Page 45 of Thorulf

Chapter Seventeen

THERE WAS ABSOLUTELYno helping the scent of her arousal when they made it to a cozy cave Thorulf obviously housed in when not in dragon form. Wall torches flanked a large fur-covered bed in the corner. A trickling stream fed by a small waterfall cut along the opposite side of the chamber until it vanished outside. A fire crackled in a gothic-looking hole carved in the wall, and long, dark gossamer fabric covered the walls, blowing in an unseen wind.

“I asked you to hang them,” she managed softly, determined to say something,anything, when confronted with another one of their memories.

One far different than those they had witnessed so far.

“I know,” he said just as softly. His eyes were glued to what unfolded on the bed, and she couldn’t blame him. How could either of them look elsewhere when they were watching their younger selves be intimate? This time they were in human form. He had just cupped her cheeks and kissed her. Had just told her how much he loved her.

“It...I...” She shook her head, not understanding the sensations coursing through her other self as younger Thorulf laid her back then slowly, inch by inch, undressed her. “I’m getting ready to...”

She couldn’t say it because, yet again, it made no sense.

“Me too.” Thorulf slipped his hand into hers, pulled her against his side, and kept his blade at the ready. He clearly didn’t trust his eyes but felt what his other self felt as readily as she did. “This was not where I lay with a woman for the first time. You were not...her.”

Yet somehow, she was her, and he was him because they were getting ready to lose their virginity to each other. She knew it like she knew she hated small-town jail cells. Moments later, true to form when it came to these memories, she followed her other self’s thoughts. Remembered the moment.

Andwhata memory.

“I was so nervous,” she whispered. Not to mention incredibly aroused. Far more turned on than she’d been with the guy she thought she slept with. No big surprise there. Thorulf was as hot with his clothes off as he was with them on. Though slightly broader in the shoulders now with more facial hair, his muscles were still intact.

“I was nervous too,” he admitted. His gaze rarely left her other form. “Afraid I would hurt you.”

God, what a strange thing to suddenly remember something like this with a man she’d thought was a perfect stranger days before. To feel the deep, intimate connection. His heat against her soft curves. The sweet anticipation of finally doing something they had wanted to do for far too long.

“Why did we wait?” she murmured, so turned on she could barely think straight. He had been so damn loving, kissing and touching her. Building her pleasure when most virginal guys were clueless. The one she’d thought she had slept with first certainly was. “Why did we put this off for so long?”

“Because we wanted to take our time,” he realized, remembering moments before her. “Make it special.”

“Because we figured we had our whole lives ahead of us,” she managed, emotional. How thehellhad she forgotten this? Forgottenhim? Because this, how he'd made her feel, should have been unforgettable.

Thorulf clenched her hand a little, giving away just how pent-up this was making him. So said the thick ridge straining against his pants. A ridge she now saw in all its glory on his younger self. Naturally, the sight of it only added to her own arousal. All of it did. From how sexy they looked together to how intensely they made one another feel.

One thing was certain. She had never felt this with other men.

He consumed her thoughts in a way no one else had. She was aware of him and only him, not just mentally but clearly the whole nine yards. From the way he stroked and touched her to the way he looked at her.