Betina Krahn by The Enchantment

Author:The Enchantment [Enchantment, The]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-08T04:42:26.719000+00:00

The muscles in his face worked visibly, then he drew a deep, irritable breath and wheeled to retrieve her garments and boots from the storage box. He tossed them at her feet, lifted the bar at the door, and strode out into the frigid morning air.

She sagged to a seat by the fire, staring after him, feeling drained and shamed by her own impulses, and confused. She had lied just now, she realized… or at least part of her had. Part of her didn't want to mate with a man who had no pride or honor, but part of her desperately wanted the tenderness and passion he stirred in her. Honor and dishonor, fighting and loving… wretched Odin must be delirious over the success of his revenge.

Pushing those plaguing thoughts to the back of her mind, she dressed hurriedly, then slipped out the door. Before she had taken two steps, his hand clamped on her arm.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Women and warriors alike have morning needs, Borgerson."

He looked a bit chastened, then nodded and led her to the shelter of the trees. When she was finished, he took her by the arm and led her across the stream and up the slope to the other hut. It was a bathing hut, built over a rock spring that trickled slowly from the side of the cliff on its way to join the larger stream. There was a wide wooden bench, a small oven for heating rocks, and a clear pool hollowed out of natural stone. He allowed her to wash, as he had done, then escorted her back to the lodge. When they were safely inside, he released her arm, but did not move away at once. She felt his gaze on her and stiffened.

"Let me go," she said calmly. "Let me return to my sisters… to the village."

"I cannot." He searched the tension in her face. "There is much to settle between us. And I have sworn that neither of us will return until it is done."

"It can be quickly settled," she insisted. "Just pick up a blade and prepare to fight."

"Do you not see that what we must settle requires far more than just the spilling of blood?"

His words sent a slither of anxiety through her. She couldn't listen to such talk.

"You—you're just afraid to raise a blade against me," she charged, scrambling to find a footing in outraged pride. But the minute her barb struck, she wished to recall it. He blanched and his jaw clamped and the muscles worked tautly beneath his skin.

"Yes, I am afraid!" he declared fiercely. "Afraid of hurting you." Her heart hovered and quivered strangely in her breast, as if uncertain how fast to beat. He was afraid for her? That was the one thing she hadn't expected to hear.

"I don't want to hurt you, Aaren." His features tightened and his eyes grew strangely luminous. Suddenly she could read them the way she always felt he read her own. She glimpsed the need, the wanting, and the pain within him.

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