Page 136 of The Sun He Buried

He catches my finger before it reaches his chest. “I saw what happened to Eirik.”

“He moved.”

“He wanted to keep his ribs.”

“They are very hard.”

Baldr looks down at me.

Oh.

That wasn’t the correct thing to say.

“His coat is thin.”

“Sól.”

“You have the same chest.”

This also fails to help.

His amber eye brightens.

I put both hands over his shirt. “Yours is better.”

“Generous.”

“I have conducted more research.”

He kisses me hard enough that my hood falls over my eyes.

I laugh into his mouth and pull it back.

“Take me upstairs.”

Baldr starts to lift me.

“Wait.”

I put my hand flat on his stomach and slide it down.

“Sól.”

“Mm.”

“There’s a door.”

“There is.”

“It doesn’t lock.”

“I know.”

His belt takes longer than it should. Everything I do with my hands takes longer than it should, and this one was made by somebody expecting a siege.

Baldr doesn’t help.

He could help. He stands there watching me lose to a belt and says nothing at all, and his jaw has gone somewhere strange.