Embrace of the Damned (13 page)

“You don’t have to tell me. I can imagine.”

“The Brotherhood is scattered everywhere, but you saw one of the largest concentrations back at the house. Where the Blight are, so are the Brotherhood.”

“That makes sense.”

He leaned in close to her and she looked up at him in surprise. His gaze was intense, caught with hers, vaguely threatening. “You tempt me, woman.”

Shrinking back in her seat against the subtle threat in his voice, she whispered, “That’s a bad thing?”

“Yeah. It is.”

“I don’t mean to.”

“I know, and that makes it all the worse.” His gaze dropped to her mouth. He studied it like he was starving and she was a bowl full of cherries.

The look on his face and the intentness in his eyes spoke volumes about all the things he was thinking—all the things he wanted to do to her. It made lust slip over her body, driving her into a lassitude that made her limbs heavy and her sex warm and excited. Her reaction to this man was always swift and immediate. It was as if Broder had some kind of switch implanted in her brain.

“What I said before, about you not doing anything I didn’t want you to do …” She licked her lips, her gaze focused on his mouth. “There isn’t much I don’t want you to do right now.” It was a bold statement, but a safe one. After all, they were in a public place.

He made a low sound in the back of his throat that sounded like a growl. “Don’t give me permission,
skatten min
.” After hesitating a moment, he pushed up from his seat, driving a hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration, and headed back toward the lavatories.

She sank down into her seat and let out a careful breath.
Spending so much time alone with this man just might kill her. Wouldn’t the Blight be pleased by that?

After a few minutes, Broder returned. She thought he’d be cooled down by now, but apparently his little foray to the bathroom hadn’t helped him snuff his desires—for whatever reasons he wanted to snuff them.

“What does
skatten min
mean?” she whispered, taking in the aroused way he stared at her with a little shiver.

“My treasure.” He leaned in toward her, snaking a hand under the thin airline blanket covering her and pushing up the armrest that separated them. Her breath caught as he pulled her against him, under him, and his hot mouth came down on hers. His lips slid methodically, slowly, against her mouth, as though savoring the taste of her.

Oh, God, she was going to melt from his heat.

His big hand slipped under the hem of her sweater and ran over her breasts in their satiny bra, making her nipples peak. She shuddered against his mouth, her body tingling.

He nipped at her lower lip and growled, “Spread your thighs for me,
skatten min
.”

She did it, her mind caught in a haze of lust. He unbuttoned her jeans and unzipped them, his hand well concealed under the travel blanket. As he ran his fingers along the hem of her underwear, she shivered and kissed him back harder, her body practically turning itself inside out in its desire to be touched by him.

“I want to make you come,” he murmured roughly against her lips. “Right here, right now.”

She almost swallowed her tongue.

He continued to run his fingers along the hem of her underwear slowly and she cursed her jeans, which were far too tight for him to get his huge hand down. But instead he dropped to the hot place between her thighs and rubbed her swollen clit through the material.

A low moan of absolute pleasure escaped her throat and he slanted his mouth over hers, consuming it. His tongue eased between her lips and skated up against the length of her tongue as his thumb moved back and forth in the same
tempo. Back and forth, the pleasure mounted. She struggled to keep quiet, her breath coming in little pants.

“You like that?” he murmured against her mouth. “Do you like it when I touch you, Jessa?”

She nodded shakily.

“Do you know what I’m thinking about right now?” His thumb applied just enough pressure on her clit to make her mouth go dry.

“What are you thinking?” she managed to ask.

“I’m thinking about the last time I touched you. You have the sweetest curved behind I’ve ever seen. I want to trace your elegant, slender back with my tongue.”

Her breath came out in a little agonized pant. “That sounds good,” she breathed.

“I want to fuck you, Jessa. I want a night of pure, down and dirty sex with you. I want to make you come over and over.” He took a shuddering, shaky breath. “I want to hear you scream my name at the top of your lungs. Now you know what I’m thinking about.”

“Yes,” she panted, “now I know. Tell me more.”

He groaned deep in his throat and sealed his mouth to hers. Back and forth he stroked, until her breath caught in her throat and she shuddered in pleasure. He increased the pressure of his mouth on hers and she felt the rub of his stubble against her skin.

Nipping her lower lip, he demanded that she open to him. Her sex seemed to catch fire when his tongue slid in to leisurely stroke against hers. She felt every caress of it between her thighs.

The kiss was soft, then demanding, then a tease, and then the promise of something more. The man could kiss. His tongue played with hers and then slipped out as he alternated nipping at her lips and then slanting his mouth across hers to penetrate once again. It stole her breath, made her feel dizzy and made her needy as hell.

It made her want
more
with everything she was. A proper bed. His bare skin against hers.

“Come for me, woman,” he whispered against her lips,
his thumb pressing a little harder, rotating just a fraction faster.

He was pushing her straight into an orgasm, right there on the airplane, surrounded by sleeping passengers. Everyone would hear her. But there was no way she could hold back.

Pleasure exploded through her and she gasped against his mouth as it washed through her. He kissed her hard, his tongue plunging over and over into her mouth as she fought not to make a sound.

When it was over, he leaned back in his chair and looked satisfied with himself. He pushed a hand through his hair and signaled one of the flight attendants for a drink, cool as anything.

Disheveled, lethargic, and floating on a cloud of postorgasmic bliss, Jessa slumped back against the seat and drew the blanket to her chin. Yes, being alone with this man was definitely going to do her in.

Just as the cabin was waking up and being prepared for breakfast, Jessa dropped into a satisfied sleep.

Broder slammed the door of the rental car shut and watched Jessa make her exhausted way into the restaurant. It was a long drive from Glasgow International Airport to his keep, north of Inverness, and he was starving. He followed behind her, opening the door and leading her to one of the booths in the back, where they’d have privacy. She was tired, but still managed to look alluring in a loose-haired, rumpled kind of way. She looked like he imagined she might after a night in bed.

He so wanted to give her one, a very long one. The encounter on the plane had sated him for a while, but, ultimately, touching her only inflamed his need for more.

As they passed through the place, more than one pair of male eyes turned in her direction, though Jessa remained oblivious to the attention. He gritted his teeth and forced himself not to rip off the faces of the offending men. He
couldn’t stop this dark claim of
mine
that echoed through him whenever he looked at her—a witch.

If Loki showed his face, he was going to do his level best to tear it off. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d tried. Wanting to claim Jessa and resisting the urge was making him crankier than usual.

They reached the booth and slid into it, Jessa letting her head sink into her hands.

“What’s wrong with you?” He reached for a menu and opened it.

“Jet lag, I guess.” She dropped one hand to the tabletop and stared at him. “But, being Superman and all, you probably don’t get that, right?” Something moved in her eyes and he sensed she was keeping something from him.

“What else?”

She went silent.

He snapped the menu closed and leveled his gaze at her from across the table. “Woman, you have to stop keeping secrets. Do you not realize the danger you’re in? Tell me what else is going on with you.”

She shrugged and leaned back against the seat. “I don’t know for sure. Ever since we landed, I’ve felt strange, that’s all. Like a buzzing electrical current is running through my veins.”

He grunted in response and wondered if it had something to do with the fact that the seidhr enclave was located in the far northern portion of the county, a fair bit north of Ullapool.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She grabbed a menu and snapped it open. “Words are nice. Use them.”

“I’ll tell you when I know for sure. Right now, I don’t.” He paused. “Okay?”

“Whatever,” she grouched.

The waitress came over and they placed their orders.

“Tell me about yourself.” She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “I mean, I figure you and me are close, right? What with you giving me two orgasms now.”
She looked directly into his eyes when she said it and barely even blushed.

She’d blush for certain if she knew how much he’d loved giving her those two climaxes, how hard it had made his cock—how much more he wanted to do to her. The memory of the taste of her as she orgasmed on the plane was still there on his tongue, as was the look on her face as he pulled as much ecstasy out of her as he could.

“Nothing more to say. I battle the Blight. That’s what I do, what I am.”

“No girlfriend?”

“If I had a girlfriend, do you think I’d be jumping on you the way I have?”

“Sure.” She gave a slow blink. “Wouldn’t stop most men.”

He muttered in Norwegian under his breath. “Then you know the wrong kind of man,
skatten min
.”

She studied him without saying a word. “You really do come from another era.”

“The truth is I’ve been unable to be with any women. At all.” He growled, “Ever. Loki has denied me.”

“What? Are you kidding? For a thousand years?”

“I’ve grown accustomed to it. My control is incredibly well developed. Although you”—his gaze dropped to her mouth for a lingering moment—“stir me like none ever has.”

Now she blushed. “How did Loki do it? Did he deflate everything”—she glanced in the direction of his crotch and blushed even harder—“down there? Or what?”

“Deflate—”
Oh
. He grimaced. “No. He simply puts in place powerful, painful deterrents if we pursue intimacy with a woman. I learned quickly that women were off-limits.”

“Were you still able to …” She trailed off, lifting her eyebrows suggestively. “You know, for yourself?”

“Yes, but it’s a far cry from the touch of a woman. The scent of her skin, the softness of her lips, the sweet give of her—”

She cleared her throat loudly to interrupt him. She was
now a fascinating shade of scarlet red. “It’s cruel of Loki to keep you celibate.”

“That’s Loki, but I can’t blame his punishment of me. What I did—” He choked off the last word.

“What did you do?”

“Not a topic open for discussion.”

“Oh, my God, did you rape someone?”

“No!” He barked it. “I never did. Not even back then, when such forms of control and domination were common and accepted.”

“Rape and pillage. Happens a lot these days, too.”

The waitress delivered their drinks and Broder took a long swallow of refreshing beer. Ah, that was better.

“And the rest of the Brotherhood? Are they also denied the pleasures of the flesh?” She sipped her soda.

“Depends on their original offense to the gods. There are varying punishments given. This happened to be mine.”

“What do you mean,
happened
? You just used the past tense. Clearly, you can engage in … relations now. Are you out on furlough or something like that?”

“Something like that.”

He didn’t want to tell her that Loki had chosen her to be his reward for a thousand years of service and she hadn’t figured it out. Luckily just then their food came and he avoided answering her by digging in. That didn’t stop her from staring at him speculatively over her plate as she picked at her food, knowing full well he was withholding.

Damn Loki to the frozen depths of Hel. He could spend eternity there with his daughter who hated him.

Jessa had been awake for nearly twenty-four hours and she had that tired-yet-wide-awake feeling one got when one had been awake for that long. Yet she’d soaked in everything on the ride from Glasgow. The Highlands had always been beautiful in her imagination, but she realized now that she hadn’t done the place a bit of justice. It was gorgeous, even on a dreary, rainy day like today—though Broder had informed her that this sort of weather was the norm, not the exception.