Chapter 38

The chilly autumn air was heavy with the scent of pine trees as they blew in the breeze and tonight's roast venison and potatoes. But even the rumble in his belly didn't slow his pace through the gates at the Sentry post. When the familiar pale face rushed the stone stairs two and three at a time, the door guard lowered his head to him and pulled the door open. "Welcome home, sir."

A perfect set of white teeth smiled through his messy blonde beard as Haldir slapped his shoulder. "Good to see you again."

Though it was only about four hundred paces from the front doors to his room, no matter how he rushed through the tapestry-lined halls, he couldn't get to her fast enough.

Since she'd already counted each stone of the ceiling overhead more than once, Mory rolled over to smell his pillow instead. The evening wind gust through the open window and covered her in a chill from her toes to her head, and every hair on her body stood on end. And like a magnet that drew her closer to him, she pressed her hands into the mattress and backed away from the warmth of it.

The fresh air pummeled the room and all of her mate's possessions, and she was drenched in his bergamot and lavender smell. The ache of it clenched her hands and crushed her body in its grip until she was trembling and gasping for him.

Two fuzzy white socks slid across the fur-lined rug, and when she got to the window, her arms spread wide from her matching fuzzy sweater to grasp the shutters.

The cold vanished in an instant as she pressed them shut and shoved the hook lock together, but she heard the door creak and sensed the air shift behind her. The metal door handle smacked the wall, and soft scuffs moved across the floor before she felt it latch closed again. And even though she understood who crept up behind her, she was frozen in place. "Where have you been?"

On either side of her, Mory found two dirty hands come into view as they wrapped around her shoulders, and when his lips met her neck, her knees gave way. But like the first night they made love, he held her steady against him. "I didn't see your note until the next morning. Please, forgive me."

From the moment she stepped off the plane in Norway, every single second of her life was like the strangest dream, and her shaking fingers rose to touch his face. "Is this real?"

The electricity of his skin against hers shot through each of Mory's nerves to reignite her as he rubbed his lips against her, and she gasped with a new breath of life as his raspy voice tickled her. "Aye."

The darkness of the room captured every one of her sobs as she pulsed between his arms. "I was so worried about you."

"Shh." There was no space left on her neck unloved as he kissed his way around her body, and his hands cupped her cheeks. "That's over now. There's not thing one in this world that could rip me from your side again; I swear it to you, my love."

While she hummed against his chapped lips when he pressed them to her, her fingers gripped the business end of his chest ax and tugged it free. And the whole room clanked as it fell to the floor beyond the bearskin.

Just long enough to pull his sword from his back, his hands left her body, and the faded echoes were stoked once more with the sound of his blade as it bounced across the stone blocks.

The soft side of her fingers dug underneath his leather chest straps, and she freed herself from his mouth as her eyes pleaded with him. "Please tell me you dropped that motherfucker who killed James."

The bass of his voice was raw, and it pleased every inch of her body as he sank his teeth into her earlobe, and his fingertips slid into the back of her stretchy pants. "Uh-huh. Believe me, I carved them up real good for you."

Chainmail clad shoulders took turns as they pressed into her soft sweater, and his face dragged down between her breasts as he worked her pants down her legs. And when he came back to her face, his hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her away from him.

The loose bun she wore in her hair tumbled down around her, and the back of it rested in between his fingers while he pulled at the front of his trousers.

With a smile on her face, she hissed through her teeth when her head snapped back as he kneeled down to take a bite of her ass cheek. "Take it easy back there."

The dirty bottoms brushed her skin as he shoved them down, then the back of his hand smacked her round, pale ass cheek. "Not tonight, I won't." A set of teeth dug into the soft curve of her neck. "You're indestructible now, remember?"

Both her cheeks squished under his palms and his feet kicked at hers as he spread her legs across the floor. "Now, I hope you weren't hungry, because you're going to be missing dinner." Fingertips slid back and forth across her sex from behind and rubbed circles on her to tease her. "Probably breakfast as well."

Two moist thighs shivered underneath him as he slapped himself against her, and she narrowed her eyes to him as she looked over her shoulder. "Get to work, goddammit, and don't be gentle."

A soul-shattering snicker vibrated his chest and made her lower belly quiver as he yanked her cheeks apart. "Yes, Mrs. Osulf."

The toes of her socks curled into the smooth fur to steady herself as his thick cock worked its way inside her. The deep, dark spaces of her pussy were like the hottest bath, and his eyes pinched shut to the soothing way she wove together around him. Her tightness made him whimper as he sucked back one long breath. "As you wish."

Born again to this new magic world, her virgin body burned as he drove into her over and over again without mercy. The blankets twisted under her as she desperately tried to keep herself from flying across the bed with each thrust of his body against her.

There was beauty and pain with every jab of him, and he was the most wonderful sort of unkind in the way he pressed her into the mattress with his hand dug into her low back. But each moan and whimper into the air around them fueled his need to please her, and he pulled out every one of the moves he picked up along the many years of his life.

Between long, deep strokes and short, quick ones and every imaginable combination of hip rolls, Mory's cries for faster or harder never went unmet. The heavy mahogany headboard whacked at the wall to drown out the sounds of their wet skin as it smacked together. And when he yanked on her hair to lift her to him, she cried into the otherwise quiet air so loud the people who shuffled in for dinner outside got a good laugh and shielded their young ones' ears.

When she couldn't even catch her breath anymore, a breathy grunt and a tremor came from Haldir's clenched teeth, and his cum dripped from her as he savored the sight of seeing himself finish all over her. Limp on the bed as she twitched the last bit of her orgasm from her body, Mory was wrapped up in his filthy shirt against his chest when he gathered her in his hands.

A tear-soaked chin brushed her shoulder as she looked over it to him, and he blanketed the side of her face in kisses. "I love you."