Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Happy wife, happy life.
Kicking the rest of her shit under the bed again, I ease back into the bathroom with Aurelia’s hair products. She ignores me when I walk in until I set the designer case on the counter, and her gaze flies to it before finding mine.
“What…how did you…?” She doesn’t finish her sentence when she dives for the travel case and flips it open. A few of the bottles are busted, but most of them are intact. Aurelia doesn’t seem to notice the mess as she squeals happily and then throws her arms around my neck and kisses me. “I don’t even know how the hell you found this and just happened to have it, but I don’t care. Thank you, Thorin.”
I grab a handful of her ass—which is more than a hand full—and groan before stealing another kiss because I’m greedy like that. “That’s right, wolf. Keep ignoring those pesky questions, and we’ll get along just fine.”
She sinks her teeth into my bottom lip until she draws blood.
My perfect, vicious thing.
Aurelia stays in the bathroom for hours.
When she finally emerges, the day is gone, and she looks exhausted but relieved. Light floods my bedroom from the bathroom when she opens the door and steps out wearing my T-shirt. The front of her hair is twisted to her scalp in small, neat rows, while the rest of her hair is in its usual unburdened mass, though the curls do look more vibrant than before. I’d always known she had beautiful hair but seeing it now has my fingers flexing, imagining her golden curls slipping through my fingers.
Aurelia doesn’t notice me, doesn’t even look my way.
I’m lying on my bed in the dark with my fingers linked behind my head. I’d been careful not to make a peep.
Shortly after leaving her alone, Aurelia started singing again.
She hadn’t stopped—not once in all the time that she’d been locked inside my bathroom. When one song ended, she immediately started another, and I’ve been rooted to this spot ever since. Even when my hunger turned to pain, my back hurt, and I needed to piss like no other, I ignored the discomfort and stayed to listen to her sing about love and heartbreak and being true to yourself.
All things she knows nothing about, thanks to her uncle.
“So, when girls claim they can’t go out because they have to wash their hair, it wasn’t a lie after all?” I ask, startling her.
Aurelia yelps and jumps back with a hand on her heaving chest. “What the hell, Thorin? Could you be more creepy?”
“I could try.” Tilting my head, I grin and end my slow perusal at her chest. “I know how much it excites you.”
She glowers and ignores my statement. “Why are you in here?”
“It’s my room.”
“Shouldn’t you be out raiding, plundering, and ravaging fair maidens?”
“Not today.” Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I stand and stretch, but it doesn’t cure my restlessness.
Aurelia—despite her derision—gets me better than she should.
I’ve never been good at lying around the house and doing nothing. Cabin fever has already set in after being stuck inside for almost a week, and now it will be another two days before I can leave.
Fuck.
“So, is that your fantasy then?” I tease, hardening my expression as I approach. Aurelia nervously backs away with her hands up like I’m not stronger and faster than her. I bend and wrap my arms around her thighs just under her butt, and she yelps, her hands finding my shoulders when I lift and carry her out of the bedroom. “You want to be plundered and ravaged by a sexy Viking?”
“I didn’t say you were sexy.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I didn’t say you were a Viking either.”
“You called me Ragnar when we first met.”
Her eyes dart to the side. “And?”
“I happened to catch a couple of episodes of Vikings before we left the States, and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I think I remember a certain humble blue-eyed, blond farmer turned ruthless raider who looks nothing like me.
“You’re full of yourself, aren’t you, Thorin…whatever your last name is.”
“It’s Thayer. And I could make you full of me, too. Just say the world, Aurelia.” Since my face is level with her chest, I bite and kiss her breasts through my T-shirt as I walk, and her fingers curl in my shoulders when my voice drops a decibel. “I’ll even chase if you want. I can throw you down on my furs, and tear off your dress. You could scream for me, wolf. As loud as you can. I promise I won’t stop.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
My head lifts, and I stare into her eyes as I slowly set her on her feet inside the kitchen. “Aurelia, I know you’re still trying to figure some shit out, but I can promise you that no one here is going to make fun of you for what you want. It’s more likely that the three of us will come to blows to be the one to give it to you.”