Love's Choice (11 page)

Magnus sat beside me. I leaned against him. “I don't know, Raven. There has to be a way. We crossed over. The monster came to our world from here. Travel works both ways. We just have to find it. Let's eat something, then I'll scout around the streets and see what I can spot. Maybe there's something just out of sight that's a big clue.”

I nodded. I hoped we weren't stuck in a terrible version of a winter wonderland.

“Do you think the showers work?” I asked.

Chapter Eleven

Raven

The shower did work. Despite the frozen world, plumbing seemed to still function. It made no sense. I kept my hand beneath the spray, wondering if it would grow warm. The electricity seemed to work, so hopefully so did the hot water heater.

The water grew warm.

I smiled in delight. “We're in business.”

I stepped into the shower, the warm water pelting my body. Oh, this was wonderful. I closed my eyes and ducked my head under the spray, letting it soak my hair and wash over my face. I could forget about the frozen reality that had us trapped.

Magnus followed me into the shower.

I gasped in shock. “Magnus?”

“You don't want to hog the hot water?” he grinned, his gorgeous body growing wet, his muscles glistening.

“No,” I blushed. “I've just never...showered with a partner.”

“Then how do you wash your back?” His finger traced up my spine. I shivered. “Having a partner has its advantages.”

He grabbed a sky-blue loofah hanging from the hot water knob and the bottle of body wash sitting on a shelf. He squeezed the pink, lavender-scented body wash onto the loofah. I closed my eyes as the sponge rubbed up and down my back, sending shivers through my body.

“Mmm, I can see the advantages,” I purred, closing my eyes.

Warm water washed down my breasts and stomach. His touch was gentle as he massaged the spongy loofah around my back. I sighed, a contended smile crossing my lips as he washed lower and lower.

Magnus didn't stop at my back. He circled the cheeks of my butt with the loofah.

“What happened to just washing my back?”

“Well, your butt's just so cute,” he answered and his free hand gave me a squeeze. “I just couldn't resist.”

My fingers tightened against the tile wall. I found my feet slowly working to spread my legs farther apart. The loofah dipped between my cheeks, washing every part of me. I groaned as he brushed my sphincter. A hot, wet itch formed in the depths of my pussy.

The loofah washed down through my butt-crack, caressing my sensitive flesh. My pussy clenched. He was just an inch away from my hot flesh. Would he give me a thorough washing? My toes curled in the soapy swirls racing for the drain.

“Magnus,” I groaned when he moved away from my pussy.

He knelt behind me, working the loofah down my thighs. I wiggled my hips, frustration bursting inside me. He was so close to my sex. That hot itch only grew as his strong hand caressed my calves as he washed down to my toes.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You're really...twitching. Like you have a hot itch you just can't seem to scratch.”

“I do,” I moaned.

Magnus moved to my left leg, washing up it. “Oh, where at?”

“Down there,” I purred.

“Your feet?” He soaped down to my feet again.

“No,” I groaned. “You know where.”

“I really don't.” I could hear the grin in his voice. “You need to be more specific.”

“Magnus,” I groaned again as he washed slowly up my thigh. “It's between my legs.”

“And what's between your legs?”

“My...my...” The loofah moved higher, rubbing harder. He caressed my inner thighs. Electricity raced up my leg. “My...pussy, Magnus.”

“You need me to wash your pussy?”

“Yes,” I groaned. “So bad.”

“And why do you have that itch?”

Magnus rose. His hard shaft brushed my upper thigh. I clenched my pussy and shuddered as heat rippled up my leg. His strong hand stroked my hip while he wrapped his hand holding the loofah around my waist. I shuddered as he massaged my stomach in slow circles.

“Because your...washing has made me so excited,” I panted, my pussy clenching. “Please, Magnus, wash my pussy.”

Magnus pressed his muscular chest into my back, his hard shaft rubbing on my butt. He nuzzled at my neck, his lips nibbling and driving me wild as he worked up to my ear. My lobe was so sensitive when his tongue brushed it.

“You want me to wash your dirty pussy?”

My body shuddered at that word—dirty. “Yes.”

He nibbled on my ear again as he washed lower and lower on my stomach. He brushed my pubic mound. I let out the softest sigh as one wispy fold of the loofah caressed my aching clit. I arched my back, savoring his powerful muscles pressed against me.

“Magnus,” I purred. “Mmm, but you feel so great against me. So sexy. Please, wash my dirty pussy.”

Another hot thrill raced through me as I said that word.

Magnus pressed the loofah against my vulva. I shuddered and moaned, my body tensing as he caressed my hot folds. The loofah tickled me as he rubbed it along my vulva. My pussy clenched and my clit throbbed.

I let out a happy moan. My eyes closed. The shower caressed my breasts with hot water as Magnus washed my dirty pussy. My hips shifted, rubbing my slippery butt against his hard cock. He groaned and rubbed harder at my sex.

A hot shudder rippled through me. “Yes! That's good. Wash my dirty pussy, Magnus.”

“Always,” he growled in my ear.

His hand on my thigh moved up to squeeze my breast. His fingers kneaded up to my hard nipple. Fingers wrapped around the nub. He pinched and rolled it. Electricity shuddered through me. I bucked in his arms. My fingers clenched against the tiles. I leaned my head forward, resting my cheek against the cool tile.

My body was on fire.

Every caress of the loofah fanned the flames. I writhed my hips and ground against his hard cock. I rose on my tip-toes and his cock slipped down and popped between my thighs. The loofah fell with a wet splash to the floor as I undulated my hips and rubbed my hot pussy up and down his cock.

“Mmm, now I'm cleaning your dirty cock,” I purred. The hotter my fires grew, the naughtier my words became.

“There's a better way to wash it,” he growled in my ear.

My pussy clenched. “Yes, there is.”

Magnus's hips moved. His hand guided his cock, rubbing the tip between my folds. He found the entrance to my depths. I rose on my tip-toes as he drove into my sex. Hot pleasure raced through me. His hand tightened on my breast as he held himself deep in me, so thick and wonderful.

“Magnus,” I purred as he drew back and then drove himself in again.

His thrusts were hard and fast. Our flesh slapped wetly together. I moaned louder, my voice echoing through the bathroom. His cock plunged through my depths. Pleasure churned through me. His strokes were so strong and virile. He took me hard.

Like a man.

He was so much different from my previous two lovers. Magnus took me hard. He wasn't afraid that I was some delicate object that would break. I bucked back into his thrusts, eager for his groin to slap into my curvy butt.

“Yes, yes! This is the best shower! Mmm, you need to wash my back more often!”

One of Magnus's hands kneaded my breast while the other caressed my clit. My pussy clenched about his thrusting cock as his rough finger circled my nub. Pleasure shot down to my toes as our bodies heaved together.

This wasn't love-making. This was sex. Hot, passionate, wet, shower sex.

The steam billowed around us. Hot water ran down my body. I was wrapped up in Magnus's strong arms and taking his thick cock. I bucked and groaned, my arms braced against the wall. I think I loved this man. We barely knew each other, and yet it felt so right.

“Magnus!” I gasped as my orgasm suddenly rippled through me.

I came hard. My eyes fluttered and my feet slipped as I thrashed. Magnus held me upright. He supported me as my pleasure consumed me. I writhed about his plunging shaft. My head tossed as I reached the peak of my climax.

I stood atop my pleasure as long as I could, holding it inside me and savoring Magnus's body pressed against mine.

And then it crashed away. I was left with buzzing bliss. Gentler waves of pleasure rippled through my body as Magnus drove his cock over and over into my depths. His lips sucked at my neck. His hand tightened on my breast.

“Raven,” he growled. So bestial.

My big wolf drove into me and flooded his hot come into my depths. I smiled and savored it, leaning into his chest as he trembled, caught up in his own climax. His breath exploded out of him in ragged gasps.

I looked over my shoulder. Our lips met. I closed my eyes and kissed my man as the hot water sprayed over us.

Chapter Twelve

Magnus

“Be careful,” Raven said, her arms wrapped around my neck, her nose brushing mine.

“I will,” I promised her.

My clothes had dried while we slept. I wore my jeans and vest, my combat boots pulled on over thick socks. I didn't feel the cold swirling in through the open front door. When Raven returned me to life with her kiss, she had filled me with fire.

The flames still simmered in me, a great anger I could summon and become a wolf shifter. Did that make me a werewolf? Or was it more like a berserker of Norse legends? They were said to achieve the mindless rage of the wolf or the bear. Maybe they had actually become werewolves or werebears.

I broke the hug with Raven as we stood by the front door. I gripped the shotgun we found in the master bedroom's closet, buck shot loaded in the magazine. It was a hunting shotgun, holding a clip of three red shells with a fourth chambered in the breech.

I stepped into the wan sunlight and peered up the street. The snow was undisturbed. Things were disconcerting. Mounds of cars moved when I looked away. Up the street was a busy intersection. It was almost like that game children play where one turns his back and everyone slowly creeps up, but if the kid turns around and sees you moving, you're out.

I never saw the mounds moving.

I trudged up the street through the knee-high snow, shotgun barrel pointed down, the butt resting lightly against my shoulder. The snow crunched beneath my feet. There was no moving quietly through this world. But that had to work both ways. My ears were attuned to any sound.

The world was silent. There weren't even animals. No small tracks of squirrels or birds dotted the snow. No larger prints of wolves and bears, and definitely nothing that belonged to the wolf-ape that attacked us.

Was that a giant or a troll we fought? Or a creature forgotten by time? Norse Mythology was only written down by Christian scholars. Everything was distorted through the lens of the Christian's religion. It was hard to say what had been lost or even what some of the true beliefs were. The Norse and other pagan, Germanic tribes, despite having their rune alphabet, were not cultures that produced works of written literature. They made songs and poems, past down orally by skalds, their bards.

I reached the busy intersection. I couldn't read the street sign. The green rectangles were caked by snow. Before me, the tall skyscrapers of downtown rose into the air. Thick icicles, some that had to be as long as I was tall, dangled from any of the buildings' lips, and snow accumulated in the frames of windows.

The city was silent. No hordes of pedestrians streamed down the sidewalks. No roar of cars and honks of horns echoed down the canyon-like blocks. And no monsters seemed to prowl across the windows. I glanced at one of the tall buildings nearby.

I needed a vantage point.

There was no danger in crossing the street. This world only changed when I wasn't interacting with it. I moved between the mounds of cars. Curious, I brushed the snow off of a windshield. There was no driver but a cup of coffee covered by a plastic lid steamed in the cup holder.

“And yet the cars still move when I look away,” I muttered as I kept crossing the road.

I found the door to the building and passed through the revolving door. Snow fell from my boots, leaving a powdered trail across the marble. My footsteps boomed, echoing through the reception area. Green, potted plants grew near the windows and a receptionist desk sat empty. Every time I looked away, the chair swiveled to a new position.

The elevators worked. I rode it to the top floor. Corny music played as the red, digital display counted the floors we passed. Twice, the elevator stopped, the doors opened and closed, and then the elevator continued on.

Were there people riding this elevator with me, separated only by the dimensional barrier?

My hands tightened on the shotgun. I was ready to leave this world behind. I wanted to kill whatever left us stranded here. Not that ape-demon; the monster had to follow us here. Something else had happened to us when she kissed me. Someone sent us here.

Unless it was a byproduct of her power. I didn't think that. Raven never mentioned that she felt like she brought us here. She was confused by what happened. I concentrated on the memories of that moment. I had been floating above her, watching her grieve, hearing the beautiful words she spoke. I had wanted to touch her, to tell her to keep running, but I had been so helpless.

I hated it.

A great anger filled me. I had failed to protect her. It was a stupid emotion. That thing was a monster and my gun didn't even hurt it. I had only been a regular human. I couldn't do anything to stop it. But if only I had ridden my bike better, we might have escaped.

And then she kissed me. Fire flowed into my body and snow had swirled around us.

Not fire swirling but snow. Raven was a creature of flames. The Norse poets called a Valkyrie's sword her fire.

What brought us here? Was it the ape-demon? No. He claimed we fled here. Something was interfering. I didn't like it.

The elevator dinged and I reached the top floor. It looked like the executive offices for some company. Everything looked expensive and wasteful. I found an office door marked “Ryan Winstein – CEO” and entered his corner office. The tinted windows covered the entirety of two walls and snow-buried Seattle was laid out before me.