“What happened? How did you get out?” Dimitri asked in a voice thick with suppressed emotion.
Rune’s hand dropped to her flat stomach. A slight, sad smile curved her lips and a single tear coursed down her pale cheek. Her eyes clouded and Dimitri could swear he saw the reflection of flames burning within their brown depths.
“He stabbed me with the knife as he fell,” she murmured. “I knew my time was up but I didn’t want to leave. It was the first time in centuries that I felt like I had found a home.” A sweet smile curved her lips as she remembered her last moments. “I stumbled out to the garden. Mother Magdalene held me. I had never been held before as I died,” she murmured in a distracted voice. “I remember looking up at the stars. They were very bright that night. I could see them through the smoke and the glow of the fire,” she whispered lost in her memories. “I wouldn’t leave. I promised her I would watch over and protect the children and I kept my promise.” Silent tears slid slowly down her cheeks as she looked up at Dimitri. “I kept my promise until… until…”
“Until?” Sergei said turning her slightly in his arms so he could see her face. “Until what, Rune?”
“Until they said I wasn’t needed any longer,” she sniffed. “Until you bought me and took me away from my garden and the children I swore I would watch over and protect.” Her voice broke on the last word and she buried her face in Sergei’s chest and cried for the second time in over a century.
*.*.*
“She is telling us the truth,” Dimitri said, standing with his back to the room as he looked down over the city. He turned when Sergei didn’t reply. “I mean it, Sergei,” he said harshly. “She is telling us the truth.”
“I know,” Sergei said as he sat on the couch with his head back so that he was staring up at the ceiling. “What does it mean?”
“It means I’m here to help you,” a soft voice said from the doorway leading from one of the bedrooms. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to help you with yet.”
Sergei rose from the couch as Dimitri walked across the room. Dimitri pulled Rune into his arms and buried his face in her neck. A shudder ran down his body as she timidly wrapped her arms around his waist and held him back.
“You are beautiful, Rune,” Dimitri said thickly as he pulled back and caressed her cheek.
“Thank you,” Rune said with a shy laugh. “This… this is all new to me. I’ve never told anyone about me before.”
“Why not?” Sergei asked as he grabbed one of her hands and led her toward the couch. “Tell us about yourself. How did this happen to you?”
Rune bit her lower lip, unsure what the rules were. She had never had any instructions. She just sort of knew what she should and shouldn’t say. Now, she was at a loss of what or how much she should tell them.
She looked around the elegant room before glancing out the windows. In the distance she could see the lights of a huge flying bird as it flew over the colorful city. How could what she had to say be any more amazing than what she was looking at.
“I was born Runa Bogadottir in the year 814,” she said shyly. “It has been so long since I’ve called myself that it sounds strange.”
“Why did you change it?” Dimitri asked brushing her hair back over her shoulder. “It is a beautiful name.”
Rune’s eyes grew sad as she looked back out the window. “The world is a strange and dangerous place. The third time I came back it was in 1120. I was in southern England. Not a good time to have a Viking name.”
“Why did you choose August as a last name?” Sergei asked curiously.
“It was the month in which I died the first time,” she replied with a shrug.”
For the next several hours, Rune told them the many different things that had happened to her. She laughed when they asked her questions about what life had been like and expressed amazement that she had survived at all. They grew somber when she told them about how she had died each time though she never mentioned how she died the first and second time. Those times, especially the first, were still too painful for her to share. She assured them that she was not in pain for long, for her death was never drawn out.
“I think it is more of a way to transition away when my assignment has been completed. I don’t really know what else to call them,” she explained. “I can sense when my time has ended.”
“How?” Dimitri demanded.
“Where do you go? Do you ever know where you will go or for how long you will be there?” Sergei asked at the same time.
Rune broke a small piece off the roll that came with the dinner they had ordered. She rolled it between her fingers before dropping it back onto her plate. She was full from the wonderful meal they’d had of lobster, fresh steamed vegetables and rice pilaf. She thought of their questions, trying to think of how to answer them.
“I just know,” she finally said with a small shrug. “I don’t know where I go or when I will awake. The place I go to is similar to here but different. It is more colorful, vivid… peaceful. Time has no meaning to me. I don’t see the things that happen here. It is always a bit of a shock when I come back, especially this time as so much has changed.”
“Do you know how long you will be here this time?” Dimitri asked quietly.
Rune smiled sadly at him before looking up at Sergei who had frozen at the question. She couldn’t lie to them. She knew they had said she belonged to them and maybe, for just a very, very short time, she could. It would be nice to be held, to be wanted for who she really was for the time she had left.
“I think I only have a few weeks at most,” she finally replied.
“A few… When will you return?” Sergei asked in a hoarse voice. “Are you sure?”
Rune looked down at her hands that she had folded in her lap and nodded. “This time is different from any of the others,” she said into the silence that had fallen at her words. “I’m pretty sure after this I won’t be coming back ever again,” she added.
Chapter 14
Rune stood inside the door to her bedroom and bit her lip. Her hand hovered over the doorknob. She had excused herself and left after the silence stretched out into minutes. She had hurried out of the room, closing herself in her bedroom. She took a long hot shower and prepared for bed as turmoil churned in her stomach. She had needed to escape the frozen silence that had followed her last statement.
She could hear the men quietly talking in the other room as she leaned her head against the door. She bit her lip again and gathered her courage. She didn’t want to be alone any more. She wanted to be held. She wanted to be loved.
For once in her many lives, she wanted to know what it was like to be a woman. What Sergei had shown her on the metal bird had awoken something inside her. She felt hot and achy. She wanted more and if it meant asking, she wasn’t above that. She fingered the beautiful sheer white robe that covered the silk and lace gown underneath it.
“You can do this,” she whispered to herself. “You want this. They have said they want me. They won’t turn me away.”
Not giving herself a chance to talk herself out of it, she gripped the doorknob, pulled it open and stepped out. She drew in a deep breath when the room suddenly fell silent. This time the silence didn’t feel frozen. If anything, she swore that someone had turned on the heater to full blast.
“I want you,” she said in a trembling voice, raising her head proudly as she looked at them. “I want you both.”
*.*.*
Sergei clenched his fist against the window as he stared down at the city with unseeing eyes. He hurt. When Rune had said she only had a few weeks at most to… an explosive curse ripped from his lips and it took every ounce of self-discipline not to try to put his fist through the glass.
“We won’t let it happen,” Dimitri said from behind him in a voice that would have sent shivers of fear down lesser men. “We will keep her safe. She said she was killed protecting others. I will double the number of bodyguards. We will keep her safe until she
feels the time has passed when she might be taken again.”
Sergei turned and looked at Dimitri with tortured eyes. “I can’t lose her, Dimitri,” he admitted brokenly. “Why? Just the thought of what she has gone through over and over. How could any God curse someone as innocent as Rune to such an existence?”
Dimitri walked over to Sergei and placed his hand on his shoulder. They had both done their own share of cursing at God when they were younger. Their bellies had been ravaged by hunger and their bodies so cold they were surprised that they hadn’t frozen to death.
“I am the wrong person to ask that question of, Sergei,” Dimitri reminded him quietly. “My relationship with him has never been on the best of terms even when I did try to believe. What we have to do is make sure we do everything we can to protect her.”
Sergei nodded. “One of us must stay with her at all times,” he said. “I won’t leave her care or protection to another.”
Dimitri chuckled. “I am in full agreement. I…” he glanced over his shoulder when the door leading into the bedroom Rune had chosen opened.
Sergei drew in a deep breath. His eyes glittered with emotion as he stared at the slender figure posed in the doorway. She looked terrified but determined. It took a moment for his mind to catch up with what she was saying. When it did, the breath he had drawn exploded out of him. Fierce need and desire washed through him as her words washed over him.
“I want you,” she said in a trembling voice, raising her head proudly as she looked at them. “I want you both.”
“Rune,” Dimitri said, thickly.
She raised her hand but quickly hid it in the long skirt of the sheer robe when she saw how much it trembled. She licked her lips and turned her pleading eyes on Sergei. Taking a tentative step forward, she determinedly held her hands out in front of her.
“Please,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be alone anymore. What you did with me on the metal bird… I’ve never felt anything like that before. You said you wanted me. You both said I was yours,” she said looking at Dimitri with a pleading look. “Please don’t turn me away. I know what I told you sounds crazy, but it is true. I swear on my heart that every word was the truth,” she added, placing one delicate hand over her heart. “I want to feel alive… for just a little while.”
Sergei strode across the living room. He cupped her face, staring down for a fraction of a second before he kissed her with a burning hunger. Rune’s hands moved up over his shoulders, gripping him tightly as she rose on her tiptoes to meet him half way. The feel of a second pair of hands on her hips drew a soft moan from her. When she felt a second pair of lips on her neck, she arched backwards into the hard body.
“Tonight,” Dimitri began in a voice husky with need.
“Forever,” Sergei said, breaking the kiss to look at Dimitri before he looked down into Rune’s dazed eyes. “This is for more than tonight or a few weeks, Rune. This is forever.”
Rune melted back against Dimitri as his arms swept her up against his broad chest. She looked over Dimitri’s shoulder as he turned to carry her back into her bedroom. Her heart ached that she could not give them more than a few weeks. She might not be able to promise them forever but she would give them everything she had as long as she could.
“I promise to stay as long as I can,” she whispered.
Sergei’s eyes flashed at her evasive response to his demand. He followed Dimitri into the bedroom and stood to the side as Dimitri gently set her down on her feet. His fingers went to the buttons of his shirt. He held her eyes as he undid each one. His eyes darkened to a deeper blue in answer to the heat in her eyes as she followed the path of the undone buttons.
“You are sure of this, маленький огонь?” He asked thickly as Dimitri’s hands went to the belt of her robe.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”
She looked at Dimitri’s strained expression. Unable to resist, she reached out and tenderly touched his cheek. She would never get tired of touching him or Sergei. They were both different and yet the same. Her fingers traced a small scar that ran near his temple before moving down to the one near his left eye.
Dimitri’s hands froze on the belt to her robe as she gently touched him. “Rune,” he warned thickly. “I do not have much control right now.”
She gazed up at Dimitri. “So much life is told in your face,” she murmured tracing the faint scar under his eye.
“My life has not always been one of wealth,” he replied, pressing a kiss to the inside of her wrist. “I have had to kill before, Rune. You should know what type of man I am.”
Rune smiled tenderly. “You are a warrior and a warrior will kill to defend those who cannot defend themselves. I have killed before as well. I am my father’s daughter and I am not ashamed of it. You are a warrior, Dimitri. There is a difference between that and one who kills because they can,” she assured him.
“You are not frightened?” Sergei asked, stepping closer.
“I am not from your time, Sergei,” she reminded him. “I have lived during times when it was kill or be killed. I would never judge one who did what was necessary to survive.”
“I am falling in love with you, Rune,” Dimitri groaned out hoarsely before pulling her into his arms and capturing her lips with his.
Sergei watched as Dimitri ravaged Rune’s lips. He watched as Dimitri’s large hands ran down her body to cup her ass, pulling her up against him. He was surprised at the emotion he felt rushing through him. He would have thought he would be jealous. Instead, he felt intense satisfaction. This was right. This is what they had always dreamed of finding. A woman who would complete them.
He shrugged his shirt off before stepping up beside them. He reached out his hand and threaded his fingers through Rune’s long, curly hair. With a slight tug, he let her know that he wanted her attention. The moment she broke the kiss, he turned her face to his and captured her lips.
“Sergei,” Dimitri muttered roughly under his breath. “She is made for us.”
Sergei reluctantly released his grip on her. “You bet your ass she is,” he replied hoarsely as she fell against him when Dimitri stepped back to remove his clothes.
“Take her gown off of her,” Dimitri demanded as he pushed his pants down and kicked them aside. “You better not be wanting to take her slowly this first time because I have to tell you, I don’t think I will last long.”
“We will take it as slow as Rune wishes,” Sergei said, brushing his knuckles along her cheek. “You will tell us if we do anything that frightens you or if you need more time, yes?”
A rosy blush covered Rune’s face as she glanced at Dimitri who stood proudly in the nude. Her eyes roamed his broad form. He wasn’t handsome in a classical way. There was an air of danger, of untamed violence, that surrounded him.
He wasn’t as tall as Sergei and his body was thickly muscled. He had numerous scars across his smooth chest from the battles he had faced during his lifetime. Rune knew enough of battle scars to know that several had been grievous wounds. She ached to explore each and every one of them.
Her eyes hungrily roamed his figure. A small smile of feminine satisfaction lit her eyes when she saw how his manhood stood out, evidence of his desire for her. She looked up at him, pleasure darkening her eyes to a richer shade of brown as she returned his challenging stare.
“Rune wishes for her men to take her as a warrior would take his mate,” she said, straightening her shoulders and tossing her hair proudly behind her. “I am the daughter of a Viking warrior. I would expect nothing less.”
“You have until the count of three to get undressed, Sergei, or you are going to be watching me take our mate,” Dimitri growled out as he reached over and ripped the silky gown down the front.
Chapter 15
Rune gasped as the tattered remains of her gown floated to the floor and she found herself pressed up against hot male flesh. Fire exploded inside her as she wrapped
her arms around Dimitri’s neck as he lifted her. She pressed her lips against his neck, touching the tip of her tongue to his hot skin.
Dimitri’s choked curse filled the air as they tumbled down onto the bed. His large hands ran over her body causing her to press upward into him. She loved the way his calloused palms felt against her skin.
“More, Dimitri,” she demanded. “I want you to touch me all over. I love the way your hands feel against my skin.”
“How do you like the feel of mine?” Sergei asked as he sank down next to her and Dimitri.
“Why don’t you show me and I’ll tell you,” she said with a slow smile as she reached out to run her fingers through the hair covering his chest. “Kiss me.”
Sergei’s eyes widened at her hot demand. He was not used to a woman telling him what to do in the bedroom. Every time he thought he was beginning to understand this unusual female, she would do something totally out of the ordinary.
He bent to capture her lips at the same time as Dimitri captured her left breast between his lips. He kissed her deeply when she opened her mouth to gasp. His hand moved to her right breast and he tweaked the taut tip.
“Keep that up, Sergei,” Dimitri said moving further down her body. “She likes that.”
Sergei broke his kiss and glared down at Dimitri. “I can take orders from her but do not tell me what to do in the bedroom, my friend. I think I can more than keep up with you.”
“Why don’t you show me what you both can do?” Rune asked breathlessly as Dimitri parted her legs and slid his palms up under her ass “What are you….”
Dimitri’s soft laugh blew warm air over her clit before that warmth turned into an inferno as his lips and tongue went to work on her. Her cry echoed as she bucked at the unexpected pleasure sweeping through her.
“She likes that as well, Dimitri,” Sergei growled watching as his friend and surrogate brother lapped at Rune’s hot core. “I want to see her bare,” he said huskily.