Playing Easy to Get

by Kresley Cole

  “I’m different,” Sofia quietly insisted. A part of her wondered how many Outsider brides had all said the same thing to no avail, and she ruthlessly squelched the thought. “I can’t just accept this without a fight!”

  “Nor could I.” Amani sighed. “I had thought to try and save you from all the marriage pains I endured when first wed, but I see now that it is not possible. You must learn these things for yourself.”

  Oh, God, don’t say that I’m just like you! Please stop!

  “Just know that I’m here if you need to talk. I’ve been in your shoes and I understand what it feels like to wear them.”

  Deep inside, Sofia knew Amani was being genuine with her, not trying to deceive her into believing that escape wasn’t possible when it was. The truth was even more defeating than lies.

  “Why?” Sofia asked, her voice shaking just a little. “Make me understand why.” She kept her voice low so as not to be overheard by the men. Johen and Eemil were too embroiled in conversation to notice her rising anger, though. “Do they have a shortage of women down here or something?”

  “At times. Nothing noteworthy these days, though.”

  Her nostrils flared. “Then why?”

  Sofia was nine-tenths rational logic and one tenth emotion. She loved and hated as strongly as the next person, but her brain wasn’t wired in a stereotypical female fashion. She needed to understand, even in a world where reason might not exist.

  “Why do the men of my home country marry several wives?” Amani softly asked. “Why do your Christian countrymen take but one wife?” She waved a hand. “Why do the Jews fight the Muslims for the rights to the Holy Land, and Muslims fight them back just as fiercely for those same rights?”

  Sofia stilled. Because of their deeply held belief that it’s the will of their particular God.

  Her shoulders slumped, the fight going out of her. She was tired, mentally and emotionally.

  “The Vikings believe in the will of the gods of Valhalla.” Amani found Sofia’s hand once again. “This culture is an ancient one, a civilization steeped in its own rules and doctrines. It is foreign to you, as it once was to me, but you will eventually see the Vikings for what they are—a good, family-oriented people.”

  “But the world above the ground…” Sofia shook her head, not comprehending. “How can you just give up all hope of ever seeing it again?”

  Amani’s smile was nostalgic. “Love can do many things to a woman.”

  Sofia mentally rolled her eyes. She didn’t mean any disrespect to Johen’s mother, but she wasn’t the type of person to be ruled by sentiment.

  “I’m happy for you that you fell in love with your husband,” Sofia whispered, “but—”

  “Yes, I did,” Amani interrupted. “But it was not my love for Eemil that I spoke of.”

  Sofia raised a golden eyebrow.

  “It was Eemil’s love for me that I found impossible to keep waging war against.” Amani’s gaze seemed to gentle each time she spoke of her husband. “Vikings, as you have witnessed, are raised differently from any culture above the ground.”

  “That’s an understatement,” Sofia muttered.

  Amani grinned. “Yes, it is.” Her expression grew serious. “But that difference is also shown in the love they harbor for their wives.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not certain I can explain it,” Amani said thoughtfully. “It’s the way men raise their sons, I suppose.”

  Sofia listened intently, a rapt audience.

  “They are taught that their bride is the center of all life and meaning. Down here, a man isn’t complete without one. Through the woman, their house is blessed and the continuity of their line promised.

  “Emotionally,” Amani continued, “a little boy is raised to dream of his future bride, romanticizing her perhaps a bit too much.” She quietly chuckled. “Such tender emotions being taught to such a roughened group of males seems odd to us, but this is the way of it down here.”

  That certainly explained a lot, namely how Johen could look at her with such naïve love in his eyes. “Do they care if their love isn’t returned?”

  “I’ve yet to see that happen. They expect it will take time to earn their bride’s love, but they know that if they are good and patient and thoughtful husbands, eventually they will be rewarded and have her love in return.”

  So they never gave up? Good grief.

  Sofia’s emotions were in chaos. How could Johen possibly love someone he didn’t know outside of the biblical sense? It made no sense.

  Then again, Sofia sighed, how could Johen—or any other Viking—marry and love a woman they’d never met before, based on a few moments at an auction? It was bizarre. This entire world was bizarre.

  She needed to find an exit before she lost her mind altogether. Or, worse yet, before everything started to make sense.

  What do I do? I feel so lost….

  Sofia ran her fingers through her hair, her mind racing. She needed to escape before Johen’s feelings deepened. After listening to Amani’s speech, she understood that he truly did care about her. Hurting him wasn’t what she wanted to do.

  Her gaze strayed to where her husband sat. He was laughing and happy, his former stoic impassiveness gone.

  Because of me?

  Johen had married Sofia against her will, perhaps, but if he hadn’t bought her, another man would have. He had shown her nothing but kindness and understanding. For that reason alone, she owed him respect and consideration.

  She would leave Johen’s life with as few memories as possible. The quicker she clicked her ruby slippers and got back to Kansas, the less pain she would cause him.

  “One day, you will love my son,” Amani promised, affectionately patting her hand a final time before standing. “I promise you that he will make you happy beyond your wildest dreams.”

  Chapter Ten

  Sofia couldn’t get away from Johen’s parents’ house fast enough. Not only did she need to escape from Amani’s words, but the erotisk was hitting her hard. Her pulse had picked up and perspiration beaded on her forehead and between her breasts.

  “’Twill be all right,” Johen murmured, leading her back toward his home. “We are almost there.”

  “I don’t think I can wait,” Sofia shakily admitted. She looked up at his profile. “It hit me so hard that my belly hurts.”

  His eyes seemed to gentle, though he didn’t look down at her. He just kept walking, steering them away from the twenty-passenger mine car as quickly as possible.

  “It really aches,” she gasped.

  They came to a halt before the metal elevator cages that would take them to the sector Johen called home. Sofia’s teeth sank into her bottom lip, drawing blood as she watched two passengers disembark. Johen steered her into the metal contraption and closed the doors.

  “It hurts so bad,” Sofia wailed. The journey felt like it would last forever.

  His jaw steeled as he guided the mechanism up half a floor, then brought it to a jarring stop. Johen made quick work of her dress, hoisting it over her head and trapping it just behind her neck.

  Her body, now naked, was bared to him. He palmed her breasts with a low growl, popping one stiff nipple into his mouth and sucking it hard. Just like he knew she liked it.

  It was a little alarming that he already knew her body so well, and was a master at manipulating it.

  Sofia’s hands found his pants and pulled them down, just below his hard buttocks. His long, thick erection sprang free, growing impossibly more rigid between her palms.

  “You’re so beautiful, Sofia,” Johen said thickly, kissing her eyes, her nose, then her lips. “I’m so happy you belong to me.”

  He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Holding her buttocks, Johen pulled her down onto him, his huge penis quickly filling her aroused flesh.

  “Oh, God,” Sofia moaned, her head falling back as he drove himself up into her. “Oh, yes—Johen—oh, God.”


  “You feel so good,” he said hoarsely, his eyes coming to life again while inside her. There was a darkness in him, a pain that only seemed to recede when he was near her. “I need you, Sofia.”

  Her heart clenched. “Johen…”

  As if sensing and understanding the emotional upheaval his words caused, Johen picked up the pace of his thrusting, concentrating on making her come. He succeeded admirably, just like always. Sofia cried out his name as she came, pushing herself down on his cock as fast and furiously as she could.

  “I will always need you,” Johen murmured as she rode out wave after wave of ecstasy. “Always.”

  He spoke to her of her beauty, of her eyes and smile. He thrust into her depths as if trying to reach her soul.

  It was getting to her. He was getting to her.

  Johen came in a roar, his cock jerking inside her. Sofia watched his eyes all the while, witnessing as life deserted them once again.

  It was as if he understood that she would go back to plotting against him once the passion faded…and needed to fortify himself against any injury that knowledge might cause.

  Chapter Eleven

  By the early hours of the sixth day of her marriage, the erotisk had completely run its course. Gone was the gnawing pain, the ache, the unquenchable lust. In its place was a soreness that made her feel like a young virgin again instead of like the mature woman that she was.

  Sofia had never had so much sex in her life. Johen had made love to her nearly nonstop this past week, pausing only long enough to sleep and eat. He looked as exhausted as she felt, yet he still managed to rise to the occasion every time she moaned and called out for him.

  He had taken her more times than she’d thought possible, in more places than she’d ever dreamt of letting a man invade her.

  And she had begged for it. Like an animal in heat, she had needed Johen’s hard cock as though her life itself depended on it.

  The weirdest thing of all, though, was the trust she had begun feeling for her husband. He was big and powerful, deadly and gruff, yet tender and gentle at the same time. At least with her. If she was to never learn another new fact about him, she fully comprehended one thing:

  He would never hurt her.

  Too bad she couldn’t say the same about herself, where he was concerned.

  Sofia sighed softly as she gazed at Johen’s sleeping face. She disliked the thought of causing this man any pain, but she owed it to herself to try and escape. Six days of great sex hardly made up for a lifetime in captivity.

  Down here, she would never have choices. Johen would decide her every move. Any woman in her right mind would try to flee.

  It’s not like he can’t replace you. Today he calls you his wife, but he’ll forget you the moment you leave….

  If only she truly believed that.

  For five days and nights, Lord Stefsson neglected his duties to New Sweden that he might remain by his wife’s side. When he awakened on day six and found Sofia sleeping soundly beside him, Johen realized that the effects of the erotisk had passed.

  The selfish part of him wished it otherwise, for he knew that so long as lust consumed her she would lie with him willingly, even initiate their lovemaking. Now that Sofia could shake the carnal cobwebs from her mind, the uphill battle would begin.

  He had heard enough stories over the years about captive brides to know what a difficult time ’twould be in their dwelling until Sofia accepted New Sweden as her home and him as her husband. That was why he’d vowed to himself not to purchase an Outsider bride.

  But as Johen watched Sofia sleep, golden ringlets framing her beautiful face, he knew it didn’t matter. However long it took, whatever manner of willfulness she displayed, ’twould be worth it.

  Something about Sofia had called to him from the moment he saw her. There was a look in her eyes he understood only too well: a void, an ache that resulted from feeling lifeless inside.

  It took the dead to recognize the dead.

  Johen had no knowledge of what Sofia had gone through prior to her capture by the bride-hunters, but whatever ’twas, it had caused a great sorrow within her. He faced eyes like those every time he glanced in a looking glass.

  He had seen so much during his rise to power, mercilessly fighting Toki for Hannu’s autonomy. Dead bodies strewn like fallen paper along the icy rivers. Children blown apart—innocent little victims who had done naught wrong to anyone. Mothers weeping. Mangled corpses everywhere so far as the eye could see…

  Witnessing these sights in theory was altogether different than seeing them in reality. A part of Johen had died in the uprising, a piece of his soul he’d thought never to recover. Being with Sofia made him feel hopeful again, as though it hadn’t been in vain after all.

  “Let us take away each other’s pain,” he murmured, one hand gently sifting through her hair. As Johen watched his wife sleep, he knew he had made the right decision in choosing her for his bride. They bore more in common than either of them knew. “I cherish you more with each passing moment.”

  ’Twas true. The way she smiled despite herself whenever she found him to be good company, every time he slid his cock inside of her and those blank, sad eyes sparkled their brilliant blue-green for those stolen minutes…

  He loved her. With his whole heart he already loved her, though he couldn’t tell her until she was ready to hear it.

  Sofia had not been raised in his culture and therefore didn’t understand his people’s ways. His mother had told him about the conversation she’d engaged in with his wife three eves hence, and of Sofia’s bewilderment that a man could love so fiercely, devoutly and quickly.

  His mother had not lied to her. He cherished Sofia as though he’d known her all his life.

  Johen blinked, recalling that he had duties he could no longer neglect. There were disputes to be settled, grievances to be heard and a sector to rule. With a sigh, he stood up and headed to his chest to fetch clean clothing.

  ’Twould be a long road with Lady Stefsson, but one his lordship felt certain was worth it.

  As the doors to the vast bedroom quietly closed, Sofia’s eyes slowly opened.

  Long before Johen had touched her hair or uttered a word, she had known that his attention was fixed on her. Not sure of what to do or say, she had feigned sleep. His softly spoken words echoed in her heart:

  Let us take away each other’s pain…I cherish you more with each passing moment.

  Did he know about her brother’s death? About losing her parents so many years ago? Had she said something to him she couldn’t recall? What pain was he carrying? Should she even care?

  They hadn’t engaged in much conversation, for most of their waking hours had been spent in bed. Yet somehow there didn’t need to be any words between them. Somehow, some way, what they had together was, in its place and time, right.

  Sofia sighed. She had to leave. Johen was affecting not only her mind, but her heart as well.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sofia ran as fast as she could, running blindly into the unknown Viking world outside Johen’s home. She didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t even know if she was trying to escape or if she was merely blowing off built-up steam. Tears welled in her eyes from the confusion she felt.

  Staying below the ground with Johen was so alien as to be frightening. Returning to the icy world above was equally distressing. She was alone up there.

  Down here she had Johen, Eemil and Amani—three people who very much wanted her in their family. Even knowing her anger and frustration, they had enveloped her into their fold, treating her as one of their own.

  To them, she belonged.

  She came to a sudden stop, panting for air. It was all she’d ever wanted—a real family. But at what price?

  Grief overwhelmed her until she just had to cry. She hadn’t lost control of her emotions since her parents had died, but now she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

  “Sofia.”

  The voice
, so gentle, so concerned and familiar, soothed in a way that frightened her. Succumbing without a fight wasn’t in her vocabulary, but she was so tempted….

  “Sofia,” Johen murmured, coming to stand beside her. Thankfully he didn’t touch her; she was overwrought enough as it was. “Are you all right?”

  “No,” she sobbed, trying to stop crying. She swiped at her tears, but they continued to fall. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to think. I don’t even know who I am anymore—and that is the scariest thing of all.

  Johen didn’t interrupt her, which she was oddly grateful for.

  “Up there in my world, I had nothing. I lost everyone that ever mattered to me. My parents, my brother—all of them are dead.”

  “I am sorry,” he said quietly. “Were they alive, I would go steal them for you.”

  Sofia stilled. She smiled through teary eyes. “Would you really?”

  “Of course,” Johen said as though he couldn’t understand why she thought otherwise. “I want to make you happy, Sofia—the happiest you’ve ever been.”

  She looked away. “That wouldn’t take much,” she whispered.

  Johen led her a few paces to a bench, and he gently pulled Sofia down beside him.

  “I will not pretend to understand what you must be feeling. I have seen it on the faces of countless captive brides, but have never lived it for myself.”

  He sighed. “What you must understand is that my people will never let you go. They couldn’t even if they wanted to. Once the bride-hunters captured you, your fate was sealed. I know you are angry at me—”

  “No,” Sofia said honestly, “I’m not. I realize that if you hadn’t bought me, someone else would have. Still, I can’t seem to get beyond the fact that it happened.”