ENTANGLED (#2 The Valkyries)

Chapter 47 - A Girl Has Standards

My heart leapt. Did I dare trust his words? He'd already proven to be better than my father, as hard as it was for me to wrap my mind around. And I'd already cost us by assuming he'd cheated. If Pazuzu hadn't been able to read his mind, would I have believed Manannan's innocence? A sinking in my gut was my answer and I dropped my eyes. Yeah, I had my own guilt. Especially when I... oh fuck. Heat grew on my cheeks and I shifted foot to foot. Fuck. I was the one who'd happily jumped on Pazuzu's cocks in front of Manannan.

Norns. Why would he even want to be with me now?

"Mist, I don't blame you for thinking what you did. I let you and Loki think that at the time."

"I... I had sex with others, though... more... more recently," I managed, forcing the words of my guilt out.

A rumbled chuckle dragged my gaze up from his chest, back to his face. Amusement quirked his smile off centre and a dark heat blazed from those navy orbs.

"Yes, you did," he murmured, then wrapping an arm around my waist as fingers threaded through my hair at my nape, he slowly drew me tight against his body. "And as much as I was positively an octopus in a mussel bed churning with greedy jealousy, it had me harder than my trident every time I watched Pazuzu bring you to orgasm, every time I heard your cries of pleasure."

An unmistakable ridge pressed against my stomach as his hips finally met my body, drawing my gasp. Heat curled in my abdomen.

"I have never, not in all my years since the time I was a randy youth, stroked my cock with such frantic desperation so frequently. You, my sensual little Valkyrie, have turned me into a voyeur of the worst kind, jerking my cock behind every doorway, bush, and column whenever you played with Pazuzu or Anna or both," he growled, lifting one of my thighs to around his hips and grind against my sex as his words seared through me like an erotic blade. "But my eyes were only ever on you."

Knowing how he'd reacted, that he'd been unable to resist masturbating, fantasizing about what he'd seen when I'd been with Pazuzu... By Yggdrasil's might trunk, I could scarcely draw breath with the tension, the need coiling within me. I loved that I'd driven him to such extremes. "Then perhaps we should rectify this voyeuristic tendency of yours," I purred. Reaching upward, I buried my fingers into his multihued hair and wrapped both my legs around his waist.

"What do you suggest?" His lips hovered close enough for his breath to waft over me, teasing me with the full biteable curves.

"Some up close and personal treatment." I nipped his lower lip, then leaned back again as a moan tried to erupt from me with every flex of his hips between my thighs. "Starting with removing the remains of Lamashtu's demons." As much as I wanted to rip both of our clothes and armour off, the ripe stench was getting stronger and harder to ignore. A girl had to have some standards, after all.

Manannan blinked. Then his head tilted back with a booming laugh. His teeth gleamed in the warm sunlight, contrasting with his rich ebony skin. By the Nine, he was gorgeous. And mine.

"As my lady commands," he said with a wink that was all the warning I got before a swirl of salty water wrapped around us, gliding over the dragonscale armour, burrowing under to stroke my skin in a sensuous caress. With a relentless stream, the water lifted me first from his arms, then drew the weapons and armour from both of us. Like he'd suddenly grown tentacles, the water split into numerous branches and aided him in removing our clothes.

And everywhere the warm liquid stroked, it left heat behind.

Naked with his blatant desire rising proudly, Manannan lifted me in his arms and strode over to the nearby cliff wall, pressing me against the sun-warmed rock.

"Watching you with Pazuzu gave me a few ideas that I'd never considered before," he rumbled as he pinned my hands above me and scraped his teeth over my neck.

"What... what ideas?" A whimper escaped before I could hold it back as fingers pinched and tugged on my nipples.

"I noticed that you get off on a little pain with your pleasure." He bit at my neck as his fingers pinched hard and ground his cock against my sex in a way that had me shuddering. "That you like to be dominated if the male is worthy of your trust." A flood of moisture answered his words and as his hand traveled down to glide over my clit, he growled. "I might not have two cocks, or a tail, but I can improvise to ensure your pleasure."

Before I could ask what he meant, the water tentacles returned.