“Yes,” I whispered as my eyes dropped to his mouth, a mouth that was coming closer.
“And you know you’ll like it.” He kept murmuring and he wasn’t wrong about that either.
So, I breathed, “Yes,” right before his mouth touched mine and he kissed me.
Yep, he wasn’t wrong. I liked it. Sweet, slow, deep but gentle, his hands moving on me through the water, slick, soothing, light and the only semi-invasive move was when his thumb trailed up the side of my breast tantalizingly, making me want something not slow, gentle, light or non-invasive but the opposite of all those.
My hands slid up and around his shoulders, the fingers of one hand gliding into his hair, the other arm wrapping tight as I pressed my chest into his and kissed him back.
Yeah, oh yeah, I definitely liked this.
He broke our kiss but didn’t take his lips from me, trailing them down my cheek, they worked my neck and ear, making the skin tingle, making me highly conscious of the power of his body surrounding me, the heat of the water, the slick of our skin, all of it nice, way nice. The best.
Okay, I’d give him third base. Hell, he could slide into home and I knew I’d love every freaking minute of it.
And that was exactly why I turned my mouth to his ear and whispered, “I like being here with you, Frey.”
His arms tightened around me, pressing me deep into his hard body but his head went back and his lazy, heated eyes found mine.
“This pleases me, Finnie,” he replied quietly and I smiled at him, dipping my head closer, he slid his nose along mine something else he did frequently that I put on my why I like him list before I quit making it. Then he again pulled back so I lifted up. One of his hands started roaming my back while the other one slid up my neck to cup my jaw and he went on, “It pleases me but do you not miss your Winter Palace in Fyngaard?”
No. I did not miss my Winter Palace in Fyngaard. Mostly because I had no idea what my Winter Palace was, or what Fyngaard was for that matter though, truth be told, I was intrigued but nowhere on his earth or mine at that moment would be better than those springs in that frozen forest with Frey.
“I –”
His thumb swept my cheek. “And your parents?”
I stared down at him as my heart jumped.
“I do miss my parents,” I whispered the God’s honest truth and watched his eyes go soft.
“As you know, the Bitter Gales is in two weeks time. What you don’t know is I have business I must see to after that. Today, you spend packing your trunks, I’ll load them and tomorrow morning, first thing, we’ll be away. You can spend two weeks at the Winter Palace with your parents, we’ll attend the Gales and then I’ll show you my ship.”
My heart jumped again then it started skipping.
The Winter Palace, the Bitter Gales (whatever that was but whatever it was sounded cool), my parents and his ship.
I’d just hit the mother lode!
Or, more accurately, my husband just offered it to me.
“Really?” I asked.
“Really, my wee Finnie,” he whispered, his arm wrapping around me and giving me a squeeze.
Then something he said struck me and I felt my excitement start to fade. “You said I could spend two weeks with my parents. Are you going away again before the Gales?”
He stared into my eyes, his soft and warm, and his thumb slid over my bottom lip, “No, wee one; I’ll be staying with you at your Palace.”
My heart started skipping again and it was definitely not playing it cool, not that a girl, no matter how good she could play it, could ever play it cool, naked, straddling a na**d man in a hot springs, but, still, I couldn’t contain my smile.
My husband smiled back and that was so good, I decided that playing it cool was for idiots.
Then it occurred to me that he was probably talking about wherever it was we’d been married which meant I’d probably get to go back to that awesome room with all the beautiful carving and that armchair I wanted to try out. And if it was a Palace, it had to have a library which meant more books and more learning about this world. Not to mention, a new town (and a definitely bigger one) to explore.
And lastly, seeing my parents again.
And all of this made me melt into my big, handsome, so-not-scary-it-was-not-funny husband and whisper, “Thank you, Frey.”