Clouds gather over our heads and we’re standing before a highway and it feels like I’m standing before on edge, like I’m on the verge of something new and thrilling. I take a deep breath, whispering,
“Is this tight enough?”
CHAPTER TWO
Iversen
Not nearly tight enough. Her hands are weak and frail, small and so different from mine that I can barely feel them on my shoulders. She’s too scared to touch me, too proper and too brainwashed with laws and rules that she shivers. This is the first time she’s ever riding with a man, first time she’s ever this close to one. She’s trying not to pant, constricting her breath in her little throat while doing her best to play unbothered.
She fails, letting out a loud gasp when I grab her wrists and wrap them around my waist. When she squirms, I feel a flash of anxiety, thinking she’ll try to get down again but to my relief she stays. “Closer,” I rasp and she carefully nudges nearer. “Closer,” I insist and my eyes flutter when she pushes forward, her legs resting against mine, her chest brushing against my back and this is bliss times ten.
I want to save this moment, carve it into every part of me with a dagger to make sure it’s never lost.
A muscle ticks in my jaw because I didn’t foresee how difficult this would be. Taking the little mob princess for a drive seemed easy in theory but in practice...it’s a different story. I didn’t count on how warm she’d be or her intoxicating labdanum and geranium scent.
Valkyrie keeps her mouth shut, her face determined and she refuses to let it rest on my back. Hopefully she’ll be forced to eventually. The drive is long and she’ll get tired and then I’ll be the only thing she can lean on.
I’m eager to ask her things, make her talk to me but I don’t want to push my luck. I’m finally close enough and I wonder how the hell I got so lucky. Her breaths calm me down and the beat of her heart against my back riles me up. I feel like I’m both finally at peace and like I’m about to detonate. She’s not moving her hands though, keeping them where I put them as if she’s turned into stone. I’m going to have to coax her, teach her how to melt into me and then she’ll be melting all over. Even into places where nobody else before has been. Places like my heart.
Lifting my face, I curse when I see the coal colored clouds crawl over the sky. Fuck, now I need to hurry up because I don’t want Valkyrie to get caught in the rain and end up with pneumonia. She’s my responsibility now and if I deliver her home with a cold, her father will kill me. Not that I wouldn’t deserve it.
I pride myself on my ability to protect and provide and I want to prove to him that no one can protect his daughter better than me. I’m not out for the position as the underboss. I’m out for Valkyrie. For all I care, she and I could leave the mob as long as I get to be with her but then I’d probably be slaughtered and Valkyrie would get dragged back to the compound.
That fucking compound...it’s the bane of my existence. Tons of males prowling around and to make things worse, I don’t even live there. I’m just a soldier. A replaceable weapon, nobody gives two fucks about but I’ll prove my worth. I’ll do everything it takes to win Valkyrie over and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.
Hell...to be truthful, they’re already dirty. There’s blood on them.
Blood I spilled for my delicate flower so that nobody but me would dare play with her petals.
I drive as fast as I can but I can’t drive as fast as I would have if I’d been alone. There’s precious cargo in the back and the road’s getting slippery. I let out another silent curse when it starts pouring down and silent lightning strikes down at the end of the highway. It feels like someone just squeezed a hand around my heart when Valkyrie starts shaking.
Dammit.
“I’m f...freezing,” she stutters and her teeth chatter, “drive faster, please...”
I can’t go any faster. It could put her life in danger and I frown. I know there’s a shed not too far from here. We’d have to take a backroad but it’ll be worth it and I take a turn. Valkyrie lets me know she’s surprised by weakly squeezing my waist but she doesn’t say anything. I wonder whether she’s worried, whether she thinks I’m about to kidnap her and my lips curl. If I’d wanted to kidnap her, I could’ve done it long ago.
I’ve been watching her for a long time and I know she sneaks away every once in a while to visit her mother’s grave. She pretends to be going for a walk in the park at the back of the compound and then she crawls through a hole she’s made in the fence and covers it up with leaves. It’s the only way for her to be alone and unguarded.
When I stop outside the rundown shed, Valkyrie squirms, vaguely protesting but I silence her little protests.
“You’ll be inside and I’ll lookout,” I say and her eyes flood with relief. They’re a pearly blue, almost silver and I don’t know how many times I’ve fantasized about those eyes looking up at me and turning pleading while I thrust into her. I hold out my hand. “May I?”
She nods, putting her hand in mine and I help her down before leading her to the shed. I make sure there’s nothing in there that could cause her any harm and that it’s dry and warm enough. Without waiting for permission, I take off my fur and wrap it around Valkyrie. She flinches at the audacity, her eyes flaring before going lower to my chest and she flushes and looks away.
Without a word, I step outside and cross my arms and then I stand there in the lashing rain but I can barely feel it on my skin. I’m covered in goosebumps from the excitement and protecting her gives me a raging erection, I can barely keep under control. Clenching my jaw, I listen for clues to what Valkyrie’s doing. I can barely hear her in there but then again, I can barely ever hear her. She’s as light as a butterfly. One second she’s there and the next one she isn’t which is why I barely ever blink when she’s around.
I don’t want to miss out on her in the same way that people don’t want to miss out on any important events. That’s what she is to me.Important. Madly and brutally important. The first time I saw her, she had already turned eighteen. I had business with her father and she stepped into the office. She didn’t look at me because she’s not allowed to look men in the eye, especially ones below her rank but she didn’t have to. The moment she stepped into that office I felt my body shoot up with longing, fire and ice and need. She was a drug. Shestillis a drug. And when she walked out again, all I could think of was how to get another dose of her. I crave her the way a man craves the sunrise, the one thing that saves him from the dark and stops him from walking in perpetual obscurity.
Before Valkyrie that’s where I was. In an obscure space with no true light at the end.
But Valkyrie...she shines. The whole world could be on fire and to me, she’d still be the one burning the strongest. My pale candlelight, my bright little torch in the depths of a pit.
“Excuse me...?”
I tense when I hear her voice and my head swats around so fast, I almost get a whiplash. She clears her throat.
“You must be cold. I give you permission to e...enter.”