“Looks perfect.” I open my eyes to find Rune staring down at me, wearing the other cloak, with heat in his eyes and a possessive craving that makes me squirm. “Thanks for dinner, Pops; we’re headed up north to see the northern lights. Chloe hasn’t seen them like this.”

After packing us up with freshly brewed coffee in a warm thermos, we begin the long drive to this magical spot that Rune swears is perfect for our viewing pleasure.

“Put this on,” Rune requests as he stops behind a cluster of trees leading up a hill.

Giving him the side eye, I ask skeptically, “Why? You plan on leaving me on the side of the road or something?” I laugh, taking the cotton strip of fabric from his hand.

“Not likely. Tie you to a bed, though.” My eyes widen until he offers a wink while waiting for me to tie the blindfold.

“Has some merit.” Once my eyes are covered, he squeezes my hand, and I feel the truck moving again. “Is it much farther?” I ask, distracting myself from my own impatience.

“Just over the hill.” The amusement in Rune’s tone is sexy. I like a man who can have fun. It’s only a couple of minutes worth of driving before we’re parked, and he shuts the truck off. “Stay here for just a moment, and don’t peek.”

There are a few minutes of the vehicle jostling before my door opens, and Rune takes my hands, helping me out. I hear Waddles in the back seat, where he’d been napping, as he moves around.

We walk a few steps before I’m turned by the shoulder. “Lifting you up” is the only warning I get before Rune grabs my hips and lifts me to sit on what I believe is the tailgate of his truck. “Coming up next to you, then we’ll scoot back.”

It takes some configuring on my part, but I’m finally settled between his legs as we rest on a pile of cushions with thick blankets over our laps.

“Close your eyes.” His whisper in my ear is seductive. I do as I’m told and feel the blindfold fall away. “Open.” His lips brush across my sensitive flesh.

“Holy crap!” We’re parked on the bank of an enormous lake located at the bottom of a mountain. The lights are so bright that I can see clearly across to where a herd of reindeer is foraging in the cluster of trees.

Their colors themselves are a beautiful kaleidoscope of multiple shades of green, purple, and pink. The stars sprinkled around for miles only add to the wonder.

I’ve observed them at home, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I could reach out and brush my fingers through their chromatic display like paint.

“Beautiful,” Rune says, and when I glance back at him, I see his eyes on me. “Could have this view for the rest of my life.” As chilly as it is, his kind words keep me warm.

“Me, too,” I whisper, leaning up for a kiss. It’s slow and sensual, a build-up of what I’m sure is to come. We spend hours on the lake's edge, talking about our pasts, what we’ve been doing in the present, our hopeful future, and everything in between.

Rune opens up more about his ancestry and tells me stories that have been passed down for hundreds of years. We pick out bits and pieces that feel as if they’d be more accurate than others–like how unbelievable it is that Erik the Red rode a whale across the Labrador Sea once his son Leif had built a settlement in Newfoundland. But we certainly believe he kept a family of Arctic foxes for hunting.

As we lay in the truck bed, watching the sky, I begin writing the article in my head. I know where I want to gather pictures from and what I want to include, and the more I create in my mind, the more excited I am to introduce the world to the Eriksson family.

RUNE

We didn’t get home from North Lake until after one in the morning, and Chloe immediately went to work on her article. She spoke so rapidly about all her ideas on the way home that I could hardly process everything she said to me.

Now, as I read it while she finally sleeps, I can feel her excitement and care in each word. When she gets to the parts where she speaks about me, my father, and my grandfather, her love is palpable. She hasn’t said the words, but I can feel it in the way she describes me and speaks about what I do for North Pole and our people.

Closing her laptop, I crawl back into bed, kissing up her naked calf, nipping at the back of her knee and licking up her thigh. She’s dead to the world right now, and I intend to show her just how much I’ve come to love her over the last few days since she’s shown up.

Her moan is filled with sex as she spreads out on her front, offering me her ass. “Little one,” I whisper against her ass cheek, taking a gentle bite. Her hips push up. “Wake up for me.” I lick the sting away, but still, she remains asleep.

Subconsciously, I realise she’s aware of my presence, and given that she’s never turned me away before, I grip her hips and pull her up so she’s kneeling in front of me. My dick bobs between my legs, searching out her addicting heat while leaking all over her slightly pale ass cheeks.

Christ, this woman will own me for the rest of my life, and I have no shame about it. Rubbing my hands up and down her back, I dig my fingers into her tense flesh. I know she’s sore from being up all night writing, so I don’t hesitate to give my woman some kind of relief.

“One day, little one, you’re going to be in this position because of a round belly and my seed growing deep inside of you. One day very soon.” When I close my eyes, I get flashes of the imagery, making me impatient because I never knew that’s what I wanted or how quickly my feelings for Chloe could develop.

Bending over her back, my dick needs no direction as I slip into her weeping pussy, just begging to be filled. “I love you, Chloe. Far more than I ever could have dreamed. You are my life, my love; you own my heart, and when we begin our family and watch it grow, I know I’ll love you even more.”

I start rocking my hips as she slumbers, resting my face in the crook of her neck, kissing anywhere I can reach her when I hear her slight voice. “I love you too, Rune. You were exactly what I was looking for when I came here.”

With a finger on her chin, I turn her face up to me and place my lips on top of hers, kissing her slowly, erotically, moving my tongue in the same manner as my dick. Slowly pushing and pulling until the build-up is too much, and I feel the need to take her like the beast inside my chest demands.

Her breathing grows heavier as I wrap my free hand around the front of her throat, tightening just enough that she feels me. The moan she releases hits me like a tundra swell, and I groan so powerfully it rattles us both.