I think nothing of it at first. Twigs and branches break all the time in the wilderness. Leaves fall, and animals make noise. The river will never stop flowing just because it is loud, so I don’t expect the forest to turn off when the last rays of the sun disappear.
Closing my eyes, I let the sound of nature drift me into a happy place. The wind picks up. It smells wet and feels a little colder than normal, bringing the promise of rain. Just as I’m about to drift off into my daydream again, another twig snaps and another, and the crunching of leaves bounces off the silence of the night.
The only person that knows where I can be is Thyra. No one knows of this place, and if my father did, he would never come here, because it would remind him of my mother. So, whoever or whatever is in the woods, is not a friend, but foe.
I debate on asking who is there, when I think better of it and keep my mouth closed. I hide in an overhang of the riverbed, hiding myself from any wandering eyes that might see me, even though I can’t see them. I’m sure they have gotten their fill, watching me float on the river, but I won’t be a subject of entertainment for anyone.
I wait, seeing if my mind is becoming paranoid and making up sounds because I’m alone… in the dark… which may not be the best place to be while naked. I cover my mouth with my hand, trying to cover the chattering of my teeth. Now that my body is cool and my orgasm faded, the cold of the water has more of a nip. I want to get out and put my clothes back on and get home to the warmth of my bed.
I’d usually stay out until the early hours of the morning, but the eerie feeling of someone watching me won’t go away.
Another twig snaps.
I stay quiet, waiting for another sound. It can be an animal, but usually all my forest friends are silent at this hour. Another twig snaps and I glide to the other side of the river, watching for any kind of movement. My heart pounds against my chest as I wait to see if I’m actually not alone in the woods.
Chapter Six
Grim
My cock throbs in my pants as I watch this beautiful woman swim. I’ve never seen a creature so stunning, so magnificent, so ethereal. Her bare canvas glowing under the moonlight reminds me of milk, so creamy, so smooth. Her long dark hair fans around her, and I picture the long locks wrapping around my fingers as I slide into her.
Her moans caught my attention a half-mile back. She is louder than she thinks; that I know for sure because one doesn’t come out here for noise, they come out here for silence. But the sexual sounds floated right to me, casting a spell over my senses, and I lost all control. I followed the musical notes like a siren’s call, walking aimlessly to the object creating such a distraction.
When I saw her, I hid behind a tree, watching her bare body slice through the water as she swam. Now, the air stirs, and she stands in the water and peers out into the shadow of the night. She senses me. Her eyes are round and alert, wondering if someone is out here watching her. Her body knows I’m here, but her mind, her mind is trying to convince her everything is fine.
Everything is, but I want to see how strong her flight or fight instincts are. Will she listen to her soul, or will her mind possess her?
She dunks her head in the water, slicking her dark locks hair back. Her lips shine from the water, and from here, they are plump and red. Her nose is small and straight, and the bones of her cheeks are high, chiseled, and giving her face a small, delicate appearance. I stare down at my hands and see how large they are. They will engulf her if I ever have the pleasure of touching such a magnificent creature.
She swims to the side that I’m on and hides under an overhang caused by the riverbed. I smirk, she knows she isn’t alone. Good girl. My heart soars, knowing she doesn’t run from a threat. It’s brave and courageous. She has a heart of a warrior, but the skin of the kind of woman that knows how to crush a man’s heart.
“I know someone is out there.” Her harmonic voice glides over to me and wraps around my hard cock. Just the sound of her makes me dig my fingers against the bark of the tree, scratching my skin until it bleeds. “I’m not afraid of you.”
Oh, you should be.
She swims back out to the middle of the waterway, staring at me with narrowed eyes. I know she isn’t staring directly at me, considering she can’t see me, but still, the strength in her eyes nearly knocks me off my feet.
I wonder if this is the King’s daughter. I don’t see him letting his daughter out so late, but the rumors surrounding Sassa tell me she doesn’t care much for rules. Brown hair, beautiful, indignant. The woman in the water checks off every box.
“It’s very rude to watch a woman in the nude. Come out and show yourself.” She holds her chin up high, not cowering away from the threat of me. “Don’t be a coward.”
If anyone else said that to me, I’d slice their throat, but since it is her, I smirk, running my hand over the scruff on my chin. I step out from the tree and watch her as her eyes widen with fear, but she doesn’t attempt to run. I step out from the shadows and reveal myself. She crosses her arms over her breasts, but her mouth opens in awe or fright. I can’t decide which.
I know what she sees. She sees a man over six-foot-five, long hair, a bare, scarred chest from war, and a heavy sword on my hip. I take the holster and undo the leather, and the weight from the sword allows it to fall to the grass-covered ground in a swift motion. I kick off my sandals and pants, leaving them in a pile along with my sword.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asks, but there is something in her voice that makes her confidence waiver. Her eyes linger on my cock as it sways back and forth as I walk to the edge of the riverbed. Her cheeks turn a pretty shade of pink, and now that I’m close enough, I can see the color of her eyes. They are a deep blue, reminding me of the mystery of the ocean.
“I’m going for a late-night swim. I hope that’s alright.” The low baritone of my voice becomes lower as I stare at her. My ass hits the damp ground as I sit on the edge, placing my feet in the water before submerging myself waist deep. The top of my cock still peeks out over the surface, and even with the lower temperature surrounding me, my length doesn’t seem to wane. At least, not in her presence.
“Excuse me, but I was here first. You can go down the river and have a swim,” she replies, as if this is her territory. Please, if she only really knew just how untrue that will soon be.
“I think I’ll stay. I happen to like the view.” I lick my lips, loving how a spark of anger clouds her eyes.
“How dare you! Who do you think you are?”
“Just a man trying to cool off after a long day. What? Don’t know how to share?”
“I can share just fine, but not with a strange man who lurks in the woods, watching a woman swim.” She chuffs like she just won this round. It is cute that she thinks she put me in my place.
I always know my place, and right now, it is here with her. “I was. Perhaps, you should think twice about swimming in the nude if you don’t wish for someone to watch.”
“I don’t expect anyone to watch!” she hisses, her dark blue eyes sparking with annoyance.
I toss my head back and laugh. The tips of my hair hit the water and dance on the surface. I strut over toward her, expecting her to back away, but she stands tall, the water wrapping around her hips as her hands cover her breasts. I can see the succulent curve underneath, and I must fight my hand not cup the perfect mounds. “You know what I think?”
“I don’t care what you think, you… you… foul heathen!” she spits.
As I get closer, prowling at her like a beast cornering its prey, she fumbles, covering her breasts better, and I get a quick peek of a ruby red nipple before her fingers cover it up. I lower my head until my lips are teasing the outer shell of her ear. “I think you wanted to be seen.”
Her breath hitches, and her hands shove me back. “How dare you insinuate that I’m some type of harlot!”
“Oh, I’m not saying that at all. I just think there is a part of you that wants to be wa
tched.” I let my eyes roam down her body and lock onto the perky, round breasts that she isn’t covering any more. Goosebumps prickle over the smooth, pale flesh surrounding them, telling me she is cold, or she is just as affected by me as I am her.
“You know nothing about me.” The determination in her voice weakens as I lift my hand, brushing her hair behind her shoulder so that I can see all of her.
“That will change,” I say, tracing the ridge of her collarbone. “What’s your name?” I ask, watching her chest rise and fall from my touch.
She swallows, and the bob of her throat catches my attention. I want to lick that spot, bite it, mark it as mine. “Sassa,” she says, shock in her eyes as if she can’t believe the name that came from her mouth.
I smile with victory, knowing it is her. My future wife. “That is a beautiful name.” I let my finger slide down the middle of her breastbone, enjoying the smooth skin against the calluses on my hand.
“And you?” she asks with a lick of her lips.
I know if I say my name, she will flee. “Hohlt,” I say, not lying, but not telling the entire truth.
She pulls back and narrows her eyes, sauntering around me in a circle. Her eyes bore into mine, and she locks gazes with me as we stare at each other. My pulsing cock begs me to take her. My bloods ignites with fire from the lust pumping through my extremities as she studies me. I’ve never met such a daring woman.
“I think you’re lying.”
I grunt, nodding my head as I back her against the riverbed. “I think you are, too.” Both of us are not being honest. I know how much she is enjoying this, and she knows I’m hiding an important truth, but none of that matters. All that matters is how I feel when I’m around her. I expected lust. I expected the driving need to fuck her because of how her beauty enthralls all of man.
What I didn’t expect was the urge to take care of her, to provide for her, to make her mine in every way. She is supposed to be a means to an end, the kind that allows me to become more powerful, but being here with her, staring into the jewels of her eyes, I know she is supposed to be mine. My selfish desire to gain control of the North has turned against me.
Now the only desire I have is to possess her.
“It’s isn’t very gentlemanly of you to call a lady a liar,” she says, a light of desire and lust glittering in her eyes. A drop of water drips off her bottom lip, and my mouth twitches to taste her.
I push my hand through the long locks of her dark hair. Whatever this is between us, it is a divine spark, something bigger, something that means more than just gaining power. It’s bigger than the both of us. I lean forward, bringing her mouth mere inches from mine. “I’m no gentleman, and you are no lady.”
I seize her mouth in a kiss and groan from how soft her lips are against my rough ones. She fights me for a moment, but just as instantly, she gives into me, into us. She lets go of the unknown to swim in waters of fate. Her breasts push against my chest, and our nipples rub against each other. I breathe a shaky breath down her throat from the wild sensation.
She wraps her hands around my neck and meets my tongue with hers. She doesn’t battle me for dominance. She lets me stroke her tongue every time I kiss her mouth. She straddles my thick girth, hugging her slick folds around the heavy muscle. I growl, wanting to plunge my way into her hot, virgin heat. I can taste how untouched and inexperienced she is, and it only makes the primal part of me more animalistic.
My cock throbs with need as I bring the kiss to an end. But I pull back.
I lay my forehead against hers, gasping for breath. “I’ll come back for you, Princess,” I whisper.
I hear footsteps in the distance. I slink back against the water and lift myself up on the ledge, grabbing my belongings and vanishing into the night like a wayward dream.
Sticks stab the bottoms of my feet and leaves stick to my skin as I meander back to Einarr. When I left him earlier tonight, he was sleeping by the fire, snoring loud enough to wake the dead. Hopefully, he is still asleep because I do not want to tell him how I need the plan to change. I don’t want him to swoop in and take her.
I want her to choose to be with me.
The farther I get from her, the more a sense of loss encompasses me. I left something with her that I have never given to anyone before.
A piece of my soul.
Chapter Seven
Sassa
“What about this one?” Thyra asks as she twirls around in another dress. She has a birthday feast planned in a few months, and her father told her to go into the village to get any dress she wanted. She had squealed with excitement and rushed to get me early this morning.
And interrupted a wonderful dream about a tough warrior’s kiss.
I flip a page of my book and nod. “It looks beautiful.”
“You aren’t even looking, Sassa! I need your help. I want to look better than I have ever looked.”
“You are always beautiful, Thyra.” I look up from my book and crinkle my nose when I see the awful blue dress that does nothing for her curves. “Except in that. I can’t believe you would even try that on,” I say with a laugh.
“Well, if you’d help me instead of pretending to read, then maybe I wouldn’t be such a wreck right now.”
“Why are you so nervous? We have celebrated your birthday before.” I stand and set my book down on the stool. There is one dress that catches my eye for her. It’s a deep plum color that reminds me of wine.
“You don’t understand,” she insists.
“I don’t because you won’t tell me what is going on.”
“I’m twenty-three, Sassa.”
“What’s that have to do with anything?” I ask, setting the dress inside of a stall where she changes for privacy.
“It’s old. No one wants me because of how I look. I’m doomed to be alone, Sassa. And my father has invited eligible men to see if one will take my hand.” Her voice hitches, and a tear drops down her cheek, breaking my heart.
I have been so selfish today. My mind has been preoccupied by my one first kiss. I’m starting to wonder if that man ever existed. When he stepped from behind the tree and into the clearing, my lungs forgot to breathe. It was like he was plucked from my every fantasy. When his lips met mine, it was my first ever kiss.
His mouth branded me. And when he left me, staring at nothing but air, the idea that he was only a dream made more sense.
A dream I need to forget, because my best friend is real, in front of me, and has never left me with questions. “Old? Are you mad? You aren’t old, Thyra. You’re young. You have your entire life to laugh and love and to bear children. Why the rush?”
She sniffles and takes a look around to make sure no one is watching, then grabs me by my dress and yanks me into the privacy room. She wipes her tears and turns around. “Help me untie this,” she says.
I let out a heavy sigh and untie the ribbons in the back. “You didn’t answer my question. Why the rush, Thyra?”
“I’m not like you, Sassa.”
I shuck the dress off her shoulders and help her step out of the dreadful gown. I lay it on the seat in the corner and grab the dark plum dress.
“Arms up,” I say, pulling the dress over her head. Once the hem is dragging on the ground, I circle around her and start tying it again. “Of course you aren’t like me. How boring would this friendship be if you were? You are sweet, caring, smart, and you love to make people happy. Me? I’m selfish. I don’t really care about others’ feelings much. You’re better than me, and that is why I love you so much.”
“That is kind, but that is not what I mean,” she sighs, placing her hand on her stomach as I tug the ribbons tighter.
“I don’t understand, then.”
She spins around, shooting hurt and sadness from her eyes. “I’m not beautiful like you. I’m not thin like you. I have this.” She waves her hands down in front of her. “No man wants me like they want you. And while you might not want a man, I do. I want love, but do you kno
w how it feels to never be looked at? To know a chance at love will never exist for me? Why would a man even want to look at me?” she asks right before tilting her head down to break eye contact with me.
“Thyra, you can’t really believe those things.” My own emotion catches in my throat with how she views herself and her future.
“I do, Sassa. I love you. But standing next to you is such a realization. I’ll never have love. Only obligation to have his children, or something.”
I wrap my hands around her arms and shake her. “I don’t ever want to hear you say something like that again! Do you understand? I can’t believe you think that. You are the most beautiful woman I know, inside and out. And a man who wouldn’t want you is a fool. Who cares that you have a little more curve than most women? You aren’t most women. You’re better than them.”
She lifts her wet lashes, and her bright green eyes swim in her tears. “Really?”
“Really.” I use my thumb to wipe the tears from her reddened cheeks. “I hate that you feel like that. It kills me. If a man isn’t kind to you in the way you deserve, you don’t need that man. I do not want you to ever settle, Thyra. No matter how lonely you get, I know it will be hard, but you deserve the best. Plus, you will always have me,” I say with a tug of the dress, making the seam of the waist drop right above her hips.
I stand back to get a good look at the dress I picked out and smile. It is perfect. Her long red hair flows down her back in perfect waves. The purple makes her green eyes stand out, and her lashes hold a darker red hue to them. The dress has a low-cut neckline with long sleeves. It tapers at the waist, showing the smooth dip beneath her ribs. The material poofs out at her hips and flows into a long train behind her. It looks absolutely stunning.
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