Page 48 of Shared By the Vikings

His heart.

“Forever.” She stared at the dark corner of the shelter. “That’s a long time.”

“I pressed him to find out if it was a good change, because it isn’t always, but he’d become tired and wouldn’t talk.”

“And do you think it was a good change?” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “That I was the boy you saved?”

“I’d rather you were in our homeland and safe, Ingrid, but equally, my heart is glad you’re not a boy.” He eased his groin against her ass. “It’s much more fun having a woman with us, even if it is extra responsibility and you do seem so very guarding of your maidenhead.”

His words pleased her, though she replied, “I can look after myself and—”

“But why would you have to protect yourself with us here? Three strong Viking warriors at your service.” He kissed the back of her head. “Go to sleep and accept that we’re your men now. It’s what the gods have had planned for us since the dawn of time.”

She couldn’t argue with the plans of the gods, so she closed her eyes, blew out a long breath, and waited for sleep to steal her thoughts.

Chapter Eleven

Ingrid slept encasedin Erik’s arms. It should have been a gentle sleep but it was full of images of Raud. He was there but not; she couldn’t quite reach him. A dank fog hung between them along with some other unknown force keeping them apart. He was in as much anguish and pain as her. Trying, fingers outstretched, to connect with her, his face coming and going in the chilled mist.

She found her dreaming self sobbing, crying out, battling to cross a deep water-filled gulley to be with him. The gulley turned to a pit of fire, and then a swarm of bees. Frustration bit at her, as did a terrible need for him. She cried out, jumped, ran, but it was as if she were getting nowhere despite putting in the effort of a god. She was running through a river of honey, her limbs heavy and trapped.

When she woke, Erik’s mouth was by her ear and he was calming her with soft shushing murmurs.

She gripped his arm, which was draped over her chest, and held onto him as if he were an anchor holding her in a storm. After a few minutes her heart rate settled and her breaths returned to her control.

“You were with him... Raud?” Erik asked, his deep voice unusually soft.

“Yes.”

“He was making you cry?”

“No, he wasn’t... well, only the fact we couldn’t be together, couldn’t get to each other.”

He was quiet for a moment. “You miss him?”

“Of course. We have been friends since birth, and now... well, we planned it to be more.”

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