But he understood they were catering to their vision of a Viking, and he found it endearing.And if he was honest, who didn’t like a slow-roasted turkey leg?
Chuckling, Harvey sat up straight, patting his stomach.“If they keep feeding us like this, I’m going to need a diet.Man, those two can cook.”
She reached down and stroked Dude’s head before he jumped into her arms and cuddled against her chest.A move Harvey envied.“They can.”Then she studied him.“Am I interrupting man-hammer time?”
“Not at all,” MC offered.“I was just on my way inside.The night’s gone brisk, has it not?I’m a bit chilled.Thus, I shall see you at dinner.”Then he disappeared, leaving behind the silence between them.
Taking the chair opposite Harvey, Dom settled in, with Dude curled into her neck.“How did you end up with a fox for a pet?”she asked, letting her cheek rest against the top of his head with a smile.“He’s such a sweetheart.”
Odin’s teeth, she was beautiful in the light from the firepit, her creamy olive skin glowing, her hair wild and falling down her back in waves of silky black, after the hot shower she’d declared she needed.
His voice went gravelly deep at the memory.“He was a gift from a Viking, long ago.”
She cocked her head, her almond-shaped blue eyes curious.“Long ago?”
“He belonged to a Viking who was married to a sorceress.She gave Dude eternal life—so I’d never be alone.”
Dom blinked, making him laugh.“Forgive me, but I’m still getting used to the idea of immortality.Was she worried you’d be alone?”
“Every woman in my life is worried I’ll be alone.All my single friends are worried I’ll end up alone,” he muttered, taking a sip of the mulled wine Tottington had poured earlier.
Snuggling into Dude, Dom sighed.“You know, I’ve never asked, I’ve been so focused on my relationship with MC, but what do you do for a living when you’re immortal, Thor’s weird offspring?”
Harvey leaned forward with a laugh at the nickname Nina had given him, if only to get a whiff of the scent she was wearing.Subtle and fruity with a hint of musk, it made his mouth water and his fingers tingle to touch her.
“I build boats.Emergency medical boats for third-world countries.For here, too, but a lot of my work goes to aid war-torn areas.”
“Wow,” she whispered, her eyes capturing his.“That’s incredible.What made you choose a career like that?”
It had been a multitude of things, mostly that he was acutely attuned to working with his hands and creating things.“Service.I saw a need when I was volunteering in Sri Lanka and Nepal.I’ve always been handy.I love working with wood.That’s how it started, anyway.Then, as the years went by, I branched out with newer and newer technology, until I started my own company about ten years ago called, Bátar.Which is the wordboatin Norse.”
“You volunteered in Sri Lanka?”she asked softly.“Who has the pure heart here?”
He smiled at her.“I don’t know how altruistic it was.I mostly did it to escape Asgard and my parents, and to see the world beyond where I grew up.”
She nodded, her shiny dark curls spilling down over her shoulders past her breasts.“Most people who want to escape their parents go to college and spend their nights at toga parties.They don’t volunteer to build boats.”
“Huts.It was actually huts and irrigation lines.Lots of digging,” he said with a wink.“But it taught me to appreciate how fortunate I was to live in a place like Asgard, and I learned a lot about connecting with people, working as a team.”
Dom twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, her face thoughtful.“So you decided to take those skills, ditch Asgard, and live here with the rest of us?”
He shrugged his shoulders.“I didn’t ditch Asgard, per se.Asgard is rich in many things, but there are places here in Midgard that aren’t so lucky.And because my father insisted we make ourselves useful, and I didn’t agree with his idea ofwhatwas useful, we made a compromise…and here I am.”
She snuck a peek at him over Dude’s head.“By useful, you mean you didn’t want to take on the responsibility of MC, so you’re making it up in other ways?”She asked the question so cautiously, he almost laughed out loud.
Dom was always very careful with her words, and he was sure she was treading lightly so as not to call him a chickenshit.But it wasn’t that he was afraid of wielding MC.It was that he simply couldn’t—no matter how hard he tried.If that was subconscious reluctance, so be it, but he’d never been able to overcome it.
“You won’t insult me by thinking my reluctance to take ownership of MC is because I’m weak or afraid.Maybe I am, but what it boils down to is this: I’ve never been able to pick him up.My father claims it’s psychological, and maybe it is.Maybe my beef with my father keeps me from taking the position he abandoned, the way he abandoned us.”
Wow, had he just said that out loud?
Jesus Christ.Talk about oversharing.
Dom’s gaze was thoughtful.“You’re angry with your father for his infidelities, and you should be.Here’s something I’ve been wondering, and it really has nothing to do with you being weak or anything like that, because I don’t at all think you’re weak for not being able to pick up MC.It has to do with your father.How can he be pure of heart if he cats around?Is infidelity pure of heart?”
Harvey had once wondered the same thing, and the answer was both simple and complicated, as explained by his old friend, MC.“No.Infidelity isn’t pure of heart, but how he handles the good of his people is.My father, philander that he presents, also knows how to navigate tough waters when it comes to making decisions for the good of the world at large.He’s wise.His head is level.He’s not rash.He wants what’s best for his people—yourpeople.That levelheadedness prevails, taking precedence over any affair he might indulge.”
Dom popped her strawberry-colored lips, tucking deeper into her puffy jacket as the firelight played over her soft cheeks.“That makes sense, I suppose.”Then she cocked her head.“Listen, how about we don’t talk about MC and duties and infidelity anymore tonight?My eyeballs are swimming from all the information in my head about Asgard and Midgard and my newly acquired enemies.Let’s talk about normal stuff.As if we’ve just met, and I don’t hold the fate of the world in my hands.”
