“An honor?” she murmured before muttering under her breath, “I’d say the honor’s all mine.”
He couldn’t stop a small smile, well aware she wasn’t referring to being near him but admiring his backside. Seconds later, the scent of her arousal hit him, and he bit back a groan.
“Are you in the water yet, Kenzie?” he said over his shoulder.
A few moments later he heard splashing before she said, “Yup.”
Though he should probably tell her to look away too because there was no stopping his erection, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had not lain with Hel in far too long let alone felt her eyes on him. A woman’s eyes. So he strolled right in well aware that though Kenzie tried to avert her eyes, she was failing miserably.
“Hell, you’re not making this easy on me, are you?” she muttered as her cheeks flushed pink and her dragon eyes flared.
He bit back another grin at the numerous flattering thoughts flitting through her mind. How impressed she was with everything he had to offer. How much she'd like to touch him. To see if his muscles were as solid as they looked. By the time he lowered into the water, her dragon eyes were outright sizzling.
“Is the water to your liking?” he asked, trying not to stare at her slender shoulders. Trying not to imagine how soft her luminous wet skin must be. How silky she would feel against him. What was hidden from him underwater.
“The water’s great,” she replied. “I take it there’s a hot spring around here to make it so warm?”
He nodded. “I would think so, yes.” Then he shrugged. “But then it's hard to know in this place. It could just be part of Níðhöggr’s grand design.”
“True.” Her eyes stayed with his for a long moment, as though she weighed what she wanted to say before she finally blurted out, “I think we need to talk.”
“Yes,” he agreed, watching her, concerned for her. “About what is going on with your stomach. What it has to do with what Skáld and Einnar said.”
“No.” She shook her head as she cleared her throat. “Though we’ll get to that.” Her eyes never left his. “I’d rather talk about meeting your son last night.” A small smile curled her lips. “He’s amazing, Eirik, really.” She swallowed hard and pressed her lips together, her eyes suddenly damp before she managed to say, “Far too amazing to let your desire for me get in the way.”
There was no missing the struggle inside her. How much Dagr had affected her and how much this, what was flaring to life between them, affected her as well.
“He is a good son,” he agreed, saying what she needed to hear, saying what he had to say. “And I will not let anything or anyone stand in the way of keeping him safe, Kenzie.”
“I hear you saying that but I sense new things in your mind,” she murmured, not bringing up what had happened with Einnar earlier and Eirik’s obvious inability to let her go. “You’re trying to find another way.”
“Yes,” he confirmed, though he had come up with nothing thus far.
“Prophecy is prophecy,” she reminded, catching his thoughts. “There’s no way around it.”
“There may not be a way around it,” he said. “But another way of deciphering it.” He shook his head. “I need to talk to Hel again. I need to find out if there’s another angle to this we are not seeing. Another possibility. If perhaps there is some other way.”
“Not a bad idea,” she agreed, her eyes pleading with his. “But you have to promise me that if she says it’s cut in stone, that you’re going to listen. That you’re going to trust her.”
“You speak as though you trust her yourself,” he replied, “when you have met her once and remember little of your time with her.”
“But it was enough,” she said, confident as her eyes stayed with his. “Just like you trust her, right, Eirik? Just like you have all along?”
She was testing him, and he did not blame her. His son’s life was at stake, and Kenzie was trying to make sure that remained a priority for him. Though most might get offended, he did not. He appreciated her putting Dagr before all else. It meant a great deal. Yet at the same time it only drew him closer to her, only made him want her more. And so he found himself saying something he never imagined he would. But then he never imagined anything beyond keeping his son safe.
“If there is another way to keep Dagr safe,” he said softly, “and you do not have to go to the enemy, would you...want to be with me? Am I the sort of man you would desire spending more time with when not in heat?”
She blinked several times and started to talk but stopped before she switched topics entirely. “I need to ask you something because it’s been weighing on my mind.”
He nodded. “Anything.”
“Why isn’t Hel doing the same thing as you?” she said. “Why isn’t she holding me hostage so she can turn me over to the enemy when Dagr is taken? It makes no sense.” She frowned and shook her head. “Instead, she took me to protect me from you, who in turn is only trying to protect your son, her son. As far as I’m concerned, you two should be working together not against each other to protect your child.”
“I am not entirely sure what motivates Hel,” he replied, though he could speculate. “All I know is that she has been acting strange since this all began and because of that I suspected she was going to do something unexpected.” He shook his head. “While I don’t understand what she’s up to, I imagine now that we are here where she wants us, it’s only a matter of time before we learn more.”
“What could her motives possibly be?” Kenzie said, incredulous. “She’s Dagr’s mother. She should be doing whatever it takes to keep him safe.”
“She is,” he assured. “Though we may not understand her methods, she would never risk his life.” He shifted a little closer, hoping she saw what he was beginning to suspect. “I am beginning to believe that Hel has found another way. One that benefits us all.”
She stared at him for a long moment before she murmured, “You think she wants us together?”
“I think she wants me to find love,” he said frankly. “And I think she knows that you are the one I can find it with.”
Have likely already found it with, he thought but kept that to himself because she appeared more alarmed by the moment. Which brought him back to his original questions.
“Would you want to be with me if we could be, Kenzie?” He needed to know the answer. “Am I the sort of man you would desire spending more time with when not in heat?”
“No,” she said far too quickly, the sadness in her eyes unmistakable though she tried to act unaffected. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head and folded her arms over her chest underwater as though trying to create another barrier between them. “It’s not you, just...” She shrugged a shoulder, clearly struggling for a response that made sense. “I’m just not cut out for living somewhere without modern-day amenities.”
“Dragons do not need modern day amenities,” he countered.
“But women do.”
“Our women do not.”
“Because they don’t know what they’re missing.”
“You do not strike me as the type that cares much about that sort of thing,” he said softly, sensing her sadness growing stronger.
“Well, I do.” She eyed him warily as he shifted even closer but made no move to touch her.
“All that aside, you’re just caught up in the moment,” she continued. “People can be around you again which means women too.” She shrugged again. “The world’s really gonna open up for you.”
He started at her turn of words. Had she caught what he had been thinking last night? About what Hel had said to him?
“Perhaps I do not want the world to open up to me,” he said softly. “Beyond what you can offer.”
She shook her head. “Whether or not we were mates in another life, I’m not the girl for you in this one, Eirik. Trust me when I tell you that.”
“Why?”
“Why trust me?”
“No, why
do you think you are not the woman for me?”
“Because you deserve more,” she said so softly he barely caught it. But he did catch the moisture she blinked away as her eyes fell to the water rather than stay with his.
“More?” He closed the distance and tilted up her chin until her eyes returned to his. “Why would I possibly want more than you?”
And he meant it. She was extraordinary.
“Those are strong words,” she whispered before she bit her lower lip and said the last thing he saw coming. “But you will want more than me, Eirik. You’ll want more children.” Pain flashed in her eyes. “And that’s not something I’ll ever be able to give you.”
Chapter Fifteen
SHE MIGHT HAVE expected Eirik to respond a variety of ways but not how he did when he wrapped his arms around her and just held her. Comforted her.
“It’s okay,” she murmured as she rested her cheek against his chest, but it really wasn’t. It hadn’t been for a long time. Because she would’ve loved to already have a few children even though she was only in her twenties. And she would have been fine raising them on her own alongside her animals. She made good money so she would have done all right.
“How do you know you cannot have children?” he said softly, cupping the back of her head like she might break. Like she was that precious.
“I found out years ago after...well, I was with a male dragon when in heat.” She sighed. “I already knew something was off and then it was confirmed...sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“Let’s just say a human doctor confirmed my human ovaries weren’t producing properly,” she said. “And my dragon needs my human to make everything come together the way it should.”
Which, despite her sadness, made her far too aware of being against him. Something both her human and dragon halves were wholly paying attention to just like they had been from the moment he started removing his clothes. She had never seen such a fine sight both back and front. He was chiseled to damn near perfection as far as she could tell right down to what was pressing against her.
“Shit,” she said through clenched teeth, as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to keep her hands from wandering.
“I do not care if you can give me children,” he rumbled, the deep sound so masculine and hot like the rest of him, she was barely holding on to her willpower.
“You should care,” she ground out as she curled her fingers against his tight chest, so aroused it was becoming hard to think straight. Yet she managed to get out what she wanted to say as she pulled back and met his eyes. “I have a feeling you’ve been given a second chance so you should grab it and start a family if you want. Enjoy women. The kids they can give you. You deserve it after all the crap you’ve been through.”
“Crap that you seem to be freeing me from,” he murmured as he cupped her cheek and pulled her more securely against him with his free, too muscular, too amazingly tattooed arm. “I already have a son, Kenzie and even if I did not, I would not turn from you because you could not give me children.”
She heard his words, the emotion behind them, but it was becoming harder and harder to focus as her inner dragon roared up. As she struggled to maintain a civil conversation rather than give in to what her body so wanted right now.
“You’re not thinking clearly,” she began but didn’t get anything else out before his lips came down hard on hers. So hard and rough and hungry that she was already leaping when he pulled her up, and she wrapped her legs around him.
Their tongues tangled as he rubbed her along his shaft. Her whole body from the tips of her fingers to the tips of her toes hummed in anticipation of what was about to happen. How he would make her feel. She wanted to sink onto his long, hard, thick length then roll her hips and never stop. She wanted to ride him until she didn’t know where he began and she ended.
In direct response to her thoughts, he growled, gripped her ass and was about to give her what she wanted before she sensed something moments before he did and stilled.
He had her behind him in the blink of an eye as he scanned the rocks around them before he visibly relaxed and spoke to someone before Kenzie even saw her.
“Interesting timing, Goddess,” he murmured.
“Perfect timing,” came an all-too-familiar voice. Seconds later, Kenzie spied a shifting dark shadow before a beautiful woman appeared, leaning against the rock wall on the side of the pond.
“Hel,” she whispered, blinking several times as the woman’s features shifted, not as clear as they could be.
“Hello, again, Gemini Dragon,” Hel said softly, her all-knowing eyes still on Eirik before they finally went to Kenzie. “Are you enjoying my mate?”
“I am not your mate.” Eirik grabbed Kenzie’s hand before she could scoot out of the water. “I am your friend, Goddess.” His eyes went to Hel’s, and his voice grew softer still. “Always that.”
“I can see you more than most people, can’t I?” Kenzie murmured, her eyes never leaving the goddess. “But not all the way.” She narrowed her eyes. “And I still can’t remember our time together before...why is that?”
“You will when the time is right,” Hel replied, her eyes going lazily between Kenzie and Eirik as though summing them up as a couple. “As a rule, it takes mortals and even dragons, time to adjust to being around a god. Especially one the likes of me.”
“Understandable,” Kenzie replied, giving her the respect due her as she took in the various weapons gleaming on her person, vibrant with the shine of Helheim.
“Where is Dagr?” Eirik asked, finally allowing Kenzie to escape him so she could dress.
“Not far, my dragon,” Hel murmured, her eyes following Kenzie. “Never far.”
“How was he able to make contact with Kenzie?” he said as he finally headed for his own clothes, not thrown in the least by his raging erection based on his casual attitude. “And why does Dagr say the veil between our worlds is growing thin?”
“Because it is.” Hel’s eyes slid to his erection almost as if she were daring Kenzie to get miffed and say something. Which she knew damn well better than to do. Or so she thought until an unexpected, unstoppable growl of warning rumbled deep in her chest.
Rather than acknowledge her because she likely didn’t give a shit, Hel’s eyes remained on Eirik. Better yet his cock as she spoke. “Has the world opened up to you then, my dragon?” Her eyes rose to his. “Have you love for the Gemini already?” Before he could answer her eyes went to his tattoo. “But of course you do, don’t you?”
Kenzie froze with her boot halfway on when she realized that Eirik’s tat had changed quite a bit. “It’s only green in the middle now.”
“Yes,” Hel murmured. Her unreadable gaze lingered on it before her eyes returned to Kenzie. “Curious, is it not?”
She could only manage a stiff nod in response, finding it more than curious. Alarming in a way she couldn’t put words to.
It was a reminder of something.
“What am I forgetting?” she whispered, staring at it.
“What you will soon enough remember.” Hel’s eyes returned to Eirik. “You are safest in Níðhöggr’s Realm until I tell you otherwise. Then and only then, will you make your move.”
“You mean I’ll make my move,” Kenzie said. “Because I’m the ransom.”
“Are you then?” Hel mused, her dark, sultry eyes sliding back to Kenzie. “Or are you something more, Gemini?”
“If I am, I’d like to think you’d tell me at this point,” Kenzie countered, still in awe of the goddess but not a total wuss either. “Considering I’m in this to protect your son.”
“You are that aren’t you, little dragon,” Hel murmured, her words more of a statement than a question as her eyes lingered on Kenzie for another moment before going to Eirik. “Keep the little Gemini close to you at all times for she can see what you cannot.”
“Dagr,” he said.
“Yes,” she murmured. “And that is no small th
ing, my dragon.”
“No,” he agreed. “Yet you are not going to tell me why you think that is, are you?”
“No,” she said softly. “It is for your little Gemini to tell you when she remembers...if she remembers.”
“Why not just tell me now,” he began, but it was too late. Hel vanished as quickly as she had appeared.
“She was sizing me up,” Kenzie murmured as she pulled on her other boot. “Sizing us up together.”
“So it seems,” he grunted. “Though I would have preferred her to be more direct.”
“Oh, I think she’d get bored with that,” she murmured, staring at the spot where Hel had just been, “seeing how she’s a god who’s been around since what, the beginning of time?”
“At least the beginning of Helheim,” he conceded.
“Which makes you pretty damn special by the way,” she pointed out before he could get too upset with the goddess. “After all, she chose to hang with you and had your child. That’s sorta big in my opinion.”
“She wanted Dagr,” he reminded then relented. “But yes, I have always felt honored by the friendship I share with Hel.”
“Going off that whole transaction, I’d say both a friendship and relationship,” she said. “She obviously cares a great deal about you, Eirik.”
He glanced at her with surprise as he tugged on his other boot. “You saw all that then? When most people outside of my kin have trouble holding her gaze let alone imagining her having a heart.”
“Oh, she definitely has a heart.” She patted Floyd absently. “And I think it’s in the right place.” She shrugged and met his eyes. “I mean she didn’t steal me back and seems to think you, and I should stick together.”
His brow rose slowly. “And that means she has a heart as far as you are concerned?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed, positive she was right. “And though I’m not quite sure what her angle is yet, I think she’s got our backs.”
Viking's Ransom (Viking Ancestors: Rise of the Dragon, #4) Page 11