Celtic Mann: A Historical Viking Scottish Romance (Heart of the Battle Series Book 3)
Page 13
"You did too." She reached up and brushed her fingers along his jaw, the stubble tickling her fingers. "Are you sure you're okay with giving all of that up for a farm and a small house with backbreaking work ahead of you?"
"No. I'm sure about giving it up to be with you, though." He nuzzled against her, his lips brushing her cheek and against her ear. He pulled back as his expression changed from loving to serious. "Forgive me?"
"For what?" Linzi lifted up, pressing her elbow into the bed beside him.
"For leaving in the first place. With my brother dead and my father having passed a while back, I couldn't leave my mother thinking she had lost me too." Sadness rushed across his handsome features and she knew there was nothing to do but let the past go. He would have taken her with him if he could have. She was assured of that now.
"I understand. I just lost hope that you would return." She adverted her gaze from him, letting her eyes move down the length of his gorgeous body. A tendril of pleasure ran through her and she shuddered, unable to hold back the slightest reaction due to him simply being there did to her.
He reached up and rubbed her shoulder, his brows creasing. "I did for a time too, but I realized that nothing in Denmark could hold me. I was there for the time they needed me to be and now I get to live my dreams."
"And back-breaking labor is part of that dream?" She laughed and moved to rest her chest against his.
He glanced down at her breasts and licked at his lips. "Back-breaking sex is. We should hire someone for the fields."
"Yeah, your sons." She laughed and lifted up a little as he reached up and palmed her breast, kneading it softly.
"Exactly. I knew those boys would come in handy. I'm happy to provide as much practice as necessary in assuring that you’re big and round with one each year." He smirked, the expression on his face almost too much. Having him beneath her, above her, with her, was more than she could ever hope for.
She popped him in the chest and he pulled her down for a long kiss.
"I love you, lass."
"I love you too."
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Linzi
10 Months Later
“Erik, why’s it so important to have the table out here? You’re going to pull something moving the damn thing.” Linzi moved into the house as Erik man-handled the large wooden table in their kitchen.
“Because, lass… it’s the way we always ate on Sunday afternoons when I was a boy. I want Kenton to experience the same things I did.” He looked up, sweat collecting just under his blond hair. He smiled and she laughed, unable to feel anything but joy at having him in front of her.
The last ten months had been bliss – a new life granted to both of them. She moved to help him, turning the large table on its side and working to turn it just so to get it out of the house.
“Don’t hurt yourself. I don’t want anything to happen to my lad.” Erik nodded toward her large belly and gave her a look of warning.
“It’s a girl, so don’t bother giving me any more boy names.” Linzi laughed as Erik shook his head.
“I reject that. It’s a lad. I say it is.” He rolled his shoulders and pushed hard as she moved out of the way. The table skidded into the yard with Erik’s last push. He flipped it over and dusted off the top of it with his hands.
“It’s a girl. I visited the old woman in town a few months back and you know she’s always right.”
Erik wiped his brow and moved over to her, pulling her against him as best he could and touching her face softly. “I don’t want a girl.”
“What? Why? I want a little girl.”
“Because she’ll be beautiful like you.”
“That’s not a good thing?” she asked, reaching up and brushing his hair back.
“Hell no. I’ll be locking her in the damn house and beating the lads off the door. I had plans to rest sometime in this life. If you give me a lass I will be fighting until the day I die.”
“Hopefully she finds someone just like you.” Linzi pulled him down farther, pressing her lips to his. His hands tightened on her hips as he pressed his tongue against her lips, the man forever wanting entrance to some part of her body.
“You two realize what causes these babies, right?” Sara’s voice pulled Linzi from the moment she was slipping deep into. It was so hard to be around her husband and not want to find a quiet place to explore one another all over again.
“Aye. We practice… a lot.” Erik laughed loudly and released her, reaching for Kenton as he started to call for Erik.
“Da… Da… Da…”
“Come here, lad.” Erik took him from Linzi’s father and threw him in the air. “You need help with the food, baby?”
“No. Go play with your only son and your daughter and I’ll get the food.” Linzi laughed at the look she was given before walking toward the house.
Sara wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to her side as they moved. “I’m so proud of you, lass. You’ve made a life for yourself like the one you’ve always deserved.”
“I just pray that we can keep this land and this life until the end of our day.” Linzi moved into the house and began working to cut the bread and slice the cheese.
“I believe it will be so.” Sara moved in to help.
“Oh? You getting wise like the old witch at the edge of the town?”
“Nope. I’m just a baker, but I will tell you that grass grows where you water it. Continue to foster the love you and Erik have and nothing can break that bond, child. Not suffering, nor circumstance.”
“Not even death?” Linzi asked, looking up at the woman who had walked beside her through the hardest days of her life.
“Not even death, sweet girl. Come… let’s go enjoy all the boys that we have.”
They gathered everything and walked out into the late summer afternoon, spreading everything on the table and calling the men to join them.
Erik stood at the head of the table and reached for Linzi’s hand. “Let’s pray to the gods who have given us peace and prosperity, but most importantly… love.”
“Do you think forever will be ours?” Linzi asked later that night as she brushed her hand down Erik’s chest, the room warm from the heat of their lovemaking.
“Aye. I believe that we’ve proven ourselves worthy of the love we’ve been granted. Forever is just an extension of that.”
“Forever isn’t long enough for me.” She moved to sit on top of him as her eyes filled with tears. “I cannot imagine a day for me without you.”
He sat up, grabbing hold of her and pulling her down toward him. He paused before their lips touched and locked his gaze on her.
“You are my forever, lass. Stay with me in this day and we shall never reach the end of forever.” His lips pressed firmly against hers, the rightness of the kiss perfect, the depth of his love overwhelming.
He would be hers and she his… forever.
In a world plagued with darkness, he was her salvation.
~ THE END ~
Heart of the Battle Series
Celtic Viking
US:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VVK8S5W
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VVK8S5W
Celtic Rune
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WXI50TI
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WXI50TI
Celtic ManN
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X65LPXC
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00X65LPXC
Note from the Author:
Thank you for reading Celtic Mann!
If you enjoyed the story, please take a moment to leave a review on the site you downloaded the book on so others can find the Heart of the Battle Series.
I love hearing from my readers so feel free to connect with me on facebook or any other social media (you’ll find my links everywhere in the book, lol)
Thanks again,
Lexy Timms
xxx
More by Lexy Timms:
The Saving
Forever Series
Part 1 is FREE!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HBX7DD6
Charity Thompson wants to the save world, one hospital at a time. Instead of finishing med school to become a doctor, she chooses a different path and raises money for hospitals – new wings, equipment or whatever they need. Except there is one hospital she would be happy to never set foot in again, her fathers. He hires her to create a gala for his sixty-fifth birthday. Charity can’t say no.
Now she is working in the one place she doesn’t want to be, attracted to Dr. Elijah Bennet, the handsome playboy chief, and trying to prove to her doctor father that’s she’s so much more than a med school dropout.
Why would she try to put together so many things that are clearly broken? Or will she realize in time that they just need to be fixed?
The University of Gatica Series
The Recruiting Trip
Book 1 if FREE!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PWL3X92
Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FdSZUaJ2q0
Aspiring college athlete Aileen Nessa is finding the recruiting process beyond daunting. Being ranked #10 in the world for the 100m hurdles at the age of eighteen is not a fluke, even though she believes that one race, where everything clinked magically together, might be. American universities don’t seem to think so. Letters are pouring in from all over the country.
As she faces the challenge of differentiating between a college’s genuine commitment to her or just empty promises from talent-seeking coaches, Aileen heads to Gatica State University, a Division One school, on a recruiting trip.
The university’s athletic program boasts one of the top sprint coaches in the country. The beautiful old buildings on campus and Ivy League smarts seems so above her little Ohio town upbringing. All Aileen needs to convince her to sign her letter of intent is a recruiting trip that takes her breath away.
Tyler Jensen is the school’s NCAA champion in the hurdles and Jim Thorpe recipient for top defensive back in football. His incredible ocean blue eyes and confident smile make Aileen stutter and forget why she is visiting GSU. His offer to take her under his wing, should she choose to come to Gatica, is a temping proposition that has her wondering if she might be making a deal with an angel or the devil himself.
* This is NOT erotica* It is a new adult & college sport romance.
For mature readers only. There are sexual situations, but no graphic sex.
COMING SOON:
Heart of the Battle Series
Celtic Viking
Book 1
US:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VVK8S5W
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VVK8S5W
Celtic Rune
Book 2
Coming May 2015
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/ B00WXI50TI
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/ B00WXI50TI
Celtic Mann
Book 3
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X65LPXC
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00X65LPXC