Chapter 39
Gunnar cursed as he jerked out of a deep sleep, immediately annoyed at being caught flatfooted, at being so dam exposed so many fucking times so close together. His instincts were a few seconds ahead, cataloging the sound as he rubbed his face.
“What’s wrong?” Audrey asked, curled against him, her voice tired but clear.
“Nothing, just . . .” He grunted, stretching a long arm out and peeling the curtain back. Deep night, but the sky was clear, moon and stars bright.
The motion caught the attention of their late-night visitors. The deer all lifted their heads at once, the faint crunching of their steps going silent. A dozen or so, looked like. After a few seconds, they walked on. Beside him, the tension left Audrey, her scent warming—pleased at being woken up by damn deer.
For whatever reason, Audrey whispered when she said, “Reindeer? Caribou? They used to travel in big herds around here before the Aperien event. Hundreds of thousands of them, Aster said.”
She craned her neck to see better, watching until the last one passed by the window, and Gunnar left the curtain half open.
Audrey rested her chin on his chest. “That’s a good sign for the area. They would have been easy food for the all the monsters. Maybe they’ll come back some around Nizhny now that it’s safer.”
“Hmm.” Gunnar ran a hand through her hair, still a little damp. They hadn’t slept very long. “Sorry I woke you. Not used to sleeping so deep.”
“It’s okay. You’re still recovering.”
“I’m fine.”
She patted his chest, avoiding the scars. “You just said you don’t normally sleep so deeply. Don’t you think it might be because your body needs more rest?” He grunted. “That doesn’t make any sense? None at all?” Another grunt, knowing she saw him grinning. She snorted, rolling over to put her back to him. “You’re impossible.”
He didn’t like that warmth leaving his side, so he chased it, laughing at the squeak she let out when he pulled her against his body, arm banded against her waist and trapping her to him.
“That something else for your list?” Gunnar ran his nose along her neck, smiling at the hitch in her breathing when he did.
“I’m not answering that. It would only make you worse.”
He nipped at her jaw, and she squeaked again, but she also leaned into him. He liked that. Gunnar soothed the spot with a soft kiss, liked the little sigh she let out even better. A few seconds later, she giggled, and he caught the scent of mischief against her contentment.
“What’s funny?”
“The fearless Jonathan Gunnar scared awake by a herd of—Don’t you da—!” She cut off in a shriek as he found her ribs, tickling the hells out of her as she squirmed and laughed, kicking at him and slapping at his arms. “Stop, stop! Jona—” A scream as he really dug in, laughing at how hard she struggled. “I’m sorry!” Another hysterical laugh, then a hiccup. “I’m sorry, I won’t tell anyone I swear!” He relented, letting her catch a few breaths, but then she said, “No one will ever know you’re afraid of deer!” This scream about broke his eardrums. Tears ran down her cheeks now, but she wasn’t sorry, not one bit, and he damn well knew it, even when she huffed, “No, no, you’re brave, so brave, the bravest!”
“Listen here, you little smartass.”
“I love you!”
Gunnar stopped, the words new enough that hearing them still startled him. That’s all it took, and Audrey slipped free and jumped off the bed, fleeing the room with a victorious, breathless cackle. He blinked a few times, then chuckled.
“It’s dark. Don’t stub your toe again.”
“That was one time!”
“This house has two rooms and a closet.” Gunnar threw back the sheet and stood, taking his time, trying to keep the thrill of a hunt racing through his blood at a reasonable level. Different kind of prey, he mused. “You really think you can hide from me?”
He heard a faint giggle, muffled. Holding a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing outright. Gunnar grinned, prowling on silent cat feet. The only thing she really had on her side was her scent saturated the entire place. It wouldn’t do her much good. Her heart raced like a rabbit; he could hear it from the bedroom.
Not that he wouldn’t play, draw this out a bit.
The hall was better lit, the curtains back in the main sitting area and kitchen, so she’d see him coming. He wandered to the kitchen, unconcerned, getting himself a glass of water. Took his time drinking, looking out over the taiga, wearing only his shorts. Knowing she watched him, he could feel those eyes wandering over his bare skin. Heard her lick her lips, how her breathing didn’t quite settle from all the tickling, not even when he gave her plenty of time to relax. Her desire was sweet against his senses.
It made him glad for the reprieve, because she might want him, but that didn’t mean he could fuck her against the kitchen counter, which painted one hells of a picture.
At least not yet. Not until he learned her, if she let him. Then his mind was off like a shot, imagining what he could do to her, what she might like, how responsive she’d been to the barest touch, to a simple kiss.
Gunnar almost missed her sneaking down the hall.
Almost.
When he turned on her, her eyes went wide and she bolted, but he caught her at the doorway to his room, hefting her off her feet and against his body with a laugh as she shrieked again.
“You keep that up, Zhadan’s going to come beat down the damn door,” he mumbled against her hair. She dissolved into more laughing, breathless in his arms. “You really think that’d work?”
“No, but it was fun,” she said, giggling, but then the mirth tapered off. He knew she looked at the bed, their bed, and the rumpled sheets.
Her scent shifted, nervous now, unsure in a way he rarely scented on her skin. He let her slide down his body, her feet soft on the floor, but he kept her close, arms around her middle. Leaned in to kiss, then nuzzle her cheek. “Nothing happens you don’t want, sweetheart.”
Her voice was barely a whisper. “I know.”
He nudged under her ear, a sweet spot, her scent stronger there. Soft, perfect skin under his lips, goosebumps shivering across her skin at the slightest touch. She leaned back into him when he did, but when she stiffened slightly in his arms, he knew why. He’d been hard since she bolted from the bed, giggling and laughing and leading him on a little chase. Appealing to his beast almost innocently, but he knew better.
She was innocent, but the game wasn’t, not entirely. Not when she wanted him to catch her. Not when she knew damn well he smelled her growing arousal.
But wanting him didn’t mean she was ready for him.
“Back to sleep?” he asked against her throat, her pulse thrumming under his lips, inhaling as he spoke.
A fresh burst of nerves, anticipation. A swell of desire he had to grit his teeth against to keep himself from grinding into her ass.
And she said, “No,” with a firm voice, but a faint trace of fear splashed his senses.
“What’s got you scared?”
He felt her wince, then she sighed. “I’d never even kissed anyone until you. I don’t know what to do.”
“Was a damn good kiss, I thought.” Gunnar couldn’t help a small chuckle.
She let out a huff, both hands clutching his forearms around her middle, her throat warming against his lips as she blushed again. “You know what I mean.”
“Sure, get being nervous about that, but that’s not what I asked. You’re scared. Not the same thing.”
Audrey looked down, fingers tracing patterns only she could see as she thought about it. He needed to know before they moved forward.
“I always assumed I got there in time, in that alley.”
“You did,” Audrey said. “It’s not anything like that, I promise.” She swallowed again. Her hesitation was killing him, but then she whispered, “I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you.”
His first response was outright anger, the idea she was anything but perfect? Fuck her feeling like that, but he held back, because he knew the truth was far more uncomfortable, especially when he considered his own head space.
Gunnar smirked, only because she couldn’t see him. “You ain’t the only one.”
Audrey laughed, a startled little sound. She turned in his arms, frowning up at him. “If you’re looking for more compliments, I really don’t know what to tell you.”
Fucking hells, those wide, innocent eyes, her genuinely confused expression. She really had no idea what else lurked below his skin, not when it came to sex.
Not in the way his mind raced wild at thoughts of sex with her.
He’d known it, deep on a primal level his intellect refused to admit, how she’d been his from the moment he put his mouth on her that first time. How she’d answered the missing piece in him Virtue could never fake, that no working woman had ever satisfied.
And Audrey, in her inexperience, she didn’t know the extent of what she offered him.
Gunnar had never tasted anything as erotic as her natural submission to him. What the beast in him had craved his entire life, and could never buy, because it came with a requirement: love and trust, and she laid both unequivocally at his feet.
Part of him wondered if blood madness felt anything like this, the all-consuming urge to take, give, shelter, protect. To make her entirely, unerringly his.
Yeah, pretty sure he’d always wanted her to be his. Mine, always on the tip of his tongue, in the front of his mind.
He’d fucking possess her in a way no magic could protect from, if she’d let him.
But first he needed to be certain, needed her to understand.
“Nah,” he drawled, running his teeth on the tendon between her neck and shoulder, trying to keep himself grounded. “Meaning I’d disappoint you.”
“What? Why?”
Gunnar cupped her face in both hands, trying and failing to keep the raw need for her from his expression. Traced his thumb over her bottom lip. “I worry I might scare you with how much I want you, the things I want to do to you.”
She shifted a bit, her cheeks apple red, the blush stretching up to the tips of her ears. “I . . .” She opened and closed her mouth but said nothing else.
“Need you to understand, though, while it might seem like I’m in charge of all this,” he said as he inclined his head toward his bed. “It’s all you, sweetheart. You want to stop, I stop. You don’t like something, you tell me, I stop. I’m too rough, you tell me, I stop.”
Audrey swayed on her feet but pressed her lips into a thin line before she said, “Well, the same is true for you.” Her chin lifted. “If you don’t like something.”
His brave, perfect girl. Gunnar chuckled, leaning forward until his lips brushed her ear. “There isn’t a damn thing I don’t want with you, Audrey.” He savored the way she arched into him. “But if you let me, you want me, I’m going to take you to my bed, and we won’t be sleeping anytime soon.”
She shivered, her already rich scent deepening, and it was all he could to do to stay still, waiting, until she whispered, “Okay,” into his shoulder.
Not quite enough, so he tangled a fist in her hair, tilted her head back to get a good look at those beautiful eyes, at the slight glaze, the way she licked her lips as she stared up at him, lost, and yes, wanting.
“You want me, sweetheart? We can’t undo this. I want the words.”
A slow blink as she held his wrist, squeezed. Nervous, not scared, as she whispered, “I want you.” Then she decided to really fuck with what was left of his sanity when she added, “I’m yours.”