He was pleased she had started to open up to him. That his mother’s advice was working.
It hadn’t always been this way. There was a time when his mother never would have needed to tell him those things. Back when he and Katla were first together. Back when he spent time loving a woman rather than spilling his seed then sending her on her way. Because that was all he had done since his wife and son left. Simple sex. No love. It was easy, felt good and remained painless in his memory.
Now he wanted more.
More than what he had with Katla.
He wanted his mate.
His dragon.
“Come, Samantha,” he murmured into her mind. “Let me show you.”
She stood, her wide eyes trained on the water. It didn’t take long for her dragon to see him. But he didn’t surface. He didn’t make it that easy. “Come.”
“I’ll freeze to death. So will you,” she said into his mind. “Please come out.”
“We are dragons of the night,” he murmured. “Join me in the water and discover what that means. Especially during a storm. You will like it.”
“Or I’ll die a slow death as my limbs freeze up, and I sink to the bottom of the ocean,” she quipped.
“I would never let that happen.”
“Because you’d be sinking right alongside me.”
“I could think of worse ways to die.”
He sensed her frustration mix with curiosity. “If my body goes into hypothermia, will my dragon come out again?”
“Not if you don’t wish it to.”
“I didn’t wish it to the first time,” she said dryly.
“Now that you have shifted once, it will become easier to control,” he assured. “I will show you. Until then, come be with me, Samantha. I do not like to swim alone.”
“I find that hard to believe, mountain man.”
Amused, Bjorn waited beneath the surface and went silent. Though some might say that was cruel considering all she had recently been through, he knew it was the only way to get her in.
“Bjorn?” she said into his mind, searching the water.
What she didn’t realize was that night dragons could cloak themselves better than most. They could simply vanish. Even to other dragons.
“Bjorn, where did you go?” She kept searching, growing more and more panicked. “Bjorn?...seriously...” Her eyes kept scanning the water. “If you don’t answer me, so help me…”
When he didn’t answer she flat out cursed then ripped off her shirt, muttering, “Damn, man. You’re gonna show me?” She yanked off her pants. “I’ll show you, and it’s not gonna be pretty.”
Two thoughts flickered through her mind. One of her saving him. That was noble. Selfless. He liked it. However, it was the second one she must have been referring to with such avid promise. He cringed as she imagined driving her knee into his groin. Hard.
So the minute she dove into the water and started searching for him, he pulled her back against his front and surfaced. In this position, her knee was going nowhere near his cock.
“Damn it all, Bjorn!” She struggled at first as she tried to gain her bearings. “One second I think you’re turning out to be a pretty amazing guy, the next, you’ve got me pissed off all over again!”
“All you had to do was follow me.” He smiled as he drifted inland with her still in his arms. “Now that you have all will be well.”
“Well, my ass,” she sputtered, working to keep water out of her mouth.
“Just relax, I’ve got you,” he murmured into her mind. “When I can touch the bottom, we will stop, and I will show you something.”
Lightning zig-zagged across the sky, and thunder roared.
“Yeah, if we don’t get electrocuted first,” she huffed, at last allowing him to take control.
“Do you see red in your vision, Samantha?” he asked.
“Yeah, a little bit,” she replied. “Why?”
“Because as you know, that means your dragon is surfacing.” He could touch the bottom but decided against telling her quite yet. “It has not surfaced all the way but enough so to enable you to see and feel what I wanted to show you.”
She was about to speak but trailed off when she finally saw and felt what he intended. The water. Air. Sky. Her own body.
“This is what it is to be a dragon of the night,” he murmured next to her ear. “Everything is different, is it not?”
Samantha completely relaxed and drifted in his arms as she took in everything. The cold sea was soothing to her dragon. It felt more like bathwater. The sky and ocean were ablaze with lightning residue. Sparkles of energy that swirled on the wind and churned in the waves.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered in wonder. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because you would not have believed me.”
She frowned over her shoulder. “Then why didn’t you just show me within the mind?”
“Because I wanted you to feel it firsthand.”
In fact, he wanted her to feel everything firsthand. What their dragons were capable of experiencing at night with the power of an ocean and storm surrounding them. So he braced his feet on the bottom, spun her, grabbed the back of her legs and pulled her close, forcing her to wrap her legs and arms around him.
Samantha released a little yelp but quieted when her body came against his. Lust had already flared brightly when he brought her against him earlier but this…well, this might truly test his willpower. His ability to set aside desire and show her everything she was capable of feeling.
Their eyes held as he walked backward a few paces and found a firmer stance against the waves. They weren’t overly large but enough to affect someone’s balance if they weren’t careful. Especially if their senses were impaired by the feel and beauty of a woman like Samantha.
“What was it exactly you wanted me to feel firsthand?” she murmured. Her eyelids drifted down as she shifted her pelvis and pushed her heated core tighter against him.
“Keep your legs around me but release your arms.” He turned so that she was closer to the shore and he broke the swells. “Then lay back and feel everything around you.”
The corner of her mouth shot up. “Are you serious?”
“Very.” Hel, he wanted to kiss her. “Just do it, Samantha.”
Her half grin turned into a smirk, and she pressed her center tighter against him. “Are you really gonna be able to handle seeing me all sprawled out in front of you?”
He knew she was aroused. He was too. Regardless. “Please, Samantha.”
She eyed him for a long moment before she relented. “Sure, okay, if it’ll make you happy.” Then she winked. “Happier than you are already, that is.”
He knew why her mood had shifted so swiftly. Why she went from mad to awed to aroused to silly. It was her dragon adjusting to its surroundings. To sensory overload. And it was only going to get more intense.
Bjorn gripped her hips firmly as she sank back and spread her arms. Though at first, she moved her hands under the water to keep herself up, she soon stopped when she knew he had her.
At first, her attention was snagged by the sky, and she simply stared.
Then she started feeling.
Seeing.
Hearing.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
He saw within her mind’s eye. The world had transformed entirely. Colors shifted and blended. Night wasn’t night but something else entirely. Not only did the electrical storm swirl around them, but sound itself. It crashed off of the clouds and water, the sky and ocean. Booming shades of deep reds, blues, and purples. Raindrops glittered white and silver, coating the ocean until it appeared one big mirror. Even underwater sounded different. Its wildlife had unique voices and vibrations. Its varying sounds created a harmonious balance.
An incomparable, soul-encompassing song that only dragons could hear.
Caught in the thralls of what she felt, Bjorn’s eyes drifted over Samantha. Her beauty always s
truck him but not like it did now. Her hair fanned around her face and twirled on the ivory ocean like flames on white silk. Her chest remained just above water, her full breasts glimmering wet and her nipples erect. He might have done this to show her something but quickly realized how much he underestimated the affect she would have on him.
Knowing full well what she was doing, Samantha’s eyes drifted to his. Their gazes held and they simply took one another in. They reveled in the profound moment, the anticipation of feeling far more.
When the first move came, it was hers. She rolled forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders again. Their eyes held as the splendor of nature became a faded backdrop to what they found in each other. Rain poured, the storm raged, waves rolled, but he held her steady.
“Bjorn,” she whispered, desperate.
That’s all it took. One word. His name. And he had to have her again. Feel her lips. But before he had a chance to act on it, she kissed him. It wasn’t like their other kisses but more intense, seeking, eager in a whole new way.
Their emotions twisted and turned within one another’s mind as their tongues tangled and sought and relished. There could be no doubt she was his woman. Mate. Dragon. Eager to sink into her heated depth, he walked toward shore enough that he could brace her against a dock post. No splinters would hurt her. His magic wouldn’t allow it.
Clenching her backside with one hand, and the edge of the dock with the other, his lips never left hers as he positioned himself then thrust. She released a strangled moan, and her head fell back against the post.
Fueled by the picture she presented, her wild beauty against raw wood and turbulent sea, he drove deeper and deeper, further and further until he was fully seated. Until she cried out and arched.
He loved the feel of her passion, her explosions.
They were mesmerizing.
Loud. Alive. Full-bodied.
His.
He waited as she tightened around him, as she milked his cock beyond reason. Nearly beyond sanity. To the point he almost didn’t need to move to find his own release. Yet he fought it, desperate to stay inside her. Determined. Because there was nowhere else he’d rather be. Not here. Across time. Not anywhere.
All that existed, all that mattered, was Samantha.
When he knew she was ready again, he thrust. Fast, passionate, he moved in rhythm to the ocean and weather and power around them. He joined the violence and beauty of nature and showed her again how wondrous being what she was could be. How much more she could feel now that she had embraced her dragon.
And she did.
Loudly and without shame.
Because if there was one thing Samantha was not, it was a quiet lover.
Panting, groaning, grunting and moaning, she didn’t hold back. If she felt it, she voiced it. Even the thunder, waves, and rain couldn’t compete. She was a force to be reckoned with. A free spirit.
And he loved her for it.
Samantha was everything he wasn’t. Alive in a way he hadn’t been for a long time. Alive in a way he had thought he never could be again. But now, as she reveled in the feel of him inside her, he realized she was taking him somewhere new entirely.
Bjorn might have shown her this. Life at night. A whole new reality. But it was nothing compared to what he sensed she would show him now. What she had already started to show him when they lay together before. How very different it was to lay with a fellow dragon. How powerful they could be together.
Incomparable.
Passionate.
Ravaging.
Their eyes held as he drove them closer, as he made them feel.
He felt the bite of her nails on his back.
She felt the relentless thrust of his heat deep inside.
When she reached her peak again and screamed, he let go, thrust one last time and roared as loud as the thunder.
After that, he felt the softness of her skin as she trembled against him.
And she felt the brush of his lips on her temple as he spent himself inside her.
Then it almost seemed like Valhalla itself blared its great horn in approval. Or at least at first. If it wasn’t so shrill…and calling Samantha’s name.
“Samantha!” came not from the great beyond but from someone he surmised was a whole lot less impressive based on what he had already seen of her. “Where are you, Sister?”
“Shoot, it’s Lauren,” Samantha groaned and wrapped her arms around him more securely. “We need to go in.”
Bjorn nodded, made sure he had a good hold on her and started toward shore.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she argued, but wrapped her legs tighter and chuckled. “Yet doing it like you are, still inside me, I dunno, feels...” she pressed closer. “Damn good. Maybe you should keep carrying—”
That’s all she got out before he stopped, braced himself, and kissed the chatter right out of her. By the time he was done, they were both fully aroused again. All the while Lauren called for her. And it was that, her sister’s voice growing more concerned, that finally broke the kiss.
“Hell,” Samantha muttered. “That girl seriously needs to loosen up.” When she reluctantly pulled away, both made a sound of denial.
Bjorn grabbed her hand and kept her close. She might have embraced her dragon and was stronger than ever, but he wasn’t taking any chances. This area was unfamiliar. Its tides different. Its ocean salted strangely, its density changed in over a thousand years. He hadn’t found a chance at a new beginning only to lose her to an unfamiliar—and in any century—sometimes fickle sea.
When they reached the shore, Samantha turned and looked down the dock at their pile of clothes. “Any chance you can magically get those on us?”
Bjorn decided to answer her with action rather than words and pulled her into his arms. Though she was already capable of doing it herself, he liked doing this for her. Holding and warming her, drying then dressing her. Much like the act of sex, it gave her a sense of comfort and fulfillment. It made her feel closer to him. And if one thing was certain, there was nothing he would not do at this point to make her feel that way.
He wanted her to stay with him.
Be with him.
Always.
Yet he knew there were things she still kept from him. Things that hurt her heart beyond reason. A child lost to her before she had a chance to be born. Though he tried to steer clear of her thoughts earlier because he knew she wasn’t ready to share, it was becoming more and more difficult. Hopefully, soon enough it wouldn’t matter. She would open up to him. Let him in. Because he wanted to soothe her. Be there for her.
“Think of a cover story about where you’ve been all this time,” Bjorn murmured. “Because I get the feeling your sister is going to want answers.”
“A cover story?” There was a smile in her voice as she teased, “That sounds so twenty-first century of you, Bjorn.”
“Well, I was raised around twenty-first century women,” he reminded before he scooped her up and ran for the deck before they got soaked again.
Samantha laughed, the sound so heartfelt and genuine, it took yet another weight off his shoulders he hadn’t known was there. Laughter wasn’t something he heard much. Not by any fault of his kin. Not at all. But because he had done his best to avoid it. Them.
Everyone.
While he spent plenty of time with his cousins training for battle and helping with everything that went into maintaining a successful community, he avoided celebrations. He socialized with his family in the mornings and afternoons and kept a good comradery with their people. But when it came time to laughter and dancing, he became scarce. If women wanted him, they knew where to find him and vice versa. His life had been simple.
Until now.
Until he walked into Samantha’s home and the merriment inside.
Bjorn paused in the doorway with Samantha still in his arms. Loki’s Hel. Forget a cover story about where they’d been. He wished they had one to get out of here as fa
st as possible.
A fire crackled, candles burned, and music played. Not the intense beat of the Bodhran drums and the haunting melody of flutes but something altogether different.
“Woo hoo, Jimmy Buffet time!” Samantha cried and whacked at his chest. “Let me down!”
Moments after her feet hit the floor, she met Mema Angie halfway across the room, linked arms, spun and laughed. Bjorn crossed his arms over his chest and frowned as his mother handed Samantha a drink, linked arms, and started dancing as well.
His mother shouldn’t be doing that. She was clearly too weak.
“She’s been handling her treatment well. A little dancing is good for her,” Sean said, evidently sensing his discontent. Bjorn eyed Sean’s extended hand as he went on. “We weren’t properly introduced before. I’m Sean, and I love your mother. She’s always been a close friend. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to see her happy…to see her comfortable through this.”
Bjorn said nothing. He certainly did not take Sean’s hand. He didn’t trust anyone here outside of Samantha and his kin. Therefore, he disregarded Sean and eyed the room.
Svala was sitting on a high bench in a room with lots of silver contraptions, glaring at Sean as if she wanted to run a knife across his throat.
“That’s a kitchen and Svala’s sitting on a counter,” Samantha sang into his mind. “And those silver contraptions? They’re stainless steel appliances. Between them all, they’ll wash your dishes, cook your food, blend your drinks, brew your coffee and chill whatever you want.”
Before he could respond, she laughed and said, “Jeez, although you said they influenced you, didn’t your twenty-first century relatives teach you anything?” Again before he could say a word, she added. “And stop being so moody. Shake Sean’s hand. It’s the least you can do. He’s been damn good to your mom.”
Had she said that to him a week ago, he would have ignored her. He would have thought her meddlesome and assumptive. While both might still apply on some level, he now found it more endearing than annoying. So Bjorn held out his hand to Sean without looking at him and grunted, “Thank you for caring for my mother.”
“Bjorn,” Samantha warned though she twirled in happy circles with his mother.
Vengeance of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 2) Page 19
