Only him.
That knowledge floored him.
He couldn't begin to understand why she would offer him something she hadn't offered to anyone else.
It didn't make sense in his world.
"Why do you want to be with me?"
She paused as she dressed and glared in his direction. "I have no idea. You are surly. Rude. Obnoxious. I have never in my life seen anyone more ill-mannered and... and... aggravating. You have no respect for anyone, not even yourself. All you can do is pick, pick, pick. You don't even know how to be happy."
Astrid opened her mouth to continue, then stopped as she became aware of the tone of Zarek's voice when he had posed his question to her.
It had been gently searching. Not accusatory.
Most of all, it had come from deep inside him.
And so she answered it from her heart. "You want to know the truth, Zarek? I want to be with you because there's something about you that makes me hot and shivery. Whenever I feel you near me, I want to reach out and touch you. To slide you into me so that I can hold you close and tell you that everything is all right. That I'm not going to let anyone else hurt you."
"I'm not a child," he said angrily.
Astrid reached out through the darkness and found his hand on the floor in front of her. She took it into hers and held it tight. "No, you're not a child. You never were. Children are supposed to be protected and cared for. You had no one to hold you when you cried. No one ever soothed you. They never told you stories or made you laugh when you were sad."
The tragedy of his life reached out to her then, penetrating her heart, making her want to weep for all the injustice that had been dealt him.
Things she had taken for granted as a child had been denied him. Friendship, happiness, family, treats. And most of all, love.
His life had been so unfair.
She trailed her hand up his muscular arm, to bury it in his hair so that she could stroke his scalp. "Make love to me, Zarek. I can't take away your past, but I can hold you now. I want to share my body with you, even if it's only for a little while."
He pulled her forcefully against him and kissed her heatedly. She moaned, arching her back as he laid her back down on the floor.
Astrid kicked her shoes off, then removed her pants and panties. She pulled her shirt off and unsnapped her bra.
She should be embarrassed-she'd never stripped in front of anyone before. Never been naked while they were clothed.
Yet she was not ashamed.
She felt powerful with him. Womanly. She knew he wanted her and she desired only to please him.
She lay back against his icy floor.
Mesmerized, Zarek couldn't move as Astrid bent her knees up and opened her legs in invitation.
Her nipples were puckered from the cold and her desire. Her hair was loose, spilling over her shoulders, and her hands rested on her stomach.
But it was her core that he stared at. She was already wet for him, her body swollen with need just as his was.
"I'm cold, Zarek," she whispered. "Will you warm me?"
He should get up and leave her there like that.
He couldn't.
No one had ever offered him such a precious gift.
No one but Astrid.