His Captive Bride (15 page)

“Hauk? Are you awake?”

He could pretend to be asleep, but he had known from the beginning that he would have to answer her questions about the island sooner or later. Revealing part of the truth—a small part—might satisfy her curiosity for now.

And keep her from asking questions he truly did not wish to answer.

“Asgard has certain natural healing qualities,” he said simply, remaining on his side with his back to her. “Injuries heal swiftly and illness is unknown among us.”

He could hear her sitting up. “But how is that possible? Is it some quality of the air? Or the water or the food? Or... or some unique herb or root found here and nowhere else?”

“We do not know.”

She uttered a scoffing sound. “I do not believe you. You know but you do not wish to tell me.”

“I am speaking the truth. Many among us have sought to answer the question you ask.” He paused for a moment, an image of his father bright and sharp in his mind. “But no one knows for certain. It may be a combination of several qualities found in nature here, native to Asgard. We do not know.”

She fell silent, as if weighing what he had said and trying to decide if he was telling the truth.

“It is a shame that it remains a mystery,” she said at last.

“Aye,” he agreed, with a bitterness he doubted she could fathom.

“But even if you do not know
how
this place offers such wondrous healing, why do you not share it with the world? Why take such care to keep your island secret? Imagine the good you could do. Imagine the people you could help—”

“Imagine how quickly Asgard would be overrun and destroyed,” he said flatly. “We
must
keep it secret. It is the only way to protect our home and those who live here.”

A soft note of understanding came into her voice. “And that is why you will not allow any of the captives to leave.”

“Aye.”

There was more to it than that, but he was not ready to reveal the rest. There was no telling what a woman as unpredictable as Avril might do—especially when she was still bent on escape.

“But why bring captives here at all?” she asked, sounding bewildered. “It seems a terrible risk to take, merely to...” She hesitated. “To
what
? What in the name of all the saints
do
you want with us?”

He rolled onto his back, sighing wearily and staring up at the cloud-darkened sky. It seemed he would get no more sleep tonight than he had the last two nights. “I told you before, I do not want you at—”

“Aye, I know. You do not want me at all. You acquired me purely by accident,” she said dryly. “But what about the others? Why would men risk so much simply to get a wife?”

“Some young hotheads find risk exciting. And they want what most men want. Companionship. A comely wench to warm their beds.” He slanted her a glance.

Avril reddened and lowered her lashes. “But why not marry one of the women who are already here?” she persisted. “Why not marry a... an
innfodt
woman?”

Hauk narrowed his eyes, wondering who had told her that word—and how much she had been told about the difference between
utlending
and
innfodt
women. That discussion was supposed to be left for a husband to have with his wife. When he decided the time was right.

“Some do,” he said slowly. “But others want...” He paused, assaulted by shards of memories, hopes and dreams shattered long ago. The unborn son he had lost. The family the gods had never granted him.

He shrugged, the sand rough against his bare back. There was no need to open that painful subject. Not yet. Not now. “Bringing
utlending
brides here is a tradition.”

“It seems a foolish tradition.”

“Aye, I have said the same. Many times. But young ears are too often deaf to reason.”

If she understood that he included her in that comment, she gave no sign.

Still looking down, she drew a fingertip through the sand. “Then if you agree that it is a foolish tradition, and if I vowed by my child’s life that I would keep your secret—”

“I still would not be able to set you free. By Thor’s hammer, Avril, save your breath and cease asking.” He let his head fall back, flung an arm over his eyes, wished he could shut her out. “And I would be a fool to trust your word of honor, since you have already lied to me once. Your friend told me the truth about your husband. About the fact that you are a widow.”

“You cannot blame me for lying about that.” Avril’s voice sharpened. “Josette should not have... she did not mean to...” She whispered an oath. “She mistakenly thought she was helping me.”

The breeze caught the flames of the dying cookfire, making them snap and hiss.

“I could bring her here to live with you.”

“Josette?” Avril asked in confusion.

Hauk let his arm drop to the sand, realizing he had just voiced an idea that had been forming in his mind the past two days.

“Your daughter,” he said quietly. “It might be possible for me to bring your daughter here to live with you.”

For an instant Avril seemed incapable of speech. “
What?
”

He pushed himself up and met her gaze beyond the dancing fire. “Despite your belief that we Norsemen are uncivilized and barbaric, I would not see a child made an orphan.”

She gaped at him, blinking, as if the moon had just fallen through the clouds and landed beside her. “You would go and get Giselle?” she whispered. Her face brightened. “Aye, it is an excellent idea. I will go with you. I will take you there myself—”

“Nay, milady, you will not,” he said with a frown, not taken in for a second by that suggestion. She meant to escape the instant she set foot on her home soil. “You will remain here. I would go alone.”

She lowered her gaze. “But you will not find her without my help. And Gaston and Celine would not simply hand her over to a stranger. Her uncle will never allow you to take her—”

“The uncle who is a
duc
, who lives in the Artois region?” He had thought the child might be in Brittany or somewhere else.

Somewhere closer.

“Aye, Duc Gaston de Varennes.” Her head came up, her eyes widening. “Hauk, he is not a man to be trifled with. You cannot even
think
of going there without me. He would
kill
anyone who tried to take Giselle—”

“The Artois is too far.” Hauk shook his head, not sure what bothered him more: the fact that he had actually considered the idea, or that he felt genuine regret because it would not work. “It is impossible.”

Avril was silent a moment.

Her voice sounded unsteady when she spoke again. “And I would not see my daughter made a captive along with me,” she admitted. “Her life and her freedom mean more to me than my own. It is out of the question.” She closed her eyes, her lashes dark against her pale cheeks. “But you are... kind to be concerned about her well-being.” Slowly she looked up, her eyes searching his face. “You are not uncivilized and barbaric, Hauk. That is not what I think of you. You are... much different from what I thought a Viking warrior would be like. I did not expect kindness of you. Or thoughtfulness or gentleness.”

Hauk could not summon a reply, the warmth in her expression playing havoc with his heartbeat. He did not
want
to be thoughtful or gentle or kind. Did not want this spirited, emerald-eyed lady to rouse such tenderness within him, make him remember what it was like to feel concern. And protectiveness.

And caring.

Not only for her, but for a child he had never even met.

“I am not so virtuous,” he said roughly, half in denial, half in warning. “I merely want you to accept your new life here.”

Shaking her head, Avril rose. “That I can never do.” She walked around the fire, toward the water, and stood facing the waves.

The silence stretched out for a long moment before she said, “I thought you told me that no one kept boats on Asgard.”

“Aye, that is what I told you.” He watched the wind play through her long hair and swirl her cloak and shift around her slender body.

“So you lied to me,” she said with soft accusation, looking over her shoulder at him. “And if it is possible for you to leave—”

“I am the only one who leaves,” he said firmly, “and I leave only rarely.” He had ventured out more often in his youth, but it had become too painful to glimpse the outside world—with all its variety and excitement and constant change—only to be forced to return here. To remain here.

Where even the perfect weather varied little from day to day, season to season, year to year.

Avril turned to face him. “Then what did you mean when you said ‘the Artois is too far’?”

“No one can leave the island for more than six days at a time. It is—”
Impossible.
“—the law.”

She arched one brow in surprise. “If that is so, then Antwerp must be no more than six days from here. Nay...” A hint of satisfaction came into her voice as she looked out over the ocean. “Three.”

Hauk cursed, annoyed that he had just heedlessly revealed information she might use to try to escape.

He thrust himself to his feet and stalked over to her. “Avril, do
not
think what you are thinking. You cannot escape Asgard.”

She lifted her chin and stared up at him, defiance in her eyes. “So you have said.”

“By Hel, woman, do not act like a reckless little fool.” He took her arm, his fingers digging into the soft fabric of her cloak. “If you are drowned or crushed against the rocks, your child
will
be an orphan!”

“Do you care so much?” Her eyes were suddenly bright with tears. “Do I matter to you so much?”

Her tears burned him. Her question froze him.

“I am trying to make you listen to logic,” he insisted hoarsely. “Logic and reason.”

She struggled to wrench free of his grasp. “Reason does not matter to me. Your laws do not matter to me! You do not...”

She seemed unable to finish that sentence, looked startled and dismayed that she could not. Her voice dissolved in a thready whisper. “Y-you do not...”

The pain in her eyes made his heart strike a hard blow against his ribs. His hand came up to brush her tears away, as if his will were no longer in command of his movements.

And then all logic and reason vanished.

She leaned toward him, even as she uttered a wordless sound of denial. His hands tangled in her hair. And all at once their mouths came together in a deep kiss, a heated joining that held no restraint, no gentleness, only hunger and longing.

The first taste of her set Hauk ablaze with need. Need that should have stopped him. Should have made him release her.

But her lips were impossibly sweet beneath his, as full and lush as he had imagined from the moment he met her.
As he had dreamed
. He slid one arm around her back. Her hands closed on his bare shoulders, but she did not try to push him away.

Instead she melted into his embrace, the low sound in her throat filled with need that matched his. She held onto him as if the world had shifted beneath her feet.

He crushed her closer, sensations flooding through him, all of his senses flaring to life. She smelled of woodsmoke from the fire and the lingering scent of some spicy perfume. Tasted of feminine sweetness and a salty trace of the sea from the meal they had shared. Her cloak had fallen open and he could feel every inch of her body, so lithe and soft against his. Her breasts flattened against the muscles of his chest. Her nipples hardened to pearls beneath the thin fabric of her shift, the fragile garment all that separated his bare skin from hers.

A groan wrenched from deep in his chest. But even as he angled his head, urging her lips to part, his mind struggled for sanity. For control. He should not... he had not intended to...

Her lips parted, letting him inside her—and he was lost.

He thrust his tongue against hers, plundering the satin of her mouth. She returned his passion in full measure, moaning, her tongue meeting every stroke, her hold on him so fierce that her nails marked his skin. Her response sent a blade of heat lancing through him. Her sensual fire was just as unpredictable and bold as everything else about her—and he had never experienced anything so intoxicating in all the years of his life.

The restless sounds she made, the feel of her in his arms, the silky taste of her sent him plummeting into a sultry abyss. He wanted more. Now. Her breath, her body, her nearness.
Her
.
Avril.

His wife.

Slowly he sank to his knees in the sand, drawing her down with him, his fingers seeking and finding the clasp that held her cloak in place. He unfastened it. The garment slid from her shoulders, landed softly on the sand behind her. She shivered in his arms but did not stop kissing him.

He shifted his hold on her, cupped one breast, his palm kneading, his fingers possessive. She lifted her mouth from his with a sharp gasp of uncertainty.

“
Avril.
” He trailed kisses along her jaw, down the pale column of her neck. “I want you,” he said roughly. “
I want you
. And you want me.” His voice had become a deep, husky entreaty. “Let me show you how it could be between us.” He nuzzled the sensitive hollow of her throat... lower. “Let me show you.”

He wrapped one arm around her, urging her to lean back as his other hand cupped her breast, lifting the delicate softness to his mouth. He kissed her through the thin fabric that scarcely veiled her curves—a light touch of his lips across the taut peak, a teasing flick of his thumb that made her breath catch. Then he parted his lips and drew her all the way in, sudden and deep, and all hesitation in her voice vanished in a groan of pleasure.

He echoed the sound as he suckled her, the fullness so ripe and luscious in his mouth. His pulse thundered through his veins. The hard length of his arousal pressed against the restriction of his leggings.
By all the gods, how he needed to be inside her.

He shifted his attention to her other breast, this time scarcely circling the nipple with his tongue, trailing his fingertips down the graceful curve of her spine at the same time. Her back arched, her fingers digging into his shoulders. “
Hauk
—”