Page 66 of Viktor at Sea

I just wanted to hold her at night. That wouldn’t be pushing her too far, right?

The conflicting thoughts lingered on my mind as I stripped down to my underpants, and then I removed them as well. Standing there completely naked, I turned my head and glanced out the bedroom door once again. Astrid had moved away from the kitchen area and was now folding clothes that were already folded. I would know as I had folded them earlier today when I was bored out of my mind and couldn’t find my wife anywhere.

My lips tugged into a small frown as I pulled back the blanket and crawled into bed. I propped up a pillow against the headboard and leaned back against it. And that’s when the idea struck me.

Perhaps I could have some fun with this.

“I’m starting to think you’re avoiding me, Astrid,” I called out to her in a playful tone.

“I’m not avoiding you, pirate,” she answered immediately, her voice a little higher pitched than it usually was. “I’m just getting these clothes folded for tomorrow.” We both knew that the clothes were already folded.

“You’ll finish folding the clothes and then come to bed?” I asked, my tone laced with mirth.

“Maybe,” she called back but sounded conflicted. “Since I’m at it, I might as well clean the floor. It’s a little sandy.”

“I can clean the floor in the morning,” I offered.

“I’m just trying to be a good, dutiful wife,” she replied, and I thought I had never heard anything so funny before.

I knew for a fact that Astrid didn’t equate doing all of these things to being a good, dutiful wife. In fact, I was pretty sure she didn’t care about the dutiful part, and that was something I liked about her. She always told me how it was and never felt the need to bend over backwards to please me as many people did for their spouses. I appreciated the honesty, and most of the time, it made me laugh. And hearing Astrid tell me she aspired to be dutiful did just that.

Besides, I married Astrid because I loved her. Not because I wanted her to clean my hut. I could do that myself.

“Folding my clothes and cleaning the floor doesn’t make you a good wife,” I snorted and laughed. “Just putting up with me is good enough.”

“Then why did we get married?” She joked, her tone sounding lighter which was a good thing. At least we were heading in the right direction. Though not fast enough if you asked me. “I was putting up with you even before we got married.”

“It’s too late to go back on it now,” I grinned, not that she could see me as she had already started cleaning the floor. “You’re going to finish cleaning the floor and get into bed, right?” I called out to her again, growing increasingly impatient with each passing second. My eyelids felt heavy with sleep, but all I wanted was to fall asleep with my wife in my arms and dream about the beautiful married life that awaited us.

“I think I might do some dusting as well. It’s a little stuffy in here,” Astrid mused aloud, and that was enough for me to draw the line. If I let this continue, my wife would clean all of Jorvik before she got into bed with me.

“I know you’re avoiding me, and don’t even try to deny it,” I accused and threw back the sheets to get out of bed.

I marched into the room that my wife was determined to scrub from top to bottom, momentarily forgetting about my state of undress.

“Why are you naked?” Astrid exclaimed and dropped the brush she was using to scrub the floor in shock at my lack of clothes. Her lips parted as she stared at me with wide, hungry eyes. The way her eyes dropped to my semi-erect cock more than a few times, as if she was unable to stop herself from appreciating all that her husband had to offer wonderfully stroked my male ego. But that was not what I intended for tonight. Well, perhaps some light petting if she was up for it.

“Because I sleep naked.” I shrugged, struggling to keep the proud grin from my face at soliciting such a reaction out of her. “Now, tell me. Why have you been avoiding getting into bed with me, my siren?”

Astrid gulped and dropped her gaze, refusing to meet my eyes.

“I’m not ready to have sex yet,” she finally whispered. I wouldn’t have been able to hear her if we weren’t enveloped by total silence right now.

“Who said we were going to have sex tonight?” I asked her in a far gentler tone than before.

“That’s what married couples do, isn’t it?” Astrid murmured, her cheeks flaming as she shuffled uncomfortably on her feet, still avoiding my eyes. “Have sex?”

“We’re not going to have sex tonight, Astrid,” I promised her, my lips turning up at the corners into a small, reassuring smile. “I don’t want you to worry about that. We won’t have sex until you’re ready. It doesn’t matter if that takes a week, a month or even a year.”

“What if it takes more than a year?” She asked, but the way she struggled to hold back her grin told me she was only joking. It would be tough to abstain from touching my wife for a year, but for her, I was willing to do that and so much more.

“Then I’ll have extremely blue balls and be at risk of them falling off, but if that’s what it takes for you to be comfortable, then so be it,” I half-joked.

“Thank you,” Astrid exhaled and smiled softly at me.

“You don’t have to thank me,” I murmured. “But just because we’re not going to have sex tonight doesn’t mean that we can’t do other things.”

“What other things?” She asked, a curious glint in her eyes.

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