Page 31 of Heartsong
The scent of female interest was unmistakable.
If she’d been a woman of his kind, he wouldn’t have been shy about articulating his intents and hopes.
But she’s not.
He had to remember that.
Frey didn’t want her fleeing from him like the night before. He had to be careful. Gentle. Gracious.
Still, when he went to pluck the bowls from her hands to bring to the table, he drew in a discreet lungful of her. His rumble of pleasure was less discreet, though he bent his head to the steaming food to hide it.
She followed him to the table, and he was grateful to sit and hide the other evidence of his pleasure. A garment that showed off his cock at ease would do little to conceal his cock at attention.
Perhaps the clothes were a test after all.
Frey ignored his cock’s twitches of interest—although, he was more than a little relieved that his manhood still worked after centuries of disuse—and instead tucked into another fine meal from his mate.
He thought he recognized rice, though he’d never seen it before in his time, and only knew some of the vegetables. Beef was familiar, but the sweet, tangy sauce she’d soaked the meat and vegetables in were new quite tasty.
“It’s teriyaki, with carrots and broccoli,” she explained when he asked over the unfamiliar foods.
“And where is ter-ee-yakee from?” he asked, mouth stumbling over the strange sounds.
“From Japan. It’s an island nation way across the Pacific Ocean.” She looked up from her meal to blink at him. “That reminds me—I was thinking…” Anna set down her utensils, and Frey sat up straighter, preparing for whatever she might say next. She truly was a mysterious thing, keeping him guessing.
“I thought maybe I could teach you things about this time. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it seems like you’re going to stay.” Another blush bloomed across her face. “I mean, if you want to…”
Carefully, Frey placed his hand on the table. It didn’t quite touch hers, but it was there, offering the connection.
“I would stay with you, my Anna. For as long as you allow.”
The moment of silence pierced his heart with panic. He didn’t know what he would do if she demanded he leave. He had nowhere to go, no one else to rely upon. He hated this vulnerability, this absolute dependence on her, but he was determined it was only temporary, that given a little time, he would adapt, he’d learn her—
She nodded jerkily. “Good. Okay. Yeah, that’s…good. Um.” Moving the rice around in her bowl without eating any, she said to the table, “You can stay with me.”
“You are a kind soul, my Anna. I swear your kindness won’t be forgotten. I don’t know or understand much of your world, but I hope that given time, I will learn to be a good mate to you.”
Anna drew in a long breath before folding her hands in front of her and resting her chin on them. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I think this mate business is too much for me. I have another few days off from work, so I thought…we won’t talk about me going to work, we won’t talk about this mate bond. Instead, we’ll give you a crash course in history and everything you need to know. Is that…doable?”
Frey considered. He would, of course, acquiesce, although he appreciated the illusion that he had any true choice. As his heartsong, he would give Anna anything he was able—and not just because a word from her and he would be alone in this new world. Still, that she asked and seemed genuinely desirous of his answer softened his grumblings at her conditions.
He didn’t want her going back to her work. He didn’t want to stay silent about their matehood.
And he didn’t want her running from him.
Adapt. Compromise.
Truly, has a male ever compromised so much to win his mate?
Holding back his sigh, Frey nodded. “I agree. I should like to learn everything you have to teach me.”
The smile she gave him was small but rocked the foundations of Frey’s very soul nevertheless. His Anna wasn’t given to easy smiles and flippant talk, so when her lips curved up with genuine relief and pleasure, Frey felt his own tingling in his claw and wing tips.
“You’ve got a lot to teach me, too,” she said. And with an excitement he hadn’t seen from her before, she leaned forward to say, “Tell me everything about sixth-century Wales.”
“I will try,fy nghân, but what is Wales?”
It soothed some of the oldest wounds in his heart to speak of his home and time. Frey was delighted to find hours had passed and still she had more questions for him—how his kind made their homes, what he knew of the human druids, what the clan stories said about the invading Romans they were made to fight. They sat at her table so long, the plates were empty and then cleaned and put away, and a sachet of delectable treats she called cookies lay decimated between them.
