I took a deep breath, held it, and let it out. “I’m ready,” I whispered, running my hands over the bulge of my stomach. “Let’s do this, baby girl.”
“You are the most beautiful woman in Midgard,” Vali said from the doorway.
“Vali!” I squealed. “You’re not supposed to see me before the wedding!”
He entered the room with a grin. “Couldn’t resist.”
Damn, he looked handsome! He wore a dark blue suit and a brilliant white tie, with a boutonniere of wildflowers pinned to his lapel. He had offered to pull his hair back, or even cut it off, but I balked. I wanted to say my vows to the man from my dreams, with his long, dark curls framing his face and spilling down his back.
Suddenly Susan’s sneaky little smile made sense. “Susan put you up for this, didn’t she?”
“I bribed her,” Vali said, leaning close to nibble my ear. “With promises of the true story of how we met.”
“Oh, you can’t!” My yelp of protest dissolved into a sigh of pleasure as Vali leaned down to kiss me. His lips tasted smoky and rich.
“Is that whiskey?” I asked.
“Just a sip,” he said. “Zeke told me it’s a human tradition.”
“I don’t remember actually inviting Zeke to this wedding,” I muttered.
“You didn’t. He’s here as my guest.”
I groaned. “Did you invite Colin too?”
“Of course!”
I should have guessed. Colin and Zeke had shown up on my doorstep last week, uninvited, with a beat-to-shit van packed full of other graduate students I barely recognized. Zeke told me they’d come for Wolf Boy, and that it would be an affront to our common humanity to let him marry without a proper bachelor party. I thought about telling them to get lost, but Vali shrugged and said he would love to learn more about modern human customs.
Ten hours later, I was on the verge of calling the police - or Loki - when the van backfired into my driveway at daybreak. Vali staggered out of the back, vomited on the front steps, and collapsed on the couch for the rest of the day, smelling like he personally drank half the whiskey in the great state of Montana. When he finally woke up, he told me only that he’d been sworn to secrecy about the entire night.
Since then Colin, Zeke, and Vali had been disturbingly close.
Vali kissed me again, before I could protest. “And how’s our girl?” he asked, dropping his hands to the curve of my stomach.
I smiled. “She’s fine.”
Vali was with me when I got my first ultrasound. I held his hand so tightly I left small, purple bruises on all his fingers, like little rings. I’d cried when the OB told me she looked perfectly healthy, and Vali held me on the hard plastic of the doctor’s examining table for a very long time.
Vali tilted his head, looking at my stomach. “Is she kicking?”
“Don’t worry. She was moving all morning.”
Vali dropped to his knees, resting his head against the white satin of my dress. “Hello, baby girl,” he whispered. “Daddy’s here.”
“Oh, there she goes!” Our daughter turned inside me, making a slow ripple of motion across my abdomen as she responded to Vali’s voice. “I don’t know how you do that. She won’t move for me.”
He grinned, his hands pressed to my womb. “You stay in there a little longer, sweet girl,” he whispered. “Mommy and Daddy have some plans for the next few nights.”
Vali stood and gave me an incendiary smile, leaving no doubts about the nature of those plans. We were going to spend our honeymoon in British Columbia, hiking at Lake Louise, although I doubted we’d end up doing much actual hiking. I didn’t remember feeling sexy at all during my first pregnancy, but Vali treated each new inch around my waist as an aphrodisiac, and his constant arousal only turned me on more.
“I thought pregnancy and marriage were supposed to be a turnoff,” I said.
“Nothing about you is a turnoff,” Vali whispered, leaning close to run his lips down the curve of my neck.
I closed my eyes. Unzipping my dress was starting to seem like a very good idea. The rest of the wedding party could wait—
“If you’re quite done.”
I jumped. Loki stood next to us, close enough to touch.
“Goddamn it, Loki!” I said. “You have got to stop doing that!”
Vali didn’t even move. “I’m not done,” he muttered, his face on my neck and his hands tight around the small of my back.
I sighed, allowing myself to relax in his arms for one last kiss. We made it last a long time.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Loki, once Vali and I pulled apart.
“The pathway to the aspen grove is a bit muddy. Vali thought you might like to be transported to the ceremony.”
I blinked at my husband. Just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me, he considers things like mud and dresses.
“That would be great,” I said, smiling at Vali. “Thank you.”
Vali kissed me one more time on the curve of my jaw, and I closed my eyes, feeling the heat of his body in my arms, breathing his wild scent. Our eyes met as he pulled away, saying all the things I could not find the words to express. He took my hand and raised it to his lips, kissing my fingers gently.
“See you there,” he whispered.
I watched him walk through the door, waiting for my heartbeat to return to normal. Some part of me wondered if there would ever come a time when our kisses didn’t leave me gasping for breath, or shot through with arousal. God, I hoped not.
Once I heard the front door close, I turned to Loki.
“May I ask you something?” I whispered.
“Of course.”
“Is everything—” I paused, wrapping my arm around the swell of my belly. “Is everything going to turn out all right?”
Loki raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I’ve absolutely no idea. But we’ve all managed so far.” He gave me that odd smile again, the one that made me think of him holding a newborn.
“Are you ready?”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes.”—
—And the two of us stood together in front of the aspen grove. The Gallatin River chattered behind us as aspen leaves shifted and rustled in the breeze. The soft notes of George Winston’s Montana album, drifting from the little speakers nestled in the aspen grove, mixed with the gentle chatter of subdued conversation. A baby shrieked, and I turned to see Caroline standing under a cottonwood, bouncing Adelina in her arms. Caroline’s entire face changed when she saw Loki; it was like watching the sun rise over the mountains of Asgard. My chest clenched as I realized how close I’d come to never smiling like that again.
Loki shifted against me, but I grabbed his arm. His pale eyes met mine.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He nodded, then joined his wife and child under the cottonwood. Adelina screamed with laughter as I stepped closer to the aspen grove. There was John, sitting with his wife and three kids on the white folding chairs under the trees. Diana sat on the other side of the aisle, somehow managing to make a flannel shirt look elegant and regal. Zeke was in the back row, his legs spread wide. He grinned at me beneath a pair of absurdly enormous aviator glasses. Next to him, Colin raised one hand in a small salute. He at least had the decency to look somewhat sheepish about crashing his boss’s wedding. Sitting in the front row, my mom was still dabbing her eyes. Susan stood in front of the makeshift aisle of folding chairs, wearing what she’d insisted on calling her “bridesmaid jeans.”
And next to Susan, smiling in the dappled June sunshine, stood Vali, his wildflower boutonniere nodding in the gentle breeze. Husband, I thought, my breath catching in my throat. Home.
My dad walked and handed me the tightly wrapped bouquet of wildflowers Susan and I had picked that morning. Bright scarlet penstemon, purple lodgepole lupine, and the brilliant blue-and-white shooting stars of columbine. Just like in our dream meadow.
Dad smiled, and somewhere, someone started Wagner’s Bridal Chorus.<
br />
“Are you ready?” he whispered.
I nodded and took his arm. On the other side of the aspen grove, Vali’s golden eyes rose to meet mine.
“Yes,” I said.
THANK YOU!
You’re amazing!
Thank you so much for reading and supporting independent artists. Without your support, I wouldn’t be writing.
Now that you’ve finished Vali and Karen’s story, please do consider leaving a review. Reviews make or break the careers of independent authors like me, and I do read every single one.
You can leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or the retailer of your choosing. :)
Excerpt from The Trickster’s Lover
The Sem Guði Hátíð was slow going as my two windows rattled in their panes and cold rain streaked the glass. The lights flickered but stayed on; Chicago knew how to handle a storm. The only dictionary I’d managed to find translated Icelandic into French, so I had a second dictionary to translate the French into English. Some of the dictionary entries were supremely unhelpful, offering that the translation for the French preposition “de” could be “of, to, from, by, with, than, at, off,” and, under some circumstances, “out of.”
There were familiar characters in the Sem Guði Hátíð , like Óðinn, Thor, and Loki, but there was also plenty of ambiguity. Haf, for instance. According to my Icelandic-to-French dictionary, this meant “ocean,” but was this the actual ocean? Was it the name of the god of the ocean? Or was it meant as a description, an attempt to evoke the vast size of the feast hall? Sometimes I was almost certain I’d understood a full sentence, but mostly it was like feeling my way through an unfamiliar room with the lights turned off.
It was fascinating.
I told myself I’d only work until midnight. When midnight came I made another cup of tea and said I would only work until one in the morning. Now the clock above my tiny half-oven blinked quarter to two, and I ignored it.
“Girnud,” I muttered to myself, trying out the words. I rolled them on my tongue, imagining Viking ships and longhouses, imagining woodsmoke, the spray of salt from the ocean.
“Girnud, löngun.”
And then I was no longer alone in my apartment.
There was, perhaps, a crackle of electricity in the air, a quick gust of cold on the back of my neck, like a melting snowflake.
I looked up from the table. There was a very tall man standing in the middle of my apartment. I stood and stumbled backward, bumping awkwardly against the wall. Our eyes met, and my breath caught in my throat. He was unreasonably attractive.
“Uh, hi?” I stammered, staring at his full lips and long, fiery red hair.
He smiled, and my heart surged. Damn, what a smile. I fought the insane urge to smile back and tore my eyes off him, glancing at the door to my apartment. It was still closed, bolted, with the chain drawn. How did...?
I turned back to him, and he moved a step closer. He wore strange clothes; they looked like leather, black with streaks of gold and red, with an enormous cloak rippling behind him. His fingers were delicate, and his ice-blue eyes seemed to be laughing. He bent toward me, so close our lips were almost touching. So close I could smell him. Woodsmoke. Salt spray. Cold, and leather.
“Hello,” he whispered, his breath warm on my neck.
My skin prickled, and I trembled as my body flushed with heat. I swallowed and tried to think. It’s the middle of the night, I told myself. And there’s a strange man in your apartment. I turned to face him, my gaze lingering on the soft curves of his full lips, wondering how they would feel—
I shook my head to stop myself. You should not be thinking about kissing him.
“What are you—” The words died in my throat as a jolt of recognition surged through my body. I know you, I thought. I’ve been reading about you since I was thirteen.
“Loki?” I whispered, my voice sounding very small. “Loki... of the Ӕsir?”
His eyes danced. “Very good. I am Loki, son of Laufeyiar.” He gave me another slow, incendiary smile. “And right now, I’m admiring you.”
The room suddenly felt very warm. I took a deep breath. “That’s not possible,” I whispered.
He tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. “What’s not possible?”
Neither of those things are possible.
Find The Trickster’s Lover at a wide selection of online retailers!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would never have happened without the support, encouragement, and occasional harassment, of many lovely people.
First, as always, thank you to my wonderful husband. I would have given up on “the Vali story” without his ceaseless cheerleading. He also makes a fine beta reader, among other things.
The talented Bronwyn Green provided invaluable feedback, and made this story much, much stronger. I am so deeply grateful, my friend.
Thank you also to Jayne Ingram-Shover for the beta reading and the encouragement!
Teresa Conner made the cover, and all the teasers, for this book. If the cover caught your eye, it’s thanks to her!
I am still thankful, every day, to be part of a network of amazing fellow authors. Cora Cade, Jessi Gage, Jessica Jarman, Mira Stanley, Kris Norris, Torrance Sené, and Janine Ashbless have given me more encouragement, advice, and support than I could ever repay. You ladies are the best! (They’re also fabulous writers, and you should check them all out.)
I’m grateful for my former co-workers at Montana State University. Any details that help bring this story to life are thanks to them; the mistakes are mine alone.
And finally, thanks to my fine Montana skiing partners Mark, Jake, Greg, and Lars. Wishing you much gnar to shred, my dear friends.
Click here to claim your free story: http://www.subscribepage.com/u0p4g7
Also by Samantha MacLeod
Persephone Remembers the Pomegranates
Honeymoon
The Trickster's Lover
Claiming Thor's Hammer
The Wolf's Lover
Watch for more at Samantha MacLeod’s site.
About the Author
Born and raised in Colorado, Samantha MacLeod has lived in every time zone in the US, and London. She has a bachelor’s degree from Colby College and an M.A. from the University of Chicago; yes, the U. of C. really is where fun comes to die.
Samantha lives with her husband and two small children in the woods of southern Maine. When she’s not shoveling snow or writing steamy sex scenes, Samantha can be found teaching college composition and philosophy to undergraduates who have no idea she leads a double life as an erotica author.
Read more at Samantha MacLeod’s site.
The Wolf's Lover_An Urban Fantasy Romance Page 30
