“Oh? You mean I didn’t catch you kissing Bera the day after I caught you with Aife in your arms in the forest, when the two of you did your best to convince me you had done nothing wrong? Well, I’m done listening to your lies. You will not treat my sister with such disrespect!”
This time the punch to the gut could not be stopped.
“Yes, you did catch me, but it doesn’t mean a thing,” Torsten gasped, doubling over.Sorðinn, but the man could hit!
“That’s what men always say. I’m not sure Bera would agree with you. She seemed?—”
“Not with Bera, I meant with Aife.”
For a moment Moon looked as if he was about to choke on his own tongue. “Youbastard!”
By the gods, he was not explaining himself very well. Torsten groaned. He’d just all but told Moon that his sister didn’t mean anything to him. Which was not quite the truth, at least not in the way his friend would understand, at least not in the way he’d meant, at least not?—
Blast it all, this was precisely why he had gone to Bera, to understand where he stood where Aife was concerned, to make sense of the new development between them and to see if he could function like a man. Look what a mess his stupid idea had landed him in. He was more confused than ever about his feelings for Aife, he’d made an enemy of Bera and he’d made his best friend hate him.
Guilt and shame sliced through him.
Three years ago when Moon and Eyja had come back from war together and he’d seen something had changed between them, Torsten had taken it badly. Though he was not proud of his reaction now that the two of them were married and blissfully happy, at the time it had been an unwelcome shock for him and his two brothers to imagine their friend in bed with their little sister.
No doubt Moon would be feeling the same when he thought of him and Aife together, which explained the blow to the stomach. Except that it was completely different. Torsten had not slept with Aife, nor was he likely to. Unfortunately.
The thought caused him to inhale sharply. He wasn’t supposed to entertain such notions about his longtime friend!
“Listen,” he said, before his thoughts got tangled any further—and Moon could hit him again. “Please, go and speak to Aife. This was her idea, she’ll be able to explain it better than I can.”
For the longest moment Moon stared at him, as if trying to see to the bottom of his soul. Apparently what he saw there satisfied him, at least for now.
“Very well, I will,” he said darkly, “because you’re my friend and I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. But make no mistake. If she tells me that she is serious about you and I see that you’re just toying with her, I will make sure you wish you had kept your hands to yourself.”
“I sawTorsten kissing Bera this morning.”
The unexpected words, or rather the pain they provoked inside her, were a shock to Aife. Torsten was kissing other women? But, of course, he was. She chided herself for her first, instinctive jealous reaction, a reaction she was not entitled to. Why would he not kiss other women? It was not as if they were really involved; he didn’t owe anything to her.
She stared at her brother, careful to not betray any dismay because it was obvious that Moon was trying to find out what was between her and Torsten and would not take it too well to be told that they had done things they were not supposed to do. The day before, he had caught them in each other’s arms, and they had done their best to convince him nothing untoward had happened. He had allowed them to get away with it, but apparently he still had his doubts and he wanted to make sure he’d not been made a fool out of. It was therefore vital she convinced Moon he didn’t need to beat Torsten to a pulp for taking advantage of her.
“Did you?” she asked, doing her best to sound unconcerned. For good measure, she shrugged, even though her chest was strangely hollow at the idea of him kissing Bera. The woman was tall and curvy, everything she was not. The fact played with her insecurities in the worst way. Was Edita right, then? Were men incapable of seeing past her lack of womanly curves? “What of it? He can do whatever he wants, kiss whomever he wants. I care not.”
“How am I supposed to believe that, when only yesterday the two of you were?—”
“We told you, Torsten and I are nothing to one another,” she cut in, before he reminded her of the delicious kiss they had shared. “It is no lie. We are only friends, he can do what he wants. He hasn’t promised anything to me, and I certainly didn’t promise anything to him.”
Her brother appeared more confused than ever, which was perhaps understandable. “Then why the hell did you kiss him?”
Damnation, she had wondered if he had seen the kiss but it seemed that he had, after all. There was only one thing she could think of to placate her brother and protect Torsten. She would have to tell him the truth.
“If you must know, I wanted him to help me get the man I truly want.”
“And who might that be?”
“Sven,” she answered reluctantly. If Moon objected to her and Torsten being involved because he was his friend, then he would object to Sven, for the same reason.
But instead of a roar of outrage, an incredulous scoff answered her. “How on earth is kissing Torsten going to help you woo Sven, or any other man for that matter?”
Yes. That was the question. She had already concluded herself that her plan was a poor one. Still, she had no choice but to answer and expose the whole ludicrousness of it. “I thought that if Sven saw that other men found me desirable, he would start to take an interest in me.” It sounded rather ridiculous, now that she was saying it out loud and she dreaded to consider what Moon must think.
“Yesterday you and Torsten were in the middle of the forest, where no one could see you. I only happened upon you by accident, and Sven was nowhere to be seen!” Moon exclaimed. “What good could that possibly do?”
“Yes, well, yesterday we were in the forest but generally we… I try to?—”
