The Seducer (Men of the North Book 4)

by Elin Peer

  “Would you like me to talk to him?” she offered.

  I rubbed my face before huffing out air. “You can’t be serious about this?”

  But she looked very serious when she repeated her request. “Five days, Finn.”

  I threw up my hands and raised my voice a little. “And what are you gonna do with me for five days?”

  “I’m going to do to you what you did to me.”

  I jerked my head back. “The hell you are.”

  She held my direct stare, and raised an eyebrow.

  “Fuck that, Athena. What would even be the purpose?”

  “As I said, my motivation is my own and this is the last time I’m going to ask you to stop using that word in my house.” She stood up. “Take a few minutes to think it through. I’ll be waiting with Hans outside.”

  Every unsatisfying sexual encounter that I’d had ran through my mind, and Athena hadn’t even reached the door when I stood up so abruptly that my chair tilted. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  Her body stiffened before she turned and gave me a nod. “Good. Excuse me while I go and explain it to Hans.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Tied

  Athena

  “Is this really necessary?” Finn grunted.

  “Yes, everything has to go,” I said and didn’t look away when he pulled his thick sweater off with an annoyed groan.

  I should have anticipated the loud gasp from Hans, who stood next to me.

  “Don’t worry, it’s just a tattoo,” I said, remembering my own reaction the first time I’d seen Finn’s abdomen. Even though I hadn’t commented on it to him at the time, I’d been terrified he was half machine and void of human empathy.

  “But it looks so real.” Hans leaned closer to study the visual illusion of skin peeled back and machinery underneath. “You look like a cyborg,” he told Finn and angled his head. “Why in the world would you do that to yourself?”

  “It was a joke.”

  “A joke?” Hans said, dumbfounded.

  “Yes, when I trained to be a physician my professor always joked that one day humans would be half machines and cyborgs would take over our jobs.” Finn grinned. “One day my friend and I were drinking and we thought it would be hilarious to see the professor’s reaction if he thought he was training a real cyborg to take over his job.”

  “And how did he react?” I asked.

  “He fell for it at first, but when he realized it was a tattoo and I’d fooled him, he got back at me tenfold.”

  “How?”

  “I was assigned to work in the morgue for four months and after that I was put on night duty three times as often as the others.” Finn shrugged. “I should have known he didn’t have much of a sense of humor.”

  “Do you have more tattoos like that?” Hans asked.

  “Not like that one, but he has a tattoo on his shoulder and back as well,” I answered.

  Hans looked confused. “You’ve seen Finn naked?”

  “Almost. Finn has no problem with nudity, which is why it shouldn’t be a problem for him to strip naked now.” I gestured to Finn to keep undressing.

  Finn frowned and shot a glance at Hans. “This is stupid.”

  I disagreed. “The first night I spent with you, you ripped off my clothes. I told you that you’re going to relive everything you did to me, so undress.”

  “Wait a minute; that first night, I only stripped you naked because you asked for it. Remember how I was a gentleman and offered you the chance to sleep in one of my t-shirts? But you rudely said that you would rather sleep naked.”

  “Gentlemen don’t hold women hostage,” I said with a raised eyebrow. “So quit stalling, and get naked.”

  Finn arched an eyebrow. “I think I would prefer for you to come and rip my clothes off.” A smile grew on his face. “That might be kind of hot actually, like you want to have sex with me or something.”

  “Is this a joke to you?” I asked and narrowed my eyes. “That night I was kidnapped was the most terrifying experience of my life, and I thought I would be raped and killed.”

  Finn drew a sigh. “I already apologized.”

  “And now you’re showing your remorse by living through it yourself.” I gestured to the ropes on the floor next to him. “It’s clear that Hans and I don’t scare you much, so we can’t recreate the fear I felt. But you will sleep naked and tied up just like I did.”

  Finn rolled his eyes. “You’re damn right I’m not scared of you two, but then I’m not scared of anything.”

  The minute Finn said it, my intuition raised a red flag. He was lying!

  Finn was scared of something or someone. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, as the signs were subtle, but I trusted my intuition and my curiosity was piqued at once.

  “Still, I could use your help undressing,” Finn flirted with a charming smile. “Maybe you could help me open the front of my pants?”

  I gave him my sweetest smile. “But of course.” And then I turned to Hans. “Would you mind helping Finn?”

  Always willing to assist, Hans took a step forward but was stopped by Finn who pressed his hands out as a shield.

  “Whoa, Hansi, you better not come closer,” Finn warned him.

  Hans gave me an insecure look and I nodded for him to step back again.

  “I’m not touching you,” I said firmly. “So unless you want Hans’ help, I suggest you undress yourself.”

  Finn scoffed. “Just for the record, this is a waste of time, and if you think I’m humiliated by standing naked in front of you two, you’re wrong.” While talking, he removed his clothes until he stood completely bare in my bedroom.

  Hans was blatantly staring and although I tried not to, my eyes took in every muscled body part of this huge man. I knew that Finn was shorter than some of the other Nmen I’d met, but he was still at least one meter and ninety centimeters with wide shoulders, and his neck wasn’t the only thick part of him.

  During my five days with him, I’d seen him in briefs plenty of times, but now he was completely naked and I blinked when I saw the size of his penis.

  “You have hair,” Hans commented, his eyes fixed on Finn’s crotch.

  Finn looked down. “Of course I have hair.” Angling his head, he gave Hans a suspicious glance. “Don’t tell me you Momsi boys go bald below, because that’s just fucking sad.”

  “Well, we remove all body hair permanently. Why would you keep it?” Hans asked.

  Finn waved a hand at Hans’ pants. “Pull down and show me. I wanna see a grown man that looks like a kid.”

  “I don’t look like a kid, and I’m not showing you my genitals,” Hans hurried to say with blushing cheeks.

  “Your genitals?” Finn laughed. “You even sound like a kid, but it’s cool. If you don’t want to show me your cock, you don’t have to. Most men get jealous when they see a man of my size anyway.”

  “I’m not jealous,” Hans insisted. “I’m perfectly happy about my size.”

  “Sure you are.” Finn grinned and bent down to pick up one of the ropes from the floor. “How about we get this night over with?”

  “All right.” I bent down to pick up some more of the rope but that was a mistake, because Finn stepped a little closer and on the way up I came very close to his naked crotch. He had done it on purpose and chuckled when he saw how flustered I got.

  Stay calm, I reminded myself and dug deep to find patience. “Why don’t you get on the bed so Hans can tie you down?”

  Hans shifted his weight nervously next to me. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable about this. Athena, are you sure you cleared this with Isobel?”

  I pulled Hans aside and lowered my voice. “As I explained to you, we are doing Finn a favor. This is only going to be a mild version of what he did to me, but the purpose is to elevate his sense of empathy.”

  Hans rubbed his face, taking great care as to not smear his makeup. “All right. I’ve just never done anything this obscene before.”

  “Haven�
��t you been forced to restrain anyone before? As a mediator you must have met crazy people.”

  Hans frowned and looked back at Finn before he muttered to me, “This is different; tying down a man who is acting non-threatening is against my nature.”

  “Hey, when are you two ladies gonna be done whispering over there?” Finn complained. “It’s not that I’m vain or anything but since you two voyeurs are insisting on seeing me naked, I should warn you that I’m freezing and it’s making my cock shrink by the second.”

  It was so typical of Finn to make light of everything, and I refused to look down to see if he was right.

  “We’ll do it together,” I whispered to Hans and stroked his arm. “Trust me, this will be a spiritual lesson for him that he will thank us for later.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Hans breathed, his chest lifted in a deep sigh.

  Neither Hans nor I had much experience with knots, but with me focusing on Finn’s feet and Hans focusing on his hands, we managed to tie Finn down to the bed.

  “Traitor.”

  Hans jerked back from Finn’s hard accusation.

  “What kind of man helps a woman oppress another man? We should be working together against her but no, you would rather be her little minion, wouldn’t you?”

  “I’m so sorry. It’s not my intention to hurt you,” Hans said in a weak and apologetic voice.

  “Don’t let him mess with your head, Hans,” I warned. “Finn volunteered for this and he can walk out at any time.”

  “Which makes this even more pathetic,” Finn pointed out and lifted his hands to demonstrate how loose the ropes were tied. “No offense, people, but you suck at this.”

  His comment made me tighten the rope around his feet, and when Hans moved away from the bed I tightened the rope around his hands too.

  “Athena,” Finn whispered when I stood over him working on the last rope. “Look at me.”

  My heart was racing fast when my eyes clashed with his. “What is it?”

  “Remember the conversation we had that day you were released?”

  “No,” I said because I didn’t want to go there.

  “We were going to do an experiment and find out if I would like or dislike you forcing yourself on me. You suggested you could tie me down and have your way with me.”

  I raised a brow but didn’t say anything.

  “Is that what this is about?” Finn asked with a soft voice. “Have you been wondering about it all this time and now you want to know? Or is it less about the force part and more about having sex with me? Because if it is, you know, all you have to do is ask.”

  Closing my eyes, I shook my head to signal how ridiculous he was being.

  “No, seriously, Athena, I would fuck you. Whenever you want.” The teasing smile on Finn’s face grew. “I mean because of your stupid curse, I wouldn’t enjoy it or anything, but you could consider it philanthropy on my part.”

  I smacked my tongue against my palate and moved away from the bed.

  “Did I hurt your pride?” Finn chuckled. “I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t mean to. Would it make you feel better if I admitted that when I fucked two of the Motlanders I was actually thinking about you?”

  My body froze to the floor and my spine stiffened before I slowly spun around to see if he was serious.

  “You did what?”

  He looked me straight in the face and spoke the words again. “I thought of you.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I wish, but it’s true,” he insisted.

  Glad that he couldn’t see my hammering heart, I turned my back on him again. “Go to sleep, Finn.”

  “But I’m not tired,” he complained behind me, but I was already descending the stairs.

  “Come back, Athena, I really have to take a piss.”

  Feeling like the meanest person in the world, I used his own words from our second night together and threw them over my shoulder. “That’s too bad, ’cause you’ll just have to hold it.”

  CHAPTER 5

  The First Night

  Athena

  When I came downstairs, Hans was in my kitchen making tea. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes, under the circumstances, I’m fine.” I walked over and leaned against the kitchen counter, asking the obvious question, “And how about you? Are you okay?”

  He gave me a quick sideways glance and poured the hot water into the pot. “Finn doesn’t seem to like me much,” he said and looked down. “And if I have to be honest, he kinda scares me a little.”

  “Yes, Nmen are intimidating,” I agreed.

  “Careful, it’s hot.” Hans handed me one of the cups and leaned against the counter next to me. “We were briefed about them, of course, but you can’t really prepare until you meet one of them in person.” He blew down at his teacup and frowned. “I mean it’s confusing to meet someone who speaks English, yet everything that comes out of his mouth is foreign.”

  “Are you talking about when he swears?”

  “It’s not just that.” Hans looked thoughtful. “His behavior is just so peculiar; I’ve never studied irony and sarcasm in person, and I’m finding it hard to decipher when he’s being serious or not.”

  “This might surprise you, but Finn is one of the nicer Nmen.”

  Hans’ mouth fell open. “He is?”

  “Yes, I met the ruler and his brother, and both seemed a lot more ruthless and volatile than Finn.”

  Hans shook his head with a small frown. “How can they live like that? They must be miserable people.”

  “Try not to judge what you don’t understand, my friend. The Nmen probably feel the same way about us.”

  “My apologies, I was being unkind and unfair; forgive me.” Hans bowed his head.

  Lifting my hand to place on his shoulder, I spoke in a soft voice: “There’s nothing to forgive, but if I can give you a piece of advice, it would be to channel your confusion into curiosity.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s just that you and I have this unique opportunity to study a man from the North, and rather than being upset by his crudeness, I suggest we explore what else he has to offer. In particular, we should search for anything we might have in common with him.”

  Hans took a sip of his tea. “I can’t imagine we have much in common.”

  “Are you’re regretting that you took this assignment?”

  He shook his head. “No, I just think I was a bit naïve, that’s all.”

  “Naïve how?”

  “I had this idea that if I showed Finn kindness and friendship he would be grateful and he would want to change. I mean during the briefing they kept reminding us that Nmen aren’t cruel from birth and that there’s no indication that they are less intelligent than us. We can’t blame them for growing up without mothers and families or for not knowing manners or self-reflection.” Hans sighed. “I liked the idea that I could make a difference in Finn’s life and thought he would be happy to find a source of everything he had missed out on.”

  “I see.” I took a sip of my tea too. “In that case, yes, that probably was naïve.”

  For a moment we stood next to each other in silence.

  “I’m certain his motive to be here isn’t to gain more manners, and you can be sure that the Nmen don’t want to be like us,” I said.

  Hans knitted his eyebrows closely together. “But why wouldn’t they?”

  “They consider themselves to be the last free men and they don’t know anything else than the Northlands.”

  “What is that supposed to mean? Free men?” Hans set down his cup. “I’m a man and I’m free.”

  “Didn’t you hear Finn mention that women oppress men?” I furrowed my brows. “It’s interesting how we see ourselves as peacekeepers while the Nmen see us as tyrants.”

  “Tyrants is a strong word,” Hans said and took a sip of his tea. “But Finn does have a point that women rule the world.”

  “Would you rather have i
t like in the old days?”

  Hans held his palm up like a peace sign. “No, no, I’m not complaining.” But he didn’t look at me when he spoke and I got an uneasy feeling from him.

  I set down my cup and changed the subject. “We’ll have to figure out who sleeps where.”

  Hans looked around my living room and pointed to the stairs. “Do you have more bedrooms than the one Finn sleeps in?”

  “I’m afraid not. One of us will have to sleep in the bed next to Finn and the other one on the couch.”

  “Can I take the couch?” Hans asked.

  I exhaled deeply. “I had hoped you would take the bed.”

  His eyes darted around the room again as if he was looking for an excuse. “It’s just that this project of yours is about imitating what happened between you and Finn. Wouldn’t it be strange if I got in the middle of that?”

  “Not at all. As long as Finn experiences the loss of control, I really don’t think it matters who he sleeps next to.”

  Hans rubbed his forehead. “But I’m not as tough as you are and if he asks me to untie him, I probably will.”

  “All right.” I sighed. “I’ll sleep next to him tonight, but that doesn’t mean I’ll sleep next to him every night while he’s here.”

  After helping Hans find blankets and pillows, I left him to go upstairs again, hoping that Finn was already asleep.

  He wasn’t.

  “I don’t like being tied,” he muttered when I walked past him to use the bathroom.

  Against my helpful nature, I forced myself to give him a slight shrug and answered calmly. “Neither did I.”

  I took longer than usual in the bathroom, hoping that maybe he would fall asleep while I was in there. This arrangement had seemed simpler in my mind, but then again, I’d never truly expected Finn to agree to giving me control of him for five days.

  You’re lying to him. The blaming voice of my internal conscience made me avoid looking at myself in the mirror.

  There’s no curse and you should tell him. Lying is wrong.

  Opening and closing my fists, I shut my eyes and did my breathing exercise, seeking inward for the calm and peaceful core of my spirit.