Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“That was quite the kiss, eh, Harvey?” MC remarked.
Harvey rolled his eyes at MC…but he couldn’t deny, it had been some kiss. Dom’s lips were soft, her curves flush to his body, her exuberance palpable—and since it happened two days ago, he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
About her. About how incredible it felt. About how new but familiar. About how it lingered long after she’d pulled away.
He’d kissed plenty of women in his time on Earth, but he’d never kissed one like Dominique.
Crossing his feet at the ankles, Harvey grunted as he looked out onto the vast property surrounding Nina’s castle.
He’d agreed to stay here until Dom had things under control.
He’d agreed to help in any way he could.
But it was growing harder by the day to be in such close quarters with this beautiful woman he found so intriguing.
“She was just excited about finally catching you without ending up face toward the sky. It was a heat-of-the-moment thing that likely meant nothing. It happens.”
MC barked a laugh. “Oh, young Harvey. Surely you don’t believe that? You haven’t stopped thinking about it since.”
Brushing his fingers together, he called for his fox, Dude, who’d been exploring the hedge maze, and continued to avoid the subject of the kiss he’d shared with Dom.
“C’mon out, buddy,” he purred when he saw Dude’s eyes glowing in the dark a few yards away from the patio, where he and MC sat.
Dude came running, a blast of auburn and caramel fur, making his usual mewling sounds before hopping up onto Harvey’s lap to curl against his chest.
He stroked his fox’s spine, smiling at the pleasure it brought both of them. When the ladies found out he owned a fox, there’d been no stopping them from insisting he bring Dude to the castle.
Naturally, Dude fell in love with Nina, the other ladies, and Dom, too. Thus, he’d settled in quite nicely, as the women, Arch and Tottington spoiled him rotten. He even tolerated Fletcher—Harvey’s biggest concern about bringing Dude here.
His sly little fox wasn’t much of a hunter, one of the many reasons he’d taken him from a friend. He’d never survive in the wild, but he could play rough if provoked.
“Harvey, you’re ignoring me,” MC complained. He sat on a patio chair across from him, gleaming in the firepit’s light.
His chest tightened for the hundredth time since that kiss.
“And I’m going to keep right on ignoring you.
Dom has a sole focus right now, and that’s keeping the world safe.
Who knows how much longer we have before someone else shows up and makes a threat, veiled or otherwise.
It seems the universe is fully aware she’s now your proud owner.
She doesn’t have time for anything else. ”
“Your father had time for romance, Harvey, and he’s the God of Thunder, for Odin’s sake.”
Harvey snorted, the cool air making condensation explode from his mouth. “He sure did, buddy. He had lots and lots of time, for lots and lots of romance.”
His father’s philandering was a sore subject with him.
But that wasn’t the only reason he’d avoided him.
They hadn’t spoken in decades due to the pressure he put on Harvey to wield MC.
The disappointment on his father’s face when he’d realized Harvey couldn’t lift his hammer was real.
He didn’t directly call him weak, but he didn’t not call him weak, either.
He understood why his father wouldn’t want MC in his half-brothers’ hands. They were as irresponsible as teenagers, but it made the fact that he wasn’t capable of the power sting that much more.
Harvey was sure leaving MC with him, making him the hammer’s babysitter, had been a passive-aggressive poke at his shortcomings.
But now, because of his father’s little sabbatical from Midgard, he’d carelessly dumped his responsibilities onto an unsuspecting subject who was wholly unprepared for the duties MC required.
Now, more than ever before, Harvey wished he could pick up MC, if only to keep Dominique from harm.
“Oh, Harvey. You’re nothing like your father, and you know this.
The idea that you would chase skirts the way he has is ludicrous.
You’ve been around a very long time and have had but two serious relationships.
Your fear keeps you from finding the one who will complete your life so that you might grow a family. ”
“Wholly by design, buddy. You know that. I will not repeat my father’s mistakes. When the right one comes along, I’ll know, and she’ll have all my devotion. Until then, I won’t toy with a woman’s emotions the way my father has.”
Admittedly, he was still quite angry over the treatment of his mother. He wouldn’t do that to another woman. Though, now his mother was happily remarried to a good man who had erased all the woe Harvey’s father had once wrought.
“Until who comes along?” Dom asked, tapping him on the shoulder with a warm smile that made his chest grow tight again.
“Arch says dinner is almost ready, and he’s been slow-roasting turkey legs all day in your honor.
They smell like Gordon Ramsay and Bobby Flay met, mated and made little turkey babies. I don’t think you want to miss it.”
These people had gone out of their way to make him feel at home. Much of that surrounded the food Arch and Tottington prepared, and for some reason, they thought it entailed him gnawing on a turkey leg while he pounded the table with his fists.
But he understood they were catering to their vision of a Viking, and he found it endearing. And if he was honest, who didn’t like a slow-roasted turkey leg?
Chuckling, Harvey sat up straight, patting his stomach. “If they keep feeding us like this, I’m going to need a diet. Man, those two can cook.”
She reached down and stroked Dude’s head before he jumped into her arms and cuddled against her chest. A move Harvey envied. “They can.” Then she studied him. “Am I interrupting man-hammer time?”
“Not at all,” MC offered. “I was just on my way inside. The night’s gone brisk, has it not? I’m a bit chilled. Thus, I shall see you at dinner.” Then he disappeared, leaving behind the silence between them.
Taking the chair opposite Harvey, Dom settled in, with Dude curled into her neck. “How did you end up with a fox for a pet?” she asked, letting her cheek rest against the top of his head with a smile. “He’s such a sweetheart.”
Odin’s teeth, she was beautiful in the light from the firepit, her creamy olive skin glowing, her hair wild and falling down her back in waves of silky black, after the hot shower she’d declared she needed.
His voice went gravelly deep at the memory. “He was a gift from a Viking, long ago.”
She cocked her head, her almond-shaped blue eyes curious. “Long ago?”
“He belonged to a Viking who was married to a sorceress. She gave Dude eternal life—so I’d never be alone.”
Dom blinked, making him laugh. “Forgive me, but I’m still getting used to the idea of immortality. Was she worried you’d be alone?”
“Every woman in my life is worried I’ll be alone. All my single friends are worried I’ll end up alone,” he muttered, taking a sip of the mulled wine Tottington had poured earlier.
Snuggling into Dude, Dom sighed. “You know, I’ve never asked, I’ve been so focused on my relationship with MC, but what do you do for a living when you’re immortal, Thor’s weird offspring?”
Harvey leaned forward with a laugh at the nickname Nina had given him, if only to get a whiff of the scent she was wearing. Subtle and fruity with a hint of musk, it made his mouth water and his fingers tingle to touch her.
“I build boats. Emergency medical boats for third-world countries. For here, too, but a lot of my work goes to aid war-torn areas.”
“Wow,” she whispered, her eyes capturing his. “That’s incredible. What made you choose a career like that?”
It had been a multitude of things, mostly that he was acutely attuned to working with his hands and creating things.
“Service. I saw a need when I was volunteering in Sri Lanka and Nepal. I’ve always been handy.
I love working with wood. That’s how it started, anyway.
Then, as the years went by, I branched out with newer and newer technology, until I started my own company about ten years ago called, Bátar. Which is the word boat in Norse.”
“You volunteered in Sri Lanka?” she asked softly. “Who has the pure heart here?”
He smiled at her. “I don’t know how altruistic it was. I mostly did it to escape Asgard and my parents, and to see the world beyond where I grew up.”
She nodded, her shiny dark curls spilling down over her shoulders past her breasts. “Most people who want to escape their parents go to college and spend their nights at toga parties. They don’t volunteer to build boats.”
“Huts. It was actually huts and irrigation lines. Lots of digging,” he said with a wink. “But it taught me to appreciate how fortunate I was to live in a place like Asgard, and I learned a lot about connecting with people, working as a team.”
Dom twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, her face thoughtful. “So you decided to take those skills, ditch Asgard, and live here with the rest of us?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t ditch Asgard, per se. Asgard is rich in many things, but there are places here in Midgard that aren’t so lucky. And because my father insisted we make ourselves useful, and I didn’t agree with his idea of what was useful, we made a compromise…and here I am.”
She snuck a peek at him over Dude’s head. “By useful, you mean you didn’t want to take on the responsibility of MC, so you’re making it up in other ways?” She asked the question so cautiously, he almost laughed out loud.