He was lastly beautiful.

I went to the hooks on the wall to get a bridle for one of the grays and had lifted a hand to nab it when Frey called from behind me. “What are you doing?”

I dropped my hand and turned to him then answered, “Preparing a gray to ride.”

“You’ll ride with me.”

I blinked.

Then I asked, “What?”

He stood by his horse for about half a second then he walked to me, reached low, engulfed my hand in his then led me to his horse. Before I became unstuck, he’d mounted and leaned down to hook me around the waist and pull me up in front of him.

Then he immediately clicked his teeth and Tyr walked out of the stable. Once clear of the structure, Frey clicked his teeth again and leaned slightly into me, taking me with him, chest to back, at the same time his arm moving me back into him as it tightened around my belly and Tyr took us from walk to a not fast but definitely not slow canter.

Apparently, Frey Drakkar did not stop and smell the roses.

“Um…” I started then pointed out, “You just broke our deal.”

“How?” he asked, his voice sounding in my ear.

“You just put me on your horse,” I explained as the forest went passed us and I noticed Frey knew a better, what appeared to be more direct route because he was now taking it.

“Yes, I did,” he agreed.

“Part of our deal was, you wouldn’t do that.”

“No… Finnie, part of our deal was I wouldn’t toss you on a horse. I didn’t toss you on a horse. I pulled you onto a horse.”

“That’s a technicality,” I declared.

“A what?” he asked.

I didn’t explain, instead I stated, “I think you knew what I meant.”

“And I think, when you’re making a deal, you may wish to be more clear in your demands and your expectations,” he returned.

Well, it could be said he was not wrong.

I made a mental note to do just that.

We rode through the frozen forest and it didn’t take long for me to come to the understanding that I liked this better, riding with Frey. I could pay more attention to the beauty that was around me (even if it was mostly streaming by) and not where I was going. And he was warm and solid behind me and any warmth in Lunwyn, I had learned, should not only be made use of but treasured. It was a lazy way to go but it was definitely the better way to go.

Hmm.

I decided not to focus on that and instead, learn about my husband.

Therefore, I set about doing that.

“So,” I began, “uh… where have you been the last six weeks?”

“At sea,” he answered readily.

My brows went up but I kept my eyes on the vista before me. “That whole time?”

“That whole time,” he replied then went on, “or the part of it we weren’t in Middleland.”

I twisted my neck to look at him and got an eyeful of strong jaw and masculine throat. Attractive strong jaw and appealing masculine throat.

That was when I looked back forward.

“What were you doing in Middleland?”

“One of my men had an errand to run.”

Interesting.

“What was the errand?” I asked.

Frey did not answer.

Hmm. Interesting.

“Was your errand successfully run?” I queried.

“Yes.”

Not informative but at least an answer.

“Um… how many men do you have?”

“Many.”

Again not informative but at least an answer.

“Are we talking ‘many’ as in ‘more than ten’ or ‘many’ as in ‘more than five hundred’?” I attempted to clarify.

“Somewhere in between,” Frey clearly didn’t feel like clarifying.

I was not deterred

“So, are you often at sea?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going back soon?”

I asked this because I wanted to go with him when he went though I wasn’t going to tell him that then. I just wanted to know how much time I had to convince him to take me.

He didn’t know this and thus read my question wrong. I knew this not only from his next words but an arm that got very tight at my belly.

“I’m just home, wife, and you wish to be rid of me?”

“That’s not what I meant,” I kinda semi-wheezed, he heard it and his arm relaxed.

“If not, then tell me what you meant,” he ordered and I knew I couldn’t say I wanted to go with him, not yet.

So I said softly, “I’m just trying to get to know you, Frey. You aren’t a font of information, telling me your favorite color and pouring forth your heartfelt desires. I didn’t mean anything except to ask about you.”

“I don’t have a favorite color,” he replied, “and my desires, at the moment, though I would not describe them as heartfelt, but felt somewhere else, all revolve around what I shall do when I first bed my new wife. Would you like to talk about that?”

Ho boy.

“Um…” I swallowed, “no.”

He shifted then muttered over my head, “I did not think so.”

Okay, so, that went well. Kind of. I learned a few things about my husband. Since I did, I decided that I could take a break and stop talking to Frey.

We made it into town and I refused to think about the fact that the last time I was here I was carted out of a pub by my just returned from sea husband. Instead, I acted business as usual, smiling, waving and calling out greetings to people I knew. Luckily, they did the same (with glances at Frey, of course, who did not call out greetings, wave and, I couldn’t see him, but I was pretty certain he did not smile) and he stopped us outside the market.

He dismounted then, with hands at my waist, I came down too.

Then he did something sweet, something unexpected, something I didn’t think he had in him even after stoking the fire and saying he liked my pancakes.

His big hand enveloped mine and he walked me to the market while holding my hand.

Shit. I liked that. That was nice.

Hmm.

We walked in and I called out to Maria, “Hi Maria! It’s Finnie! I’ve come to get some groceries!”

She was in the back room and yelled in return, “Greetings, Princess Finnie! I’ll be out in two moments. We’ve had some green beans come in!”

Freaking cool!

Fresh veg, I had also learned in Lunwyn, was to be treasured.

Green beans just got jotted on the menu.

“I want some of those!” I yelled.