Then he rang her loft’s intercom.
In seconds, the line opened. He heard clanging followed by her breathing as if she’d come running. Then her voice poured from the machine, stripped of its inimitable nuances, but still her voice. It cascaded over him in a wave of violent longing.
“Yes?”
It took him seconds before he could only mutter, “Vidar.”
Everything ceased. Time. The sounds in the background. Her movement. Her breath.
He gritted his teeth, bracing against the answer he dreaded.
Please go away.
What would he do if she said that? He couldn’t walk away.
But if she said it, he had to respect her wishes.
The intercom line went dead.
His heart punched his ribs, the blow feeling it would leave both bruised.
What had he expected? She’d asked for just one night, insisted on neutral ground, woken up first and left. Her silent rejection now told him all he needed to know. His presence was unwelcome. He should leave her alone. It was over.
A tidal wave of black dejection crashed on him.
And he finally admitted it to himself. Finding her had rejuvenated his will to exist. More. Sparked something unprecedented, an unquenchable desire to live, an unknown kind of life, with passion as its fuel, with her as its driving force.
It didn’t matter that he wouldn’t have had much time with her. Any time he could have had would have felt like forever. Far better than eternity without her.
He’d thought he’d reached his lowest point when he’d invoked Loki and demanded death. He hadn’t. She’d been able to drag him out of that abyss, just by wanting him. Now that she no longer did, nothing could bring him back.
He turned, descended the dozen stairs leading to the building’s porch.
The door burst open, slammed against the wall.
“Vidar.”
He swung around. Kara.
She flew down the stairs, literally. She knew he’d catch her.
He did, crushed her to him, feeling as if he’d caught everything worth having, the whole world.
Her hug and the kisses she stormed over his face were frantic.
Shaking with the reprieve of knowing she reciprocated his desire in full, he felt everything fall away as he carried her up to her loft, homing in on her bed. What followed was a new level of abandon, their lovemaking frenzied, their pleasure blinding.
Endless hours later, she stirred over him, raised a head unsteady with the enervation of fulfillment. Her curls tumbled over his chest, those eyes that had rekindled his soul pouring emerald fire and the absoluteness of her desire over him.
Then she blew every expectation out of the water all over again when she murmured, “You shouldn’t have come.”
A disconcerted moment passed. Then he said the same words she had the night he’d sought her out again. “I came, anyway.”
She gave him back what he’d asked her. “Why did you come?”
When he’d asked, he’d already known the answer, wanting to hear it from her. She wanted the same now.
He’d give her anything she wanted. “Because I couldn’t stay away. I’ve starved for you. Have you for me?”