Free Ravish Her Completely by Jenika Snow Page B

weren’t alone even though she couldn’t see anyone.
    Getting up and slipping out from the heavy fall of Stian’s arm, she sat on the edge of the pallet and looked over her shoulder at him. He turned around, his big body rippling with power even though he was at rest. She grabbed one of the thinner blankets off the edge of the pallet and wrapped it around herself. He was either a heavy sleeper, which she didn’t know if she believed, or she was dreaming. The latter made more sense, although this felt so real. She felt the warmth of the fire, felt the chill of the outside seep through the coarse burlap that covered the windows.
    Wrapping the blanket around herself, she stood, looked at Stian once more, and then turned her gaze toward the door. She could leave again, just get dressed, grab what she could, and try to leave before Stian woke up. But this was a dream … right?
    But she wasn’t a fool, knew she couldn’t make it out there with the temperature dropping, the night having fallen, and who knew what in the hell lurked in the shadows. Besides, there was something shifting inside of her, something that said she liked being wrapped up in Stian’s arms. Another part of her said she couldn’t stay here. She needed to find out where she was and how to get home.
    The wind picked up, howling through the cracks in the hut, threatening to burst the place down no matter how strong it was. She went over to one of the windows, pulled the burlap aside, and looked into the murky darkness. Stian made a noise, and she looked at the pallet. But there she was, lying right beside him, his big hand on her hip, his fingers curled into her skin. He whispered something deep and sleep-filled against her neck, and even though she stood feet from the bed, clearly dreaming all of this, she swore she felt the sensation of his breath along her flesh.
    “You have acclimated nicely to this world, child.” The woman’s voice came from right beside her, and Agata turned and stared at the elderly woman she’d seen at the festival. That seemed so far away now, so distant and surreal.
    “You sent me to this place,” Agata said without question.
    The woman smiled. “Child, you’re right where you need to be.”
    “Where am I, a different part of Norway or something? I’m clearly out in the middle of nowhere with people that think it’s in style to live like they did centuries ago.” Agata rubbed her hands over her arms, the blanket doing nothing to keep the cold out. “I didn’t ask for this.”
    The old woman looked at where Stian slept. “We always want what we don’t think we need,” she said in this cryptic voice and went to stare at Agata with those creamy white eyes again. “But when we are given the opportunity to see it for ourselves, experience it, then we see that it is what we’ve been missing.”
    Agata thought on those words. “What in the hell are you talking about? You drugged me, shipped me off to this place where Stian keeps, well, kept me chained up, where villagers would like to skin me over my association with that Viking.” God, she was arguing with this woman in her dream. Closing her eyes she shook her head. This was too bizarre. This whole situation was strange.
    “Did you not tell me you wished for something else?”
    Agata closed her eyes again and rubbed her forehead.
    “You are in the In-Between, child, and if you truly were unhappy you’d have no trouble leaving. You’d be given the chance to escape of your own free will.” The woman continued to stare at her. “You’d be shown the way out, but only if you truly wanted to leave.”
    “This is crazy,” Agata whispered. “I can’t understand him, and up until last night I have tried to escape. I don’t want to be here.” But as the words left her mouth this strange feeling overcame her. Did she really mean what she’d said?
    She looked around the small hut, thought on the fact that in this short time she’d learned where everything was,