Chapter 17

Erik

I tracedpatterns across Skadi"s back, which made her hum with delight. Her feet waved in the air, covered in fluffy socks and looking just as adorable as the first time.

"It looks like you got a goddess into bed a second time," she joked, a satisfied note in her voice.

I chuckled. "Does it count if it"s the same goddess?"

"That"s even more impressive than getting two to fall for your charms. Haven"t you heard about how difficult we are to please?"

"I"m finding pleasing you to be rather easy."

She blushed at the words and twisted around so she was facing me, a beautiful distraction with her mussed blonde hair and lean body that still had all the right curves.

"Though I have to say that I don"t think I"ve ever had anyone ask me to leave my socks on in bed," I said. "If anything, they"ve all told me to take them off because it"s not a sexy look."

She wrinkled her nose in an adorable way. "Feet aren"t sexy."

"I"m not complaining, I don"t think our socks slowed us down either time." And it was something she was adamant about, which made it worth it.

She laughed. "You"re not going to ask me why?"

"I figured you just don"t like feet. Plenty of people don"t, it"s not really a big deal, is it?"

Skadi bit her lip, making me realise that there was probably more to the story. I didn"t push her. She"d tell me if she wanted to. "It"s how I met my ex-husband."

I raised an eyebrow. "You"re going to have to enlighten me on that one."

"So you really don"t know your Norse mythology?"

"I know the basics."

"I"m surprised you didn"t look me up when you realised who I was."

"There was no internet," I reminded her. "And when there was, it made it feel like an invasion of privacy."

"I suppose that makes sense." She shifted so she was sitting up in bed. "But I"ll tell you the story if you want to hear it."

"Only if you want to tell it."

"You"re infuriating," she half-teased, then took a deep breath. "Years ago, my father was killed. I"d never felt anger like it, and I did something really reckless."

"Which was?"

"Putting on a full suit of armour and heading to Asgard to tell off the gods."

I snorted. "I"m guessing considering you"re still alive, they didn"t laugh you out of there?"

"No, that was the day I became immortal. They let me list my demands, and then they declared that I should take a husband from amongst them."

"Were you interested in that?"

"Not really. But they were the gods and I was still a young, and reckless j?tunn. They asked, so I agreed. And then they decreed that I had to choose my husband by looking at their feet."

I winced. "But you don"t like feet."

"I don"t like feet now, " she corrected. Back then I was reasonably indifferent about feet, but there was a pair that seemed more beautiful than the rest, so I thought I knew who they belonged to."

"But they didn"t?" I guessed.

"No, they belonged to Nj?rer."

"The sea god ex-husband?"

"That"s the one. He wasn"t what I expected, but he is a good man. We talk when we see each other."

"What happened to make it so that it didn"t work out?"

"I couldn"t live by the sea. I hated the noise, the salt, and the gulls. He hated the mountains. He hated the cold, the trees, and the wolves. We were fundamentally incompatible." A hurt expression crossed her face and my heart squeezed tightly in response.

It all made sense, including the way she"d been so certain about not wanting to leave the mountain for anyone. If she"d done it once and been unhappy, then why would she do it again?

"I"m sorry," I said softly.

She gave me a sad smile. "It"s fine. I"ve had a long time to get used to it. But between then and now, I kind of started feeling like feet lied."

"Hence the socks."

"Yes." She wiggled her toes within them. "Maybe it"ll go away in time."

"Maybe it won"t, I don"t see why it matters if you keep your socks on, or even if you want me to keep mine one."

"You"re sweet, did you know that?" She brushed her hand against my cheek, an adoring expression on her face.

Which was surreal to say the least. A powerful goddess was looking at me like that.

"You said you had other conditions for the gods?"

"Oh, well one of them is that they made my father"s eyes into stars. The other was that they had to make me laugh."

"Did they?"

"Yes. I"ll point out the stars next time we"re outside. And for the laughter...Loki tied one end of a string to a nanny goat, and the other end of the string to his testicles and then the two of them got into a tugging match."

I snorted. "That does sound funny."

"It was," she admitted. "It was childish to find it funny, but I"d probably still laugh now."

I chuckled. "I think most people would, especially if it was done voluntarily."

"It was, I never specified how they had to make me laugh," she said. "So, that"s me. I guess. After I left Nj?rer, I came back to the mountain and this is where I"ve been ever since."

"No other grand romances?"

She shook her head. "Don"t get me wrong, I haven"t been celibate, but I"ve also not wanted to risk my heart." She looked up, her eyes wide and full of what looked like hope and vulnerability.

"And now?"

"Some things are worth the risk of being hurt," she whispered.

"I don"t want to hurt you."

"I know."

I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers, kissing her tenderly and hoping she was able to sense all the promises I wanted to make to her, but it was too early to make. Because I knew I hadn"t come back to the mountain for something that wasn"t serious.

She was it for me. She was the thing I"d been singing about for years, and would sing about for years to come too. I just knew it with every fibre of my being.