"Some emergency couldn't keep?"
No. Maybe. Yes! "What is this place?"
"It was a sanctuary. Since mine has been spoiled." He scowled at the wolf, and Cyclops trotted off, tail between his legs.
"Spoiled?" I cried. Was he so fed up with me that he wanted me to move out?
Ignoring me, he turned away, heading back under the dish.
I struggled to keep up with his long-legged strides as he went deeper into the framework. "Do you want me to leave the castle?" I had to yell as the worsening storm pounded the metal above us.
He twisted around, stabbing his fingers through his soaked hair. "That's not what I meant."
"Then what?" I felt as if I were needling a bear. The storm only ramped up the tension between us.
"I can't sit there and listen to that woman poison your mind! And if I say or do anything, I'll only be proving her mad accusations."
"You assume I'm letting her poison me?"
"If she doesn't, your chronicles will."
"I've read them. I've remembered so much more about you. And here I am."
"Why did you come?" His damp chest grew still. He was holding his breath!
My gaze darted. How to say this? "You . . . you're not safe out here with no one to watch your back!"
His fists clenched, the muscles in his arms bulging. "Get back on your goddamned horse and leave--me--in--peace."
What sounded like an explosion boomed above us. I jumped and glanced to one side as more gigantic hail plummeted from the sky. Facing him again, I promised, "I'm not going anywhere without you, Aric."
Confusion. "Why?"
"Because I love you."
His hand shot out. His fingers made a loose cage around my throat. "Never say that to me again!"
I swallowed, knew he could feel the movement against his grip. I whispered, "I love you."
With his other hand, he punched the metal, sending vibrations through the structure. "I told you something died in me the day you chose him! Let it lie."
I shook my head. "I can bring it back to life."
He narrowed his eyes. "Why would you?"
"Centuries ago, you told me that you were born for me, and I for you. You told me you'd convince me of that one day. You have." Through his caring. And his patience and generosity. His selfless protection.
"Damn you, Empress!" He was wavering. He moved his hand from my throat to my nape. So steady in battle, his hand now shook.
My missions had changed once more: destroy Richter, and make Aric happy. Time was running out for both. Which meant I would force my mind from the past. From the other half of my heart. "We don't have time for this."
"For what?"
"For not being together."
He dropped his hand, seeming to steel himself against me. "And still your interest arises only because of our circumstances."
I'd told him my feelings; I'd put myself out there. I'd never expected this much hostility. "I came here--despite all the things going on in my head--to offer you my future. And you're refusing to meet me even a tenth of the way? That's the reality of our 'circumstances.'"
He was seething with something that looked a lot like . . . hate. "If Deveaux were here, you would choose him."
"Still punishing me for my choice?" But then his eyes gave away a flicker of another emotion. Insight from my dreams and our past hit me, and for once, clarity sparked in my messed-up head. "That's not the main issue, is it? You could get past that. No, you're pushing me away . . . out of fear."
No denial.
"At this moment, you're afraid something will tear us apart yet again. You'd rather have the ongoing dream of a future than risk having your hope crushed once more."
In a rare glimpse of vulnerability, he said, "Each time, right before you struck, I . . . believed. In the last game, the end of hope nearly destroyed me. Those first moments after your death, when I comprehended I would spend a dozen more lifetimes alone . . ." His expression grew stark. "I could not survive it again."
"And I couldn't survive losing you." I pressed my fingertips to my temples. "Maybe we shouldn't be together. Part of me still fears I'd be risking your life--because of the game or the gods or whatever--just by loving you."
"I don't believe that. But say it was true. I'd accept any risk to myself if I knew I would be your husband in truth. Understand me: if I could trade seven hundred years as the victor for seven months as your husband, I would make the bargain in an instant." He moved a step closer, gazing down at me. "I would trade those centuries for seven days. Seven hours."
"Aric . . ." I sidled closer, inhaling his heady scent. "What are we going to do?"
"I can't vow that you'll never lose me, and no vow of yours will alleviate my dread." Nothing could convince him that we'd actually--after two thousand years--sleep together.
"Then maybe we should make a promise about tonight," I said. "We either consummate our relationship now--or never. If we don't move forward, our worst fears will be realized in a way."
"Tonight?" His voice had roughened.
I nodded up at him, aching to touch him. To trace those runes and make him quake. "Tonight." Lightning crackled overhead, and the hail grew louder. "Before you decide, I need you to know something." I placed my palms on his warm chest. His heart was racing beneath my fingertips. "Aside from everything else . . . I want you."
Mesmerizing light radiated from his eyes. "That, you must say again."
I wetted my lips. "I want you." Desire sizzled between us. Soon neither of us would be able to fight it.
"For all these lifetimes, I've waited for you to say that and to mean it." He had endless centuries of pent-up loneliness--and lust.
I was almost afraid of what we were about to unleash. "I do mean it." I leaned in to press a kiss against one of his runes, my tongue flicking rain from his damp skin.
"My gods." Voice a rasp, he said, "And so I am snared? I won't deny us--because I can't?"
I drew back, shucking my pack, gaze drifting to his mouth, to that sexy dip in the center of his bottom lip. "Let's talk after you kiss me."
His arms wrapped around me. "Good idea." He leaned down, his lips descending over mine. At the contact, my eyes slid closed; his pained groan rumbled against my mouth. When his tongue slipped between my lips, I twined my hands around his neck.
He slanted his mouth, his tongue slowly tangling with mine. For someone with so little practice, he was a devastating kisser. He tasted like rain and need.
My toes curled as we shared breaths. At some point he'd begun holding me upright--my legs had given way.
Gripping my ass, he easily lifted me. He groaned with approval when my legs wrapped around his hips.
My hands flew to his shoulders, kneading with delight as his muscles rippled beneath my palms.
But he broke away from our kiss, leaving me panting. His gaze narrowed with intent. With possessiveness. "If we cross this line, there is no returning from it. I will never let you go. You will be my wife in truth."
"I won't let you go either. And you'll be my husband." He. Was. Mine.
"We will be forever. We are forever."
I gazed at his noble face, raising my hand to caress it. "Yes."
His eyes slid shut with bliss when I smoothed my fingertips along his jawline, across his strong chin, over a broad cheekbone. "Sieva." That one word was laden with yearning.
He wants to be a normal man. I was determined to give him anything he needed from me. Now. Amid all of my emotions, I dreaded that something would prevent this. The gods, the universe, whatever . . . When I yanked my poncho over my head, his eyes opened and went wide.
"Here?" He swallowed thickly. "I need to get you ready . . . you should have a bed. . . ." His sentence died away when I pulled off my sweater, revealing my glowing glyphs. They reflected in his gaze.
"Here, Aric." I unfastened my bra from the front, shrugging out of it.
He stared with such hunger that my breasts seemed to swell for him
, aching for his sword-roughened palms to cover them. I whimpered, arching my back.
At the sight, his jaw slackened. His pupils were blown. Then came more of that starry light. Like a sunrise.
As I pulled his hand to me, the rain and hail intensified. I was glad of the wild storm all around us. Feels fitting.
He kneaded me, biting out a choked sound of pleasure. "This will be over before it starts." Had his accent ever been so thick?
My eyes went heavy-lidded. "Don't wait another second."
He shook his head hard. "I didn't plan for this, don't have anything."
"I'm on something." I'd refused to approach him with nothing new to promise, so I'd gone to Paul for contraception the night of the snow. "I'm ready for this, Aric." For his first time. "For you." I surrendered completely to lust and adrenaline and the driving need to experience passion with him. My senses overloaded. My skin was flushed, my nerve-endings hypersensitive.
I smelled the rain, the electricity, his addictive scent. How could he possibly smell so good? His taste lingered on my tongue, making my head swim. "I'm ready now."
My expression must have betrayed my emotions; he looked stunned. "Sieva?"
A pulse point beat frantically in his neck, drawing my gaze. I leaned forward to kiss it. With a moan, I sucked on his skin, feeling the strong beat against my tongue.
His head fell back. He bit out something in Latvian that sounded like a curse. In a dazed tone, he said, "This will happen. I . . . I believe."
The awe in his voice made me desperate for him. "Now, Aric." Lightning flared almost as bright as day, thunder booming mere instants later. "Before something stops us!"
He raised a knee, pinning me against a metal support to free his hands. "Nothing could take me from you. Nothing." He tore open my riding pants, yanking them and my panties to my knees. Unhappy with the barrier between us, he used his strength to rip my clothes in two.
My glyphs swirled wildly.
He sucked in a breath, his rapt gaze following his fingers as they roamed between my thighs. Over me. In me. He groaned at the feel. "You're so perfect."
I rolled my hips to his hand.
"Yes, yes," he murmured as he watched me writhe. "You like my touch." He teased me till I was just on the verge.
"Don't wait!"
Material ripped as he shoved his pants down his narrow hips. Between my legs, his hardness nudged and prodded.
I moaned, my head lolling.
He wrapped my hair around his fist, holding my head up. "Look at me." Our gazes met as he began to press inside. With wonder in his eyes, he rasped, "Gods almighty." His chest muscles flexed against my breasts, his ancient runes kissing them.
Sudden winds howled, and the structure groaned. Aric withstood each gust; he was strong. As I clung to him, my hair whipped in the wind, snaking over him like vines.
Cannonballs of hail pounded the dish. Louder. Louder. Louder.
So earsplitting I needed to scream. Vibrations shook the metal at my back. Bolts of lightning struck nearby rocks. Bits of stone were darts against my skin. Thunder boomed so violently, I could feel the percussion in my stomach.
Pouring rain, hail, lightning, winds--as if the universe warned us not to go further. Two opposing forces joining together.
Life and Death.
With his forehead resting against mine, he bit out, "We might be going . . . to hell for this." But that wasn't stopping him; pressure grew as he pushed deeper.
I gasped. "Then we'll rule it together."
His lips parted. "Es tevi milu." I love you.
For an instant, I saw Jack above me. A moment of time. . . .
I blinked, and I was staring into starry amber eyes again. "I love you too."
Aric tilted his hips up and plunged.
My scream and his yell were lost to the roaring winds.
When he was deep inside me, he clenched me close, somehow holding himself still. I felt his heart pounding as he grated words in Latvian.
"English . . . ?"
"You're mine." He withdrew with a shudder. "How long I've waited." The heat of his body seared me when he thrust.
"Oh, God, yes." My hands drifted down to his hips, urging him on.
Between ragged breaths, he said, "Nothing . . . could possibly . . . feel this good. Nothing!" Supporting me with one hand, he used his other to caress me.
"Aric!" The pressure inside me kept mounting.
He gnashed his teeth. "Never want this to end!"
Heat and friction. Electricity. Aric's increasingly desperate groans. The storm. Everything built and built. "So close . . ." Soon I was on the brink, could only moan and move with him.
"I can't hold back!" His pace turned feverish. "Sieva, you feel like heaven!"
Sensation overwhelmed me, and I screamed.
I dimly heard him telling me that I was his, that we were forever, that he could feel my pleasure.
That he was helpless not to follow me.
His muscles stiffened. Eyes lost, he bit out: "Dream?"
"No, no . . ."
His body arched, head thrown back. His bellows shook the night, over . . . and over. . . .
Afterward, we clung together, our breaths so loud.
He pressed his lips to my forehead. "Mine." He clasped me even tighter, his strong arms locked around me as if he'd never let me go.
The storm ebbed. The winds died down, and the hail ended. The last lightning bolt faded away.
36
We lay in the bed in the cabin, just stripped of our wet, ruined clothes. We'd returned to find Cyclops whimpering at the door, but Aric had simply said, "You are quite forgiven. Go home."
Now Aric wedged his hips between my legs and stroked the back of his fingers over my cheek. "I plan to have you all night, love. Do we need to do something more for contraception?" He dipped down to nuzzle my breasts.
Cheeks gone red, I muttered, "I had a shot." Paul had said it'd start working right away, but I'd waited a few days to be on the safe side.
Aric raised his head. "You premeditated this?" That seemed to delight him. "I never stood a chance, did I?"
"Just shut up!" I slapped his shoulder.
He grinned, so sexy he robbed me of breath. "You did want me, little wife." His arrogance had rebounded with a vengeance. "I couldn't resist you before I loved you; now . . . you hold my heart in your hand once more."
I swept my palm over his tattooed chest. "I'll have a care with it this time."
His eyes went starry again. "I believe that."
"You're not disappointed I took precautions? You wanted a kid." I was ready for a future with Aric--but not with a baby.
Bringing a child into a world without daylight seemed cruel. Would we describe the sun? Maybe we'd say: "Yes, it was millions of miles away, but you could still feel its warmth. I guess you had to be there."
"Do I appear disappointed?" he asked in a wry tone. No, he appeared overjoyed with me.
"Such a turnaround from before?"
"I've realized how selfish that was. And things are . . . different now. If we never have a child, I will be happy. I want all the time I can get with you."
What little time we had left.
He lowered his head to kiss across one collarbone, his lips hot on me. He scorched a line up my neck . . . across my cheek . . . the corner of my lips. Then fully on my mouth. Cradling the back of my head, he kissed me thoroughly.
When he broke away, he left me aching, my hips rolling for him.
He rose up on straightened arms, raking his gaze over my face, my body, my bright glyphs and restless hips. "I still think this is a reverie, one of my countless fantasies of you." When he pressed inside, his eyes nearly rolled back in his head. In a strangled voice, he said, "How could this . . . be real?"
_______________
Afterward, we lay on our sides facing each other. I murmured, "I know it couldn't possibly be worth the wait for you, but was it--"
"By all the gods, it was worth
the wait." He cupped my face, had to clear his throat before he could say, "Do you understand how precious you are to me? Not because I can touch you--that merely allowed me to recognize you."
I laid my hand over his heart. For two thousand years, it'd been one way. Now it was changed.
His brows drew together, as if he was trying to sort through chaotic thoughts. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, then tried again: "That wild storm was a tiny fraction of what was going on inside me. I look at you . . . and I soar. I make love to you, and everything is new; I feel . . . so much. I'm certain my chest will explode from it. . . . Gods, I make no sense, do I?" Color tinged his broad cheekbones. "Tonight has boggled my mind. You have boggled my mind." He held my gaze with his own. "Sieva, I am a planet off its axis."
I lost myself in his eyes. "I love you too, Aric."
The corner of his lips curled.
_______________
He dozed with me tucked against his side. I peeked up and sighed over his spellbinding face, wondering how I could ever have hurt this tender, caring man.
But now we'd rewritten history.
He stirred and opened his eyes, his amber gaze studying my expression. "Regrets?"
We'd had sex four more times over the night. "None." Aric deserved whatever happiness I could give him. Did I think I deserved him? No. But I still wanted him for my own. "You?"
He shook his head. "I was dreaming in color."
37
Day 452 A.F.
"You want to tell me what you were doing with the dish?" I asked as we readied for the trip back. Morning had arrived far too soon.
He finished lacing his black pants, then dragged on a long-sleeved shirt to wear under his armor. "I've been trying to repair it."
"What does it do?" I picked clothes from my bag. Good thing I'd packed some. I currently wore only one of his T-shirts.
"It picks up radar and radio signals from all over the earth. And in space. Everything from distress beacons to ham radios."
"How'd you find it?"
He sat beside me on the bed and pulled on his boots. "I had it built."
"That must've cost a fortune."
"We're very rich. Not that it matters much anymore." Now he was rich in food, water, and fuel. "In any case, I knew whatever catastrophe the game brought would likely take out widespread communication. . . ." He started talking about wavelengths and parabolas and other stuff I didn't understand.
"In English?"