Frey looked down at me. “I understand you’ve grown close to them, Finnie, and I’m pleased you have but a ship is no place for a woman.”
“I’ll be there,” I pointed out.
“And you’ll be warming my bed in my cabin and my men will know this and will know they will earn my displeasure and how that displeasure will be communicated if they do not train their attention to other things when you’re amongst them. Your girls would be distracting and when we are at sail; my men do not need distractions.”
“Actually,” I whispered, leaning in even closer to him as we walked, “I think that’s why they’re all pouty that at least one of them doesn’t get to go. Your men have been around quite a bit and the girls have noticed this…” I hesitated as Frey stopped us outside the door to our rooms, curled me into his front and I emphasized, “a lot. I think they’re hoping to get lucky.”
Frey’s lips twitched and he asked, “Get lucky?”
I nodded. “Get laid. Get tagged. Get hit. Get their skirts tossed up.” I put my hands on his chest, got to my toes and finished, “Get lucky.”
Frey threw his head back and burst out laughing as his arms came around me and he gave me a big squeeze.
Then he tipped his head down to look at me. “Even so, my wee one, my ships aren’t manned by a few men. They might not want to get that lucky and a month or more away, most of that at sea, they would court that possibility.”
I shook my head and replied, “I don’t know. Every day each has a new favorite. Yesterday, Bess’s was Max but she’s switched to Lund today. Orion was Alyssa’s favorite yesterday but she swears she’s in love with Annar today. We had a situation yesterday with both Jocelyn and Esther carrying a torch for Thad but luckily, today, Esther has switched to Stephan. Jocelyn is still hooked on Thad. In fact, if memory serves, she was hooked on Thad the day before that too.”
Hmm, and she was hooked on Thad the day before that too.
Interesting.
I forced myself to focus on our conversation and not my possible future matchmaking efforts and finished, “I’m not certain they’d mind a smorgasbord.”
Frey grinned but asked, “Is Jocelyn the dark one with the green eyes and the extremely large –”
“Yes,” I cut him off before he could finish for to say Jocelyn was busty was a serious understatement and to say Jocelyn didn’t mind displaying these attributes was another serious understatement.
I watched his grin turn into a wicked smile.
“Then, we shall inform Thad of this after we return so that he can keep his mind on the matters at hand. It’s safe to say he’s noticed your maid’s rather…” he paused then went on, “significant charms and would not mind making her feel lucky.”
I leaned deeper into him and whispered, “Excellent,” then went on to advise, “though, when he makes his move, you might tell him he should comment on her eyes, not on her rather…” I paused, “significant charms.”
Frey chuckled, gave me a nod and another squeeze then let me go, turned and opened the door.
We barely got two feet in before all four of my girls fell on me.
“Finnie!” Alyssa cried. “Where on earth have you been?”
“We’re never going to have time for her hair to dry in order that we can fashion it,” Bess announced in a dire tone as if this possible occurrence would mark the end of the world as we knew it. “Never,” she finished on a muted, despairing cry.
“Disrobe! Bath! Immediately!” Esther snapped. “Before the water gets cold.”
“It already must be cold,” Jocelyn predicted. “It’s been sitting there half an hour. We’ll have to order more brought up.”
“I’ll do it!” Bess cried and then ran, actually ran from the room.
“Uh… can you gals give me ten minutes with Frey?” I asked hesitantly for it was clear this request was not going to go down well and I was right. Esther, Alyssa and Jocelyn all reared back in horror.
“Ten minutes?” Jocelyn asked on a dismayed whisper.
“I know what ‘ten minutes with Frey’ means,” Esther muttered under her breath to Alyssa, “it means another entire afternoon of bedplay and we’ll never have time to get her hair dry to fashion it for the Gales.”
I couldn’t hold back the quick, shocked giggle or the heat that hit my cheeks.
“Esther!” I snapped but teasingly, still feeling the blush.
“Well, he is The Drakkar and he’s barely let you up for air for five days!” Esther returned and I felt my cheeks get hotter.
“Finally,” Alyssa muttered to Jocelyn and I heard Frey start chuckling.
Okay, time to put an end to this.
“Right, well, this isn’t about that, it’s about something else and I need ten minutes,” I stated then when all three opened their mouth to speak, I promised quickly, “Just ten minutes.” I lifted my hand, palm out to them. “You have my word.”
They all looked at me then they looked at Frey then they looked back at me.
Then Jocelyn started tugging the other two out saying, “Ten minutes, Finnie.”
“Make it good,” Alyssa called back as Jocelyn shoved her out the door. “It’ll have to hold you over until after the Gales.”
Frey chuckled again and I stared at the door shaking my head.
Then the door closed and it was just him and me.
That was when I got shy again so, for some lame reason, I kept staring at the door.
“Finnie, love, whatever this is, you’ve got ten minutes,” Frey reminded me, my body jerked and I turned to him.
His arms were crossed on his chest and his eyes were on me. His beautiful, gentle green-brown eyes.
Shit.
I sucked in breath.
All right, I did it, what I did wasn’t a bad thing to do, not by any stretch of the imagination, so I had to get over this ridiculous shyness and just get on with it.
So I told him, “While you were at the hunt, Mother and I went into Fyngaard. We went shopping.”
Frey didn’t speak but I could tell by the look on his face he was wondering why I imparted this not very interesting news on him for he was a man not to mention a super-cool action hero Raider who commanded dragons, and his expression made it clear both types of men, no matter what world they lived on (not that we had Raiders in my world), didn’t care about shopping.
I bit my lip, sucked in another breath and then moved to the wardrobe. Opening a door, I disappeared behind it and pulled out the big, wooden box I’d put there a few hours ago.
Then I juggled it as I turned back to him and closed the door. He was standing where he was before and he was still watching me. He continued to watch me, his eyes flicking to the box twice as I moved to the bed, set the box on it and opened the top.
Then I reached in and whispered, “While we were there, I bought you something.”
Carefully, I grasped the beautiful, large, dragon fashioned out of delicate spun glass in brilliant colors of gold (neck and feet), vermillion (head and body), violet and a deep sapphire blue that had gold flecks in it (both colors making up the wings) with the tips of its talons, horns, wings, tail and its eyes all painted a glossy onyx and I shifted to face him.
Frey had turned his body toward me as I walked through the room but now he did not move, he did not speak and his eyes did not leave the delicate piece held out in my hands for him to see.
When he continued to stare at it, face expressionless, body unmoving, I rushed to explain, “I, uh… saw it as we rode into Fyngaard, um… when we came back. It was in the window of one of the shops. I thought it was beautiful and wanted to go back and check it out but, uh… when you, um… explained you are who you are and you can, uh… do what you can do, well…” His eyes came to mine and I stopped talking when I saw not one thing in them, nothing, not happiness, not confusion, not an indication he was humoring his idiot wife, nothing so I whispered, “So, I guess I thought, you being you, you needed to have this.”
I thought m
ore than that. It was a dragon, it was beautiful, it was majestic, even in its delicacy it depicted the fierce power of the beasts, beasts he controlled. And I thought he needed to own it because, in its beauty and fierce power, it personified him.
But it was more. When I left, I wanted him to have something of me, something exquisite, something beautiful, something to remember the times we shared which already, even though I’d been with him a short time, were both of those. Definitely.
And now I was seeing this idea was totally lame.
“It’s… I’m sorry Frey,” I whispered. “Thinking about it now, it’s pretty stupid. You hunt and ride horses and sail ships. A delicate, glass dragon –”
He cut me off to order tersely, “Lay it in its box.”
I blinked at his tone and at the harsh look now on his face.
It wasn’t totally lame. He hated it.
He actually hated it.
God.
“Right.” I was still whispering but it had to be said, my heart hurt. I mean, Frey could be severe and even callous but most of the time he was gentle. It was a gift. Even if he hated it, I was surprised he wasn’t even trying to be gentle.
I laid it in its box but I no sooner had it resting in its bed of vermillion silk then Frey was at my side, flipping the lid to it.
Eek. He totally hated it.
I watched as he took the box off the bed, moved it to the dresser and set it on it, so deep in my dejection; I didn’t notice the care he took. Then I watched in vague confusion that coated my disappointment as he walked to the door and not only turned the skeleton key in the lock but also shoved one of the wooden bolts home.
Then I watched in sharper confusion, some surprise and still with disappointment as he stalked to me.
Okay, um… was he pissed?
It was just a present. A lame one, sure, but that was nothing to be angry about.
Was it?
“Frey,” I said quietly, lifting a hand as if to fend him off and stepping back only to hit bed.
I no sooner hit the bed when Frey’s body hit mine.
Then we were down on the bed with him on top of me and his fingers in my gown, pulling it up.
Ho boy.
Maybe I read him wrong.
“If needs be,” he growled, “you’ll go to the Gales with wet hair.”
Ho boy!
He lifted his hips to move his weight from me, yanked the dress up to my waist then he arched his back and yanked the dress off, forcing my arms up with it.
Ho boy!
“Frey,” I whispered as one of his hands trailed down my side then in and swiftly up to slide over my breast, up my neck to cup my jaw.
And now his eyes weren’t blank. They were fiery and that fire was in no way bad.
Okay, I read him wrong. He definitely liked it.
“No one,” he was still growling, his chest rumbling with it, a rumble so deep, it shook mine and there was a fierce expression on his face, a face that dipped to within an inch of mine, “no one, since my grandmother died when I was aged thirteen, has bought me a present. Not one gods damned person has, since her death, given one single thing to me.”
Oh my God.
That couldn’t be true. Please God, don’t let that be true.
“Honey,” I breathed, wrapping an arm around him as my other hand came up to hold him tight at his neck and I thought we really needed to stop having (fabulous) sex and start to talk, or, more to the point, he needed to stop listening to me jabbering on about everything under the sun when we weren’t having sex and I needed to start drawing things out of my husband.
“And never have I received anything so exquisite,” he went on, “save the wedding kiss you bestowed on me.”
Oh my God.
He said that, I didn’t miss it, he actually said that.
Shit, he was going to make me cry again.
“Frey,” I whispered, fighting back the tears.
His hand moved from my jaw, around my back and down over my ass where it pulled me up so my soft hips were snug to his hard ones.
Then he declared in a thick voice, “I’m bloody well taking my time thanking my wife and your maids will have to wait.”
Yes, he liked it.
“Okay,” I breathed.
He studied me, his gaze intense, as if he was memorizing ever centimeter of my face.
Then his head slanted and he kissed me.
Then he took his time thanking his wife.
And when Frey Drakkar took his time, he did it right.
* * * * *
“I’m giving you a present every day,” I muttered to the mattress, heard my husband’s chuckle then I felt his hand glide light over the curve of my behind.
Then I felt his lips brush the skin of my hip, they disappeared and I felt them touch my neck then, in my ear, he whispered, “Thank you, my wee Finnie, I’ll treasure him.”
He would treasure his dragon.
I closed my eyes, felt happiness wash through me, turned my head, opened my eyes and smiled at my husband.
“You’re welcome, my handsome husband,” I whispered back.
His eyes went soft and he smiled back, sweet and gentle, leaned in, kissed my temple then moved from the bed, throwing the covers over me.
He’d already dressed and come back to kiss me before he went to his own bath and now I watched him walk to the door. He unbolted it, unlocked it and threw it open while I sighed contentedly.
All four of my girls were standing outside.
“Have a courier deliver the box on the dresser to my ship in Sudvic without delay. Its contents are fragile so tell him if I see even the barest crack in the glass, he’ll answer to me. Also tell him to instruct Skylar that I want it mounted in my cabin before Finnie and I arrive tomorrow,” Frey commanded, all four of them stared up at him with mouths open then Esther finally nodded, peeled off and disappeared.
I smiled yet again.
He so totally treasured his dragon.
Frey turned back to me.
“I’ll be back to escort you to the Gales, wife,” he called.
I pushed lethargically up on both forearms and called back, “Awesome, husband.”
He shook his head and grinned. Then he disappeared.
My girls rushed in with Bess closing the door.
Then they all stopped four feet from the bed and stared at me.
“Hey ladies,” I greeted, totally not caring I was naked and in bed and had obviously been thoroughly and vigorously laid by my hot, virile husband who seriously liked my present.
They all kept staring at me.
Finally, Jocelyn stated, “Balls to ten minutes.”
She was right. Ten minutes were over about an hour ago.
I burst out laughing.
As I knew they would, they joined me.
Then Alyssa rushed to my dressing room and came back with my robe. I struggled to put it on under the covers as I heard water sloshing next door.
Time for a bath.
Then the Gales.
Then, tomorrow, adventure.
Chapter Eighteen
Bitter Gales
“Hurry Esther, The Drakkar has been waiting in the bedroom for twenty minutes,” Bess hissed urgently at Esther, who was twisting, curling and pinning up my hair. “I just walked through and there’s no mistaking he’s getting impatient.”
Ho boy. That probably wasn’t good.
“How much time do you need, Esther?” I asked.
“Ten to do your hair and ten to get you dressed,” Esther answered.
“Can we cut that in half?” I requested thinking of a Frey who was not hiding his impatience which could mean bad things.
“We’ll do our best,” Jocelyn decided. “Here, lift your foot. We’ll put your shoes and jewelry on and then, when Esther’s done, we can just add the dress.”
I nodded to Jocelyn and lifted my foot as she kneeled on the floor in front me and I said to Bess, “Tell him ten more minutes.”
She looked like she wanted to tell Frey he had to wait ten more minutes like she wanted her fingernails to be pulled out at the roots.
So I said gently, “Tell him I said that, honey.”
She nodded and took off and Jocelyn shoved on the other shoe while Alyssa came forward with my necklace.
It was crazy and at first I thought way over the top but honestly, being a princess, you totally needed four maidservants.
“I can’t wait to see The Drakkar’s expression when he gets a look at you,” Alyssa breathed as she carefully dodged Esther and put on my necklace.
“Me either,” Esther muttered.
“When he sees you, I hope he actually takes you to the Gales and not back to bed, like he did when he saw your underwear,” Jocelyn remarked, moving away to get my earrings, “it would be a pity we spent all that time teaching you and you didn’t get to dance.”
This would be true. The dances were fun. Though dancing with Frey was a lot more fun.
Bess came hustling in the room, eyes wide, expression slightly pale.
“He says we’ve got five minutes,” she announced.
I started softly giggling because I reckoned this was Frey being generous. He didn’t strike me as a man who liked to wait.
A few minutes later, when I’d been perfumed, my gloves smoothed on and the final touches of jewelry added, I heard Esther announce, “I’m done,” and felt her hands move away from me.
“I’ll get the dress,” Bess declared and hustled to the shimmering bolt of blood red satin scattered with jet beads that was resting over the lounge.
“Get yourself up, my princess,” Alyssa ordered and I got up and walked to the mirror.
In short order, they had my ensemble complete and it was so awesome, even if Frey was waiting, I took a moment to examine myself in the mirror and take it all in as Bess did some final spritzing with perfume behind my ears and at my cleavage (yes, royalty didn’t even spritz).
The girls had told me that any member of the aristocracy would be wearing the colors of their House. And it was Mother’s idea that I would not wear the deep red color of the House of Wilde the gold that denoted the crown of Lunwyn or my own color (as Winter Princess) of ice blue.