Page 24 of Astrid at Sea

“Your Chief isn’t going to be happy about this,” Njal spat behind us, fuming, but Viktor merely snorted in response.

“My Chief will commend me for standing my ground and demanding respect.” He squeezed my hand again and pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’m sorry you’ve had to put up with this, my siren,” he whispered the apology, a sorrowful expression on his face. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

“You have nothing to make up for, pirate. It’s not your fault,” I whispered back, tilting my head to press my lips to the underside of his chin. “Thank you for standing up for me.”

“Be assured I willalwaysstand up for you, Astrid.”

“Captain Viktor, you are out of order!” Njal growled. By this time, we had arrived at the shore, and half of us were already back on The Serpent.

“You and the rest of Mann are out of order!” Laurence yelled over his shoulder, seemingly offended. I didn’t blame him.

Njal began to panic as we pulled back the ramp, getting ready to push off from the shore. “We still need those swords we had you weld for us!”

“You should have thought about that before,” Viktor grinned as he leaned over the rail, aggravating the situation by waving the people of Mann goodbye as we began sailing away.

“What about the honey?” Njal screamed loud enough to be heard.

“There’s no more honey for you!”

I was surprised to hear we sold our honey. We mostly used it for medicinal concoctions, but we must be in an influx this year if we were selling it.

“But we need that honey!”

Roscoe rushed to the rail to scream, “You should have thought of that before you decided to brush off the disrespect like it wasn’t a big deal.”

“I will call for the men to be punished however you want!”

“Too late!” Viktor grinned, and whatever Njal said next, we couldn’t hear as we had sailed too far away.

Hammond congratulated Viktor by patting him on the back. “We did a good job, Captain!”

“Serves them right for treating one of us with such disrespect,” Garth laughed, and the rest of the crew agreed.

The people of Mann truly did deserve what they got, but all I could think about was the crew standing up for me. They were in my corner even before Viktor found out what had happened.

A warm, tingly sensation filled my heart. It truly felt like the crew had accepted me as one of their own.

Like I was one of them.

Like I belonged here.

CHAPTER TWELVE

There was no place like home.

Whether on land or at sea, home was in my husband’s arms. And right now, with his warm breath fanning over the back of my neck and his arms wound tightly around my waist, his hands pressed into my stomach to keep me pressed into him, and with the thick fur of the blanket thrown over us carelessly, I had never felt more at home.

“Have I told you how much I love you today?” I murmured with closed eyes, snuggling closer.

When Viktor growled something along the lines of:“You’ll regret that later when you don’t get any sleep tonight”,I couldn’t help but laugh.

I knew what I was doing when I did it, but I couldn’t resist. Who would be able to when they were married to a man like Viktor?

Just looking at him had my pussy wet and clenching for something big and thick to fill it.

“As it’s past midnight, and we’ve already started a new day, the answer would be no,” Viktor whispered against my skin, groaning lightly as he nuzzled his face further into my neck.

It appeared that I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed our late-night snuggle sessions.

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