Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

I spent a considerable amount of time picking out the perfect dress. My options were limited because I couldn’t pack much in the little time I had. I ended up settling on a dark navy dress with dainty white flowers. It was simple and pretty, and I felt even more beautiful when I twisted my hair into the perfect plait.

After how embarrassingly inebriated I was last night and pathetically hungover this morning, I wanted to step out in front of everyone, looking like I had everything under control.

I immediately regretted it when I stepped out on the top deck, and Caspian and Laurence started laughing at me. They were on cleaning duty but paused to make fun of me.

“What are you two laughing at?” I narrowed my eyes at them, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Why are you dressed like you’re about to go for a walk through a field of flowers?” Laurence chuckled, pointedly looking at the flowers patterned on my dress. It wasn’t my favourite dress of all time, but it was pretty, and I liked how it fit me.

“Why is that so specific?” I countered, taking great joy in the way his face flushed.

“Laurence clearly likes going on romantic walks through flower fields,” Caspian snickered, teasing Laurence and then turned to me. “I’m assuming this is your favourite dress?”

“It’s not my favourite, but I like it well enough.”

“Well, I doubt you’ll feel the same about it for long. Not with how much it rained earlier.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, and when they both pointed to my feet, I glanced down to see that the bottom of my dress was already wet with the murky water Caspian and Laurence were mopping up. “I’m going to change,” I groaned and retreated down the stairs.

Caspian and Laurence nodded at me when I returned to the top deck, no longer dressed in one of my finest dresses. Instead, I chose one that was a little faded in colour and half an inch shorter than all my other ones. The dress was still pretty–this one pale yellow with white ruffles around the sleeves and neckline–but it had seen better days.

I found Viktor at the front of the ship, his hands on the wheel and his foot on the button.

The corner of his lips twitched with the hint of a smile. “How are you feeling this morning, my siren?”

“Better.” I returned his smile, albeit mine was a little embarrassed. “Thank you for looking after me earlier.”

“That’s what good husbands do,” he chuckled and moved over, taking one hand off the wheel. “Come here.”

“What are you doing, pirate?” I asked with wide eyes. “Isn’t it dangerous to take your hands off the wheel?”

“For too long? Yes,” He nodded and laughed. “You better hurry up and put your hands on the wheel before it’s too late. I’m going to teach you how to steer.”

“I’ve never steered a ship before,” I protested but moved to stand in front of him.

“I’ll teach you.”

He guided my hands on the wheel, making me grab two spokes on opposite sides. “Like this?”

“Perfect,” he made a low noise of satisfaction and rested his chin on my shoulder from behind, wrapping his arms around my waist. “I’ll keep my foot on the pedal, so you only have to focus on steering the wheel.”

“I think that’s best,” I chuckled nervously. “So, what do I do?”

“Just hold it,” he told me. “Try and sail straight, but it’s not a big deal if you stray a little off course. Most of the time, all you have to do is hold it and make sure it doesn’t spin too far out.”

“Hold it, and steer straight. Got it,” I murmured and nodded, my eyes trained on the vast sea ahead.

“I’ll make a good sea woman out of you yet.” He squeezed my hip. “Do you feel like Garth’s hangover cure worked?”

“I think so, but I think I was hallucinating at one point.”

“Hallucinating?”

“I woke up to use the bathroom. Someone was in there, so I went down the hallway to use the other bathroom. But when I glanced over my shoulder, I spotted the door open, and someone ran out. I tried to call after them, but they didn’t answer and kept running.”

I felt him frown. “It could have been one of the crew,” he mused aloud but didn’t sound convinced.

“Probably.”

“But it is strange.”

“Why would they run away from me?”

“I don’t know,” he murmured, a confused expression on his face. “I guess we’ll just have to ask the crew at dinner or something. Though I doubt anyone would own up to it as it’s rather strange.”

“Probably not,” I murmured and remembered something. “I know I’m your wife, Viktor, but I don’t want you to give me special treatment. We’ve been away from home for two days, and I haven’t been assigned any chores.”

“You don’t have to do chores, my siren. You just being here is enough.”

“It isn’t for me,” I frowned. “At the very least, I should pull my weight around here.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I’m more than happy to do whatever needs to be done. Here, on the ship, I don’t just want to be your wife, Viktor. I want to be part of the crew.”

“We’ll find something for you tomorrow,” Viktor promised me with a kiss on my shoulder. “We’ll start small and see where we go from there.”

“Thank you,” I smiled at him before returning my attention to the water ahead, making sure I hadn’t steered off course with all the distractions. I doubted getting us all lost would land me in good standing with the crew. “How many more islands until we’re smooth sailing to Greenland?”

“Four more,” Viktor told me, tightening his arms around me. “That shouldn’t take us longer than four days—actually, we have five more stops left. After the fourth island, we’ll be smooth sailing to another island where we get most of our fur. We’ll probably spend the night there to rest, then leave for Greenland. After that, we’ll be heading to Treasure Island.”

“It sounds like we’ve overestimated quite a bit for this mission.”

“You underestimate how long it’ll take to get to Greenland,” Viktor chuckled. “After Treasure Island, we’ll probably stop again at Greenland to rest for a few days. Being non-stop on the boat for three or four weeks will be immensely tiring for all of us.”

I remained at the wheel until Gustav called us over for dinner. Then, Garth took over, multitasking, steering, and eating.

Dinner consisted of fried fish, roasted nuts and a slice of the bread from this morning for everyone. It wasn’t the most extravagant meal, but it was pretty good, considering we were in the middle of the ocean.

“How about we address the elephant on the ship?” Laurence grinned, making a show of glancing around everyone in the circle before his eyes settled on me.

My cheeks flushed. “Please don’t,” I groaned and buried my face in my hands in shame.

“It would be impossible not to, considering how wasted you were yesterday,” Dagfinn laughed. “The last time I was that wasted, Sophia and I conceived our youngest child. And the time before, we conceived our middle child.”

“We didn’t need to know that,” Caspian groaned and pulled a disgusted face.

“If we can talk about Astrid being drunk, then why don’t you want to hear about me being just as drunk?” Dagfinn complained.

“Maybe it’s because Astrid wasn’t talking about the conception of her children.” Roscoe pulled a face, looking just as disgusted as Caspian, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“No one encourage Dagfinn,” Viktor chuckled. “I don’t want to know about the conception of all his children. I already know too much as it is.”

“Speaking of being drunk,” I began in a desperate attempt to take the attention away from the topic of conception. “There’s something I wanted to ask you all about. I woke up to use the bathroom earlier, but someone was already in it. Naturally, I walked down the hallway to use the other one, but when I looked over my shoulder, I saw someone running away from the other bathroom. I called after them, but they didn’t answer. I was wondering who that was.”

“It sounds like they had an explosive time in the toilet and were too embarrassed to own up to it,” Caspian laughed, and I pulled a face again. Perhaps over dinner wasn’t the best time to discuss this topic.

“Can we please stop talking about explosive toilet times?” Gustav groaned and put down his half-eaten slice of bread, seemingly put off his food.

“I’m with Gustav on this one,” Hammond piped up, but he had already licked his plate clean and was staring at Latham’s plate next to his.

“Did you see what direction they ran in?” Garth asked, his lips curling down.

I frowned. “I don’t remember.”

“You must have still been drunk,” Odin joked, and everyone laughed. Me included.

“That’s very possible,” I chuckled.

I know Odin teasing me was insignificant within itself, but it felt significant to me. It felt like they were starting to accept me, and not just because I was the Captain’s wife. There was a real sense of family and belonging among these men, and I was grateful that Viktor had these people in his life. And now, me, too.

Jerrik and Manny were the only ones who didn’t talk much to me, but I knew they were more reserved than the others.

Either way, I enjoyed the company more than the food at dinner, but that had more to do with my apprehension about fish than Gustav’s cooking. However, I had a feeling that would soon change with all this water around us. Fish was pretty much the only thing we had access to. It was either fish or starve.

I helped Gustav clean up after dinner, and Roscoe and Manny, the two juniors on the ship, did the washing up. Latham switched with Garth, and we all enjoyed some ale. After last night’s and this morning’s events, I opted out and instead moved over to the rail to stare at the water.

The water was beautiful during the day, but it was extra special in the darkness of the night.

The water almost glistened under the moonlight.

When I felt a pair of eyes bore into my back, I didn’t need to look back to see who it was. My husband watched me all evening, but I couldn’t complain. The feel of his eyes on me made me feel warm and protected. Safe and loved.

He always told me that he loved me, and while I believed him, there was something ultra special when he looked at me like that. I didn’t think he even realised how he looked at me, so unashamedly uncaring of who was looking, whether it was a stranger on one of the islands we stopped at or one of the crew.

If I had turned down his offer of marriage for Crosby’s, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life. It was evident that no one would love me the way Viktor did, and as of recently, I had grown to appreciate that so much more.

And now, I couldn’t help but start to return his feelings. It was impossible not to when he looked at me the way he did and treated me like I was the most precious thing in the world.

It was both gross and endearing that he had held my hair back while I threw up the entire contents of my stomach this morning despite my pleas for him to leave. I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing that for me–anyone else ever caring about me in that way–other than my family.

“Do you want to head to bed, my siren?” Viktor asked as he came to stand next to me at the rail, holding his hand out for me to take.

I accepted it without a second thought and squeezed his hand, allowing him to lead me downstairs to our bedroom.

I loved the feeling of our fingers laced together. There wasn’t anywhere I wouldn’t follow this man if he held my hand like this.

“I’ve been thinking about something all day,” I murmured as he closed the door behind us.

“What’s that?” Viktor hummed in question and reached for the bottom of his tunic, getting undressed for bed.

Unable to look away from his chiselled chest, made all that more prominent when he flexed with his arms above his head, I swallowed. Hard .

How was I lucky enough to marry such a fine specimen of pure testosterone?

“What have you been thinking about all day, my siren?” Viktor laughed at my stunned expression, leaning in to steal a quick kiss before he continued stripping.

“Oh, right,” I murmured breathlessly. My fingers shook as I reached behind and began on the buttons along the back of my dress. “I want to make our marriage real.”

Viktor was down to only his briefs now, and his fingers halted at the waistband as he held my eyes. “Our marriage is real.”

I slipped the dress off my shoulders and allowed it to pool at my feet, leaving me in only my thin slip. “We haven’t consummated it yet,” I whispered.

His eyes darkened with need and desire. “What are you saying, my siren?”

“I want to have sex with you tonight.” My voice was laced with raw need as I stared at him, both of us in equal states of undress. “I want to have sex with my husband.”

“What?” Viktor whispered, looking like he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

“You heard me.” I sent him a sultry, pointed look and slipped off the slip, leaving me as naked as the day I was born. “I want to have sex with you, Viktor. I want to feel you inside of me.”

My husband gulped, physically struggling. The prominent bulge growing in his underwear told me he was far more than ready, and that only made me want him so much more.

“You’re not ready,” he protested weakly.

“But I am,” I insisted, the sound coming out a breathy moan.

“Astrid,” Viktor groaned and shook his head, forcing his eyes away from me. “I don’t want to rush you into anything you’re not ready for.”

“You’re not rushing me into anything,” I denied. “I want this, Viktor. I want you.”

His voice was coarse. “I don’t want you to regret this in the morning.”

“I could never regret you.” I closed the distance between us and rose on my tiptoes to whisper against his lips, “I love you, Viktor.”