Chapter Five #3
They reached a small clearing before he deigned to slant a sardonic glance at her. And when he answered his voice was calmly level, if derisive. ‘The fault is yours for failing to work out the small print, litla.’
‘That’s bullshit. And don’t call me that.’
He opened his mouth, but she veered away from him, a strange ache in her chest. It struck her hard that she’d hoped this would be the start of her chiselling away his reserve, to finding some sort of connection with him because, contrary to her every stern pep talk, she hadn’t written him off.
She had believed last night that he would be leaving the door open, and she had spent the night admitting to herself that despite all her assertions, she wasn’t quite ready to relinquish the ephemeral feeling of having Valenti Domene as her guardian.
Her brother, whilst he loved her in his own abstract way, had little in common with her.
Gunnar was nearer in age to Helga and they’d been close, sharing a deep love of medicine.
That had left Lotte on the outside long before Helga had died.
Then Gunnar was so consumed with his grief and his career as a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor that half of the time, he forgot she existed.
The story of her life. She was everyone’s second, third or fourth afterthought. Never first.
Her feet crunched ice underfoot as she fought the urge to break into a run. That would be giving too much away. But she did quicken her steps, her path blurred by the stupid tears burning her eyes.
‘Lotte, stop!’
‘Fuck off!’
She had no idea where she was going and right this moment, she didn’t care. So when strong, powerful arms wrapped around her waist and swept her off her feet, she screamed.
‘Qué demonios, watch where you’re going!’
She strained to free herself from the bonds of his arms. ‘Get your hands off me!’
‘So you can go ahead and break your stupid beautiful neck?’
‘Valenti—’
‘Stop. Look,’ he growled in her ear.
Fighting the decadent shiver washing through her with his warm breath on her lobe and the arms locked tight around her, she swallowed. Focused on her surroundings. And gasped.
A mere ten feet ahead, the snow-covered ground fell away at a steep angle, with occasional rocks breaking through the white landscape. At the pace she’d been travelling, she would’ve surely tumbled down into the ravine, breaking a bone or several, possibly her neck.
‘Oh God.’ Her hushed exclamation wasn’t just for the narrowly avoided accident. It was also chagrin that he seemed to be saving her from a series of reckless mishaps.
No wonder he didn’t want to be around her. Tears brimmed faster and she wanted to kick herself one more time for yet another weakness.
‘Let me go, please,’ she said in a more subdued tone.
He didn’t comply. Of course he didn’t.
Between one breath, and the next, he swung her into his arms, striding back down the path.
He didn’t stop until they were back at the cabin, where he set her down in the middle of the living room, hands propped on his lean hips, and those molten eyes glaring holy hell at her. Much like the night he believed she was running away.
Lotte held up her hand. ‘Before you have a go at me, I take full responsibility for that. Granted I was annoyed with you, but I should’ve been looking where I was going.’
If she had hoped her pre-emptive apology would defuse the situation, she was very much mistaken. He shrugged off his coat and tossed it aside with barely restrained fury, his eyes never leaving hers.
‘Apology not accepted,’ he seethed. ‘Allowing your anger or dissatisfaction with me to lead you into danger is completely unacceptable. I could be scraping you off the side of a mountain by now.’
‘Oh come on!’ She took off her own outer garments, rolling her eyes as she hung them up. ‘That’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think?’
A dark rumble of thunder rolled out of his throat. ‘Melodrama is more your language. Maybe I should learn to speak it.’
She rolled her eyes again. ‘What next, a spanking to teach me a lesson?’
His eyes flared. ‘Now there’s an idea.’
She barely had a chance to react to that before he was reaching for her.
‘What are—Oh my God, don’t even think—argggh!’
The sharp sting on her backside, a direct result of being tossed over Valenti’s bent knees was as shocking as it was…hot.
‘How dare you!’
Her screech was more to cover up what was happening in her body than anything else. Because, sweet heaven, as the stings subsided as quickly as they’d arisen, the follow-up righteous outrage that should demand he explain and apologize for treating her like a child, swiftly died.
Because the sensations rampaging through her were not even remotely childlike.
The mind-blowing, intensely arousing sensation left behind a trail of fire that heated her up far more than her anger and hurt had.
That dragged liquid heat between her thighs and a fierce blush to her face the moment he released her.
Thick silence filled the room, punctuated by their loud breathing. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, to risk him seeing just how intensely, carnally his spanking had affected her.
Dear God, could this get any worse? Could she really be turned on by such an act? But deeply compelled, she couldn’t stop herself from pushing back the curtain of hair blocking her view. Watching in fascination as his eyes squeezed shut and his fingers speared in his hair repeatedly.
And then his eyes flew open to reveal smouldering fire aimed at her. ‘Come here,’ he ordered with a voice so guttural it was barely audible.
She moved almost independent of thought and will, with an even deeper, bewildering fascination, this time at herself. At her willingness to be so compliant with this man.
His knees parted, making room for her. Room she breathlessly accepted.
And it was as she slotted herself into the place she yearned to be that she registered the fine tremors rippling through him.
A few more beats before the enormity of why settled even deeper. Valenti witnessing one sister perish was bad enough. But even the outside possibility of witnessing two…
He surged to his feet, but before she could stop herself, she raised her hands and placed them on his chest. A deeper trembling unravelled through him, and his eyes drifted shut for another beat or two before they opened, fierce, perhaps even a little unhinged, to hook into hers.
‘Perdóname,’ he rasped.
‘Apology not accepted,’ she echoed his response. ‘Unless you accept mine.’
A low bark of laughter escaped him as he shook his head once. ‘You drive me to the fucking edge,’ he hissed, then his jaw clenched tight.
‘Too soon,’ she teased, but that died away because the charge between them, rather than dispersing, grew, spun around them like an unstoppable vortex. A black hole pulling them into intensely alien territory.
‘Promise me you won’t ever do something like that again,’ he pressed with hot, ragged insistence.
Her hand scrambled up, curled on his shoulders, her breath coming in gasps as she felt him tremble again. ‘I promise.’
Her ready promise made his eyes narrow for several moments. Moments during which she found herself swaying even closer, his aura gripping her tight, craving that warmth and care she’d missed so very much for what felt like all of her life.
For just one moment, she wanted to experience the heady knowledge that she was the single most important being in his existence. Even if it was a delusion she would need to wake up from eventually.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered against his lips.
For one long moment, he remained silent, their positions frozen. Then the icy drips of reality started to invade the warmth.
It would never go beyond this.
She was once again on the brink of humiliating herself before this man. Her stupid crush refused to die. A sound burst from her throat, wounded, chagrined and much to her horror, a little lost. A lost little lamb no one wanted, destined to be always left out in the cold.
Angry with herself for the pathetic self-pity, and yes, with him for making her needy when she’d been imperfectly lonely on her own, comfortably self-deluding, she lurched back, eager to get away from him.
He made that sound again. Pained. Frustrated. Intensely annoyed. Ravenous.
Strong, firm hands halted her retreat. Then reversed it. Pulling her into his body with the same urgency he’d returned them to the cabin with.
‘Right to the fucking edge,’ he growled against her mouth, before he slammed it on hers.