Boy, I knew that.

Frey kept talking. “I do not like to think of how I behaved with you, thinking you were her.” His face grew darker when he stated, “And I do not like to think of what could go wrong with this magic, where you could have been sent, what could have befallen you. It was reckless, my wee one, and you should not have done it.”

I stared up at him.

He was worried about me.

That was sweet and hot.

I didn’t tell him that. Instead I pointed out, “Frey, honey, I’m a princess, I live in a freaking palace, my Mom and Dad are king and queen and I’m married to a hot guy who is the rightful ruler of the land and commands elves and dragons. I totally did all right.”

“This is pure chance,” he stated firmly and I smiled.

“Adventure always is,” I pushed against him, taking him to his back, resting my torso on his, I dipped my face close as I wrapped my fingers around the side of his neck. Then I said quietly, “That’s the best part, baby.”

“Fin –” he started but I lifted my hand, touched my fingers to his mouth and got serious.

“My Mom and Dad, my real ones, back home,” I watched his eyes grow intense, which I thought was weird but I kept talking, “they lived every minute like it was their last.” I slid my fingers across his cheek and down to his jaw before I whispered, “And this was good for their lives didn’t last long. They left me behind, Frey, and I miss them. But I like knowing they packed as much as they could get in before they left me. And before they left me, they taught me not just to exist, not just to breathe in and breathe out, but to live. And I like knowing they’re smiling, wherever they are, knowing that I listened and learned and I’m living my life like they taught me how. Making every single breath I take count.”

He held my eyes even as he lifted a hand, sifted it into the hair behind my ear then glided it down through my hair to hold it bunched at the side of my neck.

“I would like to know about them, Finnie,” he said softly.

“And I’ll enjoy telling you about them, Frey,” I replied softly.

His thumb stroked my throat, his gaze still locked with mine and he muttered, “By the gods, you suit me, this craving for life, your thirst for venture.”

I grinned at him because I liked that he thought that, I liked it a lot.

“Can I tell you something?” I asked.

“Anything, wee one,” he answered.

I moved closer and had no idea my eyes got bright and my cheeks turned pink with excitement before I whispered breathlessly, “I cannot wait to get on your ship.”

He held my eyes for a second before his roamed my face. Then both his arms locked around me and held me tight as he burst out laughing.

I watched him laugh and I liked that too.

I liked it a lot.

When he finished laughing I tilted my head to the side and again had no idea my eyes were bright and my cheeks were pink with excitement when I asked, “Wanna hear about my world?”

His big hand cupped my jaw and he answered, “Absolutely. But go, wife, and get our food. You can talk while we eat.”

I grinned at him and whispered, “Right.”

Then I dropped my mouth to his, kissed him lightly and scurried off the bed. I quickly closed the curtain to shut out the draft, rushed across the room and grabbed the tray that had been set on a dresser and took it to bed.

Then I climbed in bed with my husband, ate dinner and shared my world with him.

* * * * *

“Finnie?” Frey called into the darkness.

“Mm?” I mumbled sleepily, about five seconds away from slumberland.

“You’re too tense with your bow.”

My eyes opened.

“What?” I whispered.

“You’re too tense with your bow,” he repeated. “You’re concentrating too much. You’re letting your brain muddle your aim. You desire so badly to do well, your entire body is locking just prior to release, this jerks your aim off.”

Oh my God. He’d been watching me at archery. When I thought he’d been keeping his distance, Frey had been watching, apparently closely.

I said nothing but my heart again swelled.

Frey spoke again. “If you relax, concentrate on your target, what your arms are doing, your fingers, your shoulders, your spine, focus instead on your body, your bow, the arrow, your target and not on what Atticus will think, you will see improvement.”

Oh my God.

He knew what I was thinking, what I wanted, why I was out there with Father.

He knew what was in my heart.

I remained quiet.

His arm gave me a squeeze.

“Do not worry, wee one,” he whispered. “Atticus will like you, whether your arrow can find the target or not. He won’t be able to help it.”

I closed my eyes as his words rushed through me and with them my Mother’s from earlier that day, not only her giving them but how she gave them, what that said about her, how she felt about me and last, but by no means least, what they said about how Frey felt about me.

Tension I didn’t know I’d been holding in my shoulders and neck released, I snuggled closer to Frey and tensed my arm around him.

Then I whispered, “Okay.”

His fingers slid up my side and curled in.

“Okay,” he whispered back.

My body melted into the warm hardness of Frey’s and seconds later, I was asleep.

Chapter Seventeen

Anything So Exquisite

Four days later…

I burst out of the house and ran down the stone steps as the mass of riders, led by Frey and King Atticus, charged into the clearing in front of the Palace.

Frey swung Tyr around and reined him in as I got close and I put my hands on his thigh, tipping my head way back to look up at him.

“Did you win?” I asked with a smile and he smiled down at me.

Then he leaned far down to the side in his saddle, his hand hooking me at the back of my neck and pulling me up to my toes so our faces were close.

“You don’t win a hunt, wife,” he said quietly. “The only way to lose is if you don’t bag a deer or at least a hare.”

“Okay then,” I replied, “did you bag at least a hare?”

“Four,” he stated, “and three deer.”

I scrunched my nose.

Frey took in my face and his smile got bigger before he asked, “Why is it you burst forth from the Palace with excitement for news about the hunt and now you look as if I told you I scored through a village cutting down every breathing being with my sword?”