Touching Rune (7 page)

Dimitri glared at the small figure that was curled up in the chair by the fire in his study. For the last hour, they had been drilling her to find out who she was, who had sent her and how the hell she had gotten into their home undetected. Well, they had been drilling her for the last forty-five minutes. The first five minutes he and Sergei had spent trying to comprehend that their intruder wasn’t a male but a slip of a woman who was setting off fireworks inside their bodies.

“Snow works better,” she mumbled under her breath.

“What?” Dimitri bit out.

Dark brown eyes glared up at him. “I said snow works better… for your nose,” she snapped back. “Why don’t you go bury your head in a snow bank while you’re at it to cool your temper. Did anyone ever tell you that you have anger management issues?” She had heard one of the kids at the orphanage use that phrase before and fallen in love with it.

Dimitri took a step toward her. He was ready to wrap his hands around her scrawny little neck and…

“Dimitri,” Sergei said calmly. “Let me handle this.”

Dimitri’s eyes flashed to Sergei before he turned back to glare at Rune again. His eyes widened when she stuck her tongue out at him before turning her attention back to the fire burning in the fireplace. He clenched his fist, cursing as the damp washcloth he had been holding to his aching nose dripped down his leg.

“Who are you?” Sergei demanded, looking at the young woman. “Who sent you?”

*.*.*

Sergei bit back a chuckle when the woman rolled her eyes when he asked her the same questions Dimitri had been asking her. There was something about her that was just – adorable.

He shook his head in disgust. Since when did he ever think of a woman as being ‘adorable’? She was an intruder. She had attacked both Dimitri and him. Well, she had thrown herself at Dimitri which still surprised him. Even now, she didn’t act like someone out to do them harm. She acted more like she was… annoyed with them.

And why do I feel like I have seen her before?
Sergei wondered in frustration.

“I feel like I know her but I’ve never met her,” Sergei said in Russian, looking at Dimitri who was staring moodily at the slender figure curled up in the chair. “There is no way I would ever have forgotten her, I’m sure of that.”

Dimitri looked at Sergei and nodded. “I feel the same way. I thought I was going crazy at first but it is like I have seen her, touched her but…” his voice faded when the young woman turned to glare at them.

“You know it isn’t polite to speak about someone in a language they don’t understand,” she snapped back impatiently. “If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face or don’t say it at all.”

Dimitri straightened up and strode over to the chair. He knelt in front of it so she could see the menacing look in his eyes. He smiled in satisfaction when she leaned back in the chair, a wary look darkening in her eyes as she stared back at him.

Good, I have her attention,
he thought savagely.

“We could break you into tiny pieces and scatter your remains across half of Russia and no one, and I mean no one, would ever know what happened to you,” he told her in a cold voice.

Rune swallowed over the lump that formed in her throat. She nervously glanced up at Sergei who stood over her with his arms folded across his chest. Anger flared deep inside when she thought of where she was compared to where she wanted to be. None of this would have happened if they would have just left her in the garden.

Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with grief, anger and the knowledge that it really didn’t matter anymore. Christmas rose be damned. If she was going to die anyway, why extend it? Hadn’t she said she was tired of being jerked around. What was the worst thing that they could do to her? Kill her?

Been there, done that,
she thought furiously.

“Fine! Go ahead,” she growled back leaning forward until her nose was almost touching his. “Do your worst! I bet I’ve already had it done before. Want to burn me at the stake? I can tell you the best way to do it. Want to stick a knife through my gut? Piece of cake. Want to run a sword through my heart? Already done that too. You want to cut me up, go ahead,” she snarled back in a low voice. “I really don’t give a damn anymore.”

Dimitri sat back on his heels, for once shocked speechless. The fierce determination and the way she spoke made him believe every word she said. She sounded like she knew exactly what it felt like to die. The look in her eye told him she also meant what she said. She didn’t give a damn if he were to snap her neck or cut her heart out.

Unsure of what to do next, he did what felt right. He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her forward. He knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life when his lips captured hers. Heat exploded through him, pooling low in his groin until he could think of nothing else but claiming her. She froze briefly before relaxing as he moved his lips over hers, encouraging her to open for him.

Her lips parted on a soft gasp when he touched the tip of his tongue to them. He immediately took advantage and pushed forward capturing her in a fierce, possessive claim that surprised them both. He leaned further into the kiss, running his other hand up her bare arm to the curve of her neck. A sense of déjà vu swept over him as warmth flowed through his hand. An image of the statue in the atrium floated through his dazed mind, snapping him back to the present.

Disbelief washed through him as he slowly released her lips. He pulled back just far enough to gaze closely at her. Her eyes were closed. Her lashes lay like feathery crescents over flushed cheeks. When her eyelashes fluttered and she looked at him with wide, confused eyes he knew he must be going crazy. There was no way it could be the woman from the statue.

The soft sound of Sergei’s curse echoed through his consciousness. He glanced up at Sergei to see the haunted look of need in his eyes. Dimitri rose on unsteady legs and stepped to the side with a nod. He… needed time to understand what had just happened.

*.*.*

Sergei stepped forward and knelt in front of the chair. He waited until the dazed eyes of the young woman curled in the chair, a tattered black coat draped over her legs, turned from where Dimitri stood back looking at her to him. A look of confusion made her look young and vulnerable.

He gently ran his hand over her cheek. His eyes held hers, watching as her pupils dilated as the tips of his fingers traced the soft curve. She leaned her head ever so slightly into his palm, as if she needed to feel his touch as much as he needed to touch her.

“Who are you?” Sergei whispered. “I know you but I don’t. Tell me who are you?” He repeated before he leaned in to capture her lips with his.

Time seemed to stop as he teased her lips, wanting her to open for him as a bloom did to the sun. Triumph filled him when her lips parted. He took his time as he deepened the kiss. His tongue teased hers, stoking her until he felt an answering fire flare inside her as she began kissing him back.

Sergei raised his other hand until her face was cupped between them. A moan escaped him as the taste of her flooded him with the fire of desire unlike anything he had experienced before. This was not the in-control mastery that he used with his previous lovers. This was something elusive… precious. As his fingers brushed down her cheek again the feelings of having touched her, that he knew her, flashed through his consciousness again.

He broke the kiss, breathing heavily and aching with a need to drive himself deeply into her. He wanted this unknown woman with a passion that scared him to the core of his being. Never had he let his feelings overwhelm him the way they tried to now.

“Who are you?” He demanded harshly as anger over the unfamiliar feelings coursed through him. “Who do you work for?

*.*.*

Rune blinked several times, trying to clear her mind. She remembered feeling the terrible grief and aching loneliness overwhelm her. She flushed when she remembered what she had said. She had baited the huge man in the hopes that he would end the pain with a quick snap to her neck.

She had not expected him to kiss her. She had been kissed a few times before but never like the way the two men had kissed her. Her body flushed and she pulled the coat up in front of her to hide how her nipples had swollen. They would be embarrassingly obvious to the men due to the thin gown she wore. A dark scowl pulled at her mouth when she thought of the fact that she had spent over a hundred years standing in a garden in her nightgown.

That was not funny,
she thought in annoyance.
You could have let me keep the dressing gown over it. At least I wouldn’t feel like I’m practically naked now, not to mention freezing my ass off. Oh, and shoes would have been nice as well.

Rune glared at the man kneeling in front of her before turning her heated look on the other one who was watching her with dark, suspicious eyes. A sense of unease washed through her at the look of speculation in them. She shivered and gripped the tattered coat even tighter.

“Rune,” she finally whispered before repeating it louder. “Rune August.”

The man in front of her stood up and took a step back. Rune averted her eyes when she saw that the front of his pants held a noticeable bulge. She turned her gaze to the fire instead. It was safer. For a few moments, she became lost in the changing colors. Memories from her childhood washed through her as she remembered her and her two older sisters talking about the fairies that danced in the flames.

Tears burned her eyes as she remembered those simpler times. A time when she had a family. Why was she thinking of this now? Did it mean if she helped whoever needed it that she would be reunited with Aesa and Dalla?

“What kind of name is that?” Dimitri asked curiously.

“I’ll have you know it is a very good name!” Rune snapped, looking up at him in annoyance. “Which one are you? The Dimitri guy or the Sergei one?”

When both men scowled darkly at her Rune wanted to bury her head in her hands and groan. When was she going to learn to keep her mouth shut? She should have just waited until they introduced themselves. Now they would know she knew who they were.

“Who sent you?” Sergei growled out.

Rune sighed looking back and forth between them before she shrugged her shoulders in resignation. Nothing about this trip was making any sense to her. She usually had an intuitive understanding of what she needed to accomplish. She had been fortunate that her last ‘assignment’, as she thought of her trips to the living, took longer than normal. She had almost hoped that maybe she might have been forgotten.

This time there was nothing but confusion and turmoil in her mind and body. She couldn’t believe that either of the men in front of her couldn’t handle whatever life dealt them. They were not like the children or the nuns or the countless others she had helped. These guys made her look like a toy doll in the middle of a battle field.

“I can’t tell you,” she replied shortly before rambling out a series of questions in an earnest, frustrated voice. “Are you guys in some kind of trouble? Having issues that you need help with? Maybe have a minor crisis or anything that you can’t handle?”

Dimitri’s eyes lit with amusement. “Why? Are you volunteering to fix them for us?”

Rune crossed her arms over the jacket and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I’m just saying, if you need help with something maybe I can be of assistance. By the way, you never told me who you were.”

Sergei muttered a curse before he walked over to the bar and poured himself a glass of brandy. He drank it down in one gulp before refilling the glass. He turned and leaned against the bar, crossing his long legs in front of him.

“You will tell us everything there is about you, beginning with who you work for and how in the hell you got into our home,” Sergei bit out harshly.

“I am Dimitri Mihailov,” Dimitri said, shifting so he could lean against the bookcase that butted up against the huge fireplace. “That is Sergei Vasiliev. It would help if you would explain how you came to be in our home wearing Micha’s old coat and I suspect his socks and boots and a very… attractive nightgown.”

“Micha?” Sergei interrupted.

“How did you know it was his?” Rune exclaimed before clamping her lips tightly together.

Rune looked at Sergei with wide eyes. She bit her lip when she realized that she had condemned the old man who had helped her. She stood up, hugging the old coat to her as she stared back and forth between the two men.

“You aren’t going to do anything to him, are you? I was freezing and he was just helping me. I mean, I asked him if he had a jacket and shoes. My feet were so cold and I didn’t have a jacket or any other clothes and he was…,” Rune stomped her foot and looked up at the ceiling in frustration. “You see what happens when you do things like this? You should have just left me alone! I was happy, damn it!”

“Who are you talking to?” Sergei asked standing up and setting his glass down on the bar behind him.

Rune’s eyes filled with tears of frustration. She was making a mess of things. It was all their fault. If they had just left her alone. Why did he have to buy her? Why couldn’t the stupid architect design the garden with her and the playground equipment? She would have been happy in a corner of the garden. She didn’t need much room.