Chapter Fourteen
Sven
Sven watched Bryn’s face as they pulled up in front of the Bread and Biscuit. He couldn’t quite read the expression that she tried to hide but didn’t quite succeed.
“You’ve been here before?”
She nodded, her lips tight together. “Not exactly the best experience.” She told him about the cold shoulders that she had received.
“I promise that you won’t get that reaction this time.”
“You’re assuming that I want to give them a second chance.” Her tone was so droll that he almost laughed. Only his mother’s slap to his leg maintained his composure.
“Dear, I’m sure that they just misunderstood your intentions,” Freya offered. “You arrived at a very difficult time for Stagholt, with Sven being injured and all.”
“I know,” Bryn conceded. “They had no idea who I was.”
As expected, he was greeted with smiles and well wishes as soon as they walked in the door.
He kept his hand possessively on Bryn’s shoulder.
He had feared that she would appear standoffish and uncomfortable, but she fell into character in an instant.
She almost melted into his side and when she took his hand, she squeezed it like she was reassuring him and not the other way around.
Freya disappeared into the kitchen to visit with the owners who were apparently old friends.
Sven led Bryn to a table in the corner, away from the windows and where they were protected by the walls.
Sven knew that Lars was around with some of the other guards, but every detail in their favor helped.
He sipped his coffee after the steady stream of visitors to their table slowed. He watched Bryn close her eyes and moan in satisfaction as she bit into a pastry.
I wonder if that’s what she looks like when she’s making love.
The thought popped out of nowhere and he had to shift to adjust his pants as his body leapt to attention. Almost as if she could read his thoughts, Bryn suddenly met his eyes. Her tongue darted out and she licked her lips.
Sven’s breath froze in his chest. A new wave of desire pulsed through him.
“What exactly are we doing?” she asked.
“We’re having a very public breakfast at the hottest gossip spot in Stagholt,” he informed her in a low voice. “By this afternoon, word will have spread all over town that we were seen together.”
She rolled her eyes. “Great. Now I can be the hussy that is after the king.”
“But you’re my hussy,” he teased.
Freya appeared from the kitchen and stood with her hands on Bryn’s shoulders. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m staying here to help bake for the festival tonight. Since we sprung it on them at the last minute, they need as much help baking as they can get.”
Sven watched panic leap into Bryn’s eyes. “Festival? Tonight? I thought we had at least a couple days.”
“We do,” Freya and Sven answered at the same time. Sven reached over and took her hand.
“This isn’t that ritual. Tonight is simply a festival to create a way to introduce you to the town.”
Freya nodded. “Basically tonight is just an excuse to have a big party.” She gave Bryn a final squeeze. “It’s been so long since I’ve been in the kitchen. This is going to be so much fun. Just tell Lars to send a car to pick me up later. I’ll let him know when.” She hurried off.
Sven shook his head. “The difference in that woman is amazing. It wasn’t that long ago that she never came out of her room.”
“She seems happy now,” Bryn mused.
“It’s all because of you, I do believe.”
“Me?”
He shrugged. “Don’t ask me how or why, but you put the spark back into her. My grandmother, too.”
“Should I go help them bake?”
“No. I think we need to go off alone and get to know each other a bit before tonight.” The idea excited him more than he wanted to admit.
“Is that safe?”
“We’ll be fine. I promise you, Lars has us covered whether we see him or not. After what happened at the airport, there won’t be a repeat incident.”
“Where are we going so that we’ll be alone?”
He could see that she was nervous,although he couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He frowned slightly. “I don’t exactly know yet.”
Bryn took another bite of her pastry. “What about the train?”
“The train?”
“The one that goes through the mountains. We could get our own car, and Lars or whoever could be in the adjacent one in case we need them.” She sipped her coffee. “It’s noisy enough that they won’t be able to eavesdrop.”
The idea was brilliant. Sven pulled out his cell phone and sent a text. “Perfect. Lars can go over and secure the train, and that gives us a couple hours alone.” His pulse picked up just thinking about it.
Bryn hid behind her coffee mug so he couldn’t read her expression. When his phone dinged, he glanced at it before holding out his hand.
“Lars is efficient as always. The train will be vacant except for us.” He texted back to make sure Lars understood they wanted privacy. “The train doesn’t stop, so it would be difficult for anyone to interfere with us.”
Bryn sat across from him as the train pulled out of the station. Sven tried to figure out what she was thinking, but she stared out the window and avoided his gaze.
“Tell me about your sister.”
Her attention snapped to him. “Randi? What do you want to know about her?”
“Anything. Everything. The more we know about each other, the more natural we’ll appear in the public’s eye.”
For a moment, he didn’t think she was going to answer him. Finally, she sucked in a breath and met his eyes.
“Randi is my younger sister. She was always the favorite, at least it felt that way. I don’t know if it’s because she looks more like my mom than I do, or if it’s just because she’s the baby. Where I was always closer to my father, Randi was the princess with the tiara to my mother.”
“That must have been hard for you.”
Bryn shifted in her seat. “Not as much as you think. Our mother wasn’t much of one, to be honest. Her career was more important than anything, and she dragged my dad along.
I was more the mother-figure to Randi, but then Mom would swoop in with all the expensive gifts from their business trips and Randi would think she hung the moon.
Since I was more of a disciplinarian than our parents were, I was always the bad guy. ”
“Are you and Randi close?”
“Not exactly.” Bryn was quiet for a moment. “Yes and no. We had our battles, and most times I didn’t think that she cared about me at all, but then when I needed my sister, she was there for me.”
“You needed her?” A look of pain crossed Bryn’s face. Sven frowned at the sight. “I’m sorry. Is that too personal?”
She stiffened her shoulders. “You’ll probably find out anyhow, especially if your people are like the ones where I’m from. They can sniff out drama like bloodhounds.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
Bryn rubbed her ring finger. “I was engaged once, about a year ago.” Her words were cold and monotone. “As we got close to the wedding, Randi caught my fiance with the woman who I thought was my best friend.” She gave an icy smile. “You know the old cliche. The one right under your nose.”
Sven was careful not to allow his relief to show that she hadn’t gotten married. “Cliche or not, that is horrible.”
“I got through it.”
He got the sense that there was no reason to pursue any more details. “And that’s why you came to Stagholt?”
“I had always planned to visit here so once Randi was out of the house, it was time. But it is the reason I’m not in a hurry to go home. The scandal is still too fresh, especially since my ex has recently married, and too many feel sorry for me. I hate that.”
He moved over and sat next to her. The mountains flew by outside, but the only view he wanted to enjoy was her.
“Sometimes the worst things in life that close doors just open new ones.”
She surprised him when she burst out laughing. “Talk about cliches. You’re not wrong, but it’s funny hearing it.”
Without being able to resist, Sven reached up and cupped her face. “I hate that he hurt you but to end on another cliche, one man’s loss is about man’s treasure.”
“I’m pretty sure you mean one man’s trash.”
“I could never consider you trash.”
Bryn suddenly leaned up and kissed him. Her soft lips were warm against his own, and he tried to return the kiss with restraint. But when she let out a throaty groan, his body leapt to action and he wrapped her in his arms.
The kiss became an exploration. His tongue parted her lips and danced with her own.
Her hands snaked around his neck and she pulled him tighter.
He lifted her and sat her on his lap. His hand brushed past her breast and he grasped it through her sweater.
His thumb stroked her nipple until it was hard beneath the knit.
She groaned again and the kiss grew deeper and more demanding.
To hell with the ritual. I need her right now.
His thought process flew out of his head as fast as the train moved, and he laid her back on the seat.
His hand reached under her sweater and he felt her velvety skin as he cupped her bare breast under her bra.
He broke the kiss with the intention of moving his mouth to suckle her nipple, but he stilled.
It was against the rules to mate before the ritual.
She wiggled impatiently and tried to pull his mouth back to her own. With will power he didn’t know existed, he sat back and pulled her upright.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?” Her lips begged to be kissed, her face rosy and flushed.
“The ritual. We have to be pure for the ritual.”
She pulled her sweater down. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
He leaned over and kissed her hard and fast. “You did nothing wrong. I just needed to stop before I wasn’t capable of stopping.”
She stood and walked toward the far side of the car. “If that’s anything like the night we go all the way, it’s going to be pretty hot.”
“You have no idea.”
To distract himself, Sven started pointing out landmarks and giving her stories about various places they passed. He stood close to her and couldn’t help but notice how well their bodies fit together.
Our mating is going to be amazing.
The thought ran through his head more than once and he had to keep distracting himself.
“This is an area that I really want to explore.”
He looked from her to the landscape and froze. As if she had thrown a bucket of ice water down his pants, all the heat and passion disappeared.
“You must never come here.”
“The Frostfen Deep? Why not?”
He turned her to face him. “It is a place of immense evil. That’s why nothing grows there. There are hidden dangers that I couldn’t even begin to explain. It’s best to just stick with staying away from there. I can’t protect you if you get into trouble in the deep.”
He could see the curiosity in her eyes. “Please. Promise me that you’ll stay away.”
“Well, unless I can figure out how to make the train stop, I have no way of finding it anyhow. If you feel that strongly about it, I’ll avoid it.”
“Thank you, and I do feel that strongly. You are welcome to explore anywhere else within the Iskara territory. The nearby towns Onyxheim and Eldvik are just over the mountains. Each has their own individual appeal with their uniqueness.”
“Are you the king in those towns, too?”
“No,” he answered with a shake of his head. “They are their own provinces with their own king. They are good friends of mine though.”
“But all royal families.”
He nodded and pointed out a waterfall in the distance.
They spent the rest of the train ride exchanging details about each other.
Simple things like birthdays and favorite foods.
By the time they reached the station, Sven felt like he had learned quite a bit about Bryn.
It wasn’t lost on him that he really wanted to know about her, unlike his other chosen mates.
He had never learned much about them except their names.
He felt guilty that he hadn’t fully explained the ritual to her, especially the part about him being a dragon. He didn’t know how and he certainly didn’t know how she was going to react.
When they reached the castle, he walked Bryn to her room. “The party tonight is going to be one for the books. Even my grandmother is going.”
“Will she need help getting ready?”
“My mother will take care of her. This night is for you, so I just want you to focus on yourself.”
“I don’t have anything appropriate to wear.”
He pointed to her door. “Oh, I think you’ll find something waiting for you.”
He started to walk away. “I have to get ready myself. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”
A grin stretched across his face as he heard her open the door and almost shout.
“Oh. My. God.”