Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (45 page)

Then I looked at Lund as he pulled out of
the lunge he’d used to knock my dagger away and sheathed his own.
Then he planted his hands on his hips and glowered at me.

“
Finnie, I’ve told you, you have
inexperience and lack of strength as formidable weaknesses but
quickness, surprise and…” he paused and leaned slightly toward me,
“
concentration
can be used as your strengths. To have quickness and
provide surprise, you need to…” he paused again, leaned back and
crossed his arms on his chest, “
concentrate.
”

He was not wrong. My mind was not on
learning how to wield a dagger. It was afternoon. My mind was in
the cabin where the adela tea pouch was and where, I hoped, Skylar
had left a boiled kettle for me (a request, since I was thinking to
surprise Frey, I had actually made myself).

“I’m sorry, Lund, my mind is elsewhere,” I
admitted.

“If this is so, then you should not be
working with a dagger. What just happened, happened because I am
good and I don’t wish you harm. In a true fight, a man could take
your hand with that maneuver, had he the strength and sharpness of
blade. At the very least, he could cut your wrist where blood flows
freely. Then you’d be significantly weakened and even face
death.”

Ho boy. Death was never good.

“Right,” I said softly.

He uncrossed his arms, got closer to me and
I looked up into his gray eyes which, I noted, had stopped
glowering and had warmed. I had also long since noted that this was
Lund’s way. He could lose his patience in our practice but only
when I did really stupid shit he’d told me time and again not to do
but he didn’t lose it for long.

“I enjoy our sessions, my princess, but I
equally enjoy teaching you how to cut a deck false. If you wish to
skip your lesson, we can sit down to cards. All you need do is
say.”

God, seriously, he was a nice guy and,
spending time with all Frey’s men, I’d found they all were.

Except Kell, who disliked me and Oleg, who
was kind of monosyllabic and a little scary but mostly he was okay
too.

“Thanks,” I replied quietly and Lund grinned
at me.

“Wife,” I heard and since it was Frey’s
voice and that could only be me, I turned to see him striding
toward me.

My knees wobbled and not only because he, as
ever, looked hot.

“We’ll leave it at that for the day,” Lund
muttered, I looked from Frey to him, nodded and smiled and he moved
away to collect my lost dagger.

I turned back to Frey who was now very
close. He didn’t touch me but he was way in my space.

Hmm. I knew what that meant and that meant
firstly, he did not want us to be overheard and secondly, he
actually
did
want to
touch me but this was something he avoided doing too much of in
front of his men. There were times he did, of course, but in broad
daylight in the middle of the waist deck with us having a large
audience was not one of those times.

“
We have plans, wee one,” he reminded me of
something he so
totally
didn’t
need to remind me of. “I need words with Kell. I see your lesson is
finished?”

I nodded.

“Good,” he muttered, “I’ll meet you in our
cabin.”

My knees wobbled again and my nipples
tingled but my head nodded.

He grinned like he knew what was happening
in my head
and
under my
sweater and that grin was so good, my nipples got hard and I felt a
really nice spasm.

“See you there, honey,” I whispered.

His eyes flared and he whispered back,
“Indeed.”

I decided to get to the cabin firstly to
make the tea and secondly before I melted into a puddle on the deck
in front of everyone at just thinking about what would happen after
I made the tea.

So I did that, smiling at Frey then turning
my head as I walked toward the bridge deck and calling, “Later
boys!”

I got some chin lifts and Max called back,
“Until later, Finnie.”

Then I hightailed it out of there.

When I got to the cabin, I saw the good news
was Skylar was a really good cabin boy. He didn’t make the bed
because there was pretty much no point but he delivered water for
washing, took it away, cleaned out the basin, brought food, took
away the dishes, cleaned clothes and spent not a small amount of
time shining brass.

He also made sure I had a kettle of boiling
water, a cup and tea infuser.

The bad news was, by the time I made it to
the cabin, I’d begun to get nervous.

What if it didn’t work or it went wonky?
What if Frey wasn’t into this kind of thing? What if we got a bad
batch and not-so-good things happened?

I stood by the boiled kettle that, in the
not even close to warm cabin was cooling fast and worried my lip.
Then I heard a noise outside and jumped, thinking it was Frey. I
looked to the closed door; it didn’t open so I looked back to the
kettle.

I did not partake of drugs, this was an
adventure Mom and Dad warned me (repeatedly) was not worth
risking.

But this was the bark of a beautiful tree.
It was natural. It wasn’t drugs…
exactly.

Shit!

There was another thump outside and I jumped
yet again, looking to the door. After several moments with no Frey
I decided to suck it up.

It was now or never.

And I lived in the now… with Frey.

I grabbed the infuser, poured the tiny,
glittery, gorgeous pieces of bark into it, shaking the pouch to
make sure they were all out. Then I screwed the infuser closed,
dropped it into the cup and poured over the steaming water. Then I
waited, staring at it wondering how long it should infuse. Then
wondering if I should wait for Frey before I tried it.

Then I took hold of the little chain, dunked
the infuser several times and watched with fascination as glitter
flowed out of the infuser, permeating the liquid and making the
water in the cup actually glow.

Yes…
glow.

Totally
freaking
cool.

I pulled the infuser out, set it aside and
after taking a deep breath, before I lost my nerve, I lifted the
cup to my lips and took a sip.

Holy moly!

I stared into the glowing cup.

Heaven. Absolutely divine.

I took another sip tasting licorice and
peppermint with hints of vanilla.

God, celestial.

Taking another sip I decided that the gods
of this world
had
to exist. No
other being could create something so heavenly.

On sip four, I felt it start and on sip
five it grew stronger. I knew it because I was no longer
tasting
the tea, I was
feeling
it. The flavor had intensified
to such an extent it was a thrill simply experiencing it. Sip six
brought more, the coolness of the air in the cabin started stinging
my skin, the drafts gliding across were almost physical. The shine
on the brass on the instruments on the walls had grown so bright,
it was nearly blinding. I could feel every centimeter of the handle
of the cup weighing on my fingers. I could hear the men moving
about on deck above me.

Wow. This stuff worked fast and it
was
awesome
.

Sip seven and I’d had half the cup. I wanted
more, it was delicious, divine, freaking bliss in liquid form but I
forced myself to set the cup down to save the second half for
Frey.

Then the warmth slid through me, starting
right in my sex and slinking up, down and out until it heated me
from top-to-toe, every inch of my skin, every centimeter of my
innards. The warmth was so intense I had to put my hand to the
table to hold myself steady because I thought my legs might buckle
from under me.

It didn’t freak me out because the sensation
was nowhere near scary.

It was beautiful
.

So beautiful, so intense, so pervasive, I
felt like I was going to overheat.

God, if Frey didn’t get to the cabin soon, I
was going to have to take care of myself.

And I knew I’d enjoy every…
freaking
…
second.

I heard his boots on the steps outside and
my feet moved me directly to the door. They did this because
suddenly my hands itched to touch him, my tongue was dry with the
need to taste him, my stomach was hollow with hunger for him and my
sex ached for his to fill it.

And because of this, he barely closed the
door when I was all over him, pressing close, my hands gliding up
his chest to curl around the back of his neck. In position, I
insistently pulled his mouth down to mine.

“Fin –” he got out which was good, perfect,
his mouth was open and since my lips were there, my tongue slid
inside.

Oh yes. Ho boy.
Yes
.

I had my answer. I’d never tire of the
taste of him,
ever.

I felt his hands on my hips and the touch
was light but it burned into me and felt so freaking good I moaned
into his mouth.

That mouth tore from mine as he shuffled me
in a few steps and I pulled on his neck to bring him back.

“Wee one, what on –?” he asked but something
caught his attention, he glanced beyond me briefly then did a
double take, his head jerking to look back at the table.

Then he looked down at me, his eyes locked
on mine and he studied me intensely as his arms glided around me,
pulling me close.

I bit my lip at the touch of his hard body
against mine and wondered if he’d be put off if I started tearing
off my clothes (and his) when his head bent and his face got
close.

His voice was a low rumble that reverberated
through me, causing my knees to go weak (and a variety of other
things, all so fabulous they were nearly tortuous), when he asked,
“That cup, Finnie, it glows. Have you drunk of the adela?”

I pressed closer, my lids had lowered, I was
trying to focus on not pressing my mouth to his (or pressing it
other places) but instead answering his question and also assessing
his reaction to this idea and I whispered, “The girls gave it to
me. Uh… to us.”

He stared at me for a second that seemed
to last five hours then both his hands were suddenly on either side
of my head, he tipped it back and thank God, thank God, thank God,
God,
God
, he was
kissing me, hard, deep with lots and
lots
of tongue.

I shivered against him and held on
tight.

Oh man. I was going to come just from
kissing.

His mouth tore from mine, the heat in my
body was communicated in the heat in his eyes and he growled, “By
the gods, wife, you suit me.”

Then he whisked me up in his arms, carried
me to the table, planted my ass on it and curled a hand around my
neck as he curved the fingers of his other through the handle of
the cup. He picked it up and I held my breath as he held my eyes
while he brought it to his lips. Then I lost his eyes as his neck
bent back and he downed the whole thing in one gulp.

Okay, evidence was clearly suggesting Frey
was really,
really
into
this.

His head righted, he set the mug aside and
he grabbed my legs behind the knees, opened them and moved
between.

Oh yeah. Now we were talking.

My hands slid up his chest to latch onto his
neck and my legs lifted up, knees bent, to press against his hips
as he leaned into me.

“They explained what the adela does?” he
asked as he braced one hand on the table while the other arm curled
around me.

“Unh-hunh,” I mumbled, staring at his mouth
and wishing it wasn’t so damned far away.

“And you want this, Finnie?”

I forced my eyes up to his and my mind to
concentrate. “Is it bad?”

“No,” he replied, his arm lifting me up from
the table and pressing my body into his as I watched his heated
eyes start to scorch. “But it’s powerful, wee one. You do not share
the adela cup with someone you don’t trust with every inch of
you.”

Oh yes. Every inch of me.

I liked that. I wanted to get to the every
inch of me part.

“
But you drank it,” I whispered instead of
whined because he
still
wasn’t
kissing me but he’d bent lower, his arm curling around and
cushioning the back if my neck, his body leaned deep into mine,
pressing it into the table even as he pulled it up and into
him.

He grinned and his grin was so damned wicked
it was physical.

I trembled in a really,
really
good way and he whispered,
“You’re in no state to change your mind.”

He was right about that.

“
And, my Finnie, I trust you with every
inch of me,” he went on and I felt that too, all through me, and
that was in a really,
really
good way too.

So good, my lids lowered and I pressed my
hips into his.

“Finnie, love, look at me,” he growled, I
opened my eyes and saw his were so damned hot, they were
fevered.

It was a
seriously
good look, the best
ever
.

“It is strong but I will walk out that door,
Finnie, look in my eyes, focus and tell me, are you ready for
this?”

I looked in his eyes, I focused for a
nanosecond and then I told him the truth that would be the truth if
I’d drunk from a glowing cup, just woke up in the morning, was
eating lunch or was about to fall asleep at night.