Tyr's golden eyes flared with desire, his face a taut mask of control. Annika's heart tripped and raced. She splayed her hand on his chest, felt the flex of his muscles and the thud of his heart, while his hunger for her caressed her mind. She'd lived with this man in her head and her heart for as long as she could remember. Being with him now felt like the most natural thing in the world.
He lowered his mouth to hers and slowly brushed her lips with his own. Yet, even as he kissed her, she sensed doubt reining back his need.
Gripping his shoulders, she said, "This is what I want, Tyr." At an instinctive level, she knew that the moment he'd touched her Magic Knot and become her spirit guide, they'd been joined in a way that meant there could be no other man for her. And she didn't want anyone else. Only Tyr.
He curved a hand around her cheek. "Part of me feels this is wrong." He frowned and squeezed his eyes closed. "I pledged I would protect you, not take advantage of you."
She pressed a fingertip to his full bottom lip. "Then let me take advantage of you."
Nibbling at his lips, she relaxed under the enervating wash of pleasure as he responded. She knew exactly how to make Tyr forget his reservations. Her hand skimmed down his chest, and she dragged her fingernails lightly across his belly just above his belt. He gave a needy little grunt and gripped the back of her head to deepen the kiss.
While they kissed, her fingers worked loose the buttons on his shirt. The smooth, warm skin that met her palms sent streamers of heat through her. She traced the sculpted ridges and hollows of muscle and bone, memorizing his body, eager to see him as well as touch him. With a little gasp, she broke the kiss and shoved his shirt off his shoulders. Feathering her lips across his chest, she breathed the intoxicating scent of him.
Her hands fell to his belt, but he stilled her fingers with the flat of his palm. "Annika…" Amusement edged Tyr's velvet drawl. "Slowly, love. Slowly." Glancing down at his bare chest, he smiled. "You have me half naked and you haven't even taken off a sock."
Tyr stood, bringing her to her feet with him before freeing her of her jacket. As soon as her arms were out of the sleeves, her hands returned to him, cruising up and down the sinewy strength of his forearms. She wanted him naked on the bed, yet he was maddeningly slow, taking his time as he unfastened the top button of her cream silk shirt. He trailed his fingers across the sensitive skin he revealed, sending an electrifying shiver through her.
"You're teasing me," she accused.
He laughed, his eyes sparkling. For the first time since she'd met him, he looked truly happy. "It's called foreplay. I thought women liked to take things slowly."
She pouted in mock offense, enjoying the game.
"What do you want me to do? Rip off your clothes and throw you down on the rug in front of the fire?"
"That might work."
"Don't tempt me." Curling an arm around her waist, he pulled her flush against his body. A sigh of satisfaction escaped her before she wrapped her arms about his neck. Their lips met in a hard, hungry kiss. She speared her fingers through his hair, moved against him, drowned in the sensation of his mouth. She didn't notice his wandering hands had unfastened everything until he eased back to pull her shirt over her head and she lost her bra as well.
Excitement thrummed between them as his hot gaze travelled over her. "Sacred elf-fire, Annika, I knew you'd be beautiful, but…" He swallowed hard. "Change of plan, we'll take things slowly next time."
He swept her into his arms. Raining feverish kisses over her face and neck, he carried her to his bed, deposited her gently on the mattress, kicked off his shoes, and came down beside her with a grunt of satisfaction.
The heat of his mouth caressed a sensitive spot at the base of her throat. Unbearable need rolled through Annika as he strung a row of kisses around her breasts. She grabbed handfuls of his glossy black hair and urged him on. His mouth explored her skin, driving her mad with wanting as he circled first one nipple then the other with the tip of his tongue. Then the wet heat of his mouth closed around her breast and she stopped thinking altogether.
***
Somewhere in the very back of Tyr's mind, the voice of his conscience told him he should set everything straight with Annika before he made love to her. But he was long past the point of talking, almost past the point of thinking.
Tasting the silky softness of her skin, he ran his tongue over her breasts, kissed his way down the gentle rounding of her belly. He eased her trousers down her legs, rewarding each newly exposed inch of skin with a kiss. Then he paused to marvel at the beauty of the woman on his bed—his fantasy come true.
The golden halo of her hair spread out on the pillow, while her eyes burned for him like blue flames. With her long slender limbs and full breasts, she was both beautiful seductress and innocent maiden, firing his desire and making him want to take things slowly at the same time.
He didn't deserve her. Yet he couldn't stop. He moved up the bed, sprawling half across her body to claim her mouth in a searing kiss. Her seeking hands went to his belt. She pressed her palm over his erection, stroked him through the fabric.
His breath hissed out. Fire blazed in every cell of his body. If he didn't find release soon, he would combust. He reared back, bracing his upper body on his arms. "Yes. Go on."
She held his gaze for a second before her eager fingers worked his belt loose and unfastened his trousers. Her hand enclosed him. The tentative touch sent an explosion of desire racing through his body. He jumped back off the bed and stepped out of his trousers.
She watched him from beneath her lashes, the tip of her tongue playing at the corner of her mouth. Did she do that on purpose to drive him wild? He leaned down and pressed his lips to her belly, breathing in her female fragrance. A moan of desire escaped her, and she flexed beneath him.
He lay over her, catching his weight on his elbows. He curled a lock of golden hair around his finger and stroked it across her lips.
Annika smiled, and a place inside him that had been hollow was suddenly filled with warmth. He might not deserve her, but she was his—had been from the moment he touched her Magic Knot. Nothing but death would change that.
She looped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down. The feverish intensity of her kisses wiped all thought from his mind. Her legs wrapped around him. Entering her slowly, he let instinct take over. He opened himself to her completely, flowed into her mind, tasted the essence of her spirit. A frisson of unbearable pleasure expanded between them, joining them in the ecstasy of mind, body, and spirit.
"Annika, ástin mín." She was his, so perfectly his.
Her breath came in fractured little gasps. She dug her fingernails into his back, clutched him tight, and he never wanted her to let him go. Her pleasure rose, swirling around him, and he sensed her air elemental nature more clearly than ever before. His fire responded, flared in a scorching burst of sensation that seared along his nerves with almost painful intensity. When it was over, he sagged against her, his face pressed into the sweet curve of her neck.
***
Annika curled against Tyr and dozed for a little while, but she was so conscious of the hard muscular length of his body pressed against her that she couldn't settle. She wanted more of him.
Opening her eyes, she watched him sleep. His sooty lashes lay in dark crescents against his lean bronzed cheeks. Her throat tightened with love to see him looking so peaceful, even while her body quivered at the prospect of making love with him again. She slid down the bed and rained tiny kisses across his chest, gradually working her way over the taut muscles of his abdomen and lower.
He woke with a gasp and pushed up on an elbow. "Annika, love…" He blinked at her as she dropped a kiss on his hip. "We need to talk."
"Not more talk." She wrinkled her nose. She was well aware they had issues to discuss, like where she would live and how she'd earn a living, but that could wait until later. She ran a teasing finger over his belly and thighs. Already things were starting to perk up down there. She grinned at him, excitement tingling through her. For the first time in her life she could do what she wanted without her aunt watching her every move. How ironic that Odin's ring had confined her, yet set her free to be with Tyr.
She straddled his thighs and smoothed her palms up his body until she lay on top of him. Then she wiggled her hips and his breath shuddered out. His hands settled at her waist and she rubbed her lips across his, teasing him with the tip of her tongue. Although he kissed her back, she sensed reluctance. A tiny chill took the edge off the heat in her belly.
Breaking the kiss, she rested her head on his shoulder, suddenly uncertain. The first time they'd made love had been wonderful for her, but perhaps she'd overestimated his enthusiasm. She kissed his neck and stroked tiny circles on his chest. Perhaps he was just tired.
"Annika." Tyr rolled over, depositing her on the bed beside him. He propped his head on a hand. "We need to discuss the past and how it affects us."
Goose bumps rushed across her skin, so she pulled the quilt over herself. He must mean about the disagreement between their families. "I'm sorry my grandfather killed your brother, but that doesn't have to be a problem for us, does it?"
Tyr rubbed a hand over his face and wouldn't meet her gaze.
"Tyr, you're scaring me."
"I'm sorry. I don't want you to worry… but you have to know something. You weren't born twenty-six years ago, Annika. You were born twenty years earlier than that."
"What?" She squinted at him in the firelight. "You're not making any sense."
Tyr sighed as if what he was about to say ripped at his soul. He climbed off the bed and pulled on his pants before joining her again. Resting his back against the headboard, he leaned his forearms on his raised knees. "There's no easy way to explain this, so I'm just going to say it. Everything I told you about the past was true, but I left out one important fact. Odin wanted to kill you. I managed to persuade him not to, but he froze you instead."
Annika's gaze riveted to Tyr's face. "I was frozen. Like cryogenics?"
"Yes, sort of."
She heard his words. But it was difficult to digest the facts. "I don't remember anything before I went to kindergarten…" She curled her fingers into the quilt. "How long for?"
"Twenty years. After that time, Vali was powerful enough to threaten Odin if he didn't release you."
"What happened to my mother?"
"We never found her and Odin has never told me what he did with her."
"Didn't my father try to find her?"
"I'm certain he did."
She glanced up at him, and he held her gaze, his golden eyes anguished.
"I'm sorry, Annika." Tyr's grip tightened on her fingers.
She pulled the quilt off the bed, wrapped it around her shoulders, then stood staring at nothing.
"Are you all right, elskan mín?"
"I don't know." Annika shook her head as if she could shake all these details into place. She wandered around the end of the bed and plopped down on the sofa in front of the fire. She was forty six. She'd spent twenty years in limbo.
"Did I grow while I was frozen?"
"No. When my father released you twenty six years ago, you were still like a newborn baby." Tyr crouched beside her. "I did all I could to protect you. I grabbed your Magic Knot when Odin would have crushed it and broken the link between your body, mind, and spirit. That's how we bonded."
So, he hadn't intended to bond himself to her. Their link was an accident.