Page 54 of Viktor at Sea

“I’m going to hold myself back today,” I whispered against her lips, hungry for another taste. “But from tomorrow, once we are wed, I will never hold myself back with you ever again, my siren.”

“Promise?” Astrid whispered, leaning in to press her lips against mine again. This kiss was chaste, sweet, and short, though it was just as breathtaking as the first.

“Promise,” I grinned. “Now, come on. Let’s get out of the water. I don’t want you catching a cold and using that as an excuse to cancel our wedding tomorrow.”

“As if you’d take that lying down,” she laughed and began wading out of my arms and through the water toward the shore. More and more of her wet dress and delectable body in the said wet dress became visible the closer we got to the shore and I subtly reached into my trousers to adjust myself while her back was still turned. Thankfully, when we got back onto shore, I was able to pull my tunic back on which did a decent job of hiding my steel cock through my trousers. The darkness of the night did the rest of the work.

I walked Astrid back to her hut. I told her I would see her in the morning and would be the one standing at the end of the aisle in anticipation of her arrival.

It was almost impossible to tear myself away from my future bride, but I reminded myself that we were only one sleep away from belonging to each other in every sense of the word.

Instead of heading back to my hut which, from tomorrow, would becomeourhut, I headed to the other side of the island and got started on the final touches of my surprise for my bride.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Today was the big day. Unlike how Astrid had been last night, I was immensely nervous.

After adding some final touches to her surprise that I planned to gift her later today, I hadn’t been able to get much sleep. Perhaps a few hours at the most, but then I had woken up early to ensure everything was on track.

I wanted everything to be perfect for Astrid.

Unable to bring myself to eat breakfast with the swarm of butterflies fluttering in the pit of my stomach, I headed down to the shore to help with the fishing.

“What are you doing here, Captain? Shouldn’t you be getting dressed?” Dagfinn called out to me from where he was sitting in one of the row boats, oars already in hand as they got ready to push away from the shore.

“I’m here to help,” I told them, already bending down to roll up the bottom of my trousers so they wouldn’t get wet when I waded into the water. To get the best, freshest fish, we would need to sail quite a bit away from the shore.

“We don’t think so,” Jerrik snorted as he gathered the spears and carefully placed them onto the second boat.

“We have strict orders not to let you do a lick of work today,” Laurence told me. “So, it’s best if you leave now because there’s no way we’re letting you onto any of these boats today.”

“Strict orders?” I asked, a baffled expression creeping onto my face. “Orders from who?”

“From ourselves,” Garth announced, sitting in the third and final rowboat.

“Oh, come on. Let me join you all. It’ll be quicker.”

“It’s your wedding day,” Caspian reminded me, not that he needed to. The butterflies fluttering in my stomach were doing a grand job of it. “Astrid isn’t going to want to marry you if you turn up stinking of fish.”

“I’m obviously going to wash before getting dressed,” I protested, but the first boat containing Odin, Dagfinn and Laurence had already pushed away from the shore. The second boat was quick to follow, leaving the third boat with Garth, Hammond and Latham as my only option. “I just want to make sure the freshest of fish are caught for today,” I said, trying to reason with my crew.

“And you don’t trust us to do a good job?” Odin asked, his grin laced with mirth.

“Of course, I do,” I groaned. “But the wedding isn’t until later today, and I have nothing to do until then.”

“I see you have a case of the wedding jitters,” Garth chuckled. “Go and get a good breakfast in you, Captain. That should do the trick.”

“On the morning of my wedding, I slept in and had one last session with my left hand as a bachelor, if you know what I mean,” Dagfinn grinned, unashamed, and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Dagfinn!” Hammond groaned loudly, protesting for all of us. Even Garth pulled a face, and he was hardly ever stumped by anything. “What have we told you about oversharing personalinformation? That was a prime example of something you definitely should have kept to yourself!”

“But where’s the fun in that?” Dagfinn grinned, but none of us returned it.

“You should take a wash in cold water. It might help clear your mind,” Hammond suggested, a wildly disturbed expression still on his face.

“Or I could join you guys on the boat for a light touch of fishing to get the day started,” I suggested, but Hammond was already using his oar to push the boat away from the shore. With how near they still were, I could easily jump onto it and join them, but something about the determined looks on their faces told me that if I did that, one of them would push me into the water.

“See you at the end of the aisle! If you try to escape by water, we’ll catch you and bring you back for Astrid!” Dagfinn called out to me, and I chuckled before retreating in defeat.

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