Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (19 page)

I mean, I could think he was in there when I
was making out with him in our bed by the light of a fire but out
in a frozen forest by a hot spring when I had breakfast dishes to
do and I was terrified of him seeing me naked, uh… not so much.

“Um…” I mumbled as he dropped his last sock,
straightened and his hands went to the waistband of his
breeches.

Eek!

“Finnie,” he called gently and my eyes shot
to his. “You sneak to the springs every day after I’ve returned
from my bath in order to take your own. You’re already here so we
might as well bathe together. Strip and join me.”

I blinked.

Then I protested, “But I don’t have my soap
here, a bath cloth –”

“Use mine.” His head jerked to a cake of
soap and a large towel sitting on a rock.

I looked to it and looked to him, scrunching
my nose. “But your soap smells like boy.”

Not that that smell smelled bad, not at all,
it smelled good, especially on him. It was a fresh, clean smell,
not much to it except it somehow was entirely masculine and this
was probably because it didn’t smell like flowers or fruit like
most of my stuff did.

At my words, or perhaps the look on my face,
Frey burst out laughing and his hands shot out to me, gripping me
at the waist and pulling me to him.

Then he dipped his still smiling face so it
was close to mine. “Even smelling like a boy, it’s impossible for
you not to be appealing.” I blinked as his words again caused my
heart to flutter and then he lifted up and kissed my forehead
before looking in my eyes. “Now, I’ll give you my back and twenty
seconds to strip and join me in the springs. Don’t delay,” he
cautioned, letting me go, “I’m starting to count now.”

Then he turned his back to me and his hands
went to his breeches.

Shit!

I looked down at the water to see what I
always saw, steam coming up where the heat of the spring hit the
frigid air. This was good. There was also a constant bubble as the
spring renewed the pool, agitating the water. This was good
too.

I heard water splash and noticed out of the
corner of my eye that Frey was entering the pool.

This was bad.

Well, I was Seoafin Wilde and this was my
adventure so… what the heck?

I quickly untied my belt, yanked off my
dress, boots and underwear and dropped them on the rocks by the
pool. Pulling my ribbon free from where it held the front of my
hair away from my face, I lifted my hands to hold up all my hair as
I stepped in and settled myself on a natural seat in the rocks, the
water up to my chest. Once there, I started to redo the ribbon
holding my hair at the top of my head to hold it clear of the
water.

As promised, Frey’s back was turned and he
waited until the water settled after I’d moved in to shift around
then he sat across the misty pool from me, the water, I could see
through the steam, coming up to his ribs.

I secured the ribbon in my hair, dropped my
hands and tried to let the water relax me.

This didn’t work partially because I was
naked for the first time with my husband but mostly because he
called out, “Come here, wife.”

Hells bells. He was
definitely
trying for third, running straight there
and forgetting all about first and second.

“Uh…” I hesitated then water splashed,
Frey’s fingers were suddenly wrapped around my wrist and water was
flowing around me as he pulled me to him.

Once he got me close enough, his strong
arms curled around my waist and he pulled me even closer.
Much
closer. So much closer, my
calves hit rock and I had no choice but to bend my knees and
straddle his lap.

Ho boy.

“Frey,” I whispered, my hands going to his
chest as his hands moved up my back, pulling me closer, imprisoning
my arms between us and I started to deep breathe.

One of his arms locked around the middle of
my back, the other hand drifted up my neck, fingers gliding in my
hair as he pulled my face closer to his.

“Relax, my wee Finnie,” he murmured and,
just for your information, he’d started to call me his “wee Finnie”
the day after the elves came calling and that was on my long list
of things I liked about Frey too because I thought it was really
sweet. “You know I’ll be gentle,” he finished, speaking as gently
as I knew he could be.

“Yes,” I whispered as my eyes dropped to his
mouth, a mouth that was coming closer.

“And you know you’ll like it.” He kept
murmuring and he wasn’t wrong about that either.

So, I breathed, “Yes,” right before his
mouth touched mine and he kissed me.

Yep, he wasn’t wrong. I liked it. Sweet,
slow, deep but gentle, his hands moving on me through the water,
slick, soothing, light and the only semi-invasive move was when his
thumb trailed up the side of my breast tantalizingly, making me
want something not slow, gentle, light or non-invasive but
the
opposite
of all
those.

My hands slid up and around his shoulders,
the fingers of one hand gliding into his hair, the other arm
wrapping tight as I pressed my chest into his and kissed him
back.

Yeah, oh yeah, I definitely liked this.

He broke our kiss but didn’t take his lips
from me, trailing them down my cheek, they worked my neck and ear,
making the skin tingle, making me highly conscious of the power of
his body surrounding me, the heat of the water, the slick of our
skin, all of it nice,
way
nice. The best.

Okay, I’d give him third base. Hell, he
could slide into home and I knew I’d love every freaking minute of
it.

And that was exactly why I turned my mouth
to his ear and whispered, “I like being here with you, Frey.”

His arms tightened around me, pressing me
deep into his hard body but his head went back and his lazy, heated
eyes found mine.

“This pleases me, Finnie,” he replied
quietly and I smiled at him, dipping my head closer, he slid his
nose along mine something else he did frequently that I put on my
why I like him list before I quit making it. Then he again pulled
back so I lifted up. One of his hands started roaming my back while
the other one slid up my neck to cup my jaw and he went on, “It
pleases me but do you not miss your Winter Palace in Fyngaard?”

No. I did not miss my Winter Palace in
Fyngaard. Mostly because I had no idea what my Winter Palace was,
or what Fyngaard was for that matter though, truth be told, I was
intrigued but nowhere on his earth
or
mine at that moment would be better than those springs in
that frozen forest with Frey.

“I –”

His thumb swept my cheek. “And your
parents?”

I stared down at him as my heart jumped.

“I do miss my parents,” I whispered the
God’s honest truth and watched his eyes go soft.

“As you know, the Bitter Gales is in two
weeks time. What you don’t know is I have business I must see to
after that. Today, you spend packing your trunks, I’ll load them
and tomorrow morning, first thing, we’ll be away. You can spend two
weeks at the Winter Palace with your parents, we’ll attend the
Gales and then I’ll show you my ship.”

My heart jumped again then it started
skipping.

The Winter Palace, the Bitter Gales
(whatever that was but whatever it was sounded cool), my
parents
and
his
ship.

I’d just hit the mother lode!

Or, more accurately, my husband just offered
it to me.

“Really?” I asked.

“Really, my wee Finnie,” he whispered, his
arm wrapping around me and giving me a squeeze.

Then something he said struck me and I felt
my excitement start to fade. “You said I could spend two weeks with
my parents. Are you going away again before the Gales?”

He stared into my eyes, his soft and warm,
and his thumb slid over my bottom lip, “No, wee one; I’ll be
staying with you at your Palace.”

My heart started skipping again and it was
definitely not playing it cool, not that a girl, no matter how good
she could play it, could
ever
play it cool, naked, straddling a naked man in a hot
springs, but, still, I couldn’t contain my smile.

My husband smiled back and that was so good,
I decided that playing it cool was for idiots.

Then it occurred to me that he was
probably talking about wherever it was we’d been married which
meant I’d probably get to go back to that awesome room with all the
beautiful carving and that armchair I wanted to try out. And if it
was a Palace, it
had
to have a
library which meant more books and more learning about this world.
Not to mention, a new town (and a definitely bigger one) to
explore.

And lastly, seeing my parents again.

And all of this made me melt into my big,
handsome, so-not-scary-it-was-not-funny husband and whisper, “Thank
you, Frey.”

His hand at my jaw slid back and up into my
hair and he pulled my mouth down to his for a hard, sweet, deep,
but short, kiss.

Only when he let me go did he whisper back,
“You’re welcome, Finnie.”

Oh yeah, it was official. I liked him. A
whole lot.

“Now climb off me, wife, soap up and dry off
so I can do the same, we can get back and you can pack. The sooner
you get done, the sooner we can get to town so you can bid farewell
to your friends.”

Okay, one could say even though I was
relaxed and happy, pressed naked to my naked husband, I wasn’t all
fired up to “soap up” in front of him.

But the minute I slid off his lap,
whispering, “All righty then,” his body slid down deeper in the
water and he lounged back against the rocks at the same time
lifting the bathing cloth so it covered his face.

He looked like a man relaxing in a hot
spring. Or, to be more precise, a really freaking gorgeous guy
relaxing in a hot spring.

But what he was was a kind man giving me
privacy to bathe when he knew it would embarrass me to have him
watch.

Yeah, oh
heck yeah,
I
really
liked my
husband.

I soaped up and told him I was done by
pressing the cake to his chest. He took it, his head coming up as
he pulled the bathing cloth away. Then he turned his back
and
he
soaped up
while I rushed out of the water, drying off quickly and getting
dressed.

I heard the water surge as he got out when I
was smoothing my woolen stockings up my thighs. I had my boots on
and was turning to him when he tossed the wet towel over his
sweater-clad shoulder and I saw he was fully dressed.

He gave me a sweet smile, hooked me around
my neck and pulled me into his side so I slid my arm around his
waist and moved with him as I stayed pressed to his long body.

And that was how we walked home through the
glittering, frozen forest.

We didn’t say anything, we didn’t need to
and our silence was content.

But I wasn’t content.

No, I was happy in my winter wonderland
adventure where you could understand animals and they had elves and
hot guys who were awesome and I was on my way back to my Winter
Palace, Fyngaard and, best of all, my parents, then after that to
his ship and even more adventure.

And my hot guy husband was the one who was
giving all that to me.

Oh yeah, in Valentine’s line of happiness
from bliss to contentment I was not even close to the contentment
side of the line.

I was smack in the middle of happy.

The Measure of a Man

I leaned forward, grinning, and pulled the
pile of coin to me. Then I settled myself back in my husband’s lap,
grabbed my horn of ale and took a big drink.

“I’m certain our Winter Princess deals from
the bottom of the deck,” Laurel grumbled then his eyes shot around
me to Frey who was one-handing the cards, his long fingers expertly
sorting them into a pile while his other arm stayed wrapped around
me and Laurel clarified hurriedly, “No offense, Drakkar.”

“Why would I be offended when it is clear my
bride cheats?” Frey noted and I whipped my head around to glare at
him.

We were in town, currently at the pub,
having come into town for Frey to send a messenger off to my
parents to tell them we would be heading back and would return to
Fyngaard in less than three days time.

He’d also taken me around so I could visit
with the people I’d come to know, let them know we were leaving and
give them my good-byes. This kind of sucked because good-byes
always kind of sucked. But also, since I liked them, they liked me,
they were surprised we were going, disappointed
I
was going and told me they would be glad when we
returned, it sucked more because I didn’t know if I
would.

Then we’d gone to the pub, eaten a dinner of
bowls of thick, rich, tasty beef stroganoff that had an abundance
of flavorful, succulent mushrooms and was served on a bed of herbed
noodles that was not only delicious but also I was happy I didn’t
have to slave away at an iron, wood-burning stove in order to put
in front of us.

And now we were drinking ale with Laurel,
Ulysses, Frederick and two of Frey’s huge, well-built men, Thaddeus
and Ruben. All of these men had wandered in while Frey and I were
enjoying an after dinner ale and all of whom had been invited to
join us at our table.

Thaddeus was younger than Frey, my guess, by
at least five years, maybe more (not that I knew how old Frey was,
I figured that was something the other Sjofn would know and I
hadn’t figured out how to cleverly ascertain this information
without out and out asking). Thaddeus was slightly less tall than
Frey and Ruben and powerfully built but he didn’t have the bulk of
either man. He had blond hair, blue eyes and was really cute in a
boy next door kinda gone wrong sort of way. Ruben was Frey’s age,
maybe slightly younger, or perhaps slightly older, I couldn’t
really tell (Frey’s natural air of authority was putting me off, he
seemed older but looked younger) and he was a mountain of chocolate
muscle with friendly, black eyes and an easy grin.