by Zoe York
“Completely unsatisfying and annoyingly efficient,” he added.
“Exactly.” She groaned. “I think you’re just going to have to put up with me having crazy hair until we…” She trailed off. “What are we doing? Going to Midgard?”
He hesitated, then nodded.
She narrowed her eyes. “Aldric…”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re doing this on the fly, but I’m not going to take any risks. If we can find a wormhole to jump into without explaining too much, then we’ll be home soon.”
“And if we can’t?”
He didn’t answer her right away, and when he spoke again, it was a deliberate subject change. “I can help with your hair.” He didn’t look at her as he made the offer, and she didn’t know what to make of it. “If you want me to.” When he caught her gaze again, he shrugged. “But it’s not so bad.”
“It’s kind of terrifying,” she laughed, letting him set aside the conversation about their travel plans—for now. At least talking about her hair was light and easy. She’d swear it was growing bigger and puffier with each passing second. “What can you do?”
“There’s this oil we have. It helps with knots and tangles, and washes out easily.” He smirked. “Practically every person on our planet has long hair. It’s not like we have a barbershop on every corner. I could even cut it if need be, but that would be a shame.”
It was true—long hair was easier to braid and forget about most of the time. Some people in the FedNat followed the archaic tradition of a close-cropped haircut, but not Navena.
Although at the moment it sounded like a better idea than ever before.
She looked at Aldric’s own shaved head. “Wouldn’t it be easier?”
He rubbed a hand over his stubbled dome and gave her a rueful look. “Would you like this?”
A blast of heat surged through her torso. Under her hands? Between her thighs? Yes, she would.
Whoa. Clearly the rescue and forced marriage and escape and hot, delicious meal had all been a bit much. Now Aldic, or the bad-boy version of Aldric, was making her…
Nope. Not going there.
Besides, he’d meant for her. “I shaved my head for basic training.” A million years ago. Man, she felt old all of a sudden. “It wasn’t my favorite look, but whatever we gotta do, I guess.”
He laughed as he stood up from the table and strode across the room to his cabin. Re-emerging a moment later with an amber glass bottle in one hand and a wide-toothed, wavy comb in the other, he took his time coming back to the table.
Or maybe he was giving her time to run away.
Hard to tell.
Around them, the ship’s noises seemed to amplify. The hum of the engine, the whoosh of the ventilation system. A creak here and a hiss there, all ordinary but suddenly extraordinary. A soundtrack to a moment she didn’t really understand, but the look in Aldric’s eye said this was definitely a moment.
She turned her head away from him as he stopped beside her. Hair. He was going to fix the horrifying disaster that was her hair.
And then she was going to sleep for a day or three, and shake the crazy fever she’d clearly come down with.
His touch on the back of her neck was gentle. Soothing. But there was something else, too. A distracting edge that she fought against, refusing to let her mind explore how else his touch could be interpreted. His fingers, big and rough, touched her braids and knotted hair puffs with surprisingly light strokes, and then he leaned over her and poured some of the oil into his palm.
She felt him tug and nudge her head this way and that as he deftly coated the liquid over her head with one hand and started to work at her hair with the comb in the other.
Tug. Smooth. Shift.
Yank.
“Ouch,” she muttered, and he laughed as he whispered an apology under his breath. She bit her lower lip as her eyes watered. “Maybe we should cut it all off after all.”
“Won’t be necessary,” he rumbled, his thigh bumping her arm as he moved around her to work on the front of her hair. She could feel long locks falling freely over her ears and down her back. They were probably curly and twisted to hell, but another shower would fix that.
Apparently her Viking man was a miracle worker.
“There, min smukke kone,” he announced, setting his comb on the table.
“Does that mean acceptable?” She twisted her torso so she could look up at him. She ran her hands through her hair, the free-flowing length a comforting return to normal. “Thank you.”
He touched her cheek, his eyes burning that now familiar outlaw heat he wore far too well. She parted her lips—to say what, she wasn’t sure—but he dropped his gaze and turned away before she could formulate any words.
She didn’t know why, but that annoyed her.
Like, give a girl a minute, right?
Aldric had always been so patient with her. This was a completely different man. Right from the moment she’d woken up in her jailer’s office with him at her side, he’d been pushing her blindly through a crazy plan she still didn’t understand.
Taking care of her, yes. But why not just explain everything now?
“So, what now?” she asked, standing up to clear the dishes.
He took the bowls from her and cleaned them.
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t say anything, Navena.” His voice was strained. Well, screw him. She was the one who was at the end of her rope. Literally. She was his fucking prisoner, no matter how nice he was about it.
“When are you going to involve me in the decision making?”
His shoulders stiffened. She watched the back of his head as he took his time answering her. “I promise to include you in the next decision.”
“And what about the decisions you’ve already made?”
“There isn’t a FedNat ship we can rendezvous with. I’m sorry.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” she ground out. “You bought me. As a bride! We’re technically married. Without me having a fucking say in it.”
He turned then, slowly, and gave her a slow, hooded look that she couldn’t read at all. “I’m sure it’s not binding on either Midgard or Earth. And if it is, we’ll have it annulled.”
God. The way he said that like it was no big deal. He got under her skin in the worst way when he was sarcastic. “No biggie. Just get married, and then erase it.”
“That’s one option, yes.” He lifted his brow and smirked.
Smirked.
Fuck. Him. She stomped away, then whirled. There was nowhere to escape on this godforsaken ship.
Go to bed, she told herself. She hadn’t slept well in weeks. Was well past the crashing point. But there were things that needed to be said.
She was pretty sure.
Maybe not.
Biting her lip, she moved toward the cabin. Sleep. Yes.
Behind her, Aldric cleared his throat.
Nope, no sleep. First she needed to put him in his place. Squaring her shoulders, she turned around, determined to have the last word. “I take it you’ve played this Buy a Bride game before? It’s all just so easy and no big deal.”
“No.” He frowned. “You should get some sleep.”
“Oh, shut up, I know that. You don’t need to make that decision for me, too.”
“I apologize.”
“How do you know we even have an annulment option?” She laughed, the hysterical edge to it freaking her out. “I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to get a divorce.”
“That’s another option.”
“Right.” Dragging a ragged breath into her lungs, she nodded. “So okay. We’ve got that as a back-up plan.”
“One of them.”
“One of what?”
His brows pulled tight and his lips thinned before he spoke. “One of the alternate options.”
Navena tried to swallow against the sudden dryness in her mouth. “Annulment, divorce, or…?”
He stepped forward, his jaw tense, dark eyes flashing. Giving her a hard look, he held her gaze for a moment before answering. “Or we stay married.”
Aldric cursed himself as Navena’s eyes widened, then narrowed at him like it took a minute for his words to register, but when they did, oh boy. Not the right time to say that, clearly.
Shaking her head, she spun on her heel and stalked into his cabin, slamming the metal door with a clang that reverberated all the way up his spine.
He lingered in the kitchen space, taking inventory of their food supply as he watched the closed door to his small cabin—now occupied by his super pissed-off wife—and figured out just how long they could spend hiding in deep space before they’d have to make a break for Midgard, hopefully undetected by any bounty hunters looking to collect from the Hefderians.
When he resigned himself to the fact that he was getting the silent treatment for the rest of the day, he grabbed a dehydrated food pack for himself for a dinner later on and left one out for her on the counter in case she woke up and still didn’t want anything to do with him.
Then he hunkered down in the cockpit, already missing his bunk. At least it had Navena in it. That was progress.
As he closed his eyes and tried to get some rest, he couldn’t stop his mind from spinning through the possibilities. He had enough supplies for them to take their time heading home.
Three weeks they could spend drifting among the stars.
Twenty-one days to convince Navena he could be a good husband.
One short Midgardian month to do the impossible.
Chapter Six
Navena was already awake when the ship dropped to impulse speed. She’d been lying in bed—Aldric’s bed, which smelled like leather and sweet grass and the faintest hint of man—trying to figure out how long she’d been asleep and if she’d imagined Aldric saying that they could stay married.
She glanced automatically at the intercom on the wall once her stomach had untwisted itself from the sudden change in speed, but the cabin stayed silent. Standing, she grabbed the towel from the back of the door and filled the small sink with the scantest amount of water necessary to clean up.
Five minutes later, she found Aldric in the cockpit, drinking a steaming mug of coffee. Her stomach growled, and he wordlessly pointed to a nook in the wall where a matching mug sat along with an energy bar.
Breakfast of star-hopping champions.
Clearly she’d have to be the one to break the silence. Which she would…any second. Maybe after some of the surprisingly delicious-smelling coffee.
She wrapped her hands around the warm mug and looked out the one hundred and eight degree windows.
Dark space loomed all around them.
“Where are we?”
“Roughly nineteen hours from the Carina Nebula. We’ve just entered the radiation field and I shut down the overdrive engines to let them cool.” Aldric’s voice had a rough hitch he didn’t bother to hide. She deserved it after locking him out of his room. Wherever he slept last night, it wasn’t his bed, and that was her fault.
“That’s…not the direction I was expecting us to head.”
He paused before responding. “We need to lay low for a few days. Might as well have a decent view at the same time. Should be able to see it in an hour or two.”
“How did you know about this place?”
He raised his eyebrow at her. “We do have star charts on Midgard, you know.”
Flushing, she shook her head. “I know that. I just…I thought you eschewed space travel.”
“Me personally?” A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, but when she narrowed her eyes at him—why did everything have to be a fight?—he laughed and nodded. “Most of us do.”
“And you?”
He held her gaze for a long, pulsing beat. “Obviously I don’t,” he finally said.
She shifted restlessly on the spot, crossing and uncrossing her arms twice before giving up and tossing herself in the co-pilot’s seat. It squeaked in protest and her coffee splashed onto her hand in punishment for being clumsy. “Usually fly this thing alone?”
“Wouldn’t say I usually fly it,” was his gruff response.
“It is yours, right? You didn’t steal it?”
His jaw worked back and forth for a second before he slowly twisted in his chair and gave her a surprisingly gentle smile. “You’ve only got two speeds, don’t you?”
As far as she knew, she only had one—full-on. She narrowed her gaze and tipped her head to the side. “Your point?”
“I’m not your enemy. You don’t need to always be on offense or defense.”
She was dumbstruck. “I’ve never thought of you as my enemy, Aldric.”
“You’re acting differently toward me now.”
“I could say the same to you.” She took a deep breath. Time to lay the cards on the table, as terrifying as that thought was. Never before had she been afraid to open Pandora’s Box. Never before had she actually believed there was anything big or scary enough to not be challenged head on. Now she wasn’t so sure, but it couldn’t be avoided any longer. She put down her coffee cup. “What did you mean yesterday, when you said we could stay married?”
“Just that. It’s an option.”
“The one you’d…prefer?”
He gave her a long, even look. It didn’t tell her much. “I don’t think I’m ready to talk about my preferences.”
The way he said it…slow, guarded…made her pulse pick up. There was a lot in what he wasn’t saying. Correction: her pulse was now hammering extra fast everywhere in her body. Neck. Wrists. Belly. The achy tops of her thighs.
What the hell? She licked her lips, the history of her friendship with Aldric flashing through her mind. From the stiff formality of their first meeting to the now-distant friendly sparring at Ashleigh’s farm, she’d never figured he was hiding anything from her.
Especially not thoughts about her. And them.
There was no them. That wasn’t an option.
Her heart twisted.
“Aldric?” she whispered, leaning forward a hair. The slightest of sways, but as soon as it happened, she knew she wanted him to kiss her again.
And this time, there was no facade. No roleplaying of a rescue under the guise of a black-market bride.
This time, they were alone, drifting in the dark shadow of a nebula. Shielded by debris and radiation, the ship couldn’t be more private.
After all the different ways he’d eye-fucked her in the last two days, the restraint plastered all over his face now should have cooled her down.
Should have told her she had this wrong.
But she didn’t. She knew in her gut that if she offered herself to him, he’d take her.
Oh, she wanted to be taken.
There’s a price. It all made sense now. He was a Viking who wanted a mate. What had Ashleigh told her? Reinn had known from the first day that the Earth officer was the one for him, felt it had been determined by the gods.
That was silly, of course.
It was just chemistry. She just had to convince Aldric there was no harm in exploring it—satisfying it—while they drifted beneath the stars.
Alone.
Perfect opportunity to get naked and sweaty and exercise the weird tension between them until it faded away.
It would. Of course it would—they’d been friends for two years with nothing like this happening.
But the man still staring at her, silently, wasn’t blushing or stammering or gruffly changing the subject.
He was just waiting for her.
“I want you to kiss me,” she said, sliding her hands over his knees on the huge, flexing muscles of his thighs. Jeez, he was built like an ox. “I think we’ll fight less if we kiss a bit.”
“I think,” he finally said roughly, wrapping his hands around her wrists. “If you crawl into my lap, we’re going to do a lot more than kiss. And I’m never going to let you go.”
A littl
e laugh slipped out as she tipped her head to the side. “Don’t be silly.”
His grip tightened on her forearms, but he didn’t pull her closer.
“You’re serious.” Shit. That made things more complicated. She had to stop deluding herself on what it would be to give in to this burning desire.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first day I saw you,” he muttered, then took a deep breath, his dark eyes pulling her in like a tractor beam. “If you’re going to tell me that we’re just friends, do it now.”
She shook her head jerkily. No, they weren’t just friends. “But I’m a soldier,” she whispered, her voice cracking with need and fear and anticipation. “If you try to detain me forever, eventually you’ll start a war or something.”
“With you?”
“What?” She gasped as he yanked her into his lap, his hands settling possessively on her hip and back.
“Will the war be with you, or your government? Because I’d take on an entire world to protect your heart, Navena.” He nosed her cheek, his breath hot and slow on her skin as he feathered kisses against the corner of her mouth and along the bottom curve of her lower lip. “I’d fight them all off with a single sword if you let me.”
“I wouldn’t,” she whispered, parting her lips for him, but he steered away from her mouth. He might be kissing her, but he wasn’t done talking yet.
“You’re a damn frustrating woman.” With a sigh, he pressed his forehead against her temple. “I’ll try to stop you from leaving.”
She knew that. Her heart ached at the realization that he’d eventually let her go, though. Maybe she wanted to be kidnapped by the Viking, after all.
“If you know that I’m going to leave, why…” She trailed off and wrapped her arms around his neck. It felt right to hug him tight. Just like that, like it was the simplest, most natural thing in the world. She couldn’t begin to explain it, but she was still sleep deprived and her life had been tipped sideways.
Maybe it didn’t need to be explained. Maybe it could just be for a while.
“I’d be your friend forever.” His voice scratched at her skin, reminding her that he’d be doing that for her and it would be hard. That it wasn’t what he wanted.
