“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 ni**les 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 ni**les 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!