Chapter 5 #2
That she was so desperate surprised him, for he wasn’t even sure what he’d done to attract her.
What was certain was that he didn’t know how to handle this situation.
Unlike his rogue of a brother, he’d never been skilled in the art of wooing women.
With Aife, it had been easy, natural even.
There had been no need to do anything to provoke her desire.
No, indeed, because he had not exactly wooed her, had he?
Their kiss had not been provoked by desire, or anything of the sort.
It was not the same and he should not compare the two situations—or the two women.
Yes, enough about Aife. He was here with Bera, for a reason, and he should not lose sight of it.
With decision, he raised his hand and knocked on his friend’s door.
“Ah, thank you.” Elwyn took the axe he was handing him. “Sorry, I would have offered you a drink but Bee and I were about to leave for town,” he added, glancing back to where his wife was fastening a cloak over her shoulders.
“It’s all right,” Torsten assured him. Evidently fate had decided that he would have to face Bera alone and live with the consequences of his rash decision. “We’ll leave you to it.”
“How can I thank you for coming to my rescue, Torsten?” Bera whispered, as soon as the two of them started heading back toward the forge.
Her rescue! Really, not only was she bold, but she was not afraid of sounding ridiculous.
“There’s no need to thank me. I carried an axe, nothing more,” he could not help but point out.
Surely the feat deserved little praise. But, far from being put out, she placed herself in front of him, forcing him to come to a halt.
“Yes, you did carry the axe for me. Allow me to show you my gratitude.”
There it was, the moment of truth. Better get it over with.
After all, it was what she wanted, and what he wanted too, he reminded himself.
But as soon as he drew Bera into his arms, Torsten knew he would not bed her.
He could probably have kissed her, given her this satisfaction, at least, but the problem was, he didn’t even want to do that.
She smelled all wrong, she looked all wrong, she felt all wrong against him. Too tall, too soft, nothing like—
He clenched his jaw before he started comparing her to Aife again. This was not what it was about, he told himself. It was not his attraction to Aife that made it impossible for him to contemplate kissing Bera; he simply disliked the brash and silly way she behaved.
“I’m sorry,” he said, loosening his hold on her. Going to her had been a mistake, he saw that now.
“What are you sorry for?” she whispered, grinding herself against his groin, her intent obvious.
“I think you want something from me…” he started, unsure how to extricate himself from the trap he’d created for himself without hurting her feelings. She had done nothing wrong, this was his issue, not hers. “Something I cannot give you.”
Her face underwent a transformation when she sneered.
Suddenly she looked almost ugly, much older than her twenty summers and almost mean.
“I see. Not only are you incapable of bedding women, but you also lack the balls to kiss the ones who want you.” To his shock, she cupped him intimately, the gesture rough rather than seductive, and brought her mouth to his ear.
“I’d heard as much and I refused to believe it, considering how manly you look.
I can see now that it was no exaggeration.
You’re as limp as a worm when a real man would be hard as rock with a woman in his arms, touching him thus. ”
Torsten gritted his teeth. There was no wondering whom the rumors had come from, but he was still shocked to see that Bera, who had only just arrived in the village, had heard them.
Either they were spreading fast or she knew Sigrid’s friend personally.
It was just his luck. But no wonder he was, in the woman’s words, limp as a worm.
This time it was no cause for concern, as he knew exactly why his body had refused to stir.
He felt no real desire for her, to the point that he had not even been able to kiss her, and she was holding him in a grip that was anything but sensual.
All in her bid to humiliate him.
By the gods. Now he knew why she had been so eager, why it had been so easy to woo her. She had not felt real desire for him either, she had just wanted to see if what she’d heard about him was true. And, unfortunately, it was.
“Well, let me go and see if I can find another man to see to my needs,” she hissed. “Surely not everyone is as useless in this village.”
With those words she finally let him go and headed in the direction of the bridge. He was about to call back to her when a roar from behind him caused his blood to freeze into his veins.
“You bastard!”
Fuck.
When Torsten finally dared to turn around, he found Moon glaring at him from the corner of his hut.
His heart fell because there was no wondering what the reason behind his friend’s ire was.
He would have seen him holding a woman tight, their faces inches apart, and her murmuring words in his ear while she cupped him intimately.
It would look damning, as he’d not heard that she was actually disparaging him for his lack of interest in her.
Before he could do anything, Moon had launched himself at him.
“No!” Torsten cried out, blocking the blow aimed at his jaw. “It’s not what you think!”
“Oh? You mean I didn’t catch you kissing Bera the day after I caught you with Aife in your arms in the forest, when the two of you did your best to convince me you had done nothing wrong? Well, I’m done listening to your lies. You will not treat my sister with such disrespect!”
This time the punch to the gut could not be stopped.
“Yes, you did catch me, but it doesn’t mean a thing,” Torsten gasped, doubling over. Soreinn, but the man could hit!
“That’s what men always say. I’m not sure Bera would agree with you. She seemed—”
“Not with Bera, I meant with Aife.”
For a moment Moon looked as if he was about to choke on his own tongue. “You bastard!”
By the gods, he was not explaining himself very well. Torsten groaned. He’d just all but told Moon that his sister didn’t mean anything to him. Which was not quite the truth, at least not in the way his friend would understand, at least not in the way he’d meant, at least not—
Blast it all, this was precisely why he had gone to Bera, to understand where he stood where Aife was concerned, to make sense of the new development between them and to see if he could function like a man.
Look what a mess his stupid idea had landed him in.
He was more confused than ever about his feelings for Aife, he’d made an enemy of Bera and he’d made his best friend hate him.
Guilt and shame sliced through him.
Three years ago when Moon and Eyja had come back from war together and he’d seen something had changed between them, Torsten had taken it badly.
Though he was not proud of his reaction now that the two of them were married and blissfully happy, at the time it had been an unwelcome shock for him and his two brothers to imagine their friend in bed with their little sister.
No doubt Moon would be feeling the same when he thought of him and Aife together, which explained the blow to the stomach. Except that it was completely different. Torsten had not slept with Aife, nor was he likely to. Unfortunately.
The thought caused him to inhale sharply. He wasn’t supposed to entertain such notions about his longtime friend!
“Listen,” he said, before his thoughts got tangled any further—and Moon could hit him again. “Please, go and speak to Aife. This was her idea, she’ll be able to explain it better than I can.”
For the longest moment Moon stared at him, as if trying to see to the bottom of his soul. Apparently what he saw there satisfied him, at least for now.
“Very well, I will,” he said darkly, “because you’re my friend and I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. But make no mistake. If she tells me that she is serious about you and I see that you’re just toying with her, I will make sure you wish you had kept your hands to yourself.”
“I saw Torsten kissing Bera this morning.”
The unexpected words, or rather the pain they provoked inside her, were a shock to Aife.
Torsten was kissing other women? But, of course, he was.
She chided herself for her first, instinctive jealous reaction, a reaction she was not entitled to.
Why would he not kiss other women? It was not as if they were really involved; he didn’t owe anything to her.
She stared at her brother, careful to not betray any dismay because it was obvious that Moon was trying to find out what was between her and Torsten and would not take it too well to be told that they had done things they were not supposed to do.
The day before, he had caught them in each other’s arms, and they had done their best to convince him nothing untoward had happened.
He had allowed them to get away with it, but apparently he still had his doubts and he wanted to make sure he’d not been made a fool out of.
It was therefore vital she convinced Moon he didn’t need to beat Torsten to a pulp for taking advantage of her.
“Did you?” she asked, doing her best to sound unconcerned.
For good measure, she shrugged, even though her chest was strangely hollow at the idea of him kissing Bera.
The woman was tall and curvy, everything she was not.
The fact played with her insecurities in the worst way.
Was Edita right, then? Were men incapable of seeing past her lack of womanly curves?
“What of it? He can do whatever he wants, kiss whomever he wants. I care not.”
“How am I supposed to believe that, when only yesterday the two of you were—”