I kept on going. “I thought, with you home and us being, well, you know, wedded in holy matrimony…” I faltered again because his eyes narrowed telling me they didn’t have that and he had no clue to what I was referring so I covered, “of the… um, gods,” Eek! “that maybe we should start to get to know one another and I thought we should start off on the right foot, with everything out in the open. Being honest.”
“Being honest,” he finally spoke and he did it on a low rumble.
I nodded. “Yes, being honest.”
“So this is you honest, now, and that wasn’t you honest, back then?” he asked a good question.
“I can be a little… crazy when I have a bit too much to drink.”
“Yes, the wench at the inn said you come in often, drink much ale and get quite loud,” he remarked, not looking happy about this but I was sure glad Lindy corroborated my story.
“Uh… yes,” I agreed. “That sounds like me.” And, actually, that was no lie.
He scowled at me.
I pulled in breath and said quietly, “Frey, this really sucks to admit but just the way you’re looking at me now scares me.”
“The Winter Princess Sjofn of the House of Wilde does not easily get scared,” he replied quietly right back but his quietly was distrustful, disbelieving and a bit frightening.
I shook my head. “No, I don’t. You’re right. I can usually handle myself but I’m alone in a cabin in the woods with no one even close with a really huge man who could break me in two who doesn’t seem to like me much and you have no problem getting physical and it scares the beejeezus out of me and when it isn’t doing that, it ticks me off.”
“Ticks you off?”
“Upsets me, makes me angry,” I explained.
He went silent again.
“Frey –” I said softly but he cut me off and scarily changed the subject.
“So if you do not prefer women, you wouldn’t mind if I took you to the loft, stripped you na**d and did as I pleased with you?”
I felt my face get hot, my br**sts swell and my heart start beating faster.
“Actually, I would,” I whispered.
He started scowling again. “Right,” he whispered back.
He totally didn’t believe me.
“But only because… well, I’d like for us to get to know one another better. Spend time together. Then maybe advance to the next level.”
His brows snapped together again and he asked, “The next level?”
“Uh… the part where you strip me na**d and do as you please,” I whispered. “That’s the next level.”
He scowled.
I waited.
He scowled more.
I didn’t have anything left.
Then he asked in a low, surprised, unhappier than normal unhappy voice, “By the gods, are you asking me to court you?”
That sounded crazy. The very idea of this big, scary guy who was a renowned Raider courting me or anyone sounded absolutely nuts.
And that must have been why I burst out laughing.