Warrior Rising (29 page)

“Did it have the desired effect on you?”

“You mean did it scare some sense into my foolish young head?” He lifted a shoulder. “Yes and no. I realized I could drown, and I suppose I was more careful after that—or at least more careful about my arrogant proclamations. The boy it really worked on was Patroklos. To this day he loathes boats and turns a sickly shade of green just thinking about sailing.” Achilles smiled and took the wineskin from her. “And that, my lady, is my unflattering childhood story.”

Kat laughed and clapped while he took a long drink of wine. Then when he handed it back to her he leaned forward and kissed her, softly, on the lips. She closed her eyes and leaned into him. Not aggressively, just warm and inviting, letting him set the pace. When they finally parted both of them were breathing heavily, but she could see no sign of the berserker in his clear blue eyes.

“I can hypnotize you again,” she whispered.

“I know you can.” He touched her face and let his hand slide down to caress the slope of her bare shoulder. “And I will allow you to if you feel you must.”

“But?” she asked.

“But I would like to make love to you without the spell. I want to experience all of it, and not just as a wonderful dream. Will you let me, Katrina?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Achilles studied Kat's expressive brown eyes while he waited for her to answer him. He could feel the increase of his breathing and heartbeat, but both were always elevated when he trained, and the berserker never possessed him then.
I don't need him then. I don't need him now,
he repeated silently to himself.

“Yes, Achilles, make love to me.”

Her words speared through him. “You're not afraid?” he said.

“Of course not. As long as you're here, I'm safe.”

He pulled her into his arms and held her close against him, inhaling the clean, wet scent of her hair and feeling the slight dampness of her skin. By all the gods he would not let her trust in him be misplaced! He wasn't a callow boy anymore. This would not end as his first love had.

Achilles kissed her, reminding himself to move slowly, to stay in control. She opened her mouth and his tongue met hers in a sweet, exploratory dance. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and she leaned into him, causing the blanket to fall free from her body.

She froze, midkiss. With steady, deliberate moves, Achilles leaned back so that he could see her naked body. He held very still while he looked at her, and then reached out and ran his hands in a long caress from her neck, down over her breasts, the curve of her waist, all the way over hips and thigh. Then his eyes met hers again.

“You are exquisite,” he said reverently.

Kat smiled then, and Achilles saw the future in her eyes—his future. The one he'd stopped dreaming about, stopped believing in. She had brought it back to him as a true possibility. He didn't know what wonderful thing he'd done to cause the goddesses to bless him with this woman who was such a miraculous gift, but he silently promised them that if they gave him a lifetime with her, he and his children, and his children's children would honor them always.

Achilles slid his hands around her waist and took her into his arms again, kissing her deeply and letting his hands smooth over the impossibly soft skin of her back, down to her lovely ass. He cupped it, pressing her more firmly against the erection that throbbed taut and heavy between his legs. Her hips moved in response and an enticing memory of their first encounter filled his mind and he remembered how her hot slickness had felt gliding up and down against his shaft.

A wave of desire crashed over Achilles, drowning in its intensity and he struggled to hold onto his control as he felt the searing, red hot intensity of the berserker lick against his lust-fevered skin.

“Open your eyes, Achilles. Look at me.”

Kat's sweet voice was cool relief against the fire in his mind. He opened his eyes and met her gaze. The berserker threatened. He knew she had to see his shadow lurking, ready to possess, to smother and repress all of his humanity. Yet she didn't show any fear. Her smile was confident. She didn't pull out of his arms and she didn't open the locket and call for her goddess's rescue.

“You're not going to leave me,” she said in that calm, beautiful voice. “You're going to stay here with me. You're going to keep me safe.”

“Yes,” Achilles murmured, kissing her gently. “I will keep you safe.” He reached within himself and found his inner core—that part of himself that was the seat of his spirit—and Achilles centered himself there. “This passion is different than what I need for war.” He hadn't realized he'd spoken the thought aloud until she answered him.

“Yes! What you need to love me doesn't destroy.”

“Instead it builds,” he said.

Looking into her eyes he shifted her body so that she lay beneath him. Achilles lifted himself on one elbow so that he could continue to keep his gaze on hers as his hand cupped her breast, rubbing the hardening nipple against his callused palm. Her full lips parted as her breathing increased. When his hand moved down to the slick cleft between her legs, Kat moaned and arched her hips to meet him. She put her hand over his, guiding him, teaching him how to please her, and even when she shuddered in climax she still stared into his eyes.

Before the tremors of release had left her body he raised himself and slowly sheathed his throbbing cock within her tight heat.

“Stay with me, Achilles. Don't leave me,” she whispered.

“I won't ever leave you,” he said, his voice deep and rough with the effort it took to maintain control. He lifted his hips, gliding almost all of the way out of her and then he tunneled within her again, harder this time.

“Achilles.” Kat breathed his name.

He stroked himself within her.

“Achilles.” She moaned.

He thrust into her.

“Achilles . . .”

It was as if she surrounded him completely. His body. His soul.

Anchoring him, not just to her, but to sanity and to his humanity. When he finally found his release it was her name on his lips, and her face in his eyes. And his soul was his own.

Achilles and Kat got back to the Myrmidon camp as the sun was setting. Walking hand in hand and talking easily together, they reached the illumination of the campfire. Kat watched Aetnia's eyes widen when Achilles tossed the empty basket at her feet and said, “Thank you. That was well packed.” Then, while everyone stared at them openmouthed, Achilles kissed her soundly and said, “I'll be back after I've spoken with Patroklos.” And he walked off, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

“Excuse me? Did he just say thank you?” Jacky popped up from where she was lounging beside the fire.

“I don't know why good manners surprise you so much,” Kat said, plopping down beside her. “Ah, crap. I need a goblet of—”

“Wine, my princess?”

Kat looked up, grinned at the girl, and took the goblet she offered. “Aetnia, you're a mind reader.”

“And I'll take some more, too,” Jacky said. Aetnia hesitated, glanced at Kat, who nodded quickly, and then filled Jacky's goblet, even though her hand was shaking. “Thank you ever so, Aetnia,” Jacky said with exaggerated kindness.

“Be nice,” Kat whispered.

“Oh, boo!” Jacky stomped at Aetnia, who scuttled around to the other side of the fire.

“Must you tease her?”

“For your information she is a hateful hag when you're gone. This whole ‘my princess this' and ‘my princess that' is a big act. When you're not here she slithers around committing major gossip with those women who give you weird looks all the time. Somethin's up with that girl. I may have to kick her scrawny white ass.”

“Uh, Jacky. Please recall that at this moment your ass is also white and scrawny.”

“Yes, but I have been eating steadily and I'm determined to change that.”

“Well, go on about your business,” Kat said.

“To big asses,” Jacky said, raising her goblet.

“To
your
big future ass,” Kat said, clicking her goblet against Jacky's.

Jacky took a long drink then raised her brow at Kat. “All right. Details.”

Kat scooted over closer to her and lowered her voice. “We had sex.”

“Good god, you put the boy under again? And I mean that figuratively as well as literally.”

“No. He was perfectly in control of all of his faculties.”

“Not unconscious and thinkin' he was dreaming?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Are you tellin' me today you two had aware-we're-having-sex sex, versus the semiconscious-almost-rape sex you had those other two nights?”

“I did not rape him.”

“And I say whatever to your semantics. Just answer the question.”

“Yes. We had totally aware—totally-all-there-sex sex.”

“You are grinning like a fool, so it must have been good.”

“It was utterly delicious,” Kat said.

“And he controlled the berserker?”

“Well, actually, it was more like he controlled himself so the berserker didn't possess him.”

Jacky sipped her wine and stared into the fire.

“All right. What is it?” Kat said.

“I'm just a little concerned that he didn't control the berserker.”

“But what difference does it make? He controlled the thing not possessing him, isn't that the point?”

“Kinda. I imagine it makes a big difference if you're ever around him when he is possessed,” Jacky said.

“Maybe I won't be. When this war is over he's going home—to a
peaceful
life. If he's never in battle again, the berserker may never come on him again.”

“So, in other words, your theory is that you're gonna ignore it and hope it goes away.”

“No, not exactly.”

Jacky rolled her eyes.

Kat frowned at Jacky. “Okay, maybe.”

“Well, let's hope your theory is more successful with berserker possession than it is with, oh, say, pregnancy.”

“Achilles will be fine,” Kat said firmly.

They both stared into the fire and sipped their wine.

“You're staying with him, aren't you?” Jacky finally asked.

“Yes.” She looked at her best friend. “What are you going to do?”

Jacky sighed. “Sadly, it appears that I'm going to spend the rest of my life white.”

Laughing, Kat put her arm around Jacky. “Well, we can try to tan you up. Would that make it better?”

“Hell no! I am not one of those white girls who bakes her skin in the sun and then looks like fucking beef jerky when she hits forty. I have entirely too much sense for that. How many times have I yelled at you to keep your light ass out of the sun?”

“Too many to begin to count.”

“That's right. I have more damn sense than that,” she repeated. “You know what white girls lying out in the sun remind me of?”

“Turkeys drowning in the rain 'cause they're too stupid to get in out of it or swallow,” Kat said promptly.

“How did you know that?”

“Jacky, you have called me a drowning turkey only about a gazillion times.”

“Well you should bring your white ass in out the sun.”

Kat stared at her. Hard.

“What?” Jacky said.

“Your cheeks are looking pink to me. As in
sunburn
pink.”

“Oh, bullshit! I just have a little healthy color. That's all.”

“And that's how the obsession begins,” Kat said smugly.

The two women looked at each other and then dissolved into laughter.

When her giggles were under control Kat wiped her face and looked around the campfire clearing, populated by the usual group of war-prize brides who were sitting as far away from Kat and Jacky as they could get.

“Wonder what's taking Achilles and Patroklos so long?”

“Let's hope he's talkin' some sense into Patroklos's thick skull.”

“What's going on?” Kat asked.

“Patroklos is acting very crazy about this nonfighting situation. Apparently today Odysseus was like Superman—no one could touch him and he led his men on one hell of a charge. Word is that they could win if this keeps up.”

“They, as in the Greek they?”

“Yep.”

“Huh. Well, that's good. I guess. The goddesses just wanted the war over. Odysseus all of a sudden being invincible makes the war over. So what's Patroklos's problem with it?”

“No problem 'cept he wants Achilles and the rest of the Myrmidons to join in. He says they could for sure win if that happens.”

“Oh,” Kat said softly.

“Yeah, oh.”

“Do you think I should get him to do it? Get him to fight?” Kat's stomach clenched as she waited for her friend's answer.

“Your boy might very well die if he keeps fighting, right?”

Kat nodded. “I don't remember much of the stupid
Iliad,
but that fact is pretty hard to forget. Achilles dies in the Trojan War.”

“Then no,” Jacky said firmly. “Don't let him fight. You just found him, and you had to go to a whole other world to be with him. It's too soon to lose him. I know it's too soon for me to lose Patroklos. I don't want the fool to fight.”

“Okay, then I stick with the original plan and do what I can to keep Achilles out of it.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Let's drink on it.”

“That sounds good, too.” They clinked their goblets together again and settled in to wait for their men.