Shaw carries heavy pales of snow into a back room, and I follow him. He’s already taken off his layers of fur and black suede, keeping only a white tunic on. Sleeves rolled up, he adds snow to a small wooden tub with a smoldering fire underneath.
“Thank you.” My voice is small against the snow splashing into the tub. Over his shoulder, he catches me staring and puts the bucket down. Dipping his hand in, he shakes his fingers with excess water and walks over to where I stand.
“I didn’t think you’d run off in the dead of night to go look for a bow. Are you always this impatient?” he asks, and my cheeks redden.
“I am not impatient. I need to find a way to stop this marriage and Harald.”
My body is at odds with the cold and the heat from the fire below the tub. I shrug out of my coat and try again to take my frozen tunic or pants off. My fingers shake so badly I want to scream, but he’ll think I really don’t have any patience.
“Rasha, let me help you.” His voice is soft like he is speaking to Aslaug. Letting my limbs go slack at my sides, I look off to the side of the room, trying to will all the arousal out of my blood. He takesa knife from the little table near his cot and finds the ties. I feel his eyes on mine, and I stare back. Without looking at my body, he cuts the ties and loosens my waistband.
I find the edge of my pants and shimmy out of them, breaking the palpable hunger between us. No one said I had to stay away from the touch of men, I only have to be a virgin, which is becoming less and less of a focal point. I don’t need to be a virgin to wield a bow that might not even exist.
“Do you need help with the rest of it?” he asks, and my willpower dwindles.
“Go on,” I whisper. This time I close my eyes as his rough hands trace the edge of my skin under the long, wet tunic. Raising my arms above my head, I allow him to pull the whole wet top over my body.
Being naked, wholly free, in front of him is a moment I might treasure till they light my corpse on fire. How can a sane man be this honorable? Taking my elbow in his calloused hand, he opens my arm to see the cut I made with my own knife, causing me to flinch.
“What did you do?” His question is quiet. Sudden nerves spread over my chest like I’ve made a mistake. Looking down at the cut above the crook of my arm my soggy skin still trickles tiny drops of blood.
“I made an offering,” I reply. Whatever he wants to say comes out in a grunt, and he squeezes his hand around my skin to stop the bleeding. I am no longer aware of the difference between pain and pleasure.
My pink nipples harden in the drafty bedroom. We are too close. With his hands on the small wound, my desire for him to put his hands elsewhere is almost too much to bear. He lets out a ragged breath, forcing me to come to my senses. Stepping around him, I move into the steaming tub, thankful to be able to hide under the water.
“You could have died out there. I told you before I would take you. Can’t you trust me?” The concern in his voice makes no sense. I don’t know anything about him other than he cares for a creaturegifted to him by the gods. I don’t even know why the gods favor him.
“What do you care if I die? And why should I trust you? For all I know, you could tell Harald everything you’ve seen me do tonight and be rewarded. You are a free man. At any time, you can take your cat and leave.”
“I am not free,” he bites out and comes to the edge of the tub so we can properly glare at each other.
“That makes two of us,” I challenge, bringing my forearms to the same edge, and we are once again touching. His tense thumb brushes over my ice-burned cheek like he’s fighting to regain his composure but wants to feel me against his skin all the same.
“You have a clan that admires you and women who look up to you. Stop being so reckless.”
“So rescuing your cat and trying to find a relic from the gods is reckless?”
He grinds his jaw together. “You’re the Maiden of Yule. Act like it.”
“Don’t Maiden me. I saved myself to be worthy of being a huntress. To serve the goddesses. And all my prayers, all my sacrifices, have gone unheard. That’s why I went out on the fjord tonight.”
“Your prayers have not fallen on deaf ears. If you want a reason why I am fond of you, or why for the next eight days we should trust each other, I don’t have one. But fate is foolish.” He stretches to stand and adjusts his trousers to hide his hard cock bulging against the seam.
“Shaw, you don’t have to go.” I don’t know what I plan on doing if he stays, but sending him away feels painful.
He holds his position in the doorway, finally gazing down at me. “I’ll be right outside,” he replies, taking his time to drink me in before leaving.
The water is exactly what I needed to thaw my frozen muscles. Rubbing my thighs and arms, my thick blood starts to flow again, and turns my skin a rosy pink under the steam. I don’t feel the least bit ashamed that he saw me naked. Smiling to myself at how hardhe must be as he waits, I decide I don’t need to wash my hair. Getting it wet will only make me colder, so I lean my shoulders on the wooden edge and picture the fjord.
He knew where the tomb was because he found me. Which means, like I thought earlier, there is something of value under the ice. Settling in my new found satisfaction, I close my eyes and picture his hand cupping my breast instead of my arm, imagining the feeling of his calloused hands over my sensitive nipples instead of the warm water in the bath.
As much as there is a unique tie keeping us together, I cannot understand if it is fate guiding me to him or cruel temptation showing me I am on this journey alone. Jorvik is obsessed with forcing me to marry Harald, and Harald expects me to have my virtue intact. Fuck all the men who think I will be so easily pushed around.
9
SHAW
Imust have lost all common sense bringing her back here and taking off her clothes. Falling for a woman,sleeping with a woman, is an idea I have long banished. I take a deep breath and grip the forge, letting the fire remind me of my task and purpose.
