Page 82 of Lord of Fire and Ice

She shook her head and gave him a quick kiss. “At least it’s a useful oddity. We’ll never have to worry about having tinder and flint.”

Chapter 28

“You should have told me you were injured,” Katla scolded once they were back aboard the coracle and she discovered Brandr’s trouser leg was stiff with blood. She settled the sleeping baby into the center of a coil of rope and tended to her husband’s wounds. The short Scandinavian night ended, and the sun peeped over the mountaintops.

Brandr submitted to her nursing with grumbles and complaints, but she suspected he enjoyed the attention.

“I wouldn’t have made you catch that stray nanny so I could milk her if I’d known you were bleeding,” she said.

“Ja, you would, and we both know it,” he said with a laugh. “I didn’t mind. The last thing I want is to listen to a hungry babe crying all the way to Jondal.”

He hadn’t complained when she insisted they bring the baby with them. He’d been concerned only about how she’d feed it. Once they rounded up the goat, Katla was able to fill a skin with its milk. Then she dipped her sleeve into the rich liquid and let Linnea suck the linen. It was a slow process, but it seemed to work for now.

When the babe curled her tiny fingers around Katla’s, she thought her heart would burst with the tender sweetness of it. She decided then and there. Linnea was hers as surely as if she’d borne her inside her body for nine months.

Brandr had carried the baby down the steep goat track to the coracle. He actually seemed to like her a little.

Of course, Katla hadn’t told him she intended to keep the child yet. That was a talk best saved for smoother waters and a full night’s sleep.

“There,” she said as she tied off the bandage on his thigh. He had such beautiful thighs; it was a great pity one would be marred with a slashing scar now. She ran her hands up and down his legs, reveling in the light dusting of hair and corded muscle beneath his skin. His tunic rose, and she knew his cock had come to life beneath it. After all they’d been through during the night, his body still roused to her.

Men were so delightfully simple sometimes.

He pulled her down for a long, deep kiss. Desire stirred in her belly, but she tamped it down.

“I can’t,” she said as she broke off their kiss. “I mean I want to…” Judging from the raging ache that leaped to life in her groin, she wanted to desperately. Evidently her body was just as delightfully simple as his. “But I’m filthy. Covered with soot and reeking. And on a boat? How can you even think it?”

Brandr laughed. “You’re alive and here, and I want you. You’d be surprised how little that part of me cares about such niceties as cleanliness or a steady foundation. But if you feel that strongly about it, then we should at least have a bath.”

“Where?”

“In the fjord, of course,” he said with a shrug as he stood to pull his tunic over his head, leaving him gloriously naked.

But she didn’t have long to admire him. He dove off the port bow, drenching Katla with spray. The water was so cold her throat closed off, and she gasped for breath. Brandr’s sleek head emerged from the dark blue water.

“Oof! I’d forgotten how cold this water is.” He shook his head, and droplets scattered around him, sparkling like silver. Then he windmilled his arms and cut across the surface back toward the coracle and climbed aboard. The small craft dipped to one side, but he was quick enough that no water washed over the gunwale except the rivulets that streamed down his body and puddled along the bottom of the hull.

“With water that cold, that’s enough. Your turn,” he said with a grin as he settled back on the seat by the tiller to let the rising sun dry him. The quick dip had melted his erection, but he was still so beautiful to look upon, Katla’s eyes hurt.

“I can’t swim, remember? And I don’t much care for a salty bath.”

“The water’s brackish this far into the fjord. Enough fresh water pours in from rivers and streams to cut the seawater.”

Sure enough, no briny crystals clung to Brandr’s skin.

“I still can’t swim, but I think I could make do with a sponge bath,” Katla said cautiously. “Turn around.”

“Why?”

“It’s not like the laug at home,” she said. “I’ll be naked.”

“I’ve seen you naked,” he said, his body obviously warming to the idea again. “And not just in the bath house.”

“Not in broad daylight.”

“Katla, I’m your husband. Did you not promise to please me in our wedding vows?” He folded his arms across his chest. “It pleases me to look at you. All of you. Besides, if you dally much longer, there may be more ship traffic, and I won’t be the only one who gets a peek.”

He leaned back and stretched out his long legs, clearly enjoying the sun’s kiss on his skin. His clean skin.