Dreams of a Dark Warrior

described it to me.” His fingers trailed from her navel down, lower… lower …
    “Chase!” Her skin glowed even brighter. “What are you doing to me? I-I’m
close
.”
    He’d bring her over the edge. With his other hand, he finally rubbed his thumb back and forth over one nipple.
    “Oh, my gods,”
she breathed, licking her lips. His gaze was rapt on her darting tongue.
    Declan had imagined her kiss, had dreamed of it. No longer could he deny himself the taste of her sweet lips.
To catch her cries as she goes over the edge?
With his fingers still teasing, he leaned in, dipping his head, his lips hovering just above hers.
    “Chase?” It was as if a spell had been broken. Before she’d been arching to his touch, her body begging for more. Now she drew back from him. “Wait, I… just hold on a minute, just let me think.”
    “Woman, you’ve been pushin’ me for just this.”
    She lowered her head, whispering, “I can’t do it.”
    “You can.” He pinched her chin, holding her face up. “You
will
.”
    “Shh.” Her ears twitched. “Someone’s here.”
    “You’re just saying that—” Then he heard it too. Footsteps within his chambers, heading for thebathroom. He was about to kill whoever was stupid enough to interrupt this.
    After I’ve waited so goddamn long?
    She reached for the tie, and he yanked on his gloves—
    “Son, get away from her.”
    “Webb.” Here. Three days early.
    When Declan threw a towel over her, he saw her silvery eyes were wide. He moved in front of her, hissing under his breath, “I will protect you.” Then he turned to his commander, battling the urge to bare his fucking teeth that the man had seen her unclothed.
    “Declan, what the hell are you doing with this prisoner?”
    Risking everything …
    Regin couldn’t decide whether she was irate or grateful about this Webb’s interruption.
    How had things with Chase burned so totally out of control? She was supposed to put him under her spell. Instead, just the opposite had happened. …
    Webb swept his gaze over her with a look of revulsion. Her eyes slitted.
Right back at you.
    He was big, not tall like Chase, but burlier. He wore a military uniform and sported a salt-and-pepper buzz cut.
    By Chase’s reaction, Webb was a superior officer. Yet Chase faced him with his shoulders back and said, “I want her.”
    “You
what
?” Webb’s gray brows shot up, his forehead creasing.
    Dude’s about as shocked as I am.
She knotted the towel around her chest, then hopped down to watch the exchange.
    Chase stretched his arm in front of her protectively. “I’ll continue to do whatever you ask, but she belongs to me.”
    “Listen to what you’re saying!”
    “You’re going to let me take her from here, to an older facility. Someplace where I alone will see her.”
    Chase was
telling
a superior what’s what? Gods, his arrogance was magnificent—and so familiar. Aidan had expected Wóden to bestow ohalla on him; now Chase was
demanding
Regin as his due.
    “No, you don’t want her, son. She’s just made you think that you do. Ask the Valkyrie why she’s tried so hard to get you to remember this Aidan.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Tell, him, female,” Webb said. “Tell him how you’ve been trying to kill him.”
    Oh, shit.
    Chase turned to her. “What is this?”
    From behind him, Webb said, “She believes you’re her lover reincarnated.”
    “Aye. She’s told me as much.”
    “Has she told you that every man she’s slept with has died within hours of it? She believes you’re cursed to perish in each lifetime as soon as you claim her.”
    Shit, shit!
    “Deny it,” Chase commanded her.
    She gazed up at him, knowing she should lie… “I can’t deny it.”
    “And her lips have a drugging effect—like a narcotic,” Webb continued. “That’s why she was coaxing you to kiss her. She planned to seduce you, and then you’d perish like the others, allowing her to escape.”
    Between gritted teeth, Chase said, “How do you know this?”
    “The transcripts from her cell. We had her conversations translated by a new source. She told her cell mate that this was her plan for escape—your death.”
    What new source? When I find out—
    Chase launched a fist into the wall beside her head. “You fuckin’ bitch, deny this!”
    She sucked in a breath at the lost look in his eyes, the palpable pain. “What did you expect me to do, Chase? Calmly await my torture?”
    His fists tightened