The Scarred Viking's Bride (On Temp. Hold)

Twenty

GUYS WE'VE MADE IT TO CHAPTER TWENTY OMG OMG OMG I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!!! OKAY, MY FREAK OUT SESSION IS OVER, LET'S CARRY ON...ENJOY! (Word of caution... it gets little hot in the end😉)

Aderick

"Marry me, Britta."

As soon as the words left my tongue, I felt exposed and vulnerable, laid bare before the woman that I had fallen in love with. The blonde curly haired woman that shook up everything I knew - my beliefs, my relationships, and more. But I could not imagine my life without her.

I watched as her jaw dropped, those gorgeous and captivating hazel eyes widening at my sudden words. My upper lip curled as I gazed at her shocked expression. I believed for the first time since I brought Britta back to my manor I shocked her speechless. She always had something to say back to me, either a retort or verbal jab.

I could not help but feel smug as I had silenced my beloved. She was tongue-tied.

And yet, the unwanted dark swirls of uncertainty in my gut made my head bead with little drops of sweat as she remained quiet. My rough callused palm reached up to stroke away the little lines crinkling her forehead. My harsh blood-stained skin should not be allowed to touch the ungodly softness of Britta's flesh, yet the connection developing between us made physical touch damn near a necessity.

Or mayhap that was only me.

But it was not as if she refused or pulled away from my touch, I thought with a twitch of my lips.

Her face remained almost impassive, her eyes unreadable, and I began worrying that she was not breathing. Why was she not answering? The smug smirk fell as my confidence dwindled.

"Say something," I pleaded, the silence becoming too long for my nerves.

My thumbs caressed her cheekbones, moving slowly up and down the ridge of her cheeks where freckles lightly sprinkled like flecks of snow on her ivory skin. I could see the beginnings of a low pink blush rising to her face and the slight heaving of her chest, the only indications that she was processing what I asked.

Was it too soon? I inwardly cursed, berating myself for thinking this was the perfect moment to finally start over for all of us. For the two of us to properly get married - not under the circumstances Britta believed when she first arrived. A captor ensuring his captive to be his bride as soon as we arrived back home.

Everything unraveled too quickly until we reached that night - the night where she nearly killed herself. It made my chest ache as I remembered that night. That I made her do that - pushed her to the point where she believed ending her life was the best option. I was scared out of my mind when she did that, even more so when she left. Then to see her in that vermin's arms, that vile drittsekk holding onto her like a lover made my blood boil and see red with rage and bloodlust.

I had thought I had given her enough time to adjust to my life but through all the events that have occurred since she arrived - the man in the woods and all the nightmares - 'twas if the gods were testing us.

To truly see if we were fated to be together - though fated or not - I would be by her side anyway. This woman called to me; called to the bloodthirsty beast within as well as the man who wished to be loved unconditionally. She was too precious to me to let someone else have her.

She was mine; to love, trust, and cherish by my side.

If I had to be the rock beneath her to hold her up in these precarious times then so be it. I would do anything for her.