I nodded. “Hot. Handsome, good-looking, pleasing to the eye,” I leaned into him, “hot.”
He tipped his chin back and laughed then, still laughing, rolled me to my back, his arm around my belly tucking my side into his front, he looked down at me and quit laughing.
“And it is good you are beautiful, Finnie Drakkar, or you would have a very pink arse for risking such a venture.”
I blinked at him.
Finnie Drakkar.
Shit, but that had a nice ring to it.
Then all his words hit me and I felt my brows draw together. “A pink arse for risking such a venture?”
He nodded and his face again grew serious. “This…” he hesitated, “travel to another world. It was foolhardy.”
What?
“What?” I asked.
“You had no idea what you would encounter and I know when you arrived, wife. I know you encountered a situation that was beyond your means to control it. As you know, I do not care for the other you.”
Boy, I knew that.
Frey kept talking. “I do not like to think of how I behaved with you, thinking you were her.” His face grew darker when he stated, “And I do not like to think of what could go wrong with this magic, where you could have been sent, what could have befallen you. It was reckless, my wee one, and you should not have done it.”
I stared up at him.
He was worried about me.
That was sweet and hot.
I didn’t tell him that. Instead I pointed out, “Frey, honey, I’m a princess, I live in a freaking palace, my Mom and Dad are king and queen and I’m married to a hot guy who is the rightful ruler of the land and commands elves and dragons. I totally did all right.”
“This is pure chance,” he stated firmly and I smiled.
“Adventure always is,” I pushed against him, taking him to his back, resting my torso on his, I dipped my face close as I wrapped my fingers around the side of his neck. Then I said quietly, “That’s the best part, baby.”
“Fin –” he started but I lifted my hand, touched my fingers to his mouth and got serious.
“My Mom and Dad, my real ones, back home,” I watched his eyes grow intense, which I thought was weird but I kept talking, “they lived every minute like it was their last.” I slid my fingers across his cheek and down to his jaw before I whispered, “And this was good for their lives didn’t last long. They left me behind, Frey, and I miss them. But I like knowing they packed as much as they could get in before they left me. And before they left me, they taught me not just to exist, not just to breathe in and breathe out, but to live. And I like knowing they’re smiling, wherever they are, knowing that I listened and learned and I’m living my life like they taught me how. Making every single breath I take count.”
He held my eyes even as he lifted a hand, sifted it into the hair behind my ear then glided it down through my hair to hold it bunched at the side of my neck.
“I would like to know about them, Finnie,” he said softly.
“And I’ll enjoy telling you about them, Frey,” I replied softly.
His thumb stroked my throat, his gaze still locked with mine and he muttered, “By the gods, you suit me, this craving for life, your thirst for venture.”
I grinned at him because I liked that he thought that, I liked it a lot.
“Can I tell you something?” I asked.
“Anything, wee one,” he answered.
I moved closer and had no idea my eyes got bright and my cheeks turned pink with excitement before I whispered breathlessly, “I cannot wait to get on your ship.”
He held my eyes for a second before his roamed my face. Then both his arms locked around me and held me tight as he burst out laughing.