Nordic Heroes: In the Market and a Wholesale Arrangement by Day Leclaire Page B

surrendering to him. She reveled in his strength and skill, exhilarating in the knowledge she could arouse him as thoroughly as he could her. It would seem she, too, had weapons.
    I always win! His words returned to taunt her. But he wasn’t the only winner in this contest.
    Unless he gained Cornucopia.
    The thought intruded on her euphoria. She remembered what had happened with the bananas. He hadn’t lost that confrontation, because bananas weren’t his ultimate objective. Cornucopia was. And now? Could his ultimate objective still be Cornucopia?
    With a soft moan, she ended the kiss, turning her head before he could find her mouth again. She couldn’t think straight. She couldn’t even breathe properly. Nothing worked the way it should. Not her brain, not her nervous system . . . not her heart.
    He frowned. “What’s wrong? Look at me, Jordan. Talk to me.”
    “You know what’s wrong,” she whispered. “It’s not bananas you want this time, either. Is it?”
    He laughed, frustration edging the sound. “You’re speaking Cletus-ese. Speak English.”
    She stared at him, feeling hauntingly alone. “Which do you want? Me or Cornucopia?”
    He didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Both.”
    “How do I know that? How do I know once you have Cornucopia, you won’t . . .” She couldn’t say the words.
    “Drop you like a hot potato?”
    “Don’t be flip!”
    He sighed. “You don’t know. You’ll have to trust me.”
    She thought of Thor and Andrea, and realized Rainer asked the impossible. Carefully, she moved toward the door, away from the warmth of his arms. “That’s the problem. I don’t trust you.” His face darkened in anger and she shivered. She had choices to make that didn’t allow her to consider his feelings. She couldn’t even take her own into consideration.
    She stared at him. “I won’t play games with you anymore,” she announced. “No more challenges or battles or Norse myths and legends. I want you to leave Cornucopia alone. I want you to leave my uncle alone. But most of all, I want you to leave me alone.”
    He didn’t say a word. There were no words left to be said. She opened the car door and escaped, slamming it closed. Only then did she realize she’d left a chunk of her heart in his keeping.

    L ate that night, she walked through the store, restless and filled with an uncharacteristic dread. She glanced around. How would her battle with the Thorsens change things? And what would happen to Cornucopia and Uncle Cletus should she misjudge any phase of this battle? She touched her double-sided nickels. It would take more than a coin trick to beat the Thorsens.
    Thor, even more than Rainer, would be a merciless adversary, mainly because he didn’t care about her or Uncle Cletus or, for that matter, Cornucopia. Though why she believed Rainer did she couldn’t say, especially when she suspected his motives for kissing her.
    She paused in front of the pictures of her parents and stared at their smiling faces. She’d tried so hard to assume their role. What would they have done in her place? How would they have tackled the Thorsens? Would they have continued to fight, or would they have bowed to the inevitable?
    She stopped herself cold. Bowed to the inevitable? Her lips curved into a humorless smile. The Thorsens would be delighted at the success of their tactics. One day in their company and she’d practically given up. The thought infuriated her. A lot.
    “Jordan?” Her uncle’s voice came from the far side of the store. “Are you there, honey?”
    “Right here, Uncle Cletus.”
    He approached, his brows raised in bewilderment. “What are you doing all alone in the dark? Is something wrong?” He frowned. “That Thorsen, did he—”
    Jordan crossed to his side and put her arms around his shoulders, hugging him. “No, no. He didn’t say or do anything that hasn’t been said or done already.” She pulled back and met his concerned gaze, giving him a