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“Hoas your day, beautiful?” he asked, his normally intense features slack

“Don’t talk to me,” she demanded

“Don’t be that way,” he slurred and hiccupped loudly “I’reat job in your duties” He wrapped an ared her closer “Tell me allllll about it”

“If you don’t get your hands off ret it”

“Ah, how’s that for da the fun Have some mead”

He pressed the cup to her lips and lifted it, spilling the honey wine down her chin and the front of her dress She shoved him, and he toppled over backwards, off the bench and onto the floor His cup ofacross the floor He

“I take it you don’t want any mead,” he said between chuckles

She stood up from the table and flounced towards Eirick’s quarters

Everyone in the roo, rather at her expense or Reece’s she couldn’t be sure

“You better get that woman under control, Eirick,” one of the warriors called “She’ll have you wearing a dress before you know it”

“I’ve tried, Sven, there ain’t no taht before Lara slammed the door

A fewon the bed, tugging a cos combed their hair often Few of theh These combs were more like a torture device

Reece sat down next to her on the bed and gave her a pitiful puppy dog look “Are you mad at me?”

“You’re drunk,” she told him unnecessarily

“That I am Are you mad at me?”

“Yes”

“I’m sorry”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Because you’re mad at me”

She breathed a frustrated sigh “Typical male response”

“Givepity on her and her tangled curls

“No thanks Go drink some more with your buddies”

“But I want to be with you, Lara That’s why I came in here”

“It doesn’t seem that way,” she said

“I love you”

Her heart skipped a beat Mouth puckered, he closed his eyes and leaned closer And closer And then fell over onto the bed with a loud snore

“How very rohed heavily and moved to remove his boots

He grumbled a thank you when she rolled him into a more comfortable position on the bed and covered hi meal in the main hall Instead, she blew out the candles and crawled into bed beside Reece He spooned up against her immediately She lay there tense for a moment and When his only movement was to nuzzle her hair, she took his arm and wrapped it around her waist She stared into the darkness for quite a while, thinking about her reaction to hi, she decided She had been mad because he hadn’t seemed to miss her half as much as she’d missed him

She breathed a frustrated sigh “Typical female response,” she murmured to herself just before she drifted off to sleep

Chapter 7

The next , Reece awoke to the uncoence He covered his eyes with his forearainst his side His heart thudded as her small hand rubbed across his belly and then curled to clutch the fabric of his shirt

“Reece,” she whispered

Was she calling his nan He grinned and covered her hand with his He had to be careful not to pressure her He had learned the hard way not to tell an independent-ive her the iain her cooperation It had to be her idea for the her Just when they’d forged their future together, she had been taken fro no memory of him because as far as she knew, they’d never evenin love would never exist for her But he’d get to live it twice Reece srimaced as some invisible blacksmith used his head to pound horseshoes flat

He and Lara probably had one ain He never knew exactly when Carl would show up Somewhere between 60 and 84 hours after arrival Reece needed to stay close to Lara today in preparation He was pretty sure they had to be touching to leap together and there was no way he was leaving her here with an uncouth Viking

A loud rattle at the hich was made of a semi-transparent, stretched aniray and foreboding outside The wind blew against thein abandon A storht And it was a perfect excuse to waste the day in bed with Lara at his side

She stirred, stretching languorously

“Good , beautiful,” he murmured

She started, glanced around nervously and then lifted her head to look at hiht this was all a bad dream”