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Although never more tempted to linger, I suspected the ale would only loosen my tongue more, so I polished off the contents of my cup and stood, putting things back into perspective for us both.

“I thank you for welcoming us back tonight, chieftain.” I swung my fur around my shoulders. “But I fear, as I’m sure you understand, that I’m much in need of some rest now.”

“I can imagine,” she said, her voice a bit hoarse as if she too struggled with her emotions. Clearing her throat, she nodded once at me, going from the close friends we were to the earl speaking to her underling. “Thank you again, Knud. Rest well, and I will see you in the morn so that we might catch up on all the lesser workings of our tribe you missed whilst away.”

Properly dismissed, I bid her a good eve and made my way out into a night that had grown chillier. Or so it always seemed when I left Tove’s cottage, if not Tove herself. She and she alone lent warmth to my soul. To my very being. Emotion I had to bury daily until I was alone in bed at night.

Despite the time of year, tonight felt colder than ever upon entering my cottage tucked between hers and her father’s lodge, not surprised to find she hadn’t moved into it yet. As the new earl, she should have by now. I didn’t need to ask to know it would be a hard move for her. Yet, at some point in the near future, she would need to, and I would recommend it be sooner rather than later. Something no one but me would dare mention, so it was good I had returned so that I might steer her to take those last difficult steps.

Anything that kept us free of the kind of talk we had shared tonight would be most welcome. Leaving Tove these past few months, knowing she was in charge now and no longer under her father’s thumb, had been more difficult than expected, and I couldn’t say precisely why. Mayhap because I knew she was better off with a strong, supportive voice at her side. Or mayhap because I wondered if things might eventually change between us now that Bjǫrn was no longer here.

After tonight, that seemed impossible, yet when I lay down to sleep, it didn’t stop me from envisioning her by my side as I had since that kiss. Before that, if I were to be honest with myself. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried not to envision what it would feel like, spreading her thighs and sinking deep inside her. Finally claiming her flesh, even if I could not have her heart.

I had brought women to my bed over the years, but I only ever saw Tove’s face in my mind when I took them. Only ever heard her moans of pleasure. Her cries when she found her peak. Felt her nails rake down my back. Tasted her hungry kisses in between before we took each other again and again.

“Hell, woman,” I ground out, almost wishing I had another in my bed this eve so I could imagine they were her. Imagine we were finally together as we always should have been.

“I long for the same,” I swore she whispered in my ear as I kept my eyes closed, envisioning her beautiful face. “Always.”

Then I was back in that moment years ago when we were still young warriors. When she fought as the shield-maiden she was, and no one could match our skills. I was her closest friend even then, and the only warrior of a similar age who could rival her. We were fierce when battling alongside each other. Untouchable. A partnership in the best sense of the word until we realized one snowy night how much more might exist between us.

A memory that must have lulled me to sleep because the next thing I knew, I jolted awake to the last thing I expected.

Chapter Three

Tove

After Knud left my cottage, I hung my head, wishing with everything in me that I had stopped him. That I had finally taken him into my arms and showed him what I prayed he’d seen in my eyes, even as I knew I should wish otherwise.

“What will come of us, my friend?” I whispered, refusing to let a tear fall. If one did, many would follow. “How will we…I…manage this?”

After all, I would have to if the King of the Isle needed me.

I had known that since this all began, so I was surprised I hadn’t heard more of Magnús Óláfsson until now. I still recalled the eager young king I had met years before. My awe of him. He was revered as the King of the Seas in these parts. A long line of fierce warriors who ruled the waters as well as they did the isles off the northern shores of Scotland.

Had there been attraction between us? Yes. But my draw to him could not rival how I’d felt about Knud even then. There had been a fun flirtation rather than a deep-seated friendship. Physical attraction that paled in comparison to my desire for Knud.

Inhaling deeply, I tried to gather myself and remain where I was rather than race to the door and call Knud back, pull him into my arms, and continue the kiss we’d walked away from years before. Would he kiss me back? Something told me he would. I had seen it in his eyes minutes before, tethering us together.

In fact, I sensed he had forced himself to cut that tether and leave for my sake alone. That he wanted me every bit as much as I did him. Or so some forbidden part of me imagined as I undressed and made my way to a bed that had forever felt cold without him in it.

I could hardly imagine ever loving another as I did him, so I pushed the King of the Isles from my mind, along with Knud, so that I might sleep, but instead I was back in that cold, wintry forest of the north again. There, when he’d yanked me to the snowy ground, covered me with his body, pulled the white bear fur he had been wearing over the top of us, and put a finger to my lips.

“Don’t move,” he had whispered in my ear. “Do not even breathe.”

We had been battling a rival tribe and were caught in the thick of enemy territory with too many foes in the woodland around us to fight them off. If they discovered us, we would lose our lives. He would, anyway. Chances were good they would take me for more nefarious purposes, not only because I was a woman but because of who my father was.

“’Tis cowardice,” I had seethed back softly, too naïve to know better. I fought. Battled. Conquered. That was who I was. “We fight and die and go to the great halls of—”

That was all I got out before Knud’s mouth closed over mine to silence me, and everything changed in the blink of an eye. Though I initially struggled against him, it wasn’t long before I realized just how much I liked the sensation. How much I liked the taste of him every bit as much as the looks of him.

Running the tip of my tongue along the seam of my lips as I imagined it, I struggled to breathe just as I had then when he’d tilted his head and closed his mouth more firmly over mine. When our tongues met, fire had blazed through me, making me wonder if we would melt the snow around us.

When I’d groaned and spread my thighs, desperate for more of that feeling, more of him, and the heavy ridge of his arousal pressing against me, he clamped a hand over my mouth and whispered hoarsely in my ear, “Shhh, woman.”

Yet I’d felt how he’d pressed against me as if trying to assuage his own ache. Felt the blazing warmth of his skin and the slamming of his heart. How rigid his body had gone, as if it took everything in him not to claim me then and there, surrounded by fur and snow with the wind whistling overhead and enemies lurking around us.

“Do not stop,” I murmured against his hand. “Do not—”