19. Maddy
Chapter 19
Maddy
T he next day in glima I find myself completely and utterly unable to stop looking at the fire-fae Valkyrie.
He's prowling around the room, barking instructions at everybody about improving technique, tightening, stance, more momentum in blows. I'm so distracted watching him that my opponent's putting me on my backside, over and over again.
"If this isn't a good size match," Staffan says to me, and I turn to him and shake my head.
"No, no. I'm sorry. No, it's important for me to train with rooks larger than I am," I say to the big fae. I was pleased when he asked if I wanted to spar with him for exactly that reason, but I'm not giving him a good workout because I'm just staring at Kain.
He's in gray today. Gray leather trousers and a charcoal-gray shirt that makes his dark skin glow. Every time he demonstrates a move, his muscles swell and tense, and I feel the power rolling from him.
Just being near him makes me want to be better.
I want to fight harder, and I want to win when I fight.
I want to run faster, and I want to run faster than everybody else.
I feel stronger just from looking at him.
I'm smart enough to know that the fact that he was an instrumental part in unlocking my power has created a firm and solid association for me: Kain equals strength.
It doesn't lessen my desire, though.
I want him. I want him so badly. I want to touch him. I want him to touch me, and not just a fingertip. I want my entire body pressed against his. I want his hands all over my body. I want him inside me. I want?—
"Princess!" His voice startles me, and I spin. "Five people in this room could have taken you out while you weren't paying attention." He growls at me and advances.
My breathing hitches and almost stops completely.
"No excuses," he says, and then, out of nowhere, swoops his leg out toward me. I try to jump, but I don't manage it in time. I go down on the furs, hip first.
I hear his voice inside my head instead of out loud. "You may not have to concentrate to use magic, princess, but you sure as shit need to concentrate in hand-to-hand combat." I catch his eye and see the sparks there.
He's enjoying this.
"Yes, hersir ," I say meekly, and as I stand, I swing my foot out at him as he's turning away.
He's too fucking good for me, though.
He sidesteps neatly, reaches down, grips the front of my shirt, and lifts me bodily off the ground. Desire explodes through my center. It starts between my legs and radiates out all the way to the tips of my toes and my fingertips, and I know I've just gone red.
I'm literally dangling from his fist, kicking out ineffectively, and I'm not trying to get out of his hold at all.
"You're supposed to try to break free," he says in my head, irises still sparking.
Instinct takes over and both my arms grab his gloved forearm. Glima lessons are the only times I can be this close to him freely, and I'm going to take advantage of it.
I try to swing my feet toward him. I get the briefest glimpse of a smile, then he drops me, wraps his arm around my middle in a move that we've been practicing a lot, and dumps me on my back.
He drops to the floor, and thrills ripple through my core as his weight presses down over me.
"You're not going to beat an opponent like this," he says.
In reply, I move my body and press my hips into his rigid thigh. I feel him tense, jerk, and then his voice inside my head says, "We're in a room full of people, princess. You're playing with fire." I can't reply to him in my head, so I don't, but part of me wants to tell him, I have a fire now, too.
And you started it.
I can't stop myself. I grind against him again, without even thinking that it might be obvious to the others, and he shifts his weight so that he's completely on top of me. I let out a small, gargled sound as I feel his erection against my stomach. I'm looking up at the middle of his chest, his hair falling around me, and I can't see his face.
I do hear the soft chuckle, though.
Almost as quickly as he covered my body with his, he's standing, and I have to suppress my objection.
I stand too, and see his eyes flash as Staffan offers me a hand up. Kain grabs Martom from where he's training with Tora.
"Switch partners," he says, and shoves Staffan toward Tora.
It takes me a second to realize why. He doesn't want me sparring with the big, good-looking Staffan.
"Hi," says Martom, smiling.
I nod back at him absently. My heart is pounding.
Kain is jealous.
He wants me as much as I want him.
My body is out of fucking control. The rest of glima is like some sort of exquisite torture, and I barely make it back to the Bear Wing before the ache between my legs is too much.
Leaving Thyrvi happily tearing apart a massive straw dummy without a care in the world, I race to my sleeping chamber and throw myself on my bed.
I'm pulling at the belt on my trousers when I freeze.
"I know what you're doing, princess."
Freya help me, Kain's voice is in my head.
He can't be here or see me. This is the Bear Wing, only accessible to those with a bear val-tivar.
So how does he know what I'm doing?
I should feel shame or embarrassment.
I don't, though. His voice just makes me pulse harder, hotter.
"Do you want to know how I know?"
I'm frantic as I push my hand against myself, fingers brushing over slick heat.
"I saw your face, flushed and ready. I felt your body, tense and desperate. I saw the way you watched me. I saw how fast you left my training room."
Oh gods. I press my fingers into myself, trying to slow down, trying to relish the relief.
"I'm doing the exact same thing, princess. You make me fucking crazy."
Fuck.
"Let me tell you what I see when I look at you, princess." His voice is rough in my mind, making me arch against my own touch. "I see power. Raw, untamed strength that you're finally embracing. Do you know how fucking beautiful that is?"
My breath comes in short gasps, my skin hypersensitive against the soft furs beneath me. The fact that he can speak to me like this, can reach into my mind even here, control me from a distance, should worry me. Instead, I'm desperate for more.
"Touch yourself slowly, princess. The way I would if I could. Gentle at first. Then harder." His voice grows rougher. "I'm stroking myself thinking about you, about how you moved beneath me today. The way you ground against my thigh like you couldn't help yourself. The little sounds you tried to hold back."
I imagine his hands instead of mine, imagine the burn of his touch against my frozen skin. I circle my clit, already slick with need, moving my fingers, trying to keep them slow like he said.
"My cock is so hard for you, princess. I think about you, your boot on my shoulder, your beautiful body wet and ready, so fucking close to me."
I bite my lip to keep from crying out, hand gripping the furs. Pleasure coils tight in my core and my hips lift off the bed, seeking more.
"Faster now. Push your fingers deeper. I want to be inside you so badly it burns. You make me want impossible things. What I wouldn't do just to taste you once."
My body moves of its own accord, chasing release. Sweat beads on my skin despite the cold room, my chest heaving with each desperate breath.
"I'm close, princess. I'm imagining the sounds you'd make as I filled you."
His words make me whimper and clench around my fingers. The thought of his touching himself while talking to me like this is too much.
"Come for me now, princess."
The command in his voice tips me over the edge. My back arches off the furs as release crashes through me in waves of pure pleasure. My thighs tremble, my body pulsing with aftershocks as I hear him growl, low and satisfied in my mind.
"Good girl."
He can't see or hear me. His arrogance, his confidence, his certainty that I will have done exactly what he told me to…
It is all founded.
I am utterly helpless in his command. And somehow even more desperate than before.