Page 70 of Lord of Fire and Ice

“If something happens to me, it means you’ll feel bound to make someone else’s life miserable in my honor,” he said with a laugh.

She sank back down on the chest and covered her mouth with her hand. Her shoulders shook. He thought she was laughing with him for a moment, but then the starlight struck her glistening cheeks.

Loki’s sweaty balls, she’s crying.

Against a woman’s tears, there was no defense known to man. If Katla ever learned that little nugget of wisdom, he was done for.

“That’s what I’ve done, isn’t it?” she said with a sob. “I’ve made your life miserable.”

“Not completely.”

She sobbed louder.

She wouldn’t want him to lie, would she? The taint of thralldom was no light matter. It would be foolishness to pretend otherwise.

She made little whimpering sounds, obviously trying to stop crying and failing utterly at it.

“Katla, please. You don’t have to cry so.” He felt as useless as tits on a boar. “I promise I’ll never pick you up and carry you off again.”

Even as he said it, he feared that would be a difficult promise to keep. She vexed him so, he had a hard time imagining not carting her off again if the occasional called for it.

She shook her head. “That’s not why I’m crying.”

What else have I done wrong? he thought, but wisely refrained from saying.

“You’ll always bear the mark of iron because of me,” she said. “I want you to take your place as my husband in our household, but you’re right. The people will always see you as a thrall.” She loosed a moist hiccup. “A thrall I had to order to marry me.”

“No one put a knife to my throat.”

“No one had to,” she said with a sniff. “You already had an iron collar there.”

He cupped her chin and forced her to look up at him. “Even with a thrall’s collar, do you really think you could make me do something I didn’t want to do?”

“I made you kiss my foot.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “And you weren’t pleased with how I did it, were you?”

“Not the first time,” she admitted with a shy grin that faded quickly. “Are you saying I won’t be pleased with how you intend to be my husband?”

“No.” He hoped not. “I’m saying I went into this marriage freely.”

“Not because I gave you an order?”

He leaned down to kiss her softly. “No. And I didn’t drag you onto this boat because I want to ill-treat you either.”

“Why did you do it then?”

“Because I had to leave. There was no avoiding that. And I want you with me, Katla.” He hunkered down before her so he could look her eye to eye. “Life will separate us often enough, like as not. I didn’t see why we should be apart by choice so soon.”

“But I’ve done nothing but upend your life from the moment I laid eyes on you,” she admitted. “Why do you want me with you?”

Brandr was no coward, but he’d rather face a charge of Saracen cavalry than this one woman and her unending questions.

Especially when the answers involved love.

Love opened a heart for pain, for risk, for loss. But even though he’d never felt the like before, he’d recognized its stirring for a while now. It was time he named the swirling in his gut. He drew a deep breath.

“I want you with me because I love you, Katla.”