Embrace of the Damned (29 page)

Her breath left her slowly as she steadied her nerves. “Okay. What’s wrong with this?”

“Because it’s close to
this
.” His gaze dropped to her mouth and studied it hard. A moment later his lips touched hers.

She melted against him, making a shamelessly hungry sound, and pressed her mouth more firmly against his. His hand found the back of her neck and he pulled her against his chest with his other arm, half lifting her, half guiding her into his bedroom and slamming the door closed with his foot.

“And then,
this,
” he growled against her mouth. “You’re in my bedroom. Now what will you do?”

He released her and she stumbled backward, feeling dazed. Her entire body hummed with excitement from his touch and wanted more. She glanced around, seeing tables, chairs, a wardrobe, and a bed.

Okay, mostly she saw the bed.

“I tried to do as you wished, leave you alone,” he said, walking toward her. “Even though every time I looked at you, I felt need burn through my body.”

Oh, hell, was it getting hot in here?

“Then Halla left and I was forced to train you.” He paused, cocking his head to the side and sweeping his gaze over her. He seemed to unclothe her with merely a look. “Do you know how hard that was for me? I haven’t been with a woman for well over a thousand years.”

Well over? That was interesting. She wondered what situation he’d been in before Loki that had rendered such a virile Viking without woman.

“Then I am handed a woman who seems fashioned for me by the hand of the goddess Freyja herself. Some days I wonder if you weren’t made by her, set upon this earth only to tease me. Maybe Freyja is in league with Loki and her goal is my torment.”

She swallowed hard, not sure she’d heard him correctly. “What do you mean by that?”

He took another step closer to her and her heart skipped a beat. “You are perfect, shaped full to please my hands, and you are sweet to my mouth. You have fire in you, with a touch of the vulnerable. You are caring and intelligent and have an adorable inability to marshal your mouth at times. It’s an endearing trait. You are the type of woman I would have sought to marry when marriage was an option.”

His words sank in and made something light and beautiful flutter through her chest, made her mouth go dry. Never had a man said anything like that to her. Then the last part of what he’d said registered.

… When marriage was an option.

If she gave in to her desires right now and slept with Broder, she had to do it knowing she would never have more with him. He would never be free to marry her. They could never be together, not for forever. Loki controlled his fate and she didn’t have to ask to know that she was not in Loki’s plans for Broder. All she would ever have with him was this short time, their bodies joined.

If she fell in love with him, heartbreak would be inevitable.

Broder had stopped a breath’s space from her and was
watching her carefully. Perhaps her thought process showed on her face.

She looked up at him, studying the dark depths of his eyes and the contours of his face, the shape of his jaw and the curve of his lips. The cost was high, but she couldn’t deny this man.

Right now she would pay any price to have him, even if it was only for a short time.
No regrets.
She knew if she passed this opportunity up, one day she’d regret it.

His shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly as he saw the difference her thought process made on her face. For a moment they shared a silent conversation that they heard only in their heads.

Jessa, if you want me to hold back, it will hurt, but I will.

No. I want you, no matter what.

He closed the slight distance between them the moment that telepathic conversation finished and she let out a sigh of relief. The conflict within her had ended. She’d made her decision, for better or worse.

Broder walked over and drew her into his arms. Her stomach fluttered, but he seemed calm, confident, even though it had been a long time, a
very
long time, since he’d been with a woman. Of course, was Broder Calderson ever not completely self-assured?

He cupped her cheek in his hand and lowered his mouth to hers, sipping softly at her lips for a moment, then slanting over them and sliding his tongue within to rub up against her tongue.

He pushed her hair away from the delicate shell of her ear and found a sensitive spot right beneath her earlobe. He kissed it lingeringly, then let the tip of his tongue taste it.

Her breathing and heart rate increased, her body quickening at his touch.

“Let’s take this slow,” he murmured into her ear. “I want to taste every inch of you and commit your flavor to memory.”

She shivered and nodded, running her hands up the bulge of his arms and twining her fingers into the silky hair at his nape. Slow, thorough sex with Broder?
Yes, please.

Broder pulled his shirt over his head and let it drop,
exposing the scarred, yet beautiful, muscled expanse of his upper body. Her heart tap-danced for a moment. She had to touch him, just
had
to. Feeling drugged with need for him, she leaned down and laid a line of kisses from his hard abdomen, muscles rippling under her lips as she went, up his chest to the curve of his neck, inhaling the intoxicating scent of his skin. It fired her blood.

He lifted her shirt over her head and slid the loose jersey pants she’d been training in down to her ankles. She toed off her shoes and stood in only her bra and underwear. His gaze swept down her in appreciation and he eased her back toward the bed.

Soon her bra and underwear were gone, too. He lowered her onto the bed and unbuttoned his jeans. “I’m not letting you get away from me this time, Jessa. You’re mine. Mine tonight, mine as long as I can keep you.” He held her gaze as he eased his jeans down and off.

Her gaze ate up every magnificent inch of him. His cock was long and thick and looked as hard as steel. Her fingers itched to stroke it.

Realization dawned on her. “We have no condom.”

He shook his head. “I cannot impregnate you, nor am I able to carry illness.”

Thank all the powers of the universe. “Come here,” she murmured roughly, her voice low and husky from the lust coursing through her veins.

He came down over her, his hands on either side of her head, and kissed her slowly, methodically. Then he nudged her head to the side and ran his tongue over the scar that marked her throat. She gasped at the exquisite sensitivity of it.

Working his way down, he sucked one nipple into his mouth, then the other, laving each one until she squirmed on the bed, her sex growing hot and achy.

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

“Yes,” she answered shakily.

With confident hands, Broder turned her over onto her
stomach, kissing and licking his way across her skin as he went, sending quivers of need through her body. She was lost in a haze of sexual bliss with his big body poised above her, his strength making her feel safe and cherished, and his lips and tongue tasting her skin.

Broder gathered her hair up and draped it over the mattress on one side, then leaned down and kissed the nape of her neck. The action tightened her body in places that were much farther down. His tongue flicked out and tasted her skin, then the tip of it dragged down along her spine, slowly, to the base.

“This was always my favorite part of a woman,” Broder murmured, and she was reminded again at just how long it had been since he’d been this intimate with another person. The amount of control he displayed was incredible—and amazingly sexy.

She writhed a little and moaned as his tongue explored the base of her spine. She’d never known how sensitive that area of her body was, or maybe it was just Broder—maybe he made every area of her body an erogenous zone. She felt breathless, boneless, and more cherished than she ever had in her life, but she needed …

“Broder,” she whispered.
“More.”

“Let me take my time,
skatten min
.” He dropped another kiss to the base of her spine, then murmured against her skin, “I may not have had a thousand years of sexual conquests, but I have thought about how I would love you over and over since the first day we met.”

Oh … guh.

“At least let me touch you.” She pushed up and turned over, her hands going to his chest, where she traced her fingers over the definition of muscles and the ripple of his stomach. She touched him like she’d never touched a man before, almost innocently. That was because she’d never touched a man like him before. “God, you’re incredible,” she breathed.

He shuddered in pleasure at her touch and kissed her hard, his tongue thrusting into her mouth. She returned the
kiss greedily, pressing her body against his in order to feel every inch of him that she possibly could.

He broke the kiss, his face hovering above hers. “You’re the woman I dreamed of having for the last ten centuries, Jessamine.”

Jessa’s tongue went dry. She never would have expected this level of tenderness from a man who could snap off a demon’s head with his bare hands. She never would have thought that hands that could bring death so indisputably could also bring this kind of pleasure. Her lips pressed close to his, she told him as much.

He eased his hand between her thighs, parting them, and stroked his index finger over her clit. Shivers of ecstasy radiated through her. “These hands are dedicated to protecting you and bringing you pleasure. Nothing else.” He caressed her clit over and over, every masterful stroke sending her closer to the razor’s edge of a climax. She shuddered against him, her teeth raking her lower lip. “I’m going to make you feel good, Jessa.”

“More,” she pleaded breathlessly. She closed her eyes.

His thumb rotated on her clit, easing the pressure to control when she climaxed. It made her crazy. “Do you like that? Do you want to come?”

“Please,” she whispered.

“Open your eyes and look at me. I want to watch your face while you come.”

She opened her eyes and locked her gaze with his.

He moved down an inch from her clit and eased a finger deep inside her, then another, thrusting them in and out. The sensation of it bloomed through her body, rose like heat up her spine. It was just a tease, just a taste of how his long, wide cock would feel inside her. The thought of that—the image of his shaft buried deep inside her, made the brittle crystal edge of a climax taunt her, sending waves of ecstasy through her body.

Knowing just how to push her over that edge, he deepened and lengthened his strokes.

Jessa cried out, her head snapping back. Racking spasms
of pleasure shook her, over and over again. He lengthened it with his fingers, stroking over her clit, so the tail end of her climax bloomed into another, making her moan his name and thrash on the mattress.

He guided her hand to her sex, covering her clit with her fingers and pressing down until pleasure flared, then guided her fingers into her sex. She gasped at the hot, velvet sensation of all those gripping muscles.

“Heaven,” Broder murmured hoarsely. “That’s what I’m going to feel when I sink into you.”

“Please,” she whispered. “I want you inside of me, Broder.”

He eased her hand away and pressed her wrists above her head on the pillow, forcing her spine to arch and push her breasts up in offering to him. Then he eased her thighs apart and looked his fill of her, exposed and ready on the bed for him, her sex waiting and wanting. Her nipples were as hard as tiny diamonds.

Broder grasped his cock and stroked the full, long length of it. Her heart rate did a little dance as he positioned himself over her and slid the smooth crown inside her.

Jessa gasped at the way only the head of his cock stretched her. She thought for a moment she might come again. Pressing her heels into the mattress, she arched, pushing her hips at him, wanting more, wanting to feel completely possessed and impaled by him.

Broder groaned at her impatience, as though his immense control might be slipping, and pressed his hips toward her, sliding in another few inches. Her muscles stretched even more and she whimpered at the pleasure of it.

She twisted against him and he grabbed her hips, holding her in place. “You’re killing me, moving like that. More?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Yes,” she barely managed to respond.

He pushed in another couple inches. “You feel so fucking good,” he said drunkenly.

“More,” she whispered. “I want every inch of you inside me.”

He pushed in until the base of his cock was buried within her. She moaned, her hips moving, needing to feel him thrust. He gave her what she wanted, pulling out slowly and thrusting in again so leisurely she felt every vein and bump of his cock as it glided inside her. He held her hips, keeping her from bucking as he shafted her slowly, then even more slowly.