A Viking's Peace: Futuristic Science Fiction Romance (Vikings in Space Book 1) (11 page)

A connection that would hopefully grow even stronger once they announced she was with child. Reinn was still in the city, talking to a security team. They’d told his parents that morning. Ashleigh had escaped with Navena after breakfast, and they were now at the farm. It had been a mild winter, and already things were greening up nicely around them.
 

She had a weaving lesson later, but for now, they could stay cuddled up in front of the fire. She picked up her cup of
lacveena
tea and breathed in deeply.

“Oh, that reminds me, I brought you some Earth ginger. It’s freeze-dried, and needs to be quarantined and scanned, but they should release it to you in a few days.”

“How did you know I’d need it?” Ashleigh rolled her eyes. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

Ever since the wedding, which had been quiet and private, the Earth media had been announcing a pregnancy every week. Now that it was really true, they’d probably lose their minds. Luckily her husband had more sway over his father than either of them had ever thought, and with a single request, a serious arms-length media ban had been put in place around Ashleigh. At least on Midgard.

And that was part of the reason for her giving up her commission. The other lay just outside her large picture window.

“You really love it out here, don’t you?” Her friend cuddled closer and Ashleigh looped her arm around Navena’s shoulders.
 

“I do. You’ll have to visit whenever you get a chance.”

“Is your mother coming for the birth?”

Ashleigh winced. “I haven’t told her yet. I will. Tonight. Reinn will be here for dinner and we’ll set up a data link. I’ll send it as a recorded message, though, I don’t want to hear her opinion on how I’m throwing away my career.”

“It’s nature’s way that children rebel against their parents. Go their own path.” Navena winked. “I should know, I’m the middle of five kids, and I don’t think I’ll ever procreate. You can have the babies for me.”

Ashleigh rubbed her still flat tummy. “Okay. Because I think I’m already addicted to them.”

“Ew, honey. But okay, whatever floats your boat.”

— —
 

Reinn took the train north so he could read. He needed a bit of space and processing time after everything that had been discussed. He was seriously disturbed by the thought of his wife and children being spied on by invisible satellites. So much for their farm being a private sanctuary.

He didn’t want to be vibrating with rage when he got home, so he poured himself into a report on sustainable hydroponics.

It didn’t work.

When he got off the train, Aldric was waiting with his horse. His second must have checked in with someone in the city.

“
Tak
,” he muttered his thanks.

“
Velkomst
.” Aldric raised his eyebrows. “One would think you’d be happier to see your beautiful wife.”

“Keep your eyes to yourself.” Reinn surprised them both with the growl. He didn’t share his wife, but he’d always been proud of the appreciative looks she got from friends and admirers.

Now he wanted everyone to leave them alone.

“Of course.” Aldic waited until they were underway before trying again. “Feel like beating the shit out of me with a sword later?”

Reinn let out an honest-to-goodness belly laugh. Yes, that sounded perfect. “Consider the challenge accepted.”

Aldric stared straight ahead for a minute, his face as placid as that of his horse. “You know I was kidding about the part where you win, right?”

“We’ll see about that.”

It was an easy twenty minute ride to the farm. When they arrived, Aldric took both horses to the barn without being asked. He was a good second, even if he needed to keep his eyes to himself.

He found Ashleigh in the kitchen, and she barely had a chance to put down the knife she’d been chopping vegetables with before he swept her into his arms. “I’ve missed you,” he said after kissing her more than a few times.

Navena laughed from a stool at the table a few feet away. He nodded gruffly in her direction.

“It’s been nine hours, my Viking. We regularly don’t see each other for a few days in a row.” Ashleigh patted his cheek. “What’s gotten into you?”

“That’s changing soon, right?”

“Depends. Are you going to insist on shuttling me back and forth to the city as I get heavy with your child?”

“Yes.” Well, it was honest, if not smart. “No?”

She shook her head. “I love you, Reinn. How’d the security meeting go?”

“Ah, you know.”

“Yes, I do. I realize I’m now a trophy wife and a diplomatic pawn, but until a few months ago I was a liaison officer of some merit. So…how’d the meeting go?”

He grimaced. “There’s debate over creating a no-fly space over our farm.”

She laughed. “For real? Oh my. That doesn’t sound like a great use of resources.”

“I don’t care about that.”

“I do. And of course you do. All this nonsense will die down. And if they get a few images of me and the baby, so be it. Maybe we can cut that off by inviting reporters here on our terms. And raise some funds for flying hospitals while we’re at it.”

On the far side of the room, Aldric opened the side door. His normally passive face got a curious look on it when he spied Navena at the table. He nodded at Ashleigh, then wandered in and looked around awkwardly.

“Hey there, Viking man,” Navena said easily.

Ashleigh bit back a smile. “Aldric, would you stay for dinner?”

“Uhhh…” His second glanced at the other guest, then at the floor. “Maybe.”

Reinn wasn’t sure if he was helping, but he waded in anyway. “Aldric and I were going to spar a bit, should we wait until after dinner?”

Navena’s eyes lit up. “Swords? Can I play?”

Aldric turned pink. “Errr.”

Ashleigh grinned. “Go on. Don’t hurt him,” she added, pointing her finger at Navena.
 

Aldric shot him a panicked
I can’t spar with an Earth woman
look, but Reinn wanted a few minutes alone with his wife. He shrugged and watched as the other man haplessly followed Navena outside.

“Do you want to chop?” Ashleigh asked him innocently as soon as the door banged behind them.

He shook his head.

“Slice the meat?”

He grinned and pulled her close. “Nope.”

“Set the table—Oooh!”

“I’m never going to tire of picking you up and tossing you on the nearest flat surface, woman.”

She wiggled on the countertop and splayed her legs, inviting him to nestle in closer to her body. “That’s how it should be, my Viking.”

THE END

Want more sexy second chance romances?

If you liked Midgard, try my SEALs Undone series. Different planet, different
 
century, same sexy men getting stripped out of their uniforms by determined women. Turn the page for an excerpt.

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MORE FROM ZOE YORK

Zoe York lives in London, Ontario with her young family. She is the NYT and USA Today bestelling author of Fall Out, published in the SEALs of Summer military romance superbundle, and the acclaimed Wardham and Pine Harbour series. She’s currently chugging Americanos, wiping sticky fingers, and dreaming of heroes in and out of uniform.

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Other Books by Zoe York

THE WARDHAM SERIES

Between Then and Now

What Once Was Perfect

Where Their Hearts Collide

When They Weren’t Looking

Beyond Love and Hate

Perfect No Matter What

No Time Like Forever

PINE HARBOUR

Love in a Small Town

Love in a Snow Storm

SEALS UNDONE

Fall Out
- a KINDLE UNLIMITED book!

Fall Hard
(in the SEALs of Winter boxed set)

Enjoy the following excerpt from
Fall Out:

Annie blinked back unexpected tears and shook off the melancholy memories. No time to get lost in what might have been. Some asshole was messing with her brother’s memory, and that couldn’t stand. She straightened her shirt and joined Drew in the living room, just in time to see him tuck a handgun into a concealed holster at his hip.
 

“Is that really necessary?”

He turned and smirked as she reached for the jewelry she’d left on the counter the night before. “I could ask you the same about that stuff.”

“My
stuff
can’t kill someone.” She kept her tone playful, because she had no doubt that his was the safest concealed carry around, but did people really just
do
that?

Had Kevin? Due to their age difference and his career choice, she hadn’t known her brother as well as she’d have liked. There was supposed to have been time for that later as well.

Of course, that meant she didn’t really know Drew, either. How much of her opinion of him was colored by her memories of a brash older brother who played hard and resisted taming?
 

As if he could read her mind, he patted the gun. “I don’t wear it all the time. I just...”

Yeah. There was something about having a stranger show up on your doorstep worried about boogeymen that brought out the paranoia. “No worries.”

“Besides,” he muttered as he pulled on a sweater over his snug black t-shirt. “Your stuff is pointy. I’m surprised Kevin didn’t teach you a thing or two about using whatever’s on hand.”

She laughed. “He did.” She took a sobering deep breath. “I was just thinking about that, actually.”

He opened the door and gestured for her to move into the hall. As they made their way to the elevator, Drew regarded her with quiet curiosity, but he refrained from asking just which Kevin memory she’d gotten lost in. She was just about to offer something to keep the conversation going when he made a gruff noise in his throat and changed the subject. “We can take my car. I park underground.”

She bobbed her head in agreement, and before too long they were buckled into a sports car that seemed way too small for his oversized frame. But he drove it with ease, his long, lean fingers dancing around on the gear shift, his right knee bopping against the center console panel whenever he wasn’t accelerating. She found herself following the long curve of his arm up to his shoulders, round with working muscles, and then down the front of his body. She wondered idly if he looked larger than life when naked as well, and as that thought twirled around in her head, she turned and looked out the window, afraid the pink of embarrassment would give her away. What was wrong with her? From panic to pervert in less than five minutes.
 

Her friends would protest that looking was just fine, but it really wasn’t when it was your dead brother’s best friend who was trying to help you figure out why you’d been creep-stalked. Besides, looking at Drew probably got women in trouble. Women like Dana. God, he might be the world’s nicest friend, but Drew Castle had shown the night before that he could be a first-class dog when it came to women, and no good would come of imagining him in his underwear.

Or out of it.
 

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Zoe York

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