Page 33 of Astrid at Sea

“I know you won’t let anything happen to me,” I whispered against his mouth. “I know it’s dangerous and that you’re worried about me, but we really need to find out who is hiding on our ship, and this is our best option right now.”

“I still don’t like this,” Viktor groaned, pressing another sweet kiss to my lips. “But I know you can take care of yourself, my siren.”

“And if I need you, I promise to scream as loud as I can,” I assured him, my lips curling up at the corners.

“I’ll come running before you finish screaming,” he promised me, pressing one more kiss to my lips–this one harder…rougher...needier–before he allowed Laurence to drag him away from me, off the top deck and down to their rooms on the second floor.

The stowaway wouldn’t dare reveal themself as long as I was with Viktor and Laurence. Our best chance was if I was alone. Hopefully, I hadn’t bit off more than I could chew.

My hands remained steady on the wheel as I focused on breathing evenly. This needed to be as normal and believable as I could possibly make it. It needed to look like I belonged here, like I was meant to be at the wheel, and Viktor and Laurence had merely dropped by to check on me. At the very least, it needed to look like I wasn’t expecting them to return for a while.

Seconds turned into minutes, and the more time that passed, the more I felt like my plan was going to fail.

Whoever had been hiding on the ship wasn’t going to show up. They wouldn’t fall for this trick and come seek me out.

When I was on the verge of calling for Viktor and Laurence to come back so we could come up with a Plan B, I felt a pair of eyes on me. The gaze was lingering and probing, making me squirm in a way that only a man could do.

I couldn’t deny that I was more than a little scared, but now was not the time to show it. Not when we needed to discover who this man was and what he was doing here.

My breath hitched as I heard their footsteps tap against the wooden floors as he walked along the deck toward me. The footsteps got louder as he got closer, and I did my best to make it seem like I couldn’t hear him. Like I didn’t know they were behind me, watching me,staring at me. This was the perfect opportunity for them to get revenge while I was here alone.

Finally, when I felt a hand land on my shoulder, I knew our plan had worked.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Fear struck my heart as the stowaway kept a firm and somewhat familiar hand on my shoulder, almost as if waiting for me to turn around and face him.

Wait…familiar?

My eyes widened as I realised this was someone I knew. Someone from Jorvik.

Unable to handle my mind wandering any longer, I let go of the wheel spokes and turned around to face the stowaway. When my eyes finally landed on his face and familiar features, I blinked several times to ensure I wasn’t seeing things. When his face didn’t warp into someone else’s, and he even had the nerve to smile at me, somewhat hopeful–mostly naive–that I would receive him happily, I could hardly believe what was happening.

“Crosby?” I gaped, unable to believe my eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“Ouch,” he grimaced. “Is it wrong of me to hope you would have been excited to see me, Astrid?” He slipped his hands into his breeches’ pockets–they were far too big to be his own.

“Sorry,” I apologised even though I didn’t mean it. “I’m just surprised to see you.”

“I bet you are,” he chuckled, but the sound was cut short by a throaty cough.

“Are you okay?” I asked, my eyebrows knitting together in concern.

He nodded and coughed once more.

“I’ve just been a little cold lately, so I’ve picked up a nasty cough,” he explained, pausing to clear his throat once again. “Nothing warm soup, a thick blanket and some much-needed rest can’t get rid of.”

“I don’t understand…” My voice trailed off as I tried to make sense of the situation. “You’re the stowaway?”

“I wouldn’t exactly refer to myself as a stowaway, but I guess that’s what some people would call it.” He shrugged, his eyes drifting over my shoulder to stare into the darkness of the ocean. “The sea is beautiful at this time of night.”

“How would you know?”

“It’s not the first time I’ve been out here at night,” he told me, still staring at the ocean as we gently bobbed up and down. “It’s far more difficult to make it out onto the top deck during the day, but I have done it a few times. For food and stuff, but I try not to. It’s far too risky.”

“I saw the fish.”

“Yes, sorry about that.” His gaze snapped back to me, and he had the decency to look sheepish about it. “I only ever took food when I felt like I was going to pass out from hunger.”

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