Before I make it to the húsgørd, someone runs into me. All I see is a flash of blonde hair. Wrapping my hands around slim shoulders, I look down into the frantic eyes of Isolda.
“Oh, it’s you, Aaric. You must help me, please,” she whimpers.
Shaking her slightly, I frown as I watch her. “What is it?” I demand.
She looks behind her, then shifts her gaze back to me. “It’s Fiske, he…”
“He has done nothing that is not within his rights to do,” my brother shouts.
“Help me,” she whimpers.
Looking at Fiske, I see the blackness swirling in his eyes, the demon is close to his surface. Releasing his bed slave, I take a step back and shift my gaze between them. Fiske crosses his arms over his chest, his demon swirling as he waits to see what I am going to say next.
“What’s happened?” I ask him, ignoring Isolda.
He smirks. “It seems my bed slave wishes that she were lying with you instead of me. She made it clear. She would not open her legs for me, Aaric. I was forced to take other parts of her body. She didn’t like that apparently.”
“Fiske,” I warn.
He shrugs a shoulder. “It’s within my rights, Aaric and you know this.”
“It is never good to abuse the women in our beds, bródir, it was not what father taught us,” I remind him.
He grunts, taking a step toward me. “It may not be what he taught you, Aaric, but I was treated to another side of our dear fadir, than you were,” he reminds me.
Nodding, I bypass Isolda and close the distance between Fiske and I. Reaching out, I clamp my hand around his shoulder, shaking him gently.
“I know this, Fiske. If I had known then, I would have done something. I would have tried to shelter you from that side of him. You were but a child. Do not take your childhood angers out on your bed slave, on anyone.”
Fiske’s eyes soften for a moment, turning their natural color before they go right back to black. He shakes his head, taking a step back, away from my grasp. He barks at Isolda to come to his side.
“Will you interfere, Aaric?” he asks.
“Normally, I would not. However, she is still technically my slave. I have allowed you to possess her, but she is still under my control. She is my thrall.”
Fiske smirks. “Then you can have her back, bródir.”
He turns and walks away from me, at the same time Isolda throws herself in my arms. She burrows deep against my side and I am forced to wrap my arm around her shivering body to provide her comfort.
“Aaric,” Liv calls out.
Isolda curls closer, at the same time I slowly turn around. Liv watches us, her eyes flick from me to Isolda, then back to me. I watch as her face falls. She spins around and hurries back into the húsgørd.
LIV
That woman.
That fucking woman.
I pace my bedroom. Seeing him, my husband wrapped around that bitch. I see red, complete and total red. I hear thunder rumble in the distance but pay it no mind. I’m focused on one thing and one thing only.
That fucking woman.
“Now, Liv,” Aaric murmurs.
Spinning around, I take a step toward him. The wind howls in the distance, there is a crack of thunder that shakes even the floor beneath my feet, but I don’t care.
“You fucking asshole,” I shout.
He holds his hands up, taking a step toward me. “Nothing has happened, Liv,” he pleads.
Shaking my head, I lift my hand, slapping him across the face. His head shifts to the side, then slowly turns back to me. He takes a step toward me, his body double the size of my own. Reaching out, he grasps my wrists in his hands and squeezes before he tugs me forward.
My body slams against his, tipping my head back, I look up into his beautiful blue eyes. The dick. He dips his chin, his face only inches from my own. “Nothing has happened, Liv,” he says his tone a bit firmer—stronger.
“What the fuck? I wake up and you’re gone. I go in search of you and I find you wrapped around her. Why?” I demand, my eyes filling with tears.
“My brother has abused her, she was seeking safety, nothing more.”
I throw back my head in laughter and I know that I must sound like a maniac. I hear the thunder crack loudly above us. Aaric lifts his head, then looks back down at me, his eyes wide with what I can only describe as awe mixed with fear.
“You must calm, my brúõr. You must calm, think of the people, of the farmers and their crops.”
Shaking my head, tears spill down my cheeks. “You never promised me, Aaric. You never said that you would not take another woman and then you leave my bed and you’re with her. What am I supposed to think?” I ask.
He dips his chin, his mouth touching mine. “You think nothing of it, Liv. I have told you that nothing happened, you trust your husband.”
“Yeah?” I ask.
He grunts, releasing my wrists before he reaches down and wraps his hands around the backs of my thighs, picking me up. I’m forced to wrap my legs around his waist. The moment I feel his hard length press against my center, I let out a gasp.
Aaric grins. “Would my böllur be so ready for you, Liv, if I had lain with her?” he asks, his lips still against my own.
“Maybe,” I breathe.
He chuckles, turning around to press my back against the wooden door. “Nothing has happened, víf,” he coos. “She is in a room seeking refuge and nothing more. She is still my thrall. I cannot force her to be abused, if my brother is indeed hurting her as she claimed.”
“She claimed it because she wants to be right where I am, Aaric.”
“Do you think me so weak that I cannot turn down the body of a woman?”
Letting my head fall back, I let out a grunt. “Could you turn me down? My body?” I ask.
Without a word, he shoves his face against my throat and bursts out laughing, his body shaking against my own. I push against his shoulders and try to wriggle out of his grasp, but it is of no use.
He lifts his head from my neck, still smiling, he looks into my eyes. “The body of my wife is so much different from the body of just a woman in passing, my Liv.”
“Is it?” I ask, arching a brow.
“What we share, it means more than just a thrust into a skjede. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew that the gods gave you to me for a purpose larger than just to take as a spoil of war. You are different, minn. What we have, it is different.”
“God, why do you have to be so damn sweet?” I exhale.
He grins and without uttering a single word, my husband gives me the fantasy that I had been thinking of. He fucks me against the door, it’s hot, sweaty, hard and fast, but it’s also the sweetest moment that I could have ever imagined.
This man is everything I’ve ever dreamt of and nothing I’d ever imagined for myself all rolled into one gigantic Viking-like package.
Chapter Twenty-Three
AARIC
Liv sleeps. I watch her, wondering if she could be right. Could Isolda have made the situation worse than it was just to get back into the húsgørd? I decide to keep an eye on the situation, not to let Isolda slither like a snake anywhere. She was given to Fiske, and Fiske’s home is where she will go back to.