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I gave him a scathing glare and handed him my coat. He hadn’t even seemed to break a sweat. However, the perspiration under my clothes had cooled on my warm skin. I shivered and hugged myself. “I’m a little cold. Do you have any tea?”
“I’ll make us some.” Viktor hung both our coats in the closet. I liked the look of them together. “You need to bring a change of clothes from now on.”
“Good idea.”
His cottage was bare, other than a chair set close to the stone fireplace and a rickety-looking table in the dining room with two more chairs. The kitchen, situated at the back of the house, had a decent-sized stove and icebox. A cup was overturned, drying on a towel, as well as a lone plate and one fork. He’d cooked and washed up, all for one. What would it be like to live alone? I might never know, given the size of my family.
“You need furniture,” I said. The room smelled pleasantly of wood shavings and was empty enough that our voices echoed.
“You don’t find my furnishings adequate?” Viktor asked.
“Not if you plan on marrying.”
“Do I plan on marrying?” Viktor’s mouth curved upward in a smile.
“I suppose it depends on the girl. If the right one came along, for example.”
“Indeed.”
“Indeed,” I said.
He told me to sit on the floor and reach for my toes. “You need to stretch after such strenuous exercise.”
Wincing, I dropped to the floor in front of the fire. “Are you trying to kill me?” I bent over my legs and groaned. “Everything hurts already.”
“Give it a few weeks. You’ll be fine.” His usual affable tone had returned. He set the table with two napkins and two forks. “Just give me a minute and I’ll get some food in your stomach.”
“I like you better when you’re not barking out orders.”
He set a teapot on the stove. “You’ll thank me later.”
“We’ll see.” I continued my stretching until my legs seemed less tight. By that time, Viktor had scrambled up eggs and cut slabs of bread.
“Shall we eat?” He pointed at the table. “Sit. I’ll serve us up.”
“I don’t know any men who can cook.” I sat in one of the spindly chairs at the table.
“When we were young, my parents worked a lot. Isak and I had to learn how to do household tasks.” He placed a steaming plate of eggs and one of the pieces of bread in front of me.
My stomach growled. “This looks very good.”
He sat across from me with his own plate, and we said a quick prayer before tucking into our breakfast. This was nice, I thought. Natural. Would this be what it was like if we were married? Eating in compatible silence?
“Will your father be upset to learn you’re spending time alone with me?” Viktor asked as he pushed away his empty plate.
“I don’t know. I’ve not thought about it.” Young ladies weren’t supposed to be alone with young men. But this was Viktor. My family trusted him. “I don’t think he would, because it’s you. Like Li and Fiona. He knows you two take good care of us.” I stretched and got up from the table. “I have to get back. Poppy and I have a few stops to make today.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out my watch. “Don’t forget this.”
I gingerly got to my feet and held out my hand. “Thank you.”
He placed the watch in my hand but instead of letting me go, covered mine with his and pulled me gently toward him. “May I have a kiss?”
He circled one arm around my waist.
A girlish squeak escaped. “Now? But I’m wearing knickers and I must smell atrocious.”
“No, you don’t.” He yanked off my hat and tossed it to the floor. My curls, happy to be free, bounced back into place. “You’re a little dirty, but you smell as lovely as you always do.”
“One before I go?”
“Yes, just one.” He leaned down and brushed my lips with his.
A shiver ran through me. I wrapped one arm around his neck. “You’re much more likable now than you were a half hour ago.” He smelled of coffee and the outdoors.
“Enough of that. Off you go.” He tucked a curl behind my ear. “Even your ears are beautiful. Like shells.”
“Just one more couldn’t hurt anything, could it?” I asked.
“It might, but we don’t care.” He leaned down and captured my mouth with his. I reached up with my fingers to touch his hair. That hair! Like a down feather.
I deepened our kiss, opening myself to him.
A faint groan rose out of his chest. I’d have thought it would scare me, but instead it made my skin tingle. My legs felt as if they were made of liquid. A fog settled between my ears. What was happening to me?
He seemed to come to his senses first, letting me go and walking over to the window. With his back to me, he took in several deep breaths. I could almost see the muscles under his shirt as his back expanded and contracted. My fingers tensed. What would it feel like to run my hands down his back?
“Viktor?”
He turned slowly from the window, wearing an expression I’d never seen before. His features twisted into various shapes as if something pained him. What was this? Fear? Wide-shouldered, tall Viktor Olofsson afraid? The man who had bravely saved my sister from her captor without a second thought? Yes. And it was me he feared. “I’ve never known you to be afraid of anything, Viktor Olofsson.”
“I’m not afraid,” he said.
“You are. I can see it in your eyes.”
He shook his head, then dipped his chin. “Cymbeline Barnes, if you break my heart, I might not recover. When it comes to you, I have no way of saving myself. You can’t toy with me if you don’t mean it. I’ve waited too long. I’m too in love with you.” He lifted his eyes to mine. They blazed as if he were feverish. “Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”
I stood there, frozen for a moment. This was a choice, I thought. Whether to be brave or run away like a spoiled little girl. No, I would meet him here in this place of courage. That was it, after all. Love wasn’t a game, as some of the great poets had suggested. Not with Viktor, anyway. Not with anyone who let themselves be as vulnerable as he was now. “I understand.”
And I did. I had the power to break this giant man. But I wouldn’t. Not now. Not after the way he’d carved that confession from his chest and handed it to me. “I won’t hurt you.” I almost added, not if I can help it. But for the first time, I understood that I could help it. All of this was in my command.
“I’d do anything for you,” Viktor said. “Anything you wanted.”
“But what do you want?”
“You. Just you. Love’s the only adventure I’ve ever wanted.”
I went to him and let him take me into his arms. We did not kiss this time. Instead, our hearts beat together as we stood in the room with only one chair. Would there soon be two? “I’m a lot to take on.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.”
I smiled against the fabric of his shirt and nestled closer.
