
And she wanted more.
As if he read her mind and took it a little too literally, he finally tore his eyes away and continued dressing, his voice matter-of-fact. “I intend to claim you, Samantha. You will be my mate.”
Her brows shot up. “Um…what?”
He sat and pulled on boots, his eyes on her again as she got busy dressing instead of tempting. “When we return to the Fortress, I will make it official. You will belong to me.”
Sam started to talk, then snapped her mouth shut. He had to be joking…right? Or maybe he thought she expected it after they’d slept together. That it was the honorable thing to do. So she said, “Thanks, but I’m good. We already skipped the dating part and went right to,” her eyes dropped to where they’d just had sex, “that.” She cleared her throat and shook her head. “I’m not looking for anything serious, Bjorn. I just got out of something like that.”
Vengeance of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 2) Page 14