Mortified now that she was clean, she uncomfortably showed him the zipper and how it worked, aware of how dirty and shabby the clothes were.
“There isn’t one on these clothes.”
Before she could react, Skars plucked the dirty clothes out of her hands and strode to the wall. Raine could only watch helplessly as the clothes were sucked from his hands and into a hole that she hadn’t noticed before.
“I need those back.” Raine rushed to the hole. “Make them come back.”
“I cannot. They have already been shredded and sent to the waste room.”
Raine glared at him. “Those were mine.”
“They are where they belong.” Skars arrogantly strode to the bed. “Choose, or I will choose for you.”
“None will fit!” she yelled at him, almost in tears. The last thing she wanted to do was try on clothes that wouldn’t fit in front of a man who was as attractive as Skars.
Raine looked away when his eyes caught hers, not wanting him to see how upset she was. She had no one to blame but herself that she was overweight. She had the willpower of a flea when it came to lattes, takeout, and about anything that tasted good. There wasn’t anything better than reading a good book, drinking a latte, and having a box of your favorite chocolates as a stand-in for a hot man who wouldn’t give her a second glance if she were being robbed in broad daylight.
Skars picked up the peach pants. “Reva is an excellent seamstress. She sews her own clothes. If they don’t fit, she will make the necessary adjustments.”
“Unless she has another yard of the same material, she won’t be able to. Perhaps Ulf has an extra pair of pants and shirts I can borrow …”
His face filled with bewilderment. “You believe you are the same size as Ulf?”
Raine felt herself blushing in humiliation. Was she bigger than she thought? Was she bigger than Ulf?
“Almost. He’s taller, and I can roll the pants—”
“Put my arms the distance apart that you think you are.” Standing in front of her, Skars stretched his arms.
She had never been so embarrassed in her life, and there had been many embarrassments. There had been a time she had thought a worker at her favorite coffee shop had been flirting with her. She had then heard the cackling of laughter when she had moved away. In the reflection of the door, she had seen him blowing out his cheeks and using a squirt bottle to mimic her being a whale. Or the one time that still gave her nightmares. The time she had been invited to go to a birthday party by one of her coworkers, only to find out the reason she had been invited was the birthday boy had a fetish for overweight women and her coworker thought they would click, unbeknown to her. Believing she had finally found the man of her dreams at the attention she was receiving from him, when she had left to go to the restroom and came back, the birthday boy had been showering his attention on another woman and was sitting at another table. Hurt, she couldn’t understand what she had done to put him off. She had asked her coworker until she finally confessed why she had been invited, and while the birthday boy had a thing for overweight women, he wanted them pretty, too.
“Skars, I know you mean well, but I know which clothes will fit me.”
He didn’t lower his arms, his frown becoming ferocious. He moved his arms farther apart himself. “Do you believe you can fit between my arms?”
Raine gauged the length. “No.”
His face went expressionless. “More or less?”
“More.”
Skars moved them farther apart. “Now?”
“More.”
He moved his arms wider. “Now?”
“A little more.”
Skars moved his arms until they were spread out to twice the size of his body.
“There.” Raine told him before he could ask.
“You believe yourself to be this size?”
“Yes.” Miserable, she decided the next time they rationed out food, she would give her portion to someone else in the vault.
Skars’ expression remained inscrutable. “Then if I do this”—he moved his arms closer together until they were just a little wider than his body—“you shouldn’t be able to walk into my arms without my arms touching you.”
Raine nodded her agreement. “No.”
“Let us see. Walk into my arms.”
“Fine!” she snapped. “This is ridiculous. Don’t you understand this is embarrassing?”
God, why did You have to make me love lattes so much? Complaining to God in her head, she took a step forward, easily walking between his arms. She stopped when she didn’t feel his arms at her sides.
“You moved your arms!”
“I did not.” He closed his arms around her to pull her closer to his hard chest. “You are my wife. You are a Viking wife.” Imperious, red eyes blazed down at her. “Vikings were taken from Earth because we’re strong, hearty, and we can survive what the weak cannot. We overpowered our captors, stole a ship, found a planet which we could survive on, then went to other planets to free the Vikings who Martians had traded or sold our people to.”