The Barbarian's Stolen Bride (Northmen Barbarians 1)

I felt the juice slowly cover my lip before sliding down my chin. Before I could wipe it away, I felt this looming presence beside me. I snapped my head up just as Fenrir reached out and smoothed his thumb over my bottom lip and down my chin. He collected the droplet of fruit juice, and as he held his gaze with mine, he brought that digit up to his mouth and sucked the nectar off.

Oh gods. That shouldn’t turn me on as much as it does.

“Thank you, King Fenrir,” I whispered, the formal words spilling from me before I even realized they had.

“I’m not your king.”

My heart raced at his words, and my eyes widened. Had I offended him?

“I’m your husband.” This possessive gleam entered his eyes.

Oh. Ohhh.

“Call me Fenrir, husband, or Fen if it pleases you.” He looked at my mouth again, his eyes growing hooded. “I know any of those three would please me very much.”

More wetness. More heat. All flooding right between my legs.

Could he hear how hard my heart was beating? To me, it sounded like a stampede of horses.

There was a small voice in my head that whispered how I wanted to know what it would feel like to have his fingers running over my lips again before pushing inside, letting me taste the fruit juice that lined his skin.

Another part of me whispered that I wanted his mouth on mine, wanted the first kiss I ever experienced to be with this man. But disappointment filled me when he moved away and sat back down in his seat.

I breathed out slowly and focused on eating, although I wasn’t hungry. My stomach was in too many knots to enjoy the food, and my company made me very aware that he was male and I female.

The entire time, I could feel his gaze on me, and I couldn’t even lie and say I didn’t like the fact that he was so mesmerized by me.

For long moments we ate in relative silence. But Fenrir did ask me questions about myself and my life. He asked about my parents, and the genuine empathy I felt come from him when I told them they had passed seasons ago had this soft feeling in my heart taking root.

He wanted to know what foods I enjoyed and which ones I stayed away from. He asked about my favorite seasons, which flowers I liked the best, in which I told him in a soft, shy voice, “Reinrose, the delicate, beautiful pale-yellow flowers that grow in the mountains.”

I found myself reminiscing about my father taking me there one season, a long trek but one that had been worth it. He’d told me all about the flora, a passion of his while he’d been a child and hunted with his father. I was smiling as I told my new husband those memories, and this longing settled in my body over the fact that I hadn’t thought of them for so long.

But after I was done speaking, I felt that shyness return. I’d never told anyone those stories, but it felt so right and natural to tell Fenrir. And I’d been so thankful he just sat and listened to me, never interrupting, just watching me and absorbing everything I said.

It had been so long since I’d had anyone care what I said, and to know Fenrir enjoyed hearing my thoughts pleased me to no end.

Once I was finished eating, I pushed my bone plate aside and straightened to look at him.

A chill of something moved up my spine as our eyes locked, and I clasped my hands together under the table to try to stem off the need to fidget.

I wanted to ask him about his life, maybe memories he had from his childhood, but he hadn’t said much of anything aside from the questions he had for me, and I didn’t want to pry. We were relative strangers, in every sense of the word, and my uneasiness over the entire situation made me hesitant to engage.

It was also on the tip of my tongue to ask him about a joining ceremony. And although the majority of the village didn’t have anything elaborate when people tied their lives together as husband and wife, I assumed something would be constructed for the ruler of Kaldir.

Personally I didn’t care for any kind of big gathering and wasn’t one for spectacles. In fact, if I had my choice, I much preferred to keep things the way they were. I didn’t want to be the center of anyone's attention.

Well, no one except Fenrir’s, it seemed. I very much enjoyed being the center of his, which scared and enticed me all at the same time.

I found myself asking a question that I truly didn’t care to hear an answer for, but I asked regardless because I wanted to hear his voice. “Do you not plan on a joining ceremony between us?”