a question in her eyes. “What just happened to me?”
He gave a soft laugh. “It’s called an orgasm. Didn’t they teach you that at Valkyrie school?”
The blush deepened further. “We are not taught anything about our bodies, and definitely not about sex. Since it will never happen to us, we have no need to know.”
Although the words struck him as strange, Adam couldn’t wait any longer. His injury meant there was no way he could do this conventionally, or gracefully. Using his good arm to lift Maja across his body so she could straddle him, Adam claimed her lips in a kiss and pulled her down onto his steel-hard cock. Even in the grip of a fantasy a brief, bizarre thought about protection flashed through his mind. He dismissed it. This was his imagination; the responsibilities of reality were not going to derail it.
No matter how much pain or danger he was in, his body was demanding more from this woman than he had ever believed it was possible to crave. Maja gave a little cry as he entered her.
“Is this okay?” A condom might be a detail too far, ensuring his partner’s well-being wasn’t. He was still the same person, even in a dream.
“It feels so good. Pleasure and pain at the same time. We were taught this is wrong...” Her voice was hesitant at first, then, biting her lip, she ground her pelvis against his. “But nothing ever felt so right.”
Running his good hand over the luscious curves of her ass, he released a groan of male exultation. Nothing had ever approached the surging, blistering heat of desire that flamed through him. Would he ever be able to cope with reality again after such an incredible dream?
Stop overthinking. Your body is compensating for the trauma it’s been through. Just enjoy it.
His lips found the hard, pointed tip of a nipple again and drew it into his mouth. Maja’s soft, feminine cries filled the air as her hands moved to his head, holding him tightly to her. As he sucked her sweet flesh—tasted her, branded her—he felt his desire spiral out of control.
Above him, Maja writhed with pleasure, moving in time to his rhythm. Encased in the satin confines of her tight muscles, Adam thrust his pelvis up, and she met his movements with perfect timing. They were both poised on a knife edge, ready to tip over. Adam felt his body tighten and wished he could make the feeling last forever. To keep these wild, searing sensations crashing through him, knowing he would never be able to recapture such perfection.
“God, Maja. I’m not going to last long.” The words were a hoarse groan.
Each movement was like a white-hot surge of ecstasy building, tightening his sac and moving like lightning up his spine. Maja gasped, her muscles clenching and unclenching around him as she panted her way through another orgasm. Pure rapture hit him, firing its way along his nerve endings in a series of ever wilder explosions. Never like this. This was the storybook orgasm to complete his perfect fantasy.
Maja lay very still on top of him, and when he had recovered his breath, Adam smoothed a hand down the length of her hair. “I’m sorry. That was over way too soon.” Was he seriously apologizing to the star of his erotic dream?
She lifted her head, a hint of mischief in her smile. “I might not know much about these things, but I don’t know why you are saying sorry. That was very nice.”
He laughed. “Maja, if I wasn’t injured, and if this wasn’t some sort of crazy delusion, I’d show you that we can do a hell of a lot better than nice.”
The smile disappeared and a frown appeared in its place. “This can’t happen again.”
Since this was going on inside his head, surely he should be the one to make those decisions? Adam was too tired to ask the question out loud. Instead, he drew Maja back into the crook of his uninjured arm and closed his eyes. She felt good there. Warm and comforting. Almost immediately, he felt sleep begin to tug the edges of his consciousness. He needed to rest, but he wondered if slumber would drive away this wonderful, wakeful dream. It was a disappointing thought. He doubted if he would ever again conjure up an image as powerful and realistic as Maja.
Warda was eerily quiet as Maja made her way back to the place where she had left her horse, Magtfuld. Most of the buildings were reduced to mere shells after the bombings, although some still smoldered in the predawn light. Several cars were blazing, and she guessed they would soon join the graveyard of abandoned vehicles that littered the side of the road.
Even in this scene of utter devastation, there were signs of life returning to normal. An old man drove a herd of goats down the center of the street, seemingly not noticing the strangely clad woman who passed the other way. A family huddled in what was left of a bullet-riddled house, pulling blankets around themselves as they watched Maja, who hadn’t used her power of invisibility, with listless eyes.
I should do something. Try to help them. Even as thoughts of anonymous rescues that would remain hidden from Odin and Brynhild entered her mind, she dismissed them. You have already done enough to secure your death sentence.
How had this happened? How had she gone from being the ice-cool shield maiden carrying out her mission as Odin’s representative here in the mortal realm, to a quivering mass of raw emotion? Adam Lyon. That was how.
The thought of him almost stopped her in her tracks. Instead of continuing in her determined stride, she wanted to find somewhere to hide away, to curl up tight and examine the whirlwind of feelings that were buffeting her body. The memory of his touch was almost too much to bear. Too intense. Too perfect. Just the thought of him made her internal muscles clench with remembered longing.
No one told me how much I would enjoy breaking the Valkyrie Code!
She had been taught only that sex was forbidden, not that it was pleasurable. Maja choked back a laugh. Pleasurable? Try magical. No one told me how much I would want to do it again...and again. But even in her dazed state, she knew this was not a reaction to the physical act itself. This was about Adam. He had changed her life. Changed her. But now she had to face the consequences.
Indulging in daydreams about her handsome mortal lover wasn’t an option. After the storm of their lovemaking, she had allowed herself the brief indulgence of lying in Adam’s arms and watching him as he slept. But she had done so knowing that she must leave him. It was time to go back to Valhalla and confess both her failure and her crimes. Her failure was bad enough. If the true American Lion had been in Warda during the latest outbreak of fighting, Maja had found no trace of him. But her crimes? They must surely be the worst ever committed by a Valkyrie. The only words they were permitted to exchange with their target must be relevant to the mission. The penalty for a Valkyrie who was found to have spoken unnecessarily with a warrior was imprisonment.
But Maja had done so much more. Not only had she spoken to Adam, she had saved his life. And then, as if driven by some inner madness, she had violated the Code in the worst way imaginable. I lay with him in his bed. I took him into my body. All the things I have been warned against... Yet I cannot find it in me to feel shame. Even though I will admit my transgressions, I will do it with my head held high.
There was no place in Asgard for a Valkyrie who had lost her virginity. On her return, Maja should expect her execution date to be set immediately.
With her usual disregard for convention, she had once asked Brynhild about the reasoning behind the rule about Valkyrie
