She had not expected him to kiss her. She had been kissed a few times before but never like the way the two men had kissed her. Her body flushed and she pulled the coat up in front of her to hide how her nipples had swollen. They would be embarrassingly obvious to the men due to the thin gown she wore. A dark scowl pulled at her mouth when she thought of the fact that she had spent over a hundred years standing in a garden in her nightgown.
That was not funny, she thought in annoyance. You could have let me keep the dressing gown over it. At least I wouldn’t feel like I’m practically naked now, not to mention freezing my ass off. Oh, and shoes would have been nice as well.
Rune glared at the man kneeling in front of her before turning her heated look on the other one who was watching her with dark, suspicious eyes. A sense of unease washed through her at the look of speculation in them. She shivered and gripped the tattered coat even tighter.
“Rune,” she finally whispered before repeating it louder. “Rune August.”
The man in front of her stood up and took a step back. Rune averted her eyes when she saw that the front of his pants held a noticeable bulge. She turned her gaze to the fire instead. It was safer. For a few moments, she became lost in the changing colors. Memories from her childhood washed through her as she remembered her and her two older sisters talking about the fairies that danced in the flames.
Tears burned her eyes as she remembered those simpler times. A time when she had a family. Why was she thinking of this now? Did it mean if she helped whoever needed it that she would be reunited with Aesa and Dalla?
“What kind of name is that?” Dimitri asked curiously.
“I’ll have you know it is a very good name!” Rune snapped, looking up at him in annoyance. “Which one are you? The Dimitri guy or the Sergei one?”
When both men scowled darkly at her Rune wanted to bury her head in her hands and groan. When was she going to learn to keep her mouth shut? She should have just waited until they introduced themselves. Now they would know she knew who they were.
“Who sent you?” Sergei growled out.
Rune sighed looking back and forth between them before she shrugged her shoulders in resignation. Nothing about this trip was making any sense to her. She usually had an intuitive understanding of what she needed to accomplish. She had been fortunate that her last ‘assignment’, as she thought of her trips to the living, took longer than normal. She had almost hoped that maybe she might have been forgotten.
This time there was nothing but confusion and turmoil in her mind and body. She couldn’t believe that either of the men in front of her couldn’t handle whatever life dealt them. They were not like the children or the nuns or the countless others she had helped. These guys made her look like a toy doll in the middle of a battle field.
“I can’t tell you,” she replied shortly before rambling out a series of questions in an earnest, frustrated voice. “Are you guys in some kind of trouble? Having issues that you need help with? Maybe have a minor crisis or anything that you can’t handle?”
Dimitri’s eyes lit with amusement. “Why? Are you volunteering to fix them for us?”
Rune crossed her arms over the jacket and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I’m just saying, if you need help with something maybe I can be of assistance. By the way, you never told me who you were.”
Sergei muttered a curse before he walked over to the bar and poured himself a glass of brandy. He drank it down in one gulp before refilling the glass. He turned and leaned against the bar, crossing his long legs in front of him.
“You will tell us everything there is about you, beginning with who you work for and how in the hell you got into our home,” Sergei bit out harshly.
“I am Dimitri Mihailov,” Dimitri said, shifting so he could lean against the bookcase that butted up against the huge fireplace. “That is Sergei Vasiliev. It would help if you would explain how you came to be in our home wearing Micha’s old coat and I suspect his socks and boots and a very… attractive nightgown.”
“Micha?” Sergei interrupted.
“How did you know it was his?” Rune exclaimed before clamping her lips tightly together.
Rune looked at Sergei with wide eyes. She bit her lip when she realized that she had condemned the old man who had helped her. She stood up, hugging the old coat to her as she stared back and forth between the two men.
“You aren’t going to do anything to him, are you? I was freezing and he was just helping me. I mean, I asked him if he had a jacket and shoes. My feet were so cold and I didn’t have a jacket or any other clothes and he was…,” Rune stomped her foot and looked up at the ceiling in frustration. “You see what happens when you do things like this? You should have just left me alone! I was happy, damn it!”
“Who are you talking to?” Sergei asked standing up and setting his glass down on the bar behind him.
Rune’s eyes filled with tears of frustration. She was making a mess of things. It was all their fault. If they had just left her alone. Why did he have to buy her? Why couldn’t the stupid architect design the garden with her and the playground equipment? She would have been happy in a corner of the garden. She didn’t need much room.
“Why?” She whispered as silent tears coursed down her cheeks. “Why did you have to buy me? Why couldn’t they have just left me in my garden? Why?”
Sergei stared in stunned disbelief while Dimitri had a triumphant look in his eyes. Rune collapsed back into the chair and curled up, burying her head in the old coat and cried for the first time in over a century. She felt lost and lonely and terribly, terribly frightened.
Chapter 8
“Is she asleep?” Sergei asked from where he was sitting.
He didn’t bother turning around when he heard the door to the bedroom close. He had retreated to the outer sitting room of Dimitri’s bedroom where he could pour himself a stiff drink. His mind swirled with logical explanations that would make sense of the tortured questions the young woman… Rune… had asked of him before collapsing into sobs. She had cried as if her heart was breaking. Each wretched sound shredded a piece of his defenses. She had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep, curled up in a ball on the chair in front of the fire.
Dimitri had lifted her limp form and carried her to his bed. She hadn’t stirred as he laid her down on the soft covers and covered her. Sergei had watched as long as he could before he returned to the sitting room. Desire burned in his gut along with the confusion.
“Yes, she exhausted herself,” Dimitri replied as he poured himself another drink. “Tomorrow I want to see the statue again.”
“You mean today,” Sergei grimaced as he glanced at his phone. “It is already close to four.”
Dimitri ran his hand through his short brown hair. He sat on the edge of the chair across from Sergei. He stared moodily into the flames. His mind still on the soft womanly figure tucked in his bed. He wanted to join her so badly that he had actually felt sweat form on his forehead as he patted her down for any hidden electronic devices.
“How is it possible?” Dimitri murmured.
Sergei gave a short cynical laugh. “You don’t really think she is the woman from the statue? Dimitri, think! That is impossible.”
Dimitri glanced at Sergei before he sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He didn’t know what to believe. Logically, it was impossible but… there was something different about Rune. Her questions brushed through his mind.
“I know in my mind that it is impossible,” Dimitri admitted. “But where could she have come from?”
“I’ll talk with Micha tomor… today,” Sergei said. “He better have a good explanation as to why he would let a stranger into our home without our permission.”
“Why would she ask if we needed help?” Dimitri wondered out loud. “She said she had no other clothes, not even shoes. She was dressed in a nightgown that left little to the imagination.”
“It is obvious that she was sent h
ere!” Sergei reasoned cynically. “There is no way she would have survived five minutes outside dressed the way she was. She is working for someone. Probably to steal the new security program we are working on for the Americans. Micha obviously found her and felt sorry for her. I bet if we had our security team review the tapes or search the premises they would discover her ‘missing’ clothing and how she got inside.”
“What of her comments about you buying her?” Dimitri asked with a frown.
Sergei looked at Dimitri in triumph. “That is how she was able to sneak in,” he reasoned. “One of the workers was probably bribed to bring her in the delivery truck. As far as her clothing, she planned to use her feminine wiles to get into our bed. Her ‘little’ girl vulnerability is just an act. She will show her true colors in the morning when she has more time to think. Just wait. I bet she will be trying to seduce us both with a flutter of those long lashes.”
Dimitri touched his sore nose and looked skeptically at Sergei. “Well, my nose and balls will have to wait and see if her attempts to seduce are better than her earlier try.”
Sergei shrugged. “We startled her,” he replied with a wave of his hand. “Just wait. She will be different once daylight is upon us.”
Dimitri shook his head as a yawn threatened to escape. “Well, I need a few hours of sleep before we discover where our mysterious visitor is from,” he said, standing up.
Sergei frowned and stood as well. His eyes glanced toward the closed bedroom door. Unfamiliar doubt swept into his mind.
“I sleep on the left,” Dimitri commented. “You can take the right side. That way we know she will not try to escape from us.”
Sergei’s eyes lit up with relief and he grinned. “It will be interesting to see how she reacts to us being in bed with her.”
“I look forward to it,” Dimitri said as he set his glass on the small end table between the chairs. “I want her so damn bad that I really hope she plans to seduce us both.”
Sergei’s eyes darkened as he set his own glass down. “You are not the only one, my friend,” he muttered under his breath.
*.*.*
Rune rolled, again. Her sisters always complained when one of them had to sleep with her. She was a sprawler. She took up the entire bed. Arms and legs spread out in blissful abandon. Sometimes she slept on her stomach, sometimes on her back but always taking up every inch of the narrow bed. She groaned when her foot moved again, searching to peek out from under the covers to see how cold it was. She needed to pee and hated getting up when it was cold. The trip to the water closet as the last term for the privy was called had always been a challenge on a cold morning.
She was sprawled across a smooth but hard surface. She didn’t remember sharing her bed with her younger brother, Olaf. At ten and one, he was more bony than hard.
Rune’s head popped up, her hair hanging down in a tangled mess around her face. She groaned when her foot encountered a hairy leg instead of a cold room. Either Aesa had become hairy for the winter or she had let one of the strays she loved so much into their bed again.
“Aesa, you better have not let another mutt in my bed,” Rune grumbled. “Because if you haven’t, you’ve got more hair on your legs than Jorundr Hasteinson.”
“Who is Aesa?” A deep, all too familiar voice asked, amused. “And do you always move so much in your sleep?”
Rune’s eyes popped open in surprise before they widened. She really, really needed to pee. She looked into the amused, dark blue eyes staring up at her.
“Privy,” she murmured huskily.
Dimitri’s lips twitched and he nodded his head to the right. “Through there,” he replied.
Rune didn’t wait. She got to her hands and knees and began crawling across the massive bed. She murmured an apology when she accidentally put her knee on a sensitive spot on the other warm body in the bed. Her eyes glanced up into the dark brown eyes of the man she was crawling over. He was hard as well but his chest was covered in dark hair. She grimaced when she saw the speculative look on his face. Obviously her foot had encountered neither a stray mutt nor her sister’s suddenly hair leg.
“Sorry, have to go to the privy,” Rune muttered.
“Just be careful,” Sergei muttered as her other knee pressed against his family jewels.
“Sorry,” Rune muttered again as she half slid, half fell out of the bed. She paused for a moment before looking at the two men who were lying in the huge bed behind her. “Thank you for small blessings. Tisn’t freezing!” She breathed in relief before hurrying through the door that Dimitri had pointed to.
*.*.*
Rune slammed the door behind her as she hurried into a room that was larger than the house she had lived in as a child. She turned impatiently in a circle before spying what she assumed was the item she needed. She breathed a sigh of relief as she emptied her full bladder. Not having a living body for over a hundred years had its advantages. She looked around the changes to the old garden robe, water closet and privy of the past. She turned in surprise when the water flushed on its own as she stood.
A giggle escaped her as she watched the water disappear. This was a huge improvement over the facilities at the orphanage. She straightened her nightgown and walked over to the large mirror where two sinks were carved out of marble. Her hand ran over the smooth surface before dipping them under the spout. Her breath caught as warm water immediately poured into her hand.
Her eyes wandered over the elegant room. She couldn’t resist exploring it. A tub the size of a small boat was sunken into a platform and thick, fluffy towels hung from bars on the wall. She touched them in awe. They were so soft she felt like she could bury herself in them. Beautiful dark wood cabinets held more of the thick towels and the mirrors!
“I can see forever in them,” Rune whispered as she pushed her hair back and looked at herself critically.
She saw the same pert nose covered with the hint of freckles that her father said she received from annoying the God Loki. She touched her cheek. She had her father’s dark brown eyes. Her mother said they were so expressive that everyone could see all the way to her soul.
Her hair was a mixture of dark and light brown, thick and curly. She wore it to her waist as was the custom of her people. She was tall, taller than her other two sisters. Her father joked it was because she was always trying to see over everyone’s head and she had stretched her body. She had the strong body of the Viking women and while she was not as gifted in the bosom as her sisters had been, it had been enough to attract the attention of a visiting chieftain. She closed her eyes and breathed away the memories before opening them again.
She turned as her eyes caught a clear room against the far wall. Curious, she walked over to it. She touched the clear door and was surprised when it slid open. She stepped in, admiring the smooth cut of the stones and how they fit together so perfectly. There was a beautiful stone seat along one wall and circular silver knobs across from it. She touched the knob and icy cold water poured down over her, scaring her so badly she let out a blood curdling scream.
She frantically fought with the clear door, sliding it open and falling out of the small enclosed room. She was trembling from the cold water that had soaked her. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the water falling.
“I’ve made their roof leak,” she whispered in horror. “They are going to blame me. I just know it.”
*.*.*
“What is taking her so long?” Sergei asked impatiently.
He was leaning back against the pillows he had stacked up behind him. His arms were folded across his bare chest and he was frowning at the closed door.
“Maybe she really had to go,” Dimitri said dryly.
He was lying back against the pillows. He hadn’t slept much at all. Every time he would start to doze off he found either a hand, foot or an entire body on him. He had never seen anyone sleep so soundly while moving so much. His eyes drooped as he relaxed. She had been sprawled half across his chest while her fe
et had been on Sergei.
“I heard the toilet flush and the water in the sink turn on,” Sergei insisted. “Do you think she might be trying to sneak out?”
“There is no window in the bathroom, just the clear glass looking into the enclosed garden. She cannot get out,” Dimitri reassured Sergei who looked like he was about ready to burst. “She will be out any moment.”
“She…,” Sergei’s voice died when a terrified scream broke the otherwise silence of the room.
“дерьмо!” Shit! Both men growled as they sprang from the bed.
Sergei reached the door as it opened and a soaking wet Rune tumbled out of it. Dimitri pushed her into Sergei’s arms even as he positioned himself between them and the door. His body was tense as he waited for whatever had frightened Rune to come out.
“What happened?” Sergei asked as he wrapped his arms around Rune’s trembling body. “Was someone in there?”
“I… I…,” Rune whispered looking back at the doorway. “Your roof is leaking. I swear I didn’t do it. I was just looking. I swear I didn’t break it,” she stammered out, shivering as the cooler air in the room brushed against her wet skin and nightgown. “It is only in the small room though. I don’t think it will be hard to fix,” she added earnestly.
Dimitri turned and looked puzzled at Rune. Her eyes were wide with fright and worry. Her thin nightgown was plastered to her body and even with her and Sergei’s arms wrapped around her middle, her taut nipples were clearly visible through the almost transparent material.
“Dimitri?” Sergei asked confused.
“Rune, my roof cannot leak,” Dimitri replied through a suddenly thick throat.
Rune nodded her head furiously up and down. “It is! All I did was touch the silver knob and freezing water poured over my head.”