Page 10

Maude let go of Herrick’s hand, his fingers gripping hers for a second longer before letting go.

She didn’t understand why she had grabbed his hand like that, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Clenching her fists to stop them from reaching out again, Maude walked past him into the hidden passage, her words ringing between them as something other pushed them together into the darkness.

They walked back to the house in silence for a few minutes before Maude spoke again.

“Was I right? About you being nobility? You and Hakon carry yourselves well, though Hakon is much more diplomatic than you.”

“I am diplomatic when the occasion calls for it,” Herrick said defensively.

He had been quiet since Maude had her panicked episode in the kitchen, and he had talked her down.

No one, not even herself, had been able to do that.

Maude supposed she felt she owed him a debt for stopping her spiral, so she taunted him and attempted to pull him from his brooding.

“You jumped into a fighting pit so I would talk to you,” Maude pointed out.

“I had no choice; you are incredibly difficult to get a single word out of.”

“So exchanging punches was the diplomatic response.”

“When dealing with you? Yes,” Herrick said as he chuckled.

The sound ran over Maude’s skin, like a trickle of water running over sensitive flesh. Maude always burned; to have something cool her shell was ecstasy.

“I guess it would not have helped my case when I won, undiplomatic as that would’ve been. ”

The water on her skin turned to steam as Maude stopped walking.

Herrick must’ve felt her pause because he stopped and turned to face her.

Annoyance flared in Maude, and she used the emotion to force her galder to the surface.

She snapped her fingers, and a small fireball appeared in her palm effortlessly.

Feeling generally safe as they were alone, she floated the fireball over their heads so she could see his face.

As she suspected, an undeserved smugness lay there.

“You think you would have won? Is that a joke?” she asked, voice low.

“I know I would have. You were exhausted. If Helvig’s soldiers had not raided that night, the fight would’ve ended in my favor.”

“I’m well rested now, Herrick, if you want to go another round.”

Herrick stepped closer to Maude, the fireball above them casting the planes of his face in dark shadows.

His presence over her was consuming. He was standing so close that she could feel his breath on her cheeks, so she stepped back, trying to keep her head clear.

She backed herself into the wall, and Herrick took the opportunity to step further into her space.

His dark brown hair looked black in the shadows of the firelight, which seemed to deepen around him.

This close, his golden brown eyes were all sin.

“Don’t think I won’t take you up on the challenge, shieldmaiden. I wouldn’t mind going a few more rounds with you,” Herrick leaned to place his hands on either side of her, his dark curls falling forward and further darkening his gaze.

“I’m not a shieldmaiden. There is no honorable warrior beneath this skin.”

Maude tried to say the words with the hardness her life had bred into her, but they came out in a breathy whisper, their proximity affecting her more than she’d like.

Her flames flickered a bit, her concentration slipping as desire pulsed through her. She tried to resist, to fight against this annoying attraction to this man. It’s like she was being pushed toward him against all rational thought, making her want to run in the opposite direction.

“Thank the gods for that. What should I call you then?”

“Nothing. Don’t even think of me,” Maude forced out the words, her voice finally even.

“Impossible,” Herrick breathed.

He leaned in and ran his nose against her hot neck, leaving that cool stream and a trail of goosebumps in its place.

She was radiating fire again, but anger did not ride her at this moment.

Maude pushed her hands onto his chest to force him away but found herself unable to do more than just hold them there.

His heart beating rapidly under her hands mirrored her own unsteady rhythm.

Desperate for air and space, Maude did the only thing she could and moved to shove her knee up into the space between his legs, but he was one step ahead of her. Herrick moved forward and forced his thigh between hers to stop her from attempting to kick him again.

She felt cool seeping into her body from the multiple points of contact between them as Herrick’s muscled thigh pressed against her very center.

It was divine. She needed to get away from him.

Breathing heavily, Maude’s fireball flickered again and almost sputtered out. She was breathing in too much of him; the smell of rain on soil flooding her senses. She needed air.

“Having trouble concentrating, minn eldr ?”

“Don’t call me that. And get off me,” Maude bucked her hips to get him to back up.

At the friction she created between them, a sound came from deep inside Herrick’s chest. A low groan traveled straight through him and deep into Maude’s core.

Herrick suddenly backed up quickly, leaving Maude almost panting against the wall.

With a flick of his fingers, a stream of water lifted from behind him to extinguish her fireball lighting the dark passageway.

Smoke filled the air between them as the absence of his body made Maude flare with heat despite her already burning skin. She still slumped against the wall, attempting to slow her racing pulse. She refused to let him see how he had affected her. She refused to let herself be affected.

It was just physical contact and she hadn’t laid with someone in gods knew how long, she told herself.

Herrick stood a few paces from Maude, but she couldn’t make out his face because of the sudden darkness. Finding her strength again, she pushed off the wall and headed towards the bookcase that would let them into the house, ready to forget this entire encounter.

Just as she reached the end and pressed a hand to the case to push it open, she felt Herrick press in from behind her and whisper in her ear, “One day, we’ll have our rematch. Then we’ll know, minn eldr , who walks away from that fight.”

Maude didn’t turn when she replied, forcing her voice to remain even.

“I look forward to that day.”

Then she pushed the bookcase open, walked through the hidden entrance, and did not turn to look at him once as she went up the stairs, into the bedroom she had woken in, and closed the door.