Chapter 12

Erik

Soft singing camefrom the kitchen, and I was reasonably sure I recognised the song. It was an interesting choice for Skadi to have chosen but I had to assume she had a reason for it.

I headed down the stairs, a smile spreading over my face as I thought back over the night before and the reason I was up here and not waking up in the guest room. I hadn"t intended to end up in a goddess" bed, but it had been impossible to resist.

"Morning," Skadi said brightly as she noticed me coming.

"Morning," I responded, hovering and not really knowing how to greet her. Was I supposed to kiss her? I wanted to, but I didn"t want to make her uncomfortable either. I cleared my throat. "So you don"t believe in romance, but you do listen to love songs?" I asked instead.

She raised an eyebrow. "This is Erik Nilsen, he"s the exception." She grabbed a cup of coffee from under the machine and handed it to me.

"Is that so?"

"Yes. I love his music. I"m glad the internet is back so I can finally listen to my playlist."

I blinked a few times, hardly believing what was happening. I hadn"t exactly told Skadi who I was, but I hadn"t hidden it either. Which I guessed was exactly what she"d done herself, I just hadn"t considered the same would happen the other way around.

"And he"s collaborating with Mimi soon, that"s going to be amazing. Both of them are such great artists on their own," she continued with no clue that I was thinking so hard about the situation.

"I think I need to tell you something," I said.

She stopped in her tracks, her happy expression slipping away and being replaced with confusion. "Okay..."

I took a deep breath. I didn"t think I"d ever had to do this before. Normally people recognised me. But I guessed this wasn"t on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. "I am Erik Nilson."

"No."

I nodded. "I"m afraid so."

"But..." She let out a laugh and covered her mouth with her hand. "You"re serious, aren"t you?"

I chuckled. "I"m afraid I am. I didn"t realise you didn"t know. Or it more likely didn"t come up."

"I don"t know whether to be shocked, annoyed, or amazed."

I stepped closer to her. "And now you know how I felt when I realised you were a goddess."

Amusement danced in her eyes. "Is that so?"

"Mmhm. Though after last night, I don"t think there"d be any denying it."

A pretty blush spread over her cheeks, but she didn"t divert her gaze. "I had a good time."

"As did I. And I don"t see any reason why we can"t continue where we left off." I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers.

She responded immediately, melting into my arms and wrapping her own around my neck. Despite the fact we"d only known one another for a few days, but there was something about her that felt right to me.

I was almost glad that I was snowed in here, at least it was with her.

She broke the kiss. "As much as I"d love to spend all day with you in bed, the snow has cleared enough that we can take my snowmobile down the mountain."

"We can?"

She pulled away from me and I immediately felt a sense of loss. Skadi turned to the counter and started making some breakfast. "Your car won"t be able to make it down there yet, but at least you"ll be able to check in on your grandfather."

I nodded. "Thank you." As much as I wanted to tell her that I could wait until my car was free, I knew I needed to check on my grandfather, and that he wouldn"t be trusted to tell the truth about his situation over the phone. He"d just tell me that I should stay and have fun.

"The internet is back too, I"m sure you"re going to have some messages. The information is on the back of the router." She gestured with the knife she was holding.

I nodded. "I"m probably going to have at least a dozen messages from my manager. It"s been nice to have a couple of days without having to deal with any of that."

"I can kind of imagine." She placed some of the bread in the toaster, the smell making me realise how hungry I was.

I headed to the guest room to grab my phone, but didn"t linger there any longer than I needed to, it wasn"t worth losing any more time with Skadi. It really had been freeing not to have to check it constantly, but I knew I was going to pay for it now. It only took a few minutes for the messages to start pouring in. I set it down on the kitchen island and glared at it.

"If people want you, you"re going to have to look at it," Skadi said, placing a delicious-looking selection of open-faced sandwiches in front of me.

"You"re not dealing with your messages," I pointed out.

"That"s because I only had one, and I already dealt with it." She pulled up a stool next to me and leaned over to pick up one of the pieces of bread smothered in roe spread and biting into it.

"What was it?" I was somewhat curious to find out what a goddess was needed for.

"It was Lofn checking in from the cabin. She"s got several of the event guests still there, but everyone"s fine. Or so she says. Once I come back after taking you to your grandfather, I plan on heading up there to make sure everything is as good as she says. If the roads aren"t clear enough to travel tomorrow, we"ll organise a helicopter to come get them."

"Do you think it"ll come to that?"

She shrugged. "It has before. But I think it"ll probably be fine." She finished her sandwich and examined the plate so she could decide which to have next.

I took the opportunity to check my phone, finding a message from Donel with a lot of excited exclamation marks and not much else. At least it seemed as if his evening at the Jinx party had been a success.

What wasn"t so good was the barrage of emails from my manager about the meeting I had with Mimi"s people about our collaboration in a couple of days.

I let out a frustrated sigh.

"Nothing good?" Skadi asked.

"Work," I responded. "Namely the collaboration you"re so excited about."

"With Mimi?"

I nodded.

"I can"t wait to hear it." There was something odd in her voice that I hadn"t heard before, but I didn"t know enough to prompt her on it.

"I should be able to send you an early copy, so long as you don"t leak it to the press."

"I wouldn"t dream of it," she promised. "But I guess that means we need to get you down the mountain quickly."

"Unfortunately, yes." I wanted to tell her I"d stay. That I wanted to be here for a lot longer than a couple of days.

But I knew I couldn"t.

I met her gaze, seeing some of the same things I was feeling written in them.

But neither of us said a word, too afraid of what might be hidden behind what we weren"t saying.