Free Viking Heart (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors Book 3) by Sky Purington Page B

agreed, thoroughly enjoying not the pond but her expression as she gave into pure feeling.
    Eyes shut, a wide smile split her face as her lips parted. Fascinated by her unrestrained response, he couldn’t help but smile as well. But when she moaned and her tongue snaked out and licked her lips, Kol went from simply admiring her, to gut-clenching lust in a heartbeat. He shook his head and was about to pull away when her eyes shot open.
    “Have you ever tasted it?”
    Kol quirked his lips, not entirely sure where she was going with this. Words low and curious, he said, “I have tasted a lot. What are you wondering about…specifically?”
    Eyes slightly rounded, she released a low, throaty, feminine laugh that sharpened his arousal. “Not what you think.” She again closed her eyes and tilted her head back. “Stick out your tongue and taste the mist. It’s amazing. So icy. A great sensation when combined with the heat rising up off the water.”
    Startled, he realized she felt things like one with dragon blood. Or at least appreciated it more than any human he had ever met. Though tempted to tell her he tasted the air and its moisture every waking moment, he wouldn’t take this from her so tilted back his head, closed his eyes and tasted.
    “Intense, right?” she whispered.
    “Very.” He opened one eye a fraction so he could keep watching her.
    After several long moments, her eyes drifted open and she laughed as she squeezed his hands. “This is awesome . Thank you.”
    Kol nodded and couldn’t help but laugh, truly happy that she was happy.
    Amber kept laughing then dove under the water.
    He watched her until she burst free, flung her arms in the air, spun then sunk beneath the water again. At that moment, he decided the best thing he could do for her was bring her swimming in every bit of heated water he could find in Scandinavia.
    Anything to keep her face this alive…to keep her so alive.
    Happier than he could ever remember being, he grinned, sunk beneath the water and followed. When she pulled away from him and Kjar earlier, he had been tempted to let her go. No doubt, he well understood the need to escape. Yet whatever happened when she was between them had not just happened to her.
    It had happened to him and Kjar as well.
    Though his cousin only frowned and headed in the opposite direction when Amber left, the demi-god was rattled. And Kol couldn’t remember that ever happening. Did he think the shipwright desired Amber? Yes. But not in the typical sense. Some sort of unfamiliar magic had fluctuated between the three of them shaking Kol to his core.
    But he shouldn’t say the magic was unfamiliar .
    He had felt it before.
    Once.
    On the mountain with the seers. It certainly wasn’t Helga’s. No, he knew hers well.
    It had been her sister, the Unnamed One.
    But why the hel had it flared between him, Amber and Kjar?
    “Are you coming or what?”
    Kol grinned as Amber swam toward the other side of the pond. With a few long strokes, he caught up with her. Hands wrapped around a tree root, she peered up. “Have you ever climbed this before?”
    “Yes.” He shot her a challenging look. “It’s not easy, but great fun to jump back down.”
    “Is it then?” She rolled her jaw and eyed the root structure. “Once upon a time, I used to be able to climb trees better than my sisters.”
    “I always climbed better than my brothers,” he admitted.
    “Did you?”
    “Yes.”
    Amber again peered up. “Wanna race then?”
    “Race?”
    A very bad idea. Pine tree roots were slender and unpredictable. If that wasn’t enough, they were slick with moisture. But he didn’t have a chance to respond before she said, “Yup!” and started moving.
    Though frozen in place as he admired not only her finesse in climbing but her sweetly rounded backside, the competitor in him took over. Chuckling, he started up the roots. Shocked by her agility, he barely kept up and they reached the top at nearly the same