"Larch trees," he said. "One of the few kinds that will grow here."

In front of the manor, a lake lay frozen and glazed, reflecting the blue aurora borealis above. Stunning. Without tearing her gaze away, she asked, "You've kept this since the war?"

"Surprisingly, there's not a large market for Siberian hunting lodges. I know, I scarcely understand it myself."

Her lips curled.

"My brothers and I divided anything we won. Nikolai needed no residence, because he would have Blachmount, the family manor. This property lay in the middle of nowhere, with lands all the way to the Arctic Ocean, yet the lodge was incongruously lavish. I wanted it," he ended with a shrug.

"Why is it so lavish?"

"It belonged to a baron. He owned a nearby diamond mine."

"Do you ever stay here?"

"Sometimes I come here to hunt in the winter," he said. "Lots of game, since we're at the edge of continuous permafrost. It stays frozen almost year-round, only thaws for a month or two in the summer."

She could tell he was already feeling the cold, though as an immortal, he could withstand some seriously harsh elements. The temperature here was getting to her as well, invigorating her, even as she felt herself relaxing from the stresses of the night.

Here there was no threat from the Icere. Or the vampire. For hours, she'd been both attracted to him yet fearful at the same time, but no longer.

He wouldn't be able to bite her here. She'd be too powerful.

"I haven't seen snow in decades." Were those sideways icicles? Her heart sang - that meant some formidable storms blew here. "I can have ice, but never snow."

"You could visit cold climes."

"I'd almost rather not," she said. "Since it would be too hard to return."

"But now you can't return. You were leaving New Orleans tonight for good, weren't you?"

"My suitcases are in my car," she admitted, her mind working. Murdoch had taken her to the vastness of Siberia, which spanned a third of the northern hemisphere. She couldn't find a better place to disappear. Tracing vampires couldn't be followed. There'd be no travel arrangements for Icere assassins to unearth. No airports where she might run into Sigmund's spies.

And more, something about this place called to her. Breathing deeply of the crisp air, she said, "It's so lovely here." With the natural cold permeating every cell in her body, she felt better than she had in memory. She grew more confident, brazen even. At that moment, she decided that he didn't appreciate his Siberian paradise as much as he should. She would do a far better job of treasuring it.

Danii would be staying.

Now she just had to convince him. Should she prove unmoving and intractable as a glacier? Or should she dazzle him like a rare frost flower?

When she faced him, the look in his eyes made her decision easy. His gray irises were flickering with black, his mien showing hints of that possessiveness she'd detected earlier this eve.

I'll show him frigid... "You know, vampire, nothing feels quite so decadent as snow against my bare skin," she murmured, slipping off her satchel. "And ice can be a wicked pleasure. If I'm... na**d."

As she began unlacing her dress, he swallowed audibly. She could see his shaft thickening in his slacks. "You're getting hard. But then, you don't need me for that anymore."

He drew closer to her. "Maybe I want you for it. I'm hard - for you."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you treated me so badly."

Again, he denied nothing, just gave a sharp nod.

"But perhaps there's a way you can make it up to me."

"Let's hear it."

She tilted her head. "Murdoch, do you spook easily?"

"I haven't been known to... " He trailed off when she turned to the door, heading outside into the night, stripping as she went.

CHAPTER 22

All thoughts of I lead and women follow vanished when he tripped outside after her.

As her delighted laughter sounded in the distance, he realized he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this much excitement.

Christ, when she'd begun removing her skimpy dress... exhilaration had spiked in him, not to mention arousal.

He was so very rarely surprised by women. Now he had no idea what she'd do next.

Soon he came upon her little boots, kicked off in the snow, and he gave a low groan. Will she strip completely? Each second, his shaft was getting hotter, even as the temperature dropped.

A dozen feet farther on, he saw her discarded dress. He scooped it up, bringing it to his face to inhale her cool scent. His heart -  which had begun beating for her alone - was thundering.

When he reached her, she was lying back in a snowdrift, stretching with her arms above her head - in nothing more than a wisp of black silk panties. Her perfect br**sts were uncovered, her ni**les so stiff they looked like they ached.

His fingers went limp and he dropped her dress, hissing, "Almighty."

She laughed anew at his reaction. Not surprisingly, she had a musical laugh.

His jaw clenched. Where's my control now? Seconds before, he'd found himself thinking, I'd follow her anywhere. "No compunction about being stripped in front of me?"

"Never. Besides, you've seen every inch of me." She seemed drunk from the snow, shoveling her fingers through it, bringing handfuls up to her lips to kiss.

He turned away from her, disconcerted by how much she affected him, by how her laughter seemed to make something twist in his chest. Determined not to even glance at her until he regained some equilibrium, he sat back against a frost-coated tree trunk.

"You're angry with me, vampire?" She was walking on her knees toward him.

Don't look at her. His hands were fists by his sides. "Not angry." Bloody confused, exasperated. "No, I'm - " He broke off when she was kneeling inches before him. In a strangled voice, he said, "What the hell is happening to you?"

Here in the cold, her appearance had begun to change. She was transforming.

Her hair had become laced with ice and lighter in color, so blond it was almost white. Shining tendrils were frozen in long streams, descending to cover her br**sts or spreading out from her head as though whipped in the wind.

Her lashes were tipped with ice crystals, and more crystals formed semicircles around her eyes. Her lips were pale, bluish even, and were parted, but no smoke came from her breaths. Because they were freezing as well.

Delicate cobalt blue tracings swirled around her wrists in wispy patterns. Her eyes were bright beneath the aurora, a fiery blue matching that in the sky. They burned with an ancient knowledge.

Everything about this moment with her should feel foreign. But it... didn't. I've dreamed of this. Would she think him mad if he told her he'd seen her like this in a vision?

He'd been hard for her before, but now he was throbbing. These changes attracted him fiercely. He feared he could go off right in his pants. No, I never lose control.

Keep telling yourself that, Murdoch.

"You like?" she murmured.

"What is this?"

"This is how I'm supposed to look. And how I'm supposed to feel."

The cold clearly aroused her. His greedy gaze took in her shallow breaths, her trembling lithe body. Her little claws had turned blue and were curling sharply.

I know what that means now. At the thought of her sinking those claws into his back as he plunged inside her, he had to stifle a groan.

Behind her, lightning speared through the aurora. "The lightning is yours." He was surprised his voice was steady. Her gaze was mesmerizing.

She nodded. "Valkyrie give it off with emotion."

"I dreamed of you like this, Daniela." Connection.

When she cast him a doubting expression, he said, "Don't believe me? Those lines of blue trace along your lower back as well."

Her eyes widened. "What else did you dream?"

"I took your virginity," he blurted out.

She shivered. "And how did I react?"

"You wanted me to. You wanted... me." You let me take your neck. His eyes fixed on her supple flesh, and his fangs ached for her. He raked his tongue along one of them for a shot of blood, pretended it was hers.

"Come closer, vampire."

In a flash, he was up on his knees before her.

Without removing his coat, she began unbuttoning the shirt underneath, spreading the edges. "Will you be too cold?"

"I can take it."

Once his chest was bared, she drew closer until her lips were less than an inch away from him. She eased down his torso like this, her breaths like little bites of frost, as if she were running an ice cube along his skin. He shivered - but not from cold.

As she made her way back up, she said, "Murdoch?"

"Uh?" was all he could manage.

She leaned up to whisper right at his ear, "You're going to let me stay in this place." When she nipped his earlobe with her teeth, his c*ck jerked in his pants, his sac tightening.

Wait, what had she just said?

She moved to his other ear. "Would you like to do that?" she breathed, making him shudder with want. "I'm going to install myself - a female - in one of your properties. And I'm going to decorate it as I see fit."

Can't... form... words.

"You want me to, don't you?" She slowly gazed up, looking at him from under a lock of shining, icy hair. She nibbled her plump lip, and he was finished, defeated. He watched, bewildered, as his gloved fingertips traced the crystals at her temple.

"Yes." I can't believe I'm saying this. "You can stay." He'd always wanted to discard females - not move them into his home.

He was dimly aware that the seducer was being seduced. The player had just gotten played.

Yet he was still in the game. "You'll stay here. But first we need to seal this deal, Valkyrie. And I know just how."

"Oh?"

He took out the gloves Loa had given him. "Put these on."

CHAPTER 23

He bought me gloves? "What did you have in mind?" Danii asked as she gamely drew them on. For the first time in ages, she felt powerful. The ability to bring this massive warrior to his knees was heady.

"You'll see." His voice was rough with need, his expression one of single-minded intent.

With each second, she grew more aroused for him. Yet then the wind came up, and the snow-covered limbs raked the drafts. They soughed like music, like secrets. The sounds, the scents, teased her. Something within the dark depths of that cold beckoned...

"Daniela?"

Murdoch competed with the pull. She faced him once more, gazing up into eyes grown black with desire.

Anticipation. Danii felt it, was getting caught up in it.

When he took a lock of her hair and used a curl to stroke her nipple, she gave a cry and arched her back. The cold amplified every whisper of touch - she needed more. "Put your hands on me, vampire."

He groaned, covering both of her br**sts with his gloved palms, molding them, cupping as she panted. With a master's skill, he tormented the tips, puckering one, then the other. Once he'd made them throb, he placed a hand flat against her chest, pressing her back.

As she stretched out in the snow, he curled his fingers in her panties, dragging them from her. Yet then he merely gazed over her na**d body for long moments, his shaft bulging.

She reached forward, stroking his erection through his pants as his head fell back. Eager to use her gloves, she murmured, "Take it out, Murdoch."

"It will freeze," he said, facing her.

"If it did, then I could suckle you at my leisure."

He groaned. "Would you?"

"For hours. But for now, I'll be sure to rub you really fast, keep it warm with friction."

With a hard shake of his head, he set her hand away. "I want to see you come first. When you're like this. Want to see your face," he said, moving to kneel between her legs. "Daniela, put your arms over your head. Part your thighs for me."

Following his commands, she eased her arms back, then spread her legs.

"That's it," he rasped, his gaze riveted to her sex. He might as well have been petting her there, because her body responded.

When he licked his lips, looking desperate to taste her, her h*ps rolled. What would his kiss be like? Would he be gentle with her? Or ravenous...?

"Wider," he grated, and she let her knees fall open. With a harsh groan, he lowered his head to run his face alongside her thigh, never touching her. But she could feel his breath, making her tremble.

Over and over his breaths trailed up and down her thighs as his gloved hands fondled her br**sts. She was shameless, undulating for his mouth, nearly ready to endure the burn just for a brief touch of his tongue.

"I want to kiss you so much." His mouth was an inch from her sex, his fogging breaths tickling her clitoris. "Spread you before me and lick you till you scream for me."

"Murdoch," she moaned. "I can't take much more of this."

"Do you want me to make you come?" he asked, leaning up.

"Yes!"

"You told me the ice feels wicked against your skin." He reached to his side and plucked a long, thick icicle from a twig. "Were you hinting to me?"

His eyes were dark and fierce. Hers went wide. Ah, gods, did he plan to touch her with that?

She held her breath... until he grazed the smooth end over her cheek, making her shiver.

"It doesn't melt against your skin," he murmured, seeming fascinated as he traced it lower to her parted lips.