LITMIR.BIZ

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      She kissed the ridge of a crescent-shaped scar on his chin, because she couldn’t resist the temptation. But then she did pull back enough to say, ‘‘I was lying in that big, lonely bed in the other room, thinking…’’

      He raised his huge arms, laced his fingers behind his head and lifted one eyebrow. ‘‘About?’’

      She canted up on an elbow and laid a hand on his smooth chest, right in the center, where the lightning bolt zagged and a dragon reared, breathing fire. ‘‘My father.’’

      He didn’t move. That one eyebrow was still arched, yet it seemed to her that his rare lighthearted mood had vanished as swiftly as the sun sliding behind a dark cloud. Lightning flared again, a blinding glare through the room, and somewhere out in the storm-dark sky, thunder boomed and rolled away.

      ‘‘Just listen to what I have to say.’’ She touched the hard line of his jaw. ‘‘Please.’’

      ‘‘I’m listening.’’

      ‘‘Everyone—my mother, my sisters, Hildy, Aunt Nanna and you, too—you all seem to think my father has something else planned for me. That there’s more going on here than a father’s desire to meet a daughter he’s never really known.’’

      ‘‘I never said—’’

      ‘‘Bear with me. Please?’’

      He gave her a curt nod.

      She spoke briskly. ‘‘So, then, what could it be, this other reason he’s sent for me?’’

      ‘‘We’ve spoken of this.’’ His gaze slid away. ‘‘I’ve told you I don’t know.’’

      She reached up again, this time to touch his cheek. ‘‘Don’t look away….’’

      He unlaced his fingers and dropped one hand at his side. The other hand he rested in the curve of her back—but very lightly, as if he didn’t plan on keeping it there for long. ‘‘All right.’’ He was frowning. ‘‘I’ll say it once more. I can’t tell you what His Majesty has planned for you, if anything, beyond what we already know—a time to speak with you, to see your face, to know the splendid young woman his infant daughter has become.’’

      ‘‘Splendid, huh? I like the sound of that.’’

      ‘‘It’s only the truth.’’

      She trailed her hand down, so tenderly, and rested it once more against the dragon’s heart. ‘‘I think you do suspect his plans, Hauk.’’

      ‘‘It is not my place to—’’

      ‘‘Don’t say it.’’ She put her fingers to his lips. ‘‘I don’t need to hear it again. I sincerely do not.’’

      He moved his head, to free his mouth from her shushing hand. ‘‘What do you wish me to say?’’

      ‘‘Nothing. Just listen.’’

      He gazed at her coolly now. She wondered if this conversation would cost her the precious night to come.

      No. She wouldn’t think that way. Once he heard what she had to tell him, he would cradle her close and kiss her, again and again. They’d hold back the dawn together.

      And morning would find them all wrapped up in each other’s arms.

      ‘‘Hauk, I think my father has plans for me—wedding plans. I think you think so, too, and—’’ She cut herself off with a tiny cry of distress. ‘‘Oh, don’t do that, don’t… get that hard and distant look.’’

      ‘‘Why say such a thing?’’ His voice was ragged. ‘‘Why say it now, except to remind me that I betray my king—and that you and I have nothing beyond this moment, this moment that shouldn’t even be?’’

      ‘‘No. No, you don’t understand. You have to let me finish.’’

      ‘‘What do you want from me?’’ He dragged himself up against the padded headboard, took her by the shoulders and pushed her carefully away from him.

      ‘‘I said, let me finish.’’ Elli had gathered her legs beneath her. She knelt beside him, her hands folded tightly on her thighs. He didn’t want her to touch him right then, that was painfully evident in every line of his face, every tense muscle in his beautiful body. Clasping her hands together was the only way she could make them behave.

      ‘‘All right, then,’’ he said way too quietly. ‘‘Finish.’’

      ‘‘Oh, don’t you see? Why would he send you here, why would he force us to be together every minute? Unless he’s hoping I’ll see just what I see in you, unless it’s you he’s hoping I’ll learn to love and want to marry?’’

      When she said that, Hauk’s hurt and anger melted away like the snowfields over Drakveden Fjord in the spring.

      He almost smiled again. No matter that this woman was his king’s daughter, in her heart she was American. American to the core. She saw what she wanted to see. She made the world over to fit her own idea of it.

      Those deep-blue eyes of hers were shining. By all the roots of the guardian tree, he hadn’t the will or the heart to remind her of the facts. Somewhere in that sharp mind of hers, she had to know the truth. That he’d first been sent to take her quickly and bring her straight to his king. That it was she, with her insistence on speaking to her father, on striking a bargain, who had made it necessary for Hauk to assume the role of round-the-clock guard.

      Why point out the obvious when she so clearly didn’t want to see it? Why be wise now, when for once in his life, all he wanted was a chance to play the fool?

      The mighty Thor, her family’s namesake, most beloved of all the gods, had given him this night of driving rain and rolling thunder, had forced her father’s ship out of the sky. Sometimes, the whims of the gods might favor a man.

      For an hour. Or a night.

      A man might, however briefly, hold in his arms his greatest desire.

      In the morning, there would be time for wisdom, for acceptance.

      For regret and for anger.

      And for shame, as well.

      She whispered, ‘‘Are you going to send me away?’’

      It was the moment to tell her, to make her understand that her wild, bright American dreams would not change what was. If her father did have plans for her to marry a Gullandrian, it wouldn’t be his low-jarl bastard warrior he intended for her. It would be the man King Osrik thought most likely to be king himself someday. That way the Thorson bloodline would continue to hold the throne. That way, even if His Majesty had lost his sons, the day might come when his grandson would rule.

      ‘‘Oh, Hauk…’’ Those eyes of hers begged him to see what she saw—the two of them, united, His Majesty, her father, blessing the match.

      He knew he should make the truth clear, that he should tell her what would really happen if they shared this stormy night and His Majesty found out.

      At the very least, Hauk would lose his position, be stripped of all honors. He could be banished or even sent to Tarngalla, the tower prison where murderers and those who committed crimes against the state were kept. It was highly unlikely that what they were doing might cost him his life—not in this modern day and age. But anything could happen when the most trusted of soldiers dared to betray his king.

      He knew if he told her all that, she would scoff. She would call it impossible, barbaric, medieval. She would say it was wrong and unfair and an outrage.

      And then she’d return to her own room. Even if she didn’t want to believe him, she wouldn’t let him take the risk.

      Hauk cared nothing for the risk. She was here. She wished to stay. And he was through battling. The war

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