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Chapter Twenty
Astrid
I lean up against the kitchen counter and watch Erik as he rummages about in the cabinets.
“There’s not a great variety of food here,” he says with a frown. “We may have to settle for frozen pizzas.”
“Fine by me,” I say with a shrug. “I’m just glad we have somewhere to stay. No complaints.”
Erik shoots me a smile and turns on the oven, then starts opening up the pizza boxes he found in the freezer.
My head is still reeling from the explosive—almost literally—encounter we’d just had in the shed. I’ve never wanted someone so much in my whole life. Even though Erik had given me one orgasm with just foreplay, I want the real deal. All of it. All of him.
But I’m conflicted. Am I feeling this strongly because of the joining spell and the bond it created? Part of me wants the spell to wear off so we can try again, but part of me is afraid that once it does, we’ll find out our connection isn’t as extraordinary as we thought it was.
Then there’s the logical part of my brain shooting all kinds of warnings to my heart. I just met this guy. I can’t be falling for him so quickly. Guilt roils through me, both because he’s the first man I’ve been with since Lilli’s dad, and because I’m supposed to be responsible. I’m a mom, after all. I can’t run off with my bodyguard. And I seriously doubt Erik really wants to be a dad and have a package-deal family with some woman he just met.
“Beer?” Erik asks, shaking me from my thoughts.
He’s standing in front of the fridge, looking sexier than any man has a right to. His shirt is back on, but I can see the way it hugs the hard lines of his chest and torso, and it sends a rush of heat through my body. Seeing him without his shirt on, revealing every inch of his chiseled abs covered in tattoos… it had been just as swoonworthy as I’d imagined from the first moment I saw those tattoos peeking out.
I realize a moment later he can undoubtedly feel every emotion I’m having right now through our bond. Every ounce of lust. My cheeks blush as he walks toward me.
“I’m going to take that as a yes,” he says, his voice rough and smokey. He leans up against the counter next to me and takes the cap off the beer with his bare hands as it was nothing, then hands it to me.
“Thanks.” I take a swig, and the way Erik watches my lips makes me blush again.
“This is going to be a really long night,” he says with a sigh.
I raise my brows. “Why do you say that?”
“Because if touching you makes Erik’s house burn down, I don’t know how we’re going to make it to morning without this place becoming a pile of ash.”
My nipples harden beneath my sweater and I just about spit my beer out. “Well,” I say, after a moment to regain my composure, “You’ll just have to remember that hard line you insisted on in the beginning. Your bodyguard ethics and all that. It seemed to work before.”
Erik pivots his body so I’m pinned against the countertop, his hips pressing into mine. His muscular arms box me in, and my breath hitches.
“That was before,” he says, leaning in and flicking his tongue against my earlobe, then grazing his teeth over it. “Before I was inside you.”
My sex clenches and Erik growls. He can feel it. “I suppose then,” I whisper, my voice unsteady and a tremble running through my core, “We have all night to test our limits.” I reach out and run my fingers along the waistband of his jeans, pulling him even closer against me. My thigh slides along the outside of his.
Erik moves his lips to mine and kisses me, soft as a feather. But even with just that slight touch, magic sparks between us like lightning. His tongue enters my mouth, twisting slowly against mine, probing, claiming. A shiver runs through me as I imagine that talented tongue entering me somewhere else. Fucking me relentlessly until pleasure consumes me.
He growls against my mouth, and it vibrates through my whole body. It seems when we’re touching we can share our thoughts through the spell even more easily, and he’d clearly read that one. But despite my wicked fantasies, he takes his time, kissing me until my head spins with stars, until I’m breathless with desire.
When the oven timer goes off, Erik pulls back and pins me with his green eyes. “I hope you realize I’m being dead honest with you… I’ve never felt this way about a client before. I’ve never let feelings get the better of me.”
He looks down as if he’s ashamed of himself, and I run my hand through his hair so he looks up again. “I believe you. I trust you completely.”
“I don’t know what you’ve done to me, Astrid Olsen,” he says in that deep, low voice. “But it’s clear I can’t help myself when I’m around you. No matter how hard I try.”
He leans in and kisses me once more, then turns to get the pizza out of the oven. I help slice it up and plate it, then we head into the living room to sit by the massive fireplace while we eat. We take our beer with us and sit on the rug in front of the flames.
“I feel like I’m twenty again,” I say with a giggle, lifting my beer and nodding toward the pizza.
“I’ll have to take you out for a proper dinner when all this is over,” Erik says. “There’s this place in Zurich I go whenever I’m in town, it’s to die for.”
“I imagine you’re not home very often,” I say, taking a bite of my pizza.
