large, warm hand against my lower back, and I sighed at the immediate relaxation in my sore muscles. They were all so wonderfully warm. I’d relished Grim’s chill in the sensory deprivation of Hel, but the other four had retained their natural body heat. Perks of not actually being dead, I guessed.
I forced my neck muscles into action and twisted my head to look at Modi. He sat cross-legged by Bjarni’s shoulder, still gloriously naked from when he’d been inside me. I wasn’t entirely sure how long I’d been out, but it couldn’t have been too long, or the sticky mess I felt clinging to my lower lips would have dried up. “Are you okay?”
He smiled, a soft touch to his lips as he moved his hand from my back to my cheek. “Yeah. I’m okay, Anna. More than okay.”
I felt the truth of his words in the pleasured hum in my chest where his warm bond hooked. There was no more doubt there, no more fear—just deep, eternal devotion.
Motion to his side caught my attention, and I locked eyes with Grim. There was concern in his gaze as he looked me over. “Are you all right?”
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “You didn’t seem all that concerned about that before.”
He frowned, and a spark of guilt fluttered through our connection.
Groaning with the effort, I reached an arm out and smiled when my fingers interlocked with Grim’s. “I’m fine. Sore, but fine.”
I was going to say more—voice my astonishment at how thoroughly he’d gotten on board with the whole sharing aspect—but one look into his mismatched eyes and I knew it wasn’t the right time. It was still so new to him, my wounded mate, and I was just grateful that he had allowed himself to let go.
I squeezed his hand with what little strength I could muster and sent a wave of gratitude through our bond.
“Does that mean you’re done resting, then?” Bjarni asked.
I chuffed a weak laugh. “Not even close. I’m going to sleep for at least twenty-four hours, or however long it takes my poor vagina to reshape itself.”
“Hmm,” the blond Viking rumbled. His muscles bunched underneath me as he leaned up on one elbow to rub his nose along my scalp. “I’m afraid I can’t wait that long, sweetie. You and your vagina are gonna have to rally.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes back to meet his. “You’re kidding me? You didn’t…?
“While you were unconscious?” he asked, eyebrows high on his forehead. “You think that little of me?”
There was just an edge of genuine hurt to his voice, even if he tried to play it off as humor.
Which was fair enough. I grimaced and released Grim to stroke a soothing hand over Bjarni’s pecs. “Of course not. I’m sorry—I’m just… so exhausted.”
“That’s okay,” he hummed, instantly mollified. “You just lie back and enjoy it, hmm?”
I whined, perhaps not the most articulate of protests, but the only thing I could manage as Bjarni gently rolled me off his chest and onto the flattened grass, shifting his massive body to rest between my thighs.
My blond mate chuckled at my pathetic whimper. “Can’t very well save the nine worlds without your last mate’s powers,” he chided before he pushed himself down to lay flat on his stomach.
Despite the exhausted state of my core, my pussy gave a small twinge when his plans dawned on me.
“How very selfless of you,” I said. What should have been sarcasm died on a long groan as he pushed his mouth to my slit and dove his tongue in to tease my still-swollen and tender clit.
Despite my well-worn muscles’ aching protests, it didn’t take Bjarni long to bring me back to a simmer. Soon I was panting his name and moving my hips in restless waves against his skilled mouth, a rising orgasm battling the tissues too overstimulated to allow an easy surrender.
But Bjarni was not one to be defeated—not on the battlefield, and not atop me. When I grasped at his hair and whined for him to stop, he only clasped his huge hands around my thighs and sucked hard on my clit, trapping it in vacuum.
“Bjarni!” I shrieked, thrashing in his grip as I bucked for freedom. “No, no, n—unnnnhhhhhooly shit!”
My body seized hard as pleasure burst through me, forcing every nerve to spark. I shrieked and sobbed at the agony of it, but there was no stopping the thundering wave crashing through my flesh and into my mind until there was