Page 65 of Yule Know It When You See It
Theo manages to bring out this child-like side to me I thought had long since faded away. It’s refreshing, nostalgic, and forces me to forget, but for those few moments, the responsibilities of writing and work. And it’s precisely what I need.She’swhat I need—what I want.
We’re back in my apartment, cold and wet. We hang our jackets near the fire to dry, and I slip my fingers into the top of her jeans, undoing the button, and working the zipper down.
“Trying to get me out of these clothes?” She grins, letting me do as I please.
“Always. But I’m going to throw them in the dryer.” I wink at her, letting the tips of my fingers trail her skin as I drag the pants to her ankles. She steps out of them, one foot at a time, and soon shimmies to the fireplace in only a sweater and her blue lace panties. “Figured you might want lunch first. Especially when you see what I bought.”
“Oh?” Theo has her palms open to the fire but arches a brow at me over one shoulder.
After throwing our jeans in the dryer, I return shirtless and in only my boxers, my stomach tightening when she does a double take of me. I remove the two truffle sandwiches I managed to procure the other day, undo the brown wrapping, and pop them in the toaster oven without saying a word.
Smells of mushroom, butter, and truffle soon fill the apartment as the sandwiches heat up. Theo drifts into the kitchen on her tip-toes like one of those cartoons where the character is mindlessly led to an apple pie chilling on the window sill by an animated scent line. She flattens her palms on the counter and flashes wide eyes at me. “Did you really?”
“I did.” Smiling at her, I lean my back on the fridge and fold my arms. “And though they’re delicious, maybe you can explain to me more in detail why you like them that much. Hm?”
“I don’t think you’re experiencing the individual flavors enough, Ax.” Theo hops on a stool and taps her fingernails against the marble, impatiently waiting.
“Then, please do explain.” I pluck one sandwich to a plate, the edge of it hotter than anticipated, burning my finger. “Faen,” I curse under my breath.
Theo perks up. “What did you just say?”
I suck on my burnt finger, and rest the plate in front of her, gaze shifting from left to right. “Faen? It’s a curse word.”
Theo has yet to blink. “I’ve heard that before. Only I thought it was fawn or something.” She gasps. “Were you at The Rooftop not that long ago?”
Using a towel to plate the other sandwich, I roll my shoulders and return to her. “Yeah. With Spence. Were you there too?”
Scents of vanilla, cinnamon and juniper…
“Do you believe in fate, Axel?” A warm smile brightens her face, and she lifts the sandwich to her lips with both hands.
“I think I do now.” I sit on a stool beside her, ensuring our arms brush as we dig in, the perfectly toasted bread crunching under our teeth.
Theo lets out a sultry, sensual moan, and I pause before I choke on my food, taking a moment to watch her instead.
“Buttery toasted bread, caramelized portobello mushroom slivers,Duke’smayo laced with truffle extract, caramelized onions cooked in truffle oil, and thinly sliced flat iron steak cooked medium rare.” Theo groans and takes another huge bite. “That’s why I love this sandwich. You can’t beat it.”
I’ve suddenly lost my appetite. And not because I’m revolted by what she says or what she’s doing, but because I’m far too preoccupied now with something else entirely.
“That thing you almost said earlier?” I wipe my fingers on a napkin, plucking it from the holder in the counter’s center.
Theo tenses and covers her mouth with a hand as she finishes chewing. “What thing?”
Turning to face her, I pull her stool toward me so she’s sitting between my legs. “If you repeat it, I may be inclined to say it back, Romance.”
“But I—” She gulps the sandwich and turns to face me, her lips glossy from the butter, a speck of mayo collected at the corner of her mouth.
I lean my face into hers and kiss the mayo away.
“I—” Theo starts, her throat bobbing in a harsh gulp. “I love you, Ax.”
“And I love you.” The words come so easily that it feels like we’ve declared it a dozen times already.
Theo launches from the stool, wrapping her arms around me and smothering me with pecked kisses over my lips, my cheeks, her nose poking my eye at one point. A deep, rumbling chuckle escapes me, and I wrap my arms around her, nuzzling my nose against her neck.
“Jeg elsker deg, Theodora Hackett,” I whisper to her.
Her head lifts, those emerald eyes filled with a glistening happiness thatIput there. “Jeg elsker deg,” she says back with flawless execution, as if she’d already been practicing. And just like that, this Viking finds his Shieldmaiden.
