Page 4 of Thorulf
Or so it would appear.
Two things had begun happening since Maya left several days ago. First, Jade’s growing certainty that Thorulf was a dick. And she wasn’t talking about his goods but the man himself. The second, and far more interesting, were the otherworldly visitations she’d been getting every time she tuned into a Norse Marvel movie.
The only way to explain it was she astral projected thanks to godly intervention. She could be in two places at once. Sitting here, quietly enjoying a movie with her aunt while being outside. Standing on the deck like she was now, even as her other self sat inside, going through the motions.
“Yet you know it is not safe, troublemaker,” came a deep rumble.
“You enjoy calling me that, don’t you?” She grinned at the tall, muscular, hot-as-hell blonde Norseman, who suddenly leaned against the railing next to her. Hollywood had done good depicting Thor but not this good. Not nearly. Which said something.
“Are you not a troublemaker then?” His smile was infectious, the way he looked at her flattering. Yet, it wasn’tquitelike a man checking out a woman. Nevertheless, flirting was her second language, especially with guys who looked like him.
“Not so much a troublemaker as an opportunist who can show someone a good time if they’d just let me.” While that could easily refer to living life to its fullest, she was just fine if Thor took it another way.
While meeting him for the first time mere days ago was outstanding, beyond exciting and wild, she got the overwhelming sense she’d met him before. That they may have crossed paths many times. Maybe in dreams or another life, she couldn’t tell. All she knew was he was a kindred spirit. That for all the flutter of her heart initially, it was short-lived. He was...comfortable. Kind and good to her existence where Thorulf was the opposite.
“How do you feel, Jade?” Thor murmured, his tone and gentle demeanor at odds with the weather he inflicted. Rain poured all around them but didn’t touch them. Lightning zigzagged from the hammer strapped to his back all the way to the blackened clouds overhead. “How do you feel since you slept this last time?”
He asked her that every time they met as if he expected her answer to be different each encounter.Almostas if he expected her to remember something.
“I feel angry,” she replied honestly, meeting his eyes, sucked into the storm within. “Very, very angry and betrayed.”
“By whom?”
“You know by who,” she managed, her words more a whisper than anything because her grief was that deep. Her anger that thorough. Her hope that Thor would stand by her side when she had to confront her enemy was stronger than expected. “Thorulf Sigdir.”
“Why, though?” Thor peered at her with humor and curiosity. “Why so much rage toward a dragon you’ve never met?”
“You tell me.” She narrowed her eyes, convinced he had all the answers. “He’s one of your people. A Viking. So you tell me, god, why do I feel like this? What happened? What did he do? What did he...” She trailed off as she stared into his eyes and saw Thorulf reflected within his godly gaze. Saw how in some life he’d turned from her. How that purple dragon had become everything. “He chose her over me. Wanted her more than me.” She peered deeper, saw more. “To spite me...to teach me a lesson.”
“What lesson?” she whispered before Thor could respond. She was stunned, hurt, feeling too many emotions to count, and not one made sense. “Why would he do such a thing?”
That question was just the tip of the iceberg. How did it all connect? What was she missing?
“Tell me, Thor,” she urged, growing not just impatient but uncharacteristically panicked. “Pleasetell me.” When he merely stared at the ash tree in back of the chalet rather than respond, she asked again, growing more and more agitated. “Tell me.Pleasetell me!”
“Jade, dear,” Aunt Elsie said, her voice splintering the moment. “Jade, wake up, sweetheart.”
She blinked and opened her eyes only to find she’d fallen asleep on the couch. Or Thor had somehow returned her to her body. The movie was nearly over, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
Aunt Elsie looked at her with concern. “Are you all right?”
No, not nearly, but her aunt didn’t need to know that.
“I’m fine.” She sat up and downed the rest of her warm beer in four long gulps. “I just need...”
Needwhat? To understandwhat? But somehow, she knew. She needed to understand what had happened in that cave from her youth. What happened in New Hampshire when she came across a little black dragon who was making her life a mess now. How could he be there and over a thousand years back in time all at once? What made that cave so special? And why had she forgotten it until recently?
Though tempted to head that way and poke around to see if something triggered more memories, she knew the best way to figure out what was going on was to stay put. To stay out of trouble, gain the trust of her aunt and sisters, so nobody would think twice about her traveling back in time when the moment came.
That in mind, she headed for the refrigerator, counting down the minutes until Thorulf arrived. Because hewouldarrive and soon. She knew it like she knew her way around a man’s body. And when he did, she intended to keep playing nice. To act like the good little dragon everyone thought she was now that Maya’s fluctuating vibration had stabilized.
It should be easy enough to maintain the charade. She’d seen Thorulf through Maya’s mind, so she knew what he looked like. What to expect when he showed up. Unlike how she suspected most females behaved around him, she wouldn’t be a simpering mess. She wouldn’t drown in his liquid dark chocolate brown eyes or be tempted to dig her hands into his thick jet-black hair. His substantial height and broad-shouldered, tattooed build wouldn’t make her want to rip his clothes off. His rugged masculine drool-worthy features wouldn’t make her swoon like an idiot.
No, she would remain unaffected, well aware of the demon beneath the handsome façade.
Pretty much anyone who knew her would call bullshit on her thought process, knowing how much she adored the opposite sex, especially male dragons, but they would be wrong. She’d never been so determined. But then, she had never felt so hurt. And whether he explained it away or not, the feeling was bone-deep.Souldeep.
This wasn’t something Thorulf could talk himself out of.