Chapter 11 #3
At the time Torsten had wondered how Moon could prefer a woman he’d grown up with to a more exciting stranger, but now he thought he understood.
There was something wonderfully soothing in knowing someone so well you didn’t have to explain yourself or hide your worst traits.
They knew and accepted you the way you were.
Aife certainly did. The two of them had shared so many wonderful moments…
And now, of course, they would have the memory of their night in the Roman ruins to go back to.
By the gods, but it had been unlike anything he could have imagined.
Never in his wildest dreams would he have believed that his childhood friend would be the one to introduce him to the delights a man and a woman could experience together.
And there were so many more to be discovered…
Would he want to explore them with someone else?
Would he be able to? Or was Aife the only woman capable of coaxing a response from his body?
Silence replaced the laughter, and the air suddenly became thick with sensual tension.
Torsten could have sworn Aife was thinking of what they had done in the ruins as well.
His cock, already stirred by her laugh, was now fully erect, and threatening to poke a hole in his braies.
Damnation, his tunic was barely long enough to cover it.
Was Aife aware of the state he was in? He hoped not.
He didn’t dare move for fear of drawing attention to the lower part of his body and making her uncomfortable.
For now, she was looking straight into his face and something like lightning was flashing in the blue irises.
“Let’s go get the cockles, shall we?”
That word… He would never hear it again without thinking of her and what she’d unwittingly told him earlier.
I woke up this morning in the mood for cock.
Though she hadn’t meant it like that, the shocking words had been uttered, and he would never forget them.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Let’s go get these cockles.”
Before he tumbled her to the ground and begged her to let him prove that he had really overcome his fear of lovemaking.
Aife handed him one of the two leather pouches and gave him her rake, saying that he could use it, since he was new to it.
It would be easier that way. She would use a stick for once.
“And tomorrow, when the cockles have had time to purge themselves, you can come to my house and we’ll eat them together. ”
“With pleasure.”
He could watch her eat something she enjoyed all day, be it cockles, or…
well, other things that sounded similar.
Damn it all. He had to stop thinking such things, or his erection would never go down.
For someone who had doubted his virility for so long, it was disconcerting to see his body respond so readily.
But with this woman, he seemed to be in a constant state of arousal.
He didn’t know whether to be relieved or horrified.
After giving him one last smile, Aife took her pouch and headed toward the rocks to the left of the beach in search of a piece of driftwood with which to dig up the cockles.
Alone at last, and able to focus on something other than the way his body behaved, Torsten crouched down.
He had never been cockles-picking before, and in truth, he was more at home in the forest. What should he look for?
He should have asked Aife before she left, but he’d been too distracted.
He watched her, some distance away, bent over, raking the wet sand with a two-pronged stick, her hips swaying with the movement. His groin stirred again and he focused his attention back to the task at hand.
In vain. When she joined him a long moment later, he’d only found five shells, while her pouch was already half full.
“You are made for this. I’m impressed,” he said, straightening his back.
By the gods, not only was this hard, but it was back-breaking work as well. How did Aife manage it so easily? She was a wisp of a girl.
“I find that greed is the best motivation, don’t you?” she answered, laughing. “Worry not, I won’t let you starve. You can have some of mine tomorrow.”
Aife’s laughter died in her throat because Torsten was looking at her strangely, much like Sven had earlier that day, as if he saw something different in her.
Or rather, as if he’d only just noticed something that had always been there, something he’d been waiting—hoping—to find.
Somehow the difference seemed important.
Sven had thought her glowing because she had changed, in his opinion.
Torsten found her fascinating because he was seeing her for who she truly was.
“What is it?” she breathed.
“I love your laugh,” he told her, his voice hoarse.
“I… Thank you.”
It was not what she had expected him to say, an unusual compliment, but lovely.
Anyone could have told her she was beautiful—well, potentially they could, because in reality, no one had.
But very few people would have chosen to praise her laugh instead.
And she found that she rather liked that.
It sounded more sincere, not something chosen to please her.
To hide her turmoil, she bent down and started to run a hand over the tiny rocks at her feet, wet and mingled with coarse sand, finding the rustling sound soothing.
“I used to bring a piece of rock home every time I went to the beach with my father when I was small,” she told Torsten, who’d knelt down next to her, his head only inches away from hers.
“I always took ages to find one, which annoyed him, and ended up selecting one of the smallest ones I could find.”
“If that’s the case, why didn’t you just bring grains of sand? It would have saved your poor father a lot of frustration.”
“I suppose I could have.” She laughed again, and made the mistake of looking at him at the same time.
There was a look on his face she would have described as pure lust had she thought herself capable of provoking that emotion in men.
But she wasn’t, was she? Besides, she hadn’t done anything other than laugh and agree with him.
“Fuck, Aife, but I do love your laugh.”
Why did it sound as if he’d just told her the most scandalous thing she’d ever heard?
The place between her thighs, the place he’d helped her stroke the other night, rippled.
By the gods! Had she been a man, her shaft would be hard as rock.
But she was a woman, and her insides had gone soft as butter.
“All right, I’ll take this one,” she said, picking up a pebble at random.
With her mind still reeling from their proximity and his unusual compliments, she could not focus.
But she did want a memory of this day, this moment with Torsten.
The stone itself was of no import, all that mattered was that every time she looked at it, she would be reminded that, for a heady moment, he had looked as if he wanted her.
And for a heady moment, she’d wanted him.
All of him.
It was then that she realized. Thorfinn, Haakon, Sven even, they had been little more than infatuations.
If truth be told, she had never imagined things would work out between them.
She had simply been desperate to find someone and they had happened to be there.
Her relationship with Torsten, by contrast, had been real, based on mutual liking, not physical attraction, and strong enough to survive the deception she had inflicted on him.
She had been dazzled by the other men’s appearances but she had fallen in love with Torsten because of who he was.
It had crept up on her while she was busy looking at his brother.
In love.
Yes, she had to be in love with Torsten, it was the only explanation for how she felt. She felt stupid, like someone who had been handed a real gem and had not seen it because she’d been too busy sifting through common rocks to notice.
“What do you think of this one?” she asked him, her throat dry. “Should I take it home?”
He let out a scoff, not in the least impressed by the piece of rock she was holding out, with reason. It was misshapen and of an uninspiring gray color.
“That one is a monstrosity and you know it. It’s not even that small, so it will look ridiculous in the middle of your collection. I’m sure we can do better than that.”
He let his fingers sift through the rocks between them a moment.
Aife watched him, fascinated. He really did have the most nimble fingers, long and assured.
Another ripple warmed her core when she remembered just how nimble they could be when they touched a woman, when he touched her.
Was that all she would be able to think of when she watched him from now on?
Probably. She did not see how she could not.
All too soon, he ceased his search and placed a small pebble on her open palm. “How about this one?”
It only took Aife one look to understand that this would be the rock she brought back home and cherished forever.
It was perfectly round, polished to a smooth finish and almost translucent.
The color, of a deep, honeyed amber, reminded her of Torsten’s amazing eyes.
The misshapen monstrosity was instantly dropped to the ground and forgotten.
“Yes. You’re right. This one is perfect,” she said, lifting it in air to admire the way the sun pierced through it, revealing the myriad of hues hidden within.
Just then a seagull squawked and swooped right above her.
Surprised by the jarring noise and the unexpected move, Aife ducked—and dropped the little rock at her feet.
“Oh no!”
She’d meant to keep it as a souvenir, and now it was lost amidst thousands of almost identical rocks she’d trampled in her surprise. Not daring to move or use her hands in case she unwittingly buried it any further, she searched frantically with her eyes. Torsten helped, but they could not find it.
“Let’s go get more cockles,” she said, standing back up after a while. No need to cry over what would never be.
Just like the beautiful pebble, Torsten would have to remain a memory treasured in her heart.