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“You’re not allowed to talk to me,” she breathes and she’s whimpering now but then she inhales, “and it’s you who looks. You stare at me all the time, always watching, always probing me with your gaze...”
I do probe her with it. Eye fuck her because it’s the only thing I can do without getting my throat slit. Swallowing, I walk so close I could bury my face in her hair if I wanted to and it takes a ruthless amount of willpower to keep my hands to myself. I feel like a savage before her and she makes me painfully aware of how much harsher my nature is compared to hers.
“Do you know why a male stares, Valkyrie?” I say and she shivers, refusing to answer, refusing to encourage me. “He does it when he wants a female. When he wants her to know she’s his.”
“Stop this madness,” she mewls. “You can’t talk to me that way.”
“There’s nobody here.” I straighten, looking down on her and the size of her is both endearing and worrying. Will she ever even be able to take me? “I can keep a secret.” I grab her arm, whirling her around. Her eyes flare when I bore my gaze into hers and push her up against my chest. “Can you?”
3.
Valkyrie
Tilting his face to the side, Iversen repeats the question. “Can you keep a secret, Valkyrie?” This time though, he strokes a piece of hair away from my face and my knees slash. I’ve never..., my lips pinch from the shock..., I’ve never been touched that way by a man.
And I’ve never been manhandled either, held so tightly or so close against my will. Emotions boil in me. This isn’t against my will. It’s what I’m supposed to think. I’m supposed to recoil, or defend my honor and safety but I can’t. One look into those pale eyes of his and I tremble like a shield maiden in front of divinity, of the very thing she naturally worships deep inside of her and my womb clenches.
“Answer my question, baby.”
Fever wreaks havoc in me and I pant. Nobody has ever talked to me this way and I don’t know what to do. I’m helpless and defenseless and utterly entranced. Iversen is my spindle, the one that I, the mob princess will prick my finger on because I’m drawn to him like a lodestone. I cannot stop, cannot look away or walk because he’s just that magnetic.
And just as forbidden.
“I shouldn’t encourage you,” I breathe and his eyes flash when my lips part. He licks his own as if he wants to put his tongue against mine and entwine the two together and my cheeks heat. I’m so inexperienced, so out of my element that I feel like I’m on the verge of bursting out into tears.
“Don’t look so scared,” Iversen rasps and I try not to tremble. “I would never do anything against your will.” His eyes lower to my throat as if he’s trying to track the beating pulse. “Do you still not want to encourage me?”
“They’ll kill you,” I whisper. “And it’ll be my fault...”
“I’ll be careful. Never leave any bruises or marks on your fine skin or kiss your lips too hard.”
I twitch. Kissing? I mewl, squirming because Iversen’s intensity is coldblooded, as merciless as a sword and as precise as a swordsman and it cuts me right where I’m the most tender. In my feminine heart, my feminine emotions that still feel so innocent compared to his. When I struggle to form any words, a frown forms between Iversen’s brows and there’s something about his gaze that makes me want to weep.
“You do not want me then,” he says in a low voice as if the whole world just came crashing down on him. “Don’t you ever want me as your male, princess?” He takes a firmer grip on my arms. “What do I need to do for you to want me?”
When I don’t reply, he lets go of me and when he withdraws he looks so wounded. I’ve never seen a warrior like him seem so defeated and its humbling. My heart aches and I try to reach out with my hand but I’m too weak and I lean against the wall, struggling to regain control.
“Iversen,” I whisper and he whirls his head around, his eyes piercing into mine and it feels like he’ll conquer battlefields for all eternity, as long as I’ll be waiting there in the end to reward him. It’s the first time I’ve ever said his name. I’ve just crossed a line and entered dangerous territory but it feels good on the other side. That’s where he is and I don’t regret it.
“Yeah?” he says huskily and I shiver.
“Thank you for what you did.” I straighten, regaining my strength and I don’t have to lean against the wall anymore. “At the funeral.” I drag a breath because Iversen is watching me so intently, he’s not blinking. “You were brave for standing up to my father.”
Bravery like his is rare and it makes a girl want to bow her head in veneration and gratitude.
“I didn’t want to see you place your sweet lips against a corpse’s. I would’ve lost control. Sought that fucker out in the afterlife and killed him once more.”
My limbs begin shuddering but Iversen misjudges my reaction.
“Forgive me. It was wrong of me to curse in front of you.”
“N...no...,” I stutter, “why did you say once m...more?”
The slow and calculated look Iversen gives me tells me everything I need to know. I gasp, putting my hand in front of my mouth as my eyes flash. “It wasn’t an accident, was it? You murdered him.”
“You knew it was me,” Iversen says and a muscle ticks in his jaw. “You knew I wanted to kill him since the moment they announced your engagement.”
I do remember the way he looked when it was announced that I was supposed to marry. All color left his face, his eyes turning lifeless and then dark and then deadly. It had made me shiver so hard that I didn’t manage to get it to stop until the very next day. And then the news came...
