Claimed by Her Viking Wolf (8 page)

Susan and Richard knew his
kona
better than anyone. While Richard was understandably wary of the whole
situation, and protective of Kim, he’d also given his blessing of sort, before
Asger
had followed Kim into the garden.

Asger
had no doubt the
older man would follow through on his warning to run
Asger
through with his own sword, if he harmed Kimberly. In another time Richard
would have made a fine warrior indeed.

“
She’s
done this before though, right? Isn’t it supposed to get easier?” Kim asked.
When he shook his head, she bit her lip, and tensed further. He had to touch
her, to soothe her worry and his inner animal at the same time. A shiver went
through her frame when he tucked her hair behind her ear and ran his index
finger along her jaw. Their gazes locked, and the connection they’d already
established pulsed between them almost like a living entity. Kim’s lips opened
as she put her hands on his chest, scooting closer. A tiny frown pulled her
eyebrows together when he didn’t meet her halfway.
Asger
held his breath as she seemed to debate her next move.

After what seemed like a small eternity, she huffed
out a breath, and bunching her hands in his t-shirt, yanked him closer until
their lips met. His wolf howled in triumph.
Asger
knew she could hear him, when she hesitated, before she ran her tongue over his
mouth, then firmed the pressure of her lips on his. When he didn’t respond
other than to ball his hands into fists in a futile effort to stop himself from
taking charge of this situation, she pulled away and shook him.

“
Dammit,
kiss me back. This is not going to work without some cooperation from you, and
you need to get back to her, so…” She yelped when
Asger
grasped her by her forearms. Pushing her away from him he held her at bay. It
damn near killed him to do so, but he didn’t want her to do this just so that
he could get back to his own time.

“
Ow,
you’re hurting me.” Her whisper broke through, and he let her go with a
muttered curse. Her eyes widened, when he got up abruptly and putting distance
between them paced the space in front of the bench.

“
Why
are you so damn angry?” she finally asked. Shooting to her own feet, she
stopped his incessant pacing by getting right in his space. Her small hands
connected with his chest, branding him with her heat and scent, and his beast
chomped at the bit. Had he been able to shift, he would have done so already,
to run off some of his frustration, before he claimed her here and then and
fuck the consequences. However, he couldn’t shift in this damn time, so instead
he shook his head and growled at her.

His
kona
flinched,
but she didn’t let go of him. Instead she stepped closer, so close that their
thighs touched. The soft roundness of her breasts pressed into his chest, as
she brought her hands up, clasped them around his neck, and getting on tiptoes,
dropped a kiss on his nose, of all things.

“
You
can growl all you want, but that doesn’t scare me.” She pulled back, and he
marveled at the blush that spread across her cheekbones. Her inherent shyness
around men was cute, and it made the possessive animal in him strut. Somehow he
didn’t think his
kona
had been with very many
men before him.

“
It
should.” He grumbled the words, as he ran his hands slowly down her back until
he reached the curve of her ass cheeks, and lifting her up, kissed her.

A whimper escaped his girl. She brought her legs
around his waist and clung to him like a vine, as he deepened the kis
s
.
Asger
marched them back up
the path, until he could prop her up against the brick work of her family’s
cottage.

His cock ached with the need to sink into the wet
heat of his mate. He ground his hips suggestively into her pussy, inwardly
cursing against the layers of fabric between them.
Asger’s
grunt caused an answering set of mewls and feminine sighs of surrender from the
woman in his arms. She grew pliant and soft against him, her reaction spurring
him on to take this to its inevitable conclusion. He’d given his damn word,
however. Besides their first time shouldn’t be a rough and frantic coupling
against the wall like this.

Repeated throat clearing from the side made him
break the kiss, even as Kim followed him, seemingly intent on prolonging the
contact. With her eyes shut, her pale face flushed and her lips swollen from
his kisses, she looked good enough to eat.
Asger
slid
her down his front with great reluctance until her feet touched the ground.

“
Dammit,
Asger
, you said you’d keep your fucking hands off of
her. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right here.”

Chapter Eight

Richard’s furious words, coupled with the sound of
what could only be a shotgun being cocked, brought Kim out of the haze of lust
and want
Asger’s
kisses had placed her under. She
gasped when she opened her eyes to see they had an audience.

Susan just looked amused and rather smug, whereas
Richard had the shotgun he kept for warding off unwanted vermin, firmly trained
on
Asger
.

Pushing away from the wall, Kim got in front of her
stoic looking Viking, only for him to pull her behind him with a muttered order
in Norse, she couldn’t decipher. Kim rolled her eyes at the testosterone loaded
display in front of her, even as her hormones sighed in submission at her
warrior’s protectiveness. Richard’s, too, as misplaced and untimely as his
intervention had been.

“
You
gave me your word, dammit.” Richard raised his gun a notch, as
Asger
took a step toward him. Kim tried her best to pull
Asger
back, but it proved a useless exercise. The mountain
of a man simply pulled her along. She swallowed frantically past the bile in
her throat, when his chest touched the barrel of the shotgun, and he proceeded
to stare Richard down.

“
Richard,
come on, stop this. They were just kissing.” Kim threw her aunt a grateful
glance, when Susan put her hand on her husband’s arm. “There is no need for
this. Besides, Kim looked a more than willing participant there. Let it go,
Rich.”

Richard’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t drop the
gun, and shook his wife’s hand off his biceps with a muttered curse.

“
He
was practically eating her, woman, and that’s not the point. He said he would
keep his hands off of her, and he hasn’t. How am I supposed to trust him after
this stunt?”

The most menacing growl yet erupted from
Asger’s
chest as he advanced on Richard, forcing the other
man to take several steps back.
Asger
seemed to grow
taller still, and the air shimmered around him. A charge of static electricity
came off him in the process. Kim whimpered in pain as the sharp pain of that
contact zinged up her arms. Before she could blink, she was in
Asger’s
arms, cradled against his chest, while he carried
her past a worried looking Susan and a slightly less furious Richard, still
clutching his shotgun, and into the warmth of the kitchen.
Asger
was muttering to himself in Norse the whole way. Kim closed her eyes and let
that guttural sound wash over her senses. She really could listen to his voice
all day. If the ache in her pussy was anything to by, he could probably talk
her into an orgasm without even trying.

Dammit, she so needed to get laid, and to hell with
everything else. They could sort out any possible consequences afterward. Even
as she thought that, she knew it wouldn’t happen, at least not right now, as
her bum made contact with the kitchen table. Kim reluctantly opened her eyes,
to find
Asger
examining her hands and arms with a
frown, as though he was expecting injuries.

In truth, she too, was expecting to see some sort
of burn mark, but only unblemished flesh greeted her. The pain, sharp as it had
been, had disappeared.

“
I’m
okay, really. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Asger’s
head came up, and
her heartbeat accelerated as their gazed connected. A wealth of emotion and
concern greeted her in his expressive eyes. They bled from the dark molten
chocolate of his human self to the softly glowing amber of his wolf’s, until
she could almost see the big grey/brown animal pacing under his skin.

“
What
do you mean, it doesn’t hurt? I’ll fucking kill him for real.”

Kim ignored Richard’s ranting, her attention taken
up by her Viking. She offered
Asger
a wobbly smile,
and bringing her hands up, tentatively touched his face. No painful jolt this
time, but heat, and a whiff of his virile scent that made her want to crawl
into his skin and never let go. It was an odd sensation, for sure, but it also
felt right, and
Asger
inhaled sharply.

“
You
need to shift, don’t you?” she asked.
Asger
stiffened
and nodded. He threw a wary glance at Richard, who had at long last dropped the
shotgun and settled for glaring at them both.

“
Yes,
that or fuck.”
Asger’s
reply meant Richard yanked
that gun back up again. Susan shook her head and slapped her husband upside the
head.

“
Give
over, you big fool. Anyone can see these two belong together. Let’s give them
some privacy, to—”

“
Neinn
.
”
Asger’s
growled reply stopped Susan. Kim held her breath when he turned his head to
drop a kiss on the palm of her hand still curled around his face. It soothed
away the leftover pain and caused tingles of an entirely different kind, as her
clit clenched in need. Kim squeezed her thighs together, to simultaneously
relieve that sweet ache and stop her knickers from getting completely soaked
through with her need for this man. A futile exercise of course, as he would be
able to smell her, especially this close to her. Sure enough his nostrils
flared, and his harsh expression softened when he cupped the side of her face.
The ghost of a smile kicked up his lips.

God, how she wanted to feel those firm lips trail
all over her body. Damn their audience. Having made up her mind, Kim didn’t
want to wait. With that in mind, she scrambled to pull her phone out of her
trouser pocket.
Asger
frowned when he saw her swipe
it open. Smiling up at him she dialed the local taxi firm.

Susan shook her head in amusement, whereas
Richard’s glare tuned into bewilderment, when he heard her ask for a taxi. With
a small grin up at the males in her life who stood watching her with almost
identical frowns on their faces, she winked at Susan, gave
Asger
a shove to move him out of the way, and hopped off the table.

“
The
taxi will be here in half an hour, so you can stop frowning, Richard. You, too,
Asger
.” She looked up at him, and smiled when he
raised an eyebrow. The way
Asger
regarded her mobile
phone with a healthy dose of mistrust made her chest feel tight with affection.

He was doing so very well in adapting to her time,
but he didn’t belong here. Now that she knew how to help him get back home,
wild horses wouldn’t stop her from making sure he got there, and certainly not
two overprotective males.

“
It’s
a car that will take us home to my place,
Asger
,” she
said. “You pay the driver for the journey. I’ve just called one, and he’ll be
here within half an hour.”

Asger’s
frown deepened
even as his eyes registered his understanding of her plan, and he shook his
head.

“
Yes,
we will, fuck that is.”

Susan choked back a laugh as Kim turned to address
Richard, who looked about ready to pop a blood vessel.

“
Don’t
start, Richard. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I’m a big girl and I
can take care of myself. You never should have made
Asger
utter that promise, not knowing what he has to do to get back to his time.”

Richard grunted his annoyance, and
Asger’s
disapproval hit her square between the shoulder
blades. She could almost feel it like a physical ache. A small part of her did marvel
at the strength of the connection. They’d only kissed, yet she could feel his
emotions as keenly as her own. Heaven only knew how much stronger that pull
would be after they’d had sex, or heaven forbid he actually bit her. Assuming
that worked the same as she’d always imagined it would in her books. That
thought should scare her witless, but it had the opposite effect on her now.
When
Asger
pulled her back into his frame, she went
willingly.

He nuzzled into her neck, and her knees went to
mush. Had it not been for him holding her up, she was pretty damn sure she’d
have just slid to the floor in a big puddle of goo.

“
He
was right to make me promise,
minn
kona
.
” The deep timbre of
Asger’s
voice trembled through her. It left goosebumps in its wake, as she shut her
eyes and gave herself up to the sensation overload she was being subjected to.
The hard ridge of his erect cock digging into her lower back left her in no
doubt that he wanted her. Needed her even, perhaps with the same all-consuming
intensity that coursed through her veins, made her want to turn in his arms,
and climb his huge frame like a tree, cling on and never let go again.

“
Listen
to him, girl. This is just your hormones talking, dammit. If this was only a
case of you getting your rocks off and be done with it, I’d say go for it, but
there is so much more at stake here. I know you. He goes back without you,
he’ll break your heart. If you go with him, and we never see you again … then…”

Richard’s voice trailed off. He sounded so lost
that Kim yanked her eyes open and pushed away from
Asger
.
He let her go with only a moment’s hesitation, murmuring his approval when she
wrapped her arms around Richard and hugged him.

Moisture coated her cheeks. When she pulled back,
she found tears running down Richard’s cheeks. It made her blink them away,
too, and when Susan stepped up behind her to join in the hug, she lost the
fight to stop them. By the time they broke apart to a loud toot from the front
of the cottage, they were all misty eyed, while
Asger
was a stony presence in the room.

“
That’s
the taxi. Please let me go. Know that I love you, always, no matter where I
am.”

Susan nodded and kissed her forehead, before she
whispered into her ear.

“
You’re
doing the right thing. Follow your heart, and don’t let your Viking wiggle out
of it. He looks all set to cut off his nose to spite his face.” She winked at
her. Sure enough when Kim angled her head to glance at
Asger
,
he looked all brooding and tense, muttering to himself in Norse. Kim grinned
and hugging Susan back whispered her reply.

“
I
won’t.”

He would hear her of course. Sure enough when she
glanced his way again the intensity in his gaze made her stumble as she hugged
Richard. He pulled her close, and then released her with obvious reluctance.

“
By
God, I hope you know what you’re doing,” Richard said and added, “And you,
Viking, I mean it. You look after our girl, or so help me, I’ll find you.”

Asger
nodded just once,
held his hand to his chest, and bowed his head. Another, longer toot sounded
this time, and Kim jumped.

“
That’s
our cue. I guess I’ll be seeing you soon. Or maybe not?”

“
You
do not have to do this,
kona
,
not if
you’re only—”

“
Oh,
do
shut up,
Asger
.”
Kim rather enjoyed the way his mouth fell open, before he caught himself.
Grasping her elbow he marched her out of the house, and to the waiting taxi.
Kim turned to wave at Richard and Susan before she allowed herself to be
bundled into the back of the taxi, and gave the grinning man her address.
Asger
slid into the middle seat next to her. Kim hid her
smile at the possessive way he placed one hand on her thigh and pulled her snug
against him with the other arm. The driver’s smile slipped slightly at his
warning growl. Clearly taking the hint, he sped off. Kim probably ought to be
annoyed at this obvious display of ownership.
Had
it been any other man and in different circumstances she probably would be, but
right here and now, it just made her wetter for the man holding her. So she
shut her eyes, rested her head on his big shoulder, and let his far too
intoxicating scent pull her under.

****

Asger
didn’t even try to
suppress the incessant growl of his wolf. It served nicely to keep the human
male driving off balance. He hadn’t appreciated the look of lust the other man
had thrown his
kona
’s
way. Not that she appeared to have noticed, but
Asger
had, and it pissed him off no end. The sooner he got
her back to his time, and she bore his mark, the better, as far as he was
concerned. The trusting way she leaned into him as he looked back at the
cottage, which was fast disappearing from view, made him tighten his hold on
her. She snuggled in closer with a small sigh, and he sent a silent prayer up
to
Odin
.

When they’d arrived at her family’s house he never
would have anticipated the evening ending like it had. Regardless of what the
other female seemed to think, he had no intention of cutting off his nose. This
was clearly some form of expression, because no one in their right mind would
actually cut off their nose. Far too messy for starters. He assumed she meant
this to say, he would not be claiming her, but
Asger
was no saint. The Christians were fond of them, he knew, but surely even one of
those would be hard pushed to keep his hands off Kimberly now. Released from
his promise
Asger
had every intention to give his
wolf free rein. He couldn’t have stopped the animal had he wanted to. Not after
weeks of being confined and with the promise of home and freedom in his
nostrils.