back, rising and falling with the rhythm of Grim’s steady breaths. He’d slung an arm over my midriff, cocooning me with his chilly body, and I hummed a small sound of appreciation.
As far as heats went, having my mate regulate the awful, feverish temperature hike had been a godsend.
Mate.
I prodded gently at the new bond in my chest—the only one that wasn’t a dark, festering wound. Grim murmured in response, tightening his grip on me, and I eased off our connection with a smile.
I’d not been prepared for how… good it’d feel.
My other four mating bonds had come with pain and angst. I’d expected Grim, of all people, to give me a bond barbed with broken glass and darkness. I’d expected pain and misery, not… this.
I pressed a hand to my ribs and closed my eyes, focusing on the soft glow of it. Peaceful.
He’d fought it at first, but his surrender had been swift and complete. It still took my breath away to recall those moments when his magic had been within me and I’d felt whole in a way I hadn’t expected to.
Soulmates, he’d called us. Was that why it felt like this? So… smooth. As if we were already carved from the same piece, so slotting together was friction-free.
Well. In spirit, at least.
I grimaced at the throbbing down below. Reluctant as he may have been, Grim had given in to his primal side as fully as any of my other mates. It still baffled me to know that the cold, withdrawn man, the dark god of mist and shadow, possessed a passion so fiery.
And that he had a proclivity for breasts.
“You’ve been awake for several minutes and no one’s copulating. Am I to take it your brain is back in charge?”
Mimir’s dry voice made me jolt—and wince, thanks to my sore abdominal muscles—and whip around. The prophet’s head sat where I’d left him some time ago, on a skin on the floor. Staring right at me and Grim.
“You watched?” I hissed, heat that had nothing to do with desire and everything to do with mortification rising all the way from my toes to my cheeks.
He arched both bushy eyebrows. “Of course.”
“What happened to having no such inclinations?” I snapped. I’d forgotten all about him. I’d forgotten all about everything, save Grim, but I really, really wished I’d at least had the wherewithal to turn Mimir’s head in the opposite direction before surrendering to my heat.
“Ah. I find no personal pleasure in it, but I do admit the act is… fascinating to watch. Besides, it wasn’t like there were a lot of other entertainment options these past three days.”
“I told you you should have left him outside in the mud,” Grim rumbled sleepily behind me. The cool arm around my midriff withdrew, followed by the comfortable pressure against my back as he sat up.
A jolt of… not anxiety, but nervous energy perhaps, flickered through my gut. He was awake. And no longer deep in rut.
Slowly I turned toward him, ignoring the pervert prophet.
“Hi,” I said softly. I took in his sleepy expression, so unexpected on his ice-carved features. He still looked every inch the cold, dark god, but somehow… more human now. As if he was finally allowing me to see past the barriers.
Grim only tilted his head in response, his eyes sweeping over me, taking in my swollen nipples and lips before dipping to the many bruises on my hips and ribs where he’d gripped me so, so tight.
“My heat’s over,” I said, though I didn’t need to. The times I’d woken before him during my few fitful spurts of sleep these past days, I’d taken him inside of me before he was even awake.
“Are you all right?” he rumbled, reaching one hand out to trace a particularly dark set of bruises along my ribs.
The brush of his skin against mine made me shiver—not so much with desire now, but pure awareness. His nearness sparked something in me, made me lean toward his touch as if pulled by a magnetic force.
“Yeah. A bit sore. Nothing unusual.” I bit my lip and looked up at him through my lashes, an odd sense of shyness setting in. The intimacy we’d shared had been so intense, but now, without the insanity of my heat, it felt… intimidating.
I forced myself to recall the sensation of it, of melding into one with him, and steeled myself. It wasn’t just about us. I’d made the bargain with him because I needed this connection. Shying