“Yes, Finnie,” he replied gently.
She pulled in a breath he felt as her chest contracted against his.
Then she said, “Well, I’m with you. I like myself alive and breathing and not burned to a cinder so I promise to blow out the candles next time.”
He pulled her close enough to touch her mouth to his then loosened his grip to allow her to move back an inch.
Then he muttered, “Good.”
Then he used his hand at her neck and his other arm around her to settle her at his side, cheek to his shoulder and ordered, “Cradle my thigh.”
He felt her body still even as her hand drifted to rest on his chest. “What?” she asked.
“I wish to sleep and do it with you curled into me as you did last night. Cradle my thigh.”
She hesitated.
Then she whispered, “Sleep?”
Frey felt his mouth twitch as he looked at the firelight flickering on the ceiling. At the same time he gave his bride a squeeze.
She’d enjoyed what they shared earlier, very much, and wished to have his mouth back, his hands and likely more.
He liked that she wished this and he would give it to her.
But after he gave her a few more meals in order for her to be comfortable with her new husband.
“Yes, wife, sleep,” he gave her another squeeze. “Your husband is weary,” he lied for he would be dead before he’d be weary, lying with her next to him not having taken her at least once. “Now, do as you’re told and cradle my thigh.”
She hesitated again. Then she lifted her thigh and rested it on his, her weight settling into his side.
However she did this muttering, “Apparently, Raiders are bossy.”
That earned Finnie another squeeze and a, “Bossy?”
“Domineering. Dictatorial. Imperious. Commanding. Bossy.” The chuckle that caused was both audible and physical and Frey knew she heard it when she grumbled, “I wasn’t being funny.”
“No,” Frey replied after he contained his mirth, “but you were talking and I told you to sleep.”
Her body tightened then it relaxed with a sigh.
Then she muttered, “Whatever.”
“You’re still talking, Finnie,” he noted.
Her body gave a small jolt but her mouth didn’t make a sound.
Frey grinned at the ceiling again.
Then he lay in his bed with his wife and he did this deciding he would take her home to see her parents very soon.
After sharing a few more meals with her, he’d be certain to see to that.
He knew she slept when her weight settled into him, curling deeper, her arm wrapping around him, holding close for a moment as if tucking him into her body before she relaxed and gave him her weight.
Then, Frey Drakkar fell asleep.
Chapter Ten
Jumping from First Base to Third
Three days later…
I stood in the kitchen, frozen, staring at Penelope sitting on the kitchen floor by the door.
Then she did what she’d done only moments before, opened her mouth and meowed but in my head, I heard, “Let me out.”
Clear as day. I heard the words, “Let me out.”
But out of my cat’s mouth, I heard, “Meow.”
In all the time I had her, she didn’t make a mew. She just purred.
Now she’d meowed twice and twice I’d heard it like I understood it in my head.
I stayed frozen and staring and she did it again.
“Meee… ow,” which I heard as scary, freaky, cat-can-talk-to-you, getting really impatient, “Let me out!”
I dropped the dish cloth and ran straight out the backdoor Frey had walked out not five minutes ago.
Then I kept running straight to the hot spring where he’d told me he was going to bathe.
And I kept going as fast as my booted feet would carry me, freaked way the hell out. The hot spring wasn’t far but it wasn’t a two second walk around the side of the house either and I ran hell bent for leather all the way there.
Frey heard me crashing through the trees toward him, I knew this because he had his sweater off, his breeches on and was pulling on his boots which meant he’d already taken them off.
I ran straight into his arms without slowing and his body rocked back a foot on impact but his arms locked around me as he asked urgently, “What’s given you a fright, Finnie?”
I was sucking in breath and I pulled back a bit to wheeze, hand pressed into my chest (like that would help) and then I forced out, “Penelo… Pen… the cat… my cat…” I pulled in a deep breath the pushed out, “I know… this is going… to sound… nuts… but I think… my cat… is possessed.”
I stared up at him to assess his reaction to this dire news as he gazed down at me, brows knit.
“Possessed?” he asked.
“Possessed!” I cried. “By Satan, demons, pure evil, I don’t know! She said, ‘meow’ and in my head I heard, ‘let me out’ and I know,” I shook my head and waved my hand between us, “I know, Frey, that sounds utterly unhinged but I kid you not, that is exactly what I heard not once, not twice but,” I leaned into him, grabbed onto both of his biceps and got up on my toes, “three times. I’ve had that cat for nearly a month and not a peep, not the barest mew and now this! Maybe there’s evil in this world…” Oh shit! “I mean, uh… this forest. Maybe people come here to devil worship or hatchet men live out there!” I swung an arm out to the trees then back to slap my hand on his chest. “Or maybe the ghost of a murdering hatchet man who killed dozens of villagers before they caught him and strung him up lives out there and he’s pissed and he’s possessing my cat!”
Frey’s face got that look I was getting used to, like a weird sort of understanding (of what I did not know and never really did but at that moment I did not care because my fat, ginger cat was possessed by the ghost of a murdering hatchet man) and he said softly, “Finnie, take a breath and calm yourself.”
“I can’t calm myself when my ginger cat is possessed by a murderer!” I shrieked and I swear, I swear to God, Frey looked like he was trying really hard not to laugh before he spoke again and I knew he was trying hard to quell his laughter when his voice trembled with it.
“Wife, as you know,” his face got closer to mine, “women can understand cats, deer, rabbits, mice, small birds and other such animals.”
I blinked at him as my body locked in shock.
Frey spoke on. “And men can understand horses, snakes, hawks, falcons, other birds of prey and predatory or animals used in work or war, for instance, wolves and ox.”
I blinked again.
“Apparently, considering you’ll jump at any indication that Penelope has the merest whim, you didn’t move fast enough and she felt the need to tell you she wished to go outside. Since she actually had to tell you rather than you stuffing her full of chicken and fish before she got the least hungry and gathering her close to nuzzle before she even knew she wished a cuddle and moving to let her out, or in, before she shifted her great bulk fully toward the door, she hasn’t had to share her desires. If you were busy or not paying attention, she would do so. I’m sure you’ve heard the call of a variety of animals.”
I kept blinking.
So Frey finished, “Perhaps, out here in the forest where animals do not near the house due to our activity, you’ve forgotten since you haven’t heard it in some time.”
