Dreams of a Dark Warrior

TWENTY-SIX

Declan had never seen anything like the sight before him. The Valkyrie was trembling, panting, her nipples rock-hard. Her responses had him in a lather to come—the little sounds she made, her expressive mouth, her soft, sensitive skin.

He could stroke himself off right here, but this teasing her excited him like nothing ever had. In this, his will was her will. If he decided he’d keep her on the edge, then that was where she’d stay. The idea was erotic as hell.

How had he missed out on this for so long? To go without stroking a woman’s giving flesh?

But even as the thought arose, he knew his reaction was due to her. The Valkyrie was special to him in some way, her pleasure important.

For twenty bleak years, he’d convinced himself that he was cold and unfeeling, that he wasn’t burdened by a man’s needs.

No longer. I need her. “Where do you want me to touch you, Regin?”

She jutted those breathtaking breasts.

“There?” Just to keep her guessing, he would not be touching her there. Not yet.

“Uh-huh.”

Instead, he leaned in, grazing his lips over the tip of her ear. Sexy little ears.

She shivered wildly. “Chase!”

Thrilling. After a pause, he reached around her and dragged his nails across her arse.

Her plaintive moans came quicker and quicker.

I could make her orgasm. Just from this game. He’d never felt a rush like this, as if a mystery he’d long pondered was being revealed—

She pressed her hand against her flat belly and began sliding it down.

She would touch herself? In front of him? He groaned, wanting to see her rubbing her sex, but that was for another night. “No, Regin.”

“Then let me touch you.” She reached for his chest.

“Put your damned hands down,” he snapped, knowing she’d be horrified by the feel of his skin. “Sit on them.”

“Chase—”

“Do it.”

After a hesitation, she did. He rewarded her by tracing her ear with his lips again. Directly beside it, he murmured, “Are you wet?”

She could only moan in answer.

“Show me, then.” He skimmed his finger along one taut inner thigh, and she dutifully spread her legs, revealing her glistening sex. At the sight, his cock pulsed so hard, he thought he might spill at once.

His control was in shreds. Have to feel her there, explore her flesh. He skimmed the backs of his fingers down her belly to her navel, just as she’d detailed earlier. When he circled it, her lips parted around a whispered, “Oh!”

“You know what comes next. You described it to me.” His fingers trailed from her navel down, lower… lower …

“Chase!” Her skin glowed even brighter. “What are you doing to me? I-I’m close.”

He’d bring her over the edge. With his other hand, he finally rubbed his thumb back and forth over one nipple.

“Oh, my gods,” she breathed, licking her lips. His gaze was rapt on her darting tongue.

Declan had imagined her kiss, had dreamed of it. No longer could he deny himself the taste of her sweet lips. To catch her cries as she goes over the edge? With his fingers still teasing, he leaned in, dipping his head, his lips hovering just above hers.

“Chase?” It was as if a spell had been broken. Before she’d been arching to his touch, her body begging for more. Now she drew back from him. “Wait, I… just hold on a minute, just let me think.”

“Woman, you’ve been pushin’ me for just this.”

She lowered her head, whispering, “I can’t do it.”

“You can.” He pinched her chin, holding her face up. “You will.”

“Shh.” Her ears twitched. “Someone’s here.”

“You’re just saying that—” Then he heard it too. Footsteps within his chambers, heading for the bathroom. He was about to kill whoever was stupid enough to interrupt this.

After I’ve waited so goddamn long?

She reached for the tie, and he yanked on his gloves—

“Son, get away from her.”

“Webb.” Here. Three days early.

When Declan threw a towel over her, he saw her silvery eyes were wide. He moved in front of her, hissing under his breath, “I will protect you.” Then he turned to his commander, battling the urge to bare his fucking teeth that the man had seen her unclothed.

“Declan, what the hell are you doing with this prisoner?”

Risking everything …

Regin couldn’t decide whether she was irate or grateful about this Webb’s interruption.

How had things with Chase burned so totally out of control? She was supposed to put him under her spell. Instead, just the opposite had happened. …

Webb swept his gaze over her with a look of revulsion. Her eyes slitted. Right back at you.

He was big, not tall like Chase, but burlier. He wore a military uniform and sported a salt-and-pepper buzz cut.

By Chase’s reaction, Webb was a superior officer. Yet Chase faced him with his shoulders back and said, “I want her.”

“You what?” Webb’s gray brows shot up, his forehead creasing.

Dude’s about as shocked as I am. She knotted the towel around her chest, then hopped down to watch the exchange.

Chase stretched his arm in front of her protectively. “I’ll continue to do whatever you ask, but she belongs to me.”

“Listen to what you’re saying!”

“You’re going to let me take her from here, to an older facility. Someplace where I alone will see her.”

Chase was telling a superior what’s what? Gods, his arrogance was magnificent—and so familiar. Aidan had expected Wóden to bestow ohalla on him; now Chase was demanding Regin as his due.

“No, you don’t want her, son. She’s just made you think that you do. Ask the Valkyrie why she’s tried so hard to get you to remember this Aidan.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tell, him, female,” Webb said. “Tell him how you’ve been trying to kill him.”

Oh, shit.

Chase turned to her. “What is this?”

From behind him, Webb said, “She believes you’re her lover reincarnated.”

“Aye. She’s told me as much.”

“Has she told you that every man she’s slept with has died within hours of it? She believes you’re cursed to perish in each lifetime as soon as you claim her.”

Shit, shit!

“Deny it,” Chase commanded her.

She gazed up at him, knowing she should lie… “I can’t deny it.”

“And her lips have a drugging effect—like a narcotic,” Webb continued. “That’s why she was coaxing you to kiss her. She planned to seduce you, and then you’d perish like the others, allowing her to escape.”

Between gritted teeth, Chase said, “How do you know this?”

“The transcripts from her cell. We had her conversations translated by a new source. She told her cell mate that this was her plan for escape—your death.”

What new source? When I find out—

Chase launched a fist into the wall beside her head. “You fuckin’ bitch, deny this!”

She sucked in a breath at the lost look in his eyes, the palpable pain. “What did you expect me to do, Chase? Calmly await my torture?”

His fists tightened even more, his muscles growing as rage welled inside him.

She stared up at him. “Hit me, Magister. Make this easy for me.”

Again Declan couldn’t. Damn her! He roared, “Get her away from me!”

Webb grabbed her arm, shoving her out of the room. “Declan, come to my office in an hour. We’ll talk once you’ve had some time to process all this.”

And then they were gone. Leaving him alone in his chambers, where he’d likely go mad.

So it’s over. The excitement he’d felt. The pleasure. The highest high to the lowest low.

Feeling dead inside, he sat at his console, watching the feed of her cell for the last time.

Such a fuckin’ fool, Dekko. You knew they weren’t to be trusted.

He saw Webb shove her into the cell. She was still in that towel, her clothes bundled in her arms. She swung her head up to face the camera, eyes silvery.

Declan ran his gloved fingers down the monitor over her image. Then he punched the screen.