Page 81 of Valhalla is Full of Hunks
My traveling companion planted his boots at the shore and stared out at the waves—his long hair blowing wildly around his head like a demonic halo. I wrapped my arms around myself, wishing I was wearing more than the thin sweater I’d thrown on over my workout clothes.
“A storm’s coming,” Surt finally spoke—his words carried on the wind. He turned to face me with an unreadable expression. “We should seek shelter for the night.”
I squinted up at the sky. It was overcast but unthreatening, and I would’ve guessed we still had hours to go before sunset. But I was also an ex-Girl Scout, so I knew the importance of ‘being prepared’ in advance—especially with how fast the weather could change on the coast. Plus, for some weird reason, I wanted to show off my latent survival skills to Surt, even though he could probablyfeelthe changing winds in his hot-bod supernatural bones.
Maybe there’s a Monster Fucking merit badge for convincing Mr. Grumpy Pants to share his body heat with me tonight…
“Okay!” I clapped my hands together—more than ready for our team-building exercise to begin. “Let’s go scout for a lean-to location. I’m gonna show you what I can do!”
Reentering the woods, I quickly spotted a flat clearing with enough space between two trees for Surt to lie down his gigantic body comfortably.
Because you better believe this will be an only-one-bed scenario.
Only one lean-to.
Surt simply crossed his arms and watched as I worked my Girl Scout Jamboree magic. In no time—okay, it took forever—I had a horizontal ridge pole set up, covered with a makeshift roof of branches facing the wind. I was working on the sides when Surt started collecting fallen pine boughs to arrange over the branches for insulation.
I wonder if he’s done this before?
Unfortunately, all this wayward thought accomplished was to conjure up an image of the guys cuddled up together in a big puppy pile. Then I mused over how I hadn’t seen that in action yet, followed by an acknowledgement of how I’d probably implode—vagina first—if I did.
I would have been content to keep my filthy thoughts to myself, but forgot how a single drop of arousal could be sniffed out from a mile away by these monsters. Surt growled almost threateningly, nostrils flaring as his heated gaze met mine. I instinctively froze—like prey trying to evade a predator—but he simply snarled again and stomped away, presumably to collect more materials.
Or jerk-off.
Sorry, not sorry, dude.
Stop being so hot.
Interestingly, he never once suggested making hisownlean-to, but I’d figured out a few things about Surt. Like how, when he was out of his element, the big guy simply clammed up and waited for someoneelseto call the shots—which seemed counterintuitive to the Sir vibe he tried to evoke. Fen was just as much an alpha as him, so their shared authority worked well in those situations, but it was shocking to think Surt was actually deferring tomeon our overnight plans.
Maybe hewantsme to take charge…
The thought sent such a bolt of lust shooting through me that I had to close my eyes momentarily to recover. When I opened them again, Surt was standing at the edge of our little clearing with a dead rabbit—once again staring at me like he wanted to eat me alive.
Desperately needing to ignore the rapidly increasing tension, I focused on securing our rustic love shack the best I could while Surt skinned the rabbit and began constructing a campfire.
“Ooh, ooh, let me!” I yelped, tripping over some extra pine boughs in my haste to reach him and show off my mad firestarter skills.
Surt’s beard twitched, but he dutifully sat back on his heels and gestured for me to take over. Grabbing some dry pine needles and leaves, I built a tinder nest and used a sharp stick to cut a v-shaped notch in the flat branch I was using as a fireboard. I then stuffed a piece of birch bark under the notch, stuck my chosen stick in the hole, and started grinding.
The innuendos write themselves…
My stick handling skills were rusty, apparently, because no matter how fast I rubbed one out, no sparks were flying.
I’ve been out of the survivalist game for too long!
“Allowme,”Surt chuckled, flicking his finger and lighting up the entire campfire in a single blast.
Oh… right.
Fire giant.
“Well, now I feel like an idiot.” I laughed, rolling my eyes self-deprecatingly. “Why didn’t I think of askingyouto do it?”
Surt was staring at the flames with almost as much awe as me. “I wasn’t entirely sure I still could,” he admitted. “It’s been a… long time since I’ve been able to access my fire like that.”
“Still think it’s the proximity of the World Tree?” I teased, even as I placed my hand over his disproportionately larger one and gave it a comforting squeeze.
