Page 34 of Heartsong
“I hope you enjoy defeat, because I rule at Go Fish.”
Unfortunately, though, after only two rounds, Frey took to the game as easily as he’d taken to the remote. She was again unsure whether she was impressed or terrified—and didn’t know whether she should be offended he didn’t let her win. It would’ve been the gentlemanly thing to do.
Instead, he seemed to take great pleasure in trouncing her.
“I take it back,” he purred as she shuffled the deck again, trying hard not to pout about another loss.
“What?”
“I do enjoy fishing, when the fishing is good.” And he waggled his thick brows at her.
Anna snorted with a laugh.
All in all, Frey thought perhaps things were progressing with his Anna. Not as fast as he’d hoped, of course. Five nights already and he’d yet to kiss her sweet lips or enfold her in his wings. Still, he took heart that she not only stayed in his company but seemed to enjoy it.
He bantered. He flirted. He triumphed at every game she taught him to prove his cunning. Frey didn’t have the weapons to demonstrate his skills nor another guardian to wrestle with to demonstrate his strength, so he had to make do showing the sharpness of his mind and the attractiveness of his physical form where he could.
His ancestors might grimace at his methods, but they wouldn’t fault him his cause. And besides, what guardian hadn’t preened and showed off his muscles a little for his pretty mate?
Frey was content to spend another enjoyable evening in the company of his heartsong. Every smile, every laugh he earned from her felt like a triumph, and he didn’t think he imagined her eyes lingering on him a little longer each time she looked.
Biting back the smugness on his lips, Frey cleaned up the cards as his Anna prepared for slumber. He enjoyed watchingvideos, had been relieved to find many that sated his curiosity and helped build his knowledge of her time, but it was always better while his mate joined him. Watching them quietly through the dark of night was better than staring out the window, but it was still lonely.
He’d much rather lay beside her and watchherall night. He knew he’d never tire of it, even if she snored or drooled, but he suspected it’d be another few nights at least before he’d be invited to stay in her bedchamber.
With a shy little wave, Anna bade him goodnight from her doorway, face freshly scrubbed and hair piled atop her head.
“Sleep well,fy nghalon,” he purred.
Her lips twitched with a smile, and then she disappeared behind her bedchamber door.
The sounds of her preparing for sleep soon faded, and Frey resumed his video on Anglo-Saxon burial practices. He couldn’t quite decide how he felt about so little of the invaders of his fair isle remaining. They were almost as much of a mystery to today’s scholars as his own people, and they too had eventually been invaded and conquered.
Perhaps it all would’ve been a matter of time before his kin were destroyed.
Captain decided to make a nest of Frey’s crossed legs, and so he and the cat lay upon the floor together, watching videos into the wee hours. The cat’s little purrs and soft body were most welcome, and Frey took to holding him on his chest as he’d seen Anna do.
His eyes had begun to sting with fatigue, and he’d found his way onto videos about medieval sword recreation, when noises from the bedchamber perked his ears.
He’d listened to his mate sleeping enough to know that once she was asleep, she hardly moved. Now, though, he heard her rolling beneath the blankets and making frustrated little noises. Pausing the video, he listened carefully as she continued moving about, unsure if she’d woken.
Perhaps it is a nightmare.
Or perhaps…she’s pleasuring herself.
The thought quickened Frey’s blood through his veins, and his ears fixed harder to every noise escaping under her door. He listened for any little snippet that would tell him what she did, and as the minutes passed, his body hardened, muscles locking in preparation for…
Something.
Anything.
His cock began to ache and throb with the thought of her just steps away, warm and slick. His muscles bunched, considering going to the washroom and bring himself some relief—it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
The sweet agony went on for almost a half-hour before the bedchamber door cracked open.
Anna appeared, and for a moment, Frey’s heart stopped.
His imagination, his lust, did not. They roared inside him, hoping, longing that she was about to call him inside with her. That their nights together meant something, hadfinallyproven to her that he was everything she could want in—
