A Midwinter Fantasy

by Leanna Renee Hieber; L. J. McDonald; Helen Scott Taylor

  Why had he waited until she was about to leave to mention their link? Sonja wound her bag strap around her fingers. “I know we have an affinity. I sense you in my mind.” She glanced up to gauge his reaction.

  He gave her an arrested glance. “I’ve always tried to be subtle, so you don’t notice.”

  “Oh, I noticed. I feel as if I’ve been linked with you on some level my whole life.”

  “Sonja, ástin mín.” Vidar halted, ignoring the people walking past them, and pulled her close. He curved a hand around her cheek. “I pledged to protect you when you were a baby, and I’ll always be there for you when you need me, even if we never meet again.”

  Tears filled her eyes. His sadness whispered through her and suddenly she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave. Her job and the few possessions she had in London didn’t matter. What mattered was people. The only person she had in London was an aunt who’d never cared much for her—and she’d even started to wonder if Una really was her aunt.

  She gripped the front of his coat. “Vidar . . .” She closed her eyes and pressed her face against his neck. Vidar had always been the most important person in her life, even when she had only known him as the guardian angel in her mind. But what would Odin do to her if she stayed?

  Vidar kissed her hair, pressed his lips to her ear. “Although I want you to stay, if you are able to leave, you must go. Be free of my father.”

  The announcer called her flight. Desperation tore through Sonja. She didn’t want to leave Vidar but she didn’t want to stay either. This was so unfair.

  “Sonja.” Vidar eased her away from him. “Time to go.” He kissed her hard, and she kissed him back, angry with fate for letting her find her angel while making it impossible for her to stay with him. She infused the kiss with all the love and churning emotions in her heart to show him what she couldn’t put into words. He pulled away. “Remember: any pain and you come back to me.”

  Her heart thudded as she lined up to present her boarding pass. She did a mental audit of the health of her body. Apart from the hollow ache in her chest, she felt no discomfort. She glanced back at Vidar when she passed through the gate.

  He shouted, “I’ll be right here.”

  Sonja’s breath faltered as she followed the line through the boarding tunnel. She felt light-headed and part of her longed for pain, for any reason to stop her boarding. When she reached the plane door, an air steward smiled at her and checked her boarding pass, directing her to her seat. Then she stepped over the threshold.

  A burning shaft of agony ran up her arm, arrowed along her limbs, burrowed into her chest and belly. The bag dropped from her fingers and she stumbled, collapsed. Someone shouted. Hands gripped beneath her arms. The heels of her boots bumped over the metal threshold as she was pulled back into the tunnel.

  The reassuring sense of Vidar’s presence flooded her mind, blocked the pain. Strong arms surrounded her; then everything went blissfully dark.

  Chapter Six

  Sonja woke on a bed snuggled beneath a heavy quilt. Her head pounded and her body ached as if she’d been used as a punching bag. A rustle of sound caught her attention. She turned over warily and opened an eye. A log fire crackled, casting dancing patterns of light over a forest green sofa and honey-colored wood.

  Where was she? She tracked back in her mind and remembered boarding the plane. Her breath hissed in as an echo of pain flashed through her. The ring had trapped her in Iceland. A gamut of emotions followed the realization: anger at Odin for daring to confine her, fear over what would happen to her now, but also relief that she had an excuse to stay with Vidar.

  The sound of footsteps heralded Vidar’s approach from a small kitchen in the far corner of the log cabin. “You’re back in the land of the living.” He smiled down at her and placed a steaming mug on the nightstand before hunkering down beside the bed. “Hot chocolate with a nip of something to revive you.”

  He bent his head, his dark bangs flopping over his face, and pressed a kiss on the back of her hand. Her breath rushed in, carrying the hot, spicy smell of Vidar mixed with the sweetness of chocolate.

  “How long have I been unconscious?”

  “Long enough for me to lug you back to my retreat and put you to bed.”

  Her eyes opened a little wider when she realized she must be in his bed.

  While Vidar fetched his own mug from the kitchen, Sonja sat and pulled her knees up to her chest. She tried to smooth the creases from her black tailored pants but gave up and drowned her sorrows in a blissful chocolate mouthful with a kick of alcohol. She held off reality for half a cup of hot chocolate, then the strangeness of her situation swamped her, and she returned her mug to the nightstand unfinished.

  She spread her fingers, gazing at Odin’s ring. “How can I get it off?”

  Vidar sat beside her and gently wrapped his hand around hers. “Forget the ring. There’s nothing you can do about it. My brother Baldur cut off his own finger to rid himself of the ring but it just appeared on one of his other fingers.”

  Sonja shivered.

  Vidar drew her hand toward him and kissed her knuckles. “Stay here with me, elskan mín.”

  She stared around the tiny wooden lodge. The place was toasty and snug but little more than one room. Inside her head she’d sensed Vidar all her life, but moving in with him when they’d only known each other for a couple of days was crazy. Yet where else could she go? “I’ll be in your way.”

  With a wry laugh, he cozied up to her. “No . . . you won’t.” His hand settled at her waist, and he eased her around to face him. “We’ve been together in mind and spirit for a long time. Our connection is strong.”

  He leaned his forehead against hers. Her eyelids fell as the familiar comforting sense of him swept through her, calming her fears and smoothing her worries. His lips brushed her forehead.

  “There’re things I need to explain, Sonja. Things you have a right to know.”

  Vidar rose, and she immediately missed his touch. He fetched a small cream silk bag from a shelf before returning to the bed. After unfastening the drawstring, he upended the bag over his palm. Three linked blue crystal rings dropped out—similar in shape to a Celtic knot.

  “This is your Magic Knot.”

  He rubbed a finger wistfully across the rings then placed them in her hand. A shimmer of awareness spread across Sonja’s skin before stirring through her. The air around her subtly shifted, and she felt she could reach out and touch the layers of light and warmth. She held up the strange jewelry. Flickers of firelight danced within the crystalline structure as if the rings themselves contained fire.

  “The three rings of your Magic Knot hold the essence of your mind, body, and spirit,” Vidar said. “Keep them safe.”

  Sonja turned confused blue eyes on him, and Vidar’s heart went out to her. Why hadn’t he refused when his father demanded he involve her in the feud with her father? She didn’t deserve to be tangled up in the conflict. But even as the thought passed through his mind, a selfish part of him admitted that he wanted her here.

  He shifted closer to her and brushed his fingertips around her palm, circling the three crystal rings. The urge to touch her rode him like the need to breathe.

  “Is the Magic Knot really magic?” she asked.

  “I suppose it sounds like it to you, but it’s simply a part of life. Humans have them as well, but they’ve internalized them.”

  Tiny lines appeared between her eyebrows, and his fingers itched to stroke them away.

  “You’re saying I’m not human?”

  Vidar almost laughed. “Sonya, ástin mín, you’ve met your father.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Point taken.”

  “I’m not human either.” He gave into temptation and smoothed the pad of his thumb over her cheek.

  “So if these stones really are part of me, why did you have them?”

  “It’s complicated.” Vidar rubbed a hand back and forth over her quilt-covered legs, soothing.
Explaining what had happened to her when she was a baby without freaking her out was going to be difficult, if not impossible. She had coped with so many revelations in the last few days; he didn’t want to shatter her perception of herself any further. Yet he owed her the truth.

  He was damned if he told her, damned if he didn’t.

  He rose and went to stare out of the small diamond-shaped panes of glass in his door. On the icy terrace outside, Gleda lay curled in a tight furry ball against the blast of snow-laden wind sweeping up the ravine. This lonely life he’d tolerated for so long would be transformed if Sonja stayed.

  She came to stand beside him and squinted out through the window. “Where are we?”

  “In the uninhabited interior of the country, where nobody can find us. I have an apartment at the resort, but this is where I retreat for privacy.”

  For long minutes she stared outside, gnawing her lip. He gave in to the need to touch her again and smoothed his palm in comforting circles on her slender back. The touch seemed to rouse her, and she turned to him. “Tell me the full story about this feud between our families, Vidar. I need to understand.”

  Should he tell her the whole truth and watch her world crumble around her? Or should he lie and protect her feelings—and his own? He sucked in a breath. “Go and sit by the fire.”

  He followed her to the sofa and sat beside her. He sent calming thoughts along their mental link, wrapped her in his strength so she could cope with his revelations.

  “Our families had a falling out.”

  With a frustrated breath Sonja said, “Don’t talk to me as though I’m a child.”

  Vidar fought against his instinct to protect her. “Okay, here’s the short version—Troy’s father killed my brother.”

  Sonja pressed a hand to her mouth. “My god. I’m sorry. When?”

  “A long time ago.” He couldn’t bring himself to reveal just how long, or he’d have to explain about the Crystal Crib.

  Sonja stared at him in silent horror for a few moments, then blinked as if waking up. “That doesn’t excuse the way Odin’s treated me.”

  “Odin believes the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children and grandchildren. He took revenge on Troy’s father, Loki. He also killed one of Troy’s brothers and condemned the other to spend the rest of his life in wolf form.”

  Sonja’s eyes widened. “Wolf form?”

  “Fenrir is a wolf shape-shifter. Odin trapped him in his animal form, so it wasn’t as strange as it sounds.”

  Sonja flashed him an incredulous look that said his explanation was every bit as strange as it sounded. “What about my father?”

  “Troy escaped with his life, but Odin took you and your mother away from him.” A memory he’d buried long ago crept into his mind: Troy as a young man before he came into his power, kneeling at Odin’s feet, begging him to return his wife and baby daughter. Vidar clamped down on the swell of anger the memory roused. Because he’d helped Troy and his family, Odin had punished his disloyalty with the curse of the slave ring.

  “What happened to my mother?” Sonja asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  Vidar shook his head. “She’s gone, Sonja.” He had never discovered what happened to Troy’s wife, but she was human and surely long dead.

  Sonja looked down and rubbed distractedly at the creases in her trousers. Despite her calm appearance, Vidar sensed her churning emotions. Instinctively, he encircled her with his arms and eased her against his chest, offering physical comfort as naturally as he’d always soothed her mind.

  “I survived,” she whispered.

  He smoothed his hand down her silky blonde hair again and again, as if he could wipe away her pain and confusion. “Yes, you did, ástin mín.”

  “So why didn’t I live with my father?”

  His heart contracted at the tremor in her voice. “Your father loves you, Sonja. He would fall on his own sword if he thought it would protect you.” No lie. He’d watched Troy sacrifice his life for his child—only to discover that he couldn’t die.

  “Really?” She raised uncertain eyes to him and he realized, with a crushing sense of sorrow, that she’d grown up without anyone to love her.

  Except him.

  The child he’d comforted and protected out of a sense of duty had grown into a woman. Along the way, his concern for her well-being had grown into love, a miracle for him in the dark cold land where he’d been bound against his will for centuries. But the pleasure only lasted a moment. It was his fault that Sonja was now condemned to live that same life.

  He held her tightly, realizing he must tell her the complete truth of her past. Just not yet.

  “So, how did you end up with my Magic Knot thingy?”

  The trouble with telling half-truths was that the gaps had to be cemented with lies. “I wanted a way to check that you were safe, so I took your Magic Knot and formed a bond with you. That meant I could be with you in mind and spirit wherever you were.”

  As her questioning blue gaze met his, he realized exactly what he’d revealed.

  “We’re bonded in some way?”

  “Yes, ástin mín.” And the bond of mind and spirit no longer satisfied him. His body yearned to make their link physical. He decided he would complete it by giving her his own Magic Knot.

  But first, he would make love to her.

  Chapter Seven

  Vidar’s golden eyes flared with desire, his face a taut mask of control. Sonja’s heart tripped and raced. She splayed her hand on his chest, felt the flex of his muscles and the thud of his heart, while his hunger for her caressed her mind. She’d lived with this man in her head and her heart for as long as she could remember. Being with him now felt like the most natural thing in the world.

  He lowered his mouth to hers and slowly brushed her lips with his own. Yet, even as he kissed her, she sensed doubt reining back his need.

  Gripping his shoulders, she said, “This is what I want, Vidar.” From the moment he’d touched her Magic Knot and become her guardian angel, there could be no other man for her.

  He curved a hand around her cheek. “Part of me feels this is wrong.” He frowned and squeezed his eyes closed. “I pledged to myself I would protect you. Not take advantage of you.”

  She touched a fingertip to his full bottom lip and trailed her finger from one corner of his mouth to the other. “Then let me take advantage of you.”

  Nibbling at his lips, she relaxed under the enervating wash of pleasure as he responded. She knew exactly how to make Vidar forget his reservations. Her hand skimmed down his chest, and she dragged her fingernails lightly across his belly just above his belt. He gave a needy little grunt and gripped the back of her head to deepen the kiss.

  While they kissed, her fingers worked loose the buttons on his shirt. The smooth, warm skin that met her palms sent streamers of heat through her. She traced the sculpted ridges and hollows of muscle and bone, memorizing his body, eager to see him as well as touch him. With a little gasp, she broke the kiss and shoved his shirt off his shoulders. Feathering her lips across his chest, she breathed the intoxicating scent of him.

  Her hands fell to his belt, but he stilled her fingers with the flat of his palm. “Sonja . . .” Amusement edged Vidar’s velvet drawl. “Slowly, love. Slowly.” Glancing down at his bare chest, he smiled. “You have me half naked and you haven’t even taken off a sock.”

  Vidar stood, bringing her to her feet with him before freeing her of her jacket. As soon as her arms were out of the sleeves, her hands returned to him, cruising up and down the sinewy strength of his forearms. She wanted him naked on the bed, yet he was maddeningly slow, taking his time as he unfastened the top button of her cream silk shirt. He trailed his fingers across the sensitive skin he revealed, sending an electrifying shiver through her.

  “You’re teasing me,” she accused.

  He laughed, his eyes sparkling. For the first time since she’d met him, he looked truly happy. “It’s called foreplay. I tho
ught women liked to take things slowly.”

  She pouted in mock offense, enjoying the game.

  “What do you want me to do? Rip off your clothes and throw you down on the rug in front of the fire?”

  “That might work.”

  “Don’t tempt me.” Curling an arm around her waist, he jerked her flush against his body. A sigh of satisfaction escaped her before she wrapped her arms about his neck. Their lips met in a hard, hungry kiss. She speared her fingers through his hair, moved against him, drowned in the sensation of his mouth. She didn’t notice his wandering hands had unfastened everything until he eased back to pull her shirt over her head and she lost her bra as well.

  Excitement thrummed between them as his hot gaze traveled over her. “Sacred elf-fire, Sonja, I knew you’d be beautiful, but . . .” He swallowed hard. “Change of plan, we’ll take things slowly next time.”

  He swept her into his arms. Raining feverish kisses over her face and neck, he carried her to his bed, deposited her gently on the mattress, kicked off his shoes, and came down beside her with a grunt of satisfaction. The heat of his mouth caressed a sensitive spot at the base of her throat. Unbearable need rolled through Sonja. He strung a row of kisses around her breasts. She grabbed handfuls of his glossy black hair and urged him on. His mouth explored her skin, driving her mad with wanting as he circled first one nipple then the other with the tip of his tongue. Then the wet heat of his mouth closed around her breast and she stopped thinking altogether.

  Somewhere in the very back of Vidar’s mind, the voice of his conscience told him he should set everything straight with Sonja before he made love to her. But he was long past the point of talking, almost past the point of thinking.

  Tasting the silky softness of her skin, he ran his tongue over her nipples, kissed his way down the gentle rounding of her belly. He eased her trousers down her legs, rewarding each newly exposed inch of skin with a kiss. Then he paused to marvel at the beauty of the woman on his bed—his fantasy come true. The golden halo of her hair spread out on the pillow, while her eyes burned for him like blue flames. With her long slender limbs and full breasts, she was both beautiful seductress and innocent maiden, firing his desire and making him want to take things slowly at the same time.