Page 40 of Entwined in Norway

‘Erik!’ She stopped and turned around, hardly able to believe he’d said it out loud.

‘What?’ he laughed. ‘You’re… how old? Thirty? And you think your brother thinks you’re a virgin?’

He was enjoying this far too much.

‘Can we not talk about sex out in the open, please?’

‘Ida. Are you a prude?’

‘No.’ She wasn’t sure what that word meant but if it meant she didn’t want to talk about her sex life in the garden when their words could carry down the sides of the mountain, then yes. She was a prude.

She carried on down the steps to the bottom, skipping down without worrying about whether Erik was behind her. He was slower, but she needed a minute to gather herself without him flustering her. It was ridiculous to worry about what Mats thought. As if he’d mind. It’s not like it was any of his business at all. He was probably bemused about why she wasn’t sleeping at home and maybe hadn’t even thought she might sleep with Erik. That made her laugh.

Once Erik caught her up, he held the kayak steady for her to climb in, then passed her bag down, and she tucked it between her legs. He climbed in himself, making it rock more dramatically than it had before, and Ida couldn’t help but let out a small shriek.

She watched Erik’s shoulders bounce up and down as he laughed before he picked up the paddle and they started across the water.

It was a beautiful evening. Still and cloudless. A few of the brightest stars were shining in the twilight, but it wasn’t dark enough to see very many. As Erik propelled them across the fjord, Ida thought this was the most romantic way to begin the rest of the night. She was sure she wanted to have sex with Erik, but she didn’t think it would be tonight. Not because she wasn’t ready, but because he was weary. She would take him in her arms and soothe his pain away.

The feelings she had for Erik were on another level entirely to any other physical relationship she’d had with a man. None of the few men she’d slept with had the magnetic quality that Erik had. She’d liked them, of course she had, but had she felt drawn to them or captivated by them in the same way she was with him? No. And that was because until now, she hadn’t known it was even possible to feel like that about a man.

Erik pulled up at the jetty and braced himself against it so that Ida could climb out. Then he eased himself out and lifted the kayak out of the water and put it back behind the bushes. Then he turned to her, smiled and held out his hand.

‘Coming?’

She nodded, dropped her life vest into the kayak, put her hand in his, and they walked in silence through the woods to the hotel. As they approached the front door, Ida suddenly wondered what she was going to say to Emilie by way of an explanation. Going upstairs with Erik was going to look so obvious. But Emilie wasn’t at the desk, so Ida breathed a sigh of relief and walked up the stairs alongside Erik. She glanced at him, feeling his hand gripping hers more tightly as they climbed. His jaw was set, and she wished she had a room on the first floor she could give him right now.

It seemed to take a long time to climb the stairs to the third floor. It might have been because Erik was taking it slow but it might have been Ida’s anticipation of what was going to happen next that was drawing out the seconds to feel longer.

Erik dropped her hand, and patted himself down to find whichever pocket held the key. Then he tapped the lock and stood aside so Ida could go in first.

Out of habit she switched the bedside light on to cast a warm glow, then she sat on the bed because there was nowhere else to go without being in Erik’s way as he closed the door behind them.

He picked up a slim plastic document wallet that was on the pillow.

‘Is that your family research?’ She could see a newspaper article through the clear plastic.

‘Just some leads I had from the Bergen archives. Nothing interesting.’

He stuffed the wallet into the backpack that was propped underneath the clothes rail.

‘I’m going to use the bathroom,’ he said.

While he was in there, Ida undressed and pulled on the t-shirt she’d brought with her to sleep in, then she slipped into the bed and sat there with her arms around her knees.

Erik came out of the bathroom topless, his mouth crooked up on one side. ‘Got room for another one?’

He pulled his trousers down, revealing black jersey trunks. Although it wasn’t that different from what she’d seen when he’d been swimming, at the same time it was. Maybe because she knew that body was about to be next to hers.

She scooted over and held the covers up for him. He sat next to her, then lay down, stretching himself out and gave the most enormous sigh of relief.

‘That feels so good.’

She shifted so that she was lying next to him. Not touching. Yet. And propped herself up on her elbow. She reached her fingers to his forehead and stroked her thumb across his brow.

He looked at her, his dark blue eyes melting her soul. Then he moved his arm so that it was lying across the pillow, inviting Ida to lay her head on his shoulder as if they’d been here a thousand times before. She accepted and slid her hand across his chest. He shifted towards her so that their bodies were touching, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. She wished she weren’t wearing the t-shirt now.

As if he was reading her mind, he slid his other hand under the hem and ran it over her hip, resting on her waist. ‘Want to lose the shirt?’