A Viking's Peace: Futuristic Science Fiction Romance (Vikings in Space Book 1) (6 page)

“Nothing,” she whispered, standing stock still. “That’s the point.”

“No,” he whispered right back, but his words weren’t shaky in the least. Just intimate. Rough and commanding. “That doesn’t work for me, because you just told me you lost your head over me. And I know I’m gone for you. So one way or another, we’re going to find a way to work this out.”

“What do you mean, you’re gone for me?” She felt like Alice down the rabbit hole. Ten days ago she’d never have imagined falling in lust like this. And now Reinn was looking at her like…Jeez, she didn’t even want to name it. Instead, she pushed back. Hard, using language she knew was too crude and way over the line. “Is it because I’m different than your ex-wife? I’m a convenient distraction?”

He tensed around her. “Don’t.”

“Do you just want me to be an agreeable wench you can rut with?” Even as she said it, her nipples tightened, betraying how much she wanted him—even if it wasn’t smart. Even if that’s all he wanted her for, a quick fuck to erase his pain.

But Reinn wouldn’t let her think that, not even for a minute. “You’re not made for rutting. I don’t think you think that, either, but let me be clear—I don’t want a quick fuck with you.”

“Wow, jeez, you really know how to put a girl in her place. The good news for you, buster, is that I’m not disappointed to not be the object of your…
rutting
intentions.” She stormed past him, but didn’t get far because he snagged her wrist, carefully manacling her with his thumb and forefinger. Like a magic switch, her body responded, her nipples stiff and her sex flooded at the barest of restraints.

“You are the object of
intentions
. But not just rutting.” He curled in behind her, cradling her in his arms. “Sparing. Mating. Breeding. Laughing. Sleeping. And yes, rutting, but we can’t fuck without knowing where we stand. Not now that it’s no longer a secret.”

Something told her he’d ordered those verbs like that to bury the scary ones in the middle. “You want to
breed
me?”

He chuckled into her hair. “With you,
min elskede
. In good time. That is the point of fucking, after all.”

God, she couldn’t breath. The thought of Reinn surging into her, over her, intent on conceiving a child…it didn’t scare her as much as it should. And
that
was terrifying. Her big, medieval Viking wanted her for more than a roll in the furs. It was impossible. Insane. And entirely too attractive for her liking.

“No,” she said, more confidently than she felt inside. “Really, no. If I’ve led you on, I apologize. But none of that can happen.”

“You’ve done nothing of the sort.” He slid his hand up her arm, leaving a trail of goose bumps in his wake. “We’ll move on then, from this.” He traced his fingers over her collarbone, and she tipped her head back, letting him explore the exposed flesh there. “Bury this attraction between us.” He was teasing her. He wasn’t moving on. He was winding his magic again, making her forget she was an officer with a duty.
 

“We could just…for one night…” she whispered, silently willing him to slide her robe off and touch her everywhere.
 

“No. If I claim you, I’m never letting you go.”

“You’ll need to. I’m here for a few months and then I’ll be returning to Earth. A year from now I’ll be on the other side of the galaxy.” Her words sliced through her own heart, and without looking up at him, she knew he felt the same.

He rubbed his cheek against her hair and kissed her temple. “And if I ask you to stay?”

“It’s not my choice to make. There are policies and procedures. A lot of money has been spent to train me for this mission. I’m an investment. They won’t just let me go.”

“But if it was your choice?”

“I’d need more time.” Her answer shocked herself.
What?
“I mean…” Except that is what she meant. Maybe, in time, if she were free…she’d stay. It was a beautiful pipe dream, but maybe that’s why she could allow herself to revel in it. “But it’s not my choice to make,” she repeated regretfully.
 

He tightened his arms around her waist for a moment, then effortlessly lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. “Do you sleep in your robe?” he asked as he settled her down in the centre.

She slowly shook her head.
 

He curved his lips into an unexpectedly wolfish smile. “Then let me help tuck you in.”

Ashleigh knew from their few encounters that Reinn had a lusty appreciation for her. This look in his eye was something new and different. A challenge of sorts and she couldn’t back down. She wouldn’t be swayed by pleasure, no matter how tempting. But he expected her to say no, to maintain that wall he insisted was hiding a part of herself. She swallowed hard. She had nothing to hide. Yes, she wanted him. But there were larger concerns at play and he’d come to understand that she was right. She kicked the covers down below her feet and spread her arms wide. “Please.”

He sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes hot and locked on hers, and he unlaced his boots. With each heavy thud, her heartbeat raced a little faster. His tunic was fastened with a few leather buckles and soon that too hit the floor. He crawled onto the bed, still wearing a thin undershirt stretched tight across his chest and around the tops of his impressive biceps. His forearms were dusted in a deliciously light layer of dark hair, and at his waist a narrow strip of skin appeared between his shirt and his similarly snug trousers. He was fully dressed and she was drooling.
 

It didn’t matter. She could do this and not feel anything—other than pleasure, of course.

Reinn kneed his way between her legs, hovering over her long enough for her to see the desire in his eyes before he covered her mouth with his. Another kiss, another side to this man that made her want oh so much more. This kiss was hard and punishing, which she totally deserved. This push-me, pull-me routine couldn’t go on. But even as he bruised her lips and tangled with her tongue, his hand gently curved along her jaw and he held the rest of his body up and off of hers.
 

It should have felt like goodbye. It didn’t.

She’d pushed him away and lashed out with cruel words, and he’d crawled into her bed as if to say,
your heart is next
.
 

“Stop thinking so damn much,” he muttered against her lips as he pulled away, then chased her lips for one more searing kiss before rearing up on his knees. He stroked her bare legs with his hands, shoving her robe high on her thighs. “Just for tonight. Just feel us together and let it be.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t…”

He reached for her belt and lazily loosened it. He flicked one end of the belt to the side, then the other. The fabric floating on her abdomen was loose now, sliding apart as if her overheating skin couldn’t bear to be covered. “I told you. I’m tucking you in to bed.”

Unexpected tears bubbled behind her eyelids and she closed her eyes, refusing to grant them permission to fall. Reinn cursed in ancient Danish and covered her body with his again, kissing her eyelids, then her nose, and finally her mouth. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I just wanted—”

“Yeah, me too,” she said quietly, eyes still closed. It wasn’t
fair
, to have come so far for a singular purpose just to stumble across this kind of connection. Love had never even crossed her mind before. Her own parents didn’t meet and marry until they were in their forties. She had assumed it would be the same for her.

No
. This wasn’t love. No matter how overwhelming her feelings for Reinn, this was lust, pure and simple. And they needed to satisfy it. Get it out of their systems. “Touch me,” she said, ignoring the catch in her voice.

He hesitated, clearly unable to do the same. “Maybe not tonight.”

“Tonight’s your only chance.” Another catch. Stupid emotions.

“I don’t think that’s true, do you?” He kissed the spot beneath her ear, then drew the bottom edge of her earlobe into his mouth and sucked gently. “But I did promise to tuck you in.” He moved down her body, spreading her robe wide, covering the flesh exposed with his hands and mouth. At her breasts, he plumped up the mound with his hand and drew as much as he could onto his hungry tongue. Each tug shot straight to her sex and lifted her hips off the bed.
 

She wound her fingers into his hair as he rubbed his beard down her torso. His short ponytail was easily undone, his dark curls falling into her fingers as he pressed kisses across her belly. He left a wake of goose bumps on her skin as he pressed lower still, her sex flooding with moisture specially made for his tongue.
 

He veered off to the side, kissing the inside of her thigh, then drifted across her swollen cleft to kiss the other leg as well. She moaned at the tease and he chuckled. “Greedy woman,” he said huskily.

For him? Hell, yes. “Kiss me,” she begged. “Plea—”

He cut her off with a soft, broad stroke of his tongue right up the middle of her bare folds, spreading her slickness up and around her clit. She squirmed under his firm grip on her hips but he held her in place as he began unravelling her from the inside out. All of her fears and concerns fell away as he licked and sucked and fucked her with his mouth, but none of those were quite the right words for way he was making love to her. It was sinfully carnal and stunningly perfect. And when he curved his hands around her thighs and nudged them wider, she didn’t need any encouragement. She slid her hands down her body to tangle with his, holding herself open for him.
 

Reinn pushed up on his elbows, and his appraisal of her spread out so wantonly should have been embarrassing. But he looked at her body with such raw appreciation that she just arched her back, wanting to preen for him. He glanced up her, his mouth glistening with her arousal and his eyes heavily lidded. “What works for you,
min elskede
? What will make you come the hardest?”

Anything
, she wanted to say, but the empty ache demanded that she be more specific. “Your fingers inside me.”

He teased her with one long, broad finger first, then a second, before resuming his slow and steady efforts with his tongue. It was all so
good
, so amazing, but also overwhelming, and she twisted her head from side to side, trying to keep from slipping under the wave fast approaching. She didn’t want this to stop, but she also didn’t want to face the emotional reality about to come crashing down on her.
 

This wasn’t just sex. This wasn’t something easy and simple. This was a giant of a man, worshiping her in the most intimate of ways to prove a point.

He loved her. She could sense it in the air and in his touch. This man loved her and she probably loved him and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to keep their hearts intact. Not at the end of this mission. Probably not even in the next few weeks.

And when she cracked, when his love made her explode into a million pieces…that would be the beginning of their end.

“Ashleigh,” he growled, dragging her attention back to him. Where it belonged.
Oh, fuck
. His gaze on her amped up the sensations his fingers triggered inside. “Breathe. Let go.”

“I can’t,” she whispered.

He slid his fingers out of her sex and trailed them up her cleft and around her clit. “You can.”

She shook her head, eyes wide, as he lifted his hand a few centimetres above her mound.
 

“Let go.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” he murmured, snapping his wrist to lay a barely biting spank on her bare skin. She shuddered as her clit pulsed in response.
 

“Again,” she breathed.

“Eyes on me the whole time,” he ordered, and she nodded.

He slid his fingers deep inside her, building her up again, and just as it got to be too much, he slapped her pussy again, a little harder this time. The sharpness catapulted her forward, getting her past that scary bit where the wave was getting close but still escapable. Now all of a sudden it loomed above her, big and beautiful and escape was futile. Again he slid inside, fucking her harder this time with his hand, his thumb working her clit as she lost herself in the churn, and then he dealt one final stinging swipe, this time closer to her cleft, and she surged up the bed, back arching as his mouth covered her entire sex.

A million pieces didn’t do justice to how she felt. Every cell in her body hummed with spent satisfaction as he slowly moved up her body, rolling her onto her side and tugging her into his chest.
 
“Sleep,” he rumbled, covering them both with the feather-light duvet. She wanted to protest, but his warmth and his scent—an earthy, sweet soap smell that made her snuggle closer—worked their way under her skin and she started to drift.

“Reinn,” she murmured, her hands sliding under his shirt to find more of his warmth.

Another rumbled response, but this one she couldn’t decipher, and then she realized he was singing in Danish. He cupped her neck and pulled her in tighter and she gave in.
One night
, she promised herself.
A little nap and then I’ll wake up and we’ll make love all night long
.

6

Reinn watched Ashleigh sleep for hours before ducking out. He’d expected leaving her room to be hard, but even though he’d done a shit job of protecting their relationship so far, maintaining her privacy was a priority. So he slipped away under the cover of darkness, again finding a maidservant to follow. He had work to do on their itinerary before her and her team woke up.

— —
 

“What do you mean, he’s not coming with us?” Ashleigh glowered at Aldric, ignoring Navena’s pointed look in her direction.

“Reinn has some unexpected business here in the capital. He’ll join us in a few days.” If Aldric thought her disgruntlement was out of line, he didn’t show it.
 

She loaded her travel bag and her satchel onto the wagon, trying not to gawk at the pink “donkey,” as the Vikings insisted on calling the magical creatures that looked so much like unicorns. Once outside the City Core, they transferred to a high-speed rail car. Navena settled in next to her as they headed north. The city fell away behind them, the landscape green and lush under the purple-hued sky of early morning, and for a while Ashleigh forgot she was grumpy.