Fated to the Viking Lord

"Huh," was all I could muster as a response.

After we waited in silence for a few moments, simply enjoying the proximity of being next to one another, I caught Huginn looking at me again, and moving his head towards Kristófer. I don't want to say that he was encouraging me to talk to him. Because that would be crazy, right?

Three days in Scandinavia and a raven named after a Norse god's pet is telling me to confide in a thousand-year-old man that I happen to have started sleeping with? Either the Bouchard case drove me completely insane, I was hallucinating, or I was about to pour my heart out to a man who was alive when the Turks took Constantinople.

As the youth say, fuck my life.

"So, Kristófer..." I began tentatively.

He moved one of his arms behind me, and pulled me protectively into his body, like he knew that I was about to admit something to him. The reaction was different from any I had ever received from Luke. Usually, he would just peer at me until I fixed whatever my problem was. Unconditional support was a new one for me.

"Yes, beautiful?"

"So, um, I had a dream last night. In it, I think that Nils - your, uh, old lord - had the ring and was still alive. Well, I mean, he's not dead. He uh, told me that he wanted to deny you that which you desired most. And Kristófer, I recognized where he was. I think I know why you've never found him."

Kristófer stared up at the sky without answering me, like he almost couldn't believe what I was telling him. He glanced at the raven a few times as well, before breaking out in a smirk that was equal parts sadness and joy.

"Lucille, do you know what I desire more than anything? What Nils is keeping from me as long as he holds the ring I was the first one to touch?"

"No," I responded. "However, I'd love to learn about what you want in life," I said to him.

Truthfully, I did want to learn. I knew there was something developing between us, and I wanted to know the man with whom I was now sharing a bed.

"Children, Lucille. I want a family. As long as Nils holds the ring, its power will remain blunted and ineffective. We will both be immortal, yet neither of us will bear children. By denying me the ring, the dragon has its hoard - my hopes and dreams. It's what I have been looking for all these years."

My heart broke for him. Not just because I knew that he would be an excellent father, but because I wanted children too. I wanted them more than anything, and seeing my sister and her family immediately after Luke tossed me away made me realize how little time I had left to have a family.

I understood him now in a way that I did not a few moments ago. I leaned my head into his shoulder, and entwined my hands with his, cuddling him as we sat on top of the rock formation at the height of the escarpment. We sat in silence for a few moments while I let Kristófer digest the information that I had told him. If he ever thought about a message in a dream being crazy, he never mentioned it. Indeed, this seemed like a regular occurrence to him.

"Did he mention anything else to you, Lucille?" Kristófer asked me with a softness that encouraged me to open up to him.

"He told me that you were not a dragon slayer, and that he was hidden and would outlast you."

"That seems like something Nils would say. He loved the thrill of a raid. He loved warfare and fighting. He always knew that I hated it. He knows that I won't be able to kill him. I also know that he is hidden. Nils got the raw end of the deal being the second person to touch the ring. He can only travel to places that he has been before, which is why I have been searching everywhere that my people once roamed - Byzantium, Rome, France, Russia and as far as Persia. But I have never found him. He must be somewhere that he never told me he visited."

"When did you say you found the ring, Kristófer?" I asked him.

"To you, it would have been around 1102 - at least if my memory serves me right."

"Kristófer, I recognize the cliffs and the hills where he was standing. He was in Canada."

"Lucille, I guarantee you he is not in Canada."

"Kristófer, have you heard of Vinland?"

Kristófer's eyes shot open widely, and he looked at me like I had just informed him that his favourite biscuit is available in the kitchen.

"In Canada we call it Newfoundland, or Terre-Neuve, and I've been there. I know those cliffs. The Norsemen who came there called the land Vinland, and there is even a recreated settlement there. It's a pretty cool historic site, and it fits the timeline you're suggesting."

"Nils had cousins in Denmark, and Iceland. They may have asked him to go on a voyage there. It makes sense. And it's the first lead I have had on him in more than a century."

"Are you going to go after him?" I asked.

"I need to, Lucille. I have been alive a very long time. I need to know if I can ever fulfill my greatest desire. I want to start a family."

Honestly, I know I sounded absolutely crazy, but I wanted to make my intentions and desires clear too. This was absolute insanity. Every single instinct in my lawyer brain was telling me to NOT say what I was about to. But my body, and I guess my soul, were telling me that I had finally found the man with whom I was destined to be with.

"Kristófer, I want you to have a family too. I... think that I would like to help you find what you're seeking. With all that it entails."

Tabarnak. I just told a man who I had met less than a week ago I wanted to help him kill a long-lost Viking lord so that I could have his babies. High school me was not even this dumb.

I didn't even have time to consider how utterly silly I was being before his lips were pressed against my own. His kiss was slow, deliberate and passionate. This was not the kiss of a man acting on lust. I felt like I was being pulled into something greater than myself.

He was leaning up against a boulder, and with a little movement, we fell together with me on top of him. I felt the sense of urgency in our kiss, and I knew that there was something more to this than just the raw sexuality. I had just told him that I would have his children. You only did that to people you love, right?

Kristófer wrapped his arms around me, snaking them down my back to grab at my butt. I moaned wantonly into his mouth as our tongues explored each others mouth. He kneaded my bum with his hands and I felt along his chest. I wanted him. I wanted to make love to him. Here.

I ran one of my hands down towards his centre, and felt his hardening prick through his pants. He got the message, and began tugging on my pants. We never broke our kiss as we undressed one another in the cool autumn air. Despite the temperature, I do not think I had ever been warmer.

When Kristófer had his pants off, I broke the kiss and slid down so that I was level with his cock. It was thick, and sat level on a tangle of sandy blond pubic hair. I knew that this was right. I kissed the head, then gave it a tentative lick. It had been a year since I had done this, and it was a task that I had never, ever enjoyed. But I knew this would be different.

I heard Kristófer moan in appreciation as I licked the head of his penis. Encouraged by his moans, I took the head of his dick entirely into my mouth. His moan punctuated my action, until I felt both of his strong hands on my hips. He moved me overtop of him, so that I was facing his feet. His cock was still throbbing warmly in my mouth when I realized what he had done.

He had arranged me so that his face was right underneath my tangle of red pubic hair. I was sorely tempted to stop sucking his cock and apologize for the mess when his tongue probed my clitoris. Instead of speaking, I moaned in pleasure and resumed sucking him off.

Kristófer acted like a man possessed, as he made love to my pussy with his tongue. If he was at all bothered by my mess of public hair, he never mentioned it. He alternated between licking along the slit of my pussy and gently tickling my clitoris with his tongue. The effect was driving me quickly towards orgasm, and I wanted to crest on him. I wanted him to know what he did to me. I wanted to cum on his face and mark him as my man.

He gently slid a finger along my bum, and pressed gently against my anus without penetrating. That did it for me. I had never had anyone ever go down on me with enthusiasm. It was always something that "high value men" never did. Kristófer was different. He licked and sucked and when he touched my most sensitive part I went off like a firecracker. I moaned hoarsely as I came on him, and he never relented his ministrations on my clitoris, driving me further and further over the edge.

I sat up and closed my eyes, abandoning my blowjob to pleasure and letting him have his way with me as he guided me through the most intense orgasm of my life. When I opened my eyes again, I was on top of a mountain overlooking a lake in the most pristine wilderness I had ever seen. And my lover was beneath me.

I felt a second wind coming, and I immediately shuffled off Kristófer's face and turned around. I straddled him, lining up his throbbing cock with my wet passage, and impaled myself on him.

I looked at his face, and saw that he was coated in my essence. His cerulean blue eyes were shining in the reflected sunlight, and he looked at me with what could only be described as pure bliss. Fuck it, I was falling in love with this guy. And not just because he tongued me to orgasm... although that last part didn't hurt.

I bent down as I slowly rode him, and kissed him. He tasted like me. He kissed me back, and we resumed our hot and heavy make out; our tongues intertwining. He once again wrapped me up in his warm embrace, and began thrusting into me with his hips. Oh gods, those hips!

He was slow, methodical, and so forceful as he drilled his hips upwards into my waiting body. We both moaned into one another, and I felt the moisture accumulating along our face. It was at that point that I realized that I was crying onto him. It was a euphoric moment for me. I was making love to someone that cared for me as much as I cared for them. This was not transactive. This was someone just as emotionally vulnerable and open to me with their feelings and honesty as I was with them. And it was amazing.

Kristófer started to pant, and I knew that he was going to cum into me again. Only this time, I wanted him to know exactly what I was feeling.

"Cum in me Kristófer. Make me yours," I begged him encouragingly.

He pressed his forehead to mine, and let his piercing blue eyes bore into my own as he sped up his thrusting. We were both right on the precipice, and I knew that he was going to push us both over the edge into a shattering orgasm. I just didn't know how.

"Lucille, I think I love you," he grunted as he thrust into me deeply. He moaned as I felt his seed spill forth into my waiting body.

I came along with him. I came harder than I had ever cum before, and I let myself get carried away in my emotions. I cried onto him, and breathlessly panted in pleasure as he emptied himself into me. I pushed my lips against his, and we kissed deeply, pushing ourselves together in a last attempt to keep our connection going as we basked in the afterglow of our lovemaking.

"Kristófer, I think I love you too," I told him as I let his cock slide out of me. I put my head onto his shoulder, and rested in his embrace for a few moments. Until the chill started to nip at me.

Now, as romantic as we were, Finland in autumn is still damn cold. While we were both wearing sweaters and hats, we had both shed our pants so that we could fuck. The result is that we were cold.

We both giggled to one another as we tried to dress ourselves in the cold. I slid my panties back up my legs and realized that I didn't have a sanitary pad. His cum was going to leak out of me the whole way back. Shit, I hope I didn't stain Inga's pants!

When we were both dressed and had our boots back on, Kristófer extended his hand to me and without thinking I took it. He started to walk us back towards the inn with our hands intertwined. It was a special moment. It let me know that he meant what he said. He was falling for me. I was falling for him too.

As we walked back towards the inn at a slow and leisurely pace, we made plans to go back to Canada. Kristófer told me that he'd have Inga book everything, since he hated working on computers, and that he'd refund the portion of the trip that I didn't use. I laughed at that.

"Kristófer, this has been the most life-changing and best trip I've ever taken. I fully intend on getting my money's worth once we're in Canada. Why don't you just give me a massage whenever I want?" I asked him.

I was only partly joking. I wanted him to bake me chocolates again. I wanted him to massage me. What I didn't expect was his response.

"Well, if we're living together, I suppose I could massage you every night before bed. However, I'd require that you be naked."

Oh.

That I didn't see coming. Holy shit, we were moving fast. But it was a good fast. I think.

"I'd like that. Maybe you could start with a massage when we get back to the inn? That'll give Inga time to book us a trip back to Québec. But, uh, if you don't mind me asking, how specifically are we going to get the ring from Nils?" I asked him.

"I have no idea. But the ring is pewter, which means it melts fairly easy. I'd imagine that if we can get it near a source of heat that it'll destroy itself."

"And what will Nils do?" I asked.

"Probably try to kill me. He wants the ring for himself and I am in the way. But he cannot leave where he is, because there isn't anyone who could take him back to Europe via a place he's already been before. He's stuck there," Kristófer responded nonchalantly.

"Oh. So, what's our plan?"

"Well, maybe we can make him an offer," Kristófer replied with a lot less conviction than I was hoping for.

Suddenly the elation I was feeling from making love with my man was turning into a sinking feeling. Ugh.

Chapter VII: A Nordic Goodbye

Kristófer had prepared a smörgås for both myself and Inga while asking Inga to look into getting us tickets out of Helsinki to Québec. She looked at me with a smirk and a side-eye like she knew exactly what we had been up to. She probably did. She'd known Kristófer her whole life.

When we were done eating, Kristófer excused himself to go prepare for my last massage. Evidently, he expected Inga to work miracles and get us a flight out of here first thing tomorrow. Given the way that Inga responded to his questions, I had no doubt that she would.

When he was gone, Inga started talking to me. It was the first time I had really had a chance to talk to the older woman. I had not had a lot of girl time since I first met Luke. He did not mind me talking to my sisters, but spending more than a few days with them was absolutely not on his to do list.

"Well, you look like that cat that got the cream," she said to me with a sly wink once Kristófer was out of earshot.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"I guess I do," I responded.

"It suits you. I guess you found what you were looking for when you came here, if you're ready to leave two full days early!" Inga said.

I laughed again at her remark.

"Yeah, I found a lot more than I bargained for when I arrived here. However, it has been a blessing. I fell in love with myself again. I know what I want to do when I get back to Québec. The fact that Kristófer is going to be with me is just... I don't know Inga, is it too early to know if you love someone?"

The older woman turned a thin smile.

"You're in the Dragon's Hearth. It hoards desire. I don't pretend to know as much as Kristófer about this, but I guess what your heart truly desired is contained in him. It looks like you are the object of his desire too. I don't think it's too early to say that you love someone if you're destined to be together."

The thought that we were meant to be together warmed my heart immensely.

"What about you Inga? What will you do if Kristófer leaves Finland?"

"Honestly, he'll probably leave me the inn. I have a husband and two teenage daughters back in town. I live here throughout the week when we have guests, but for the most part, this place is just my job. I'll probably take it over and retire making this place run."

"That won't be a bad income. Do you think Kristófer will want to part with the inn? I asked her.

"Honestly, I think he's seen enough of this place to never want to see it again. Especially if you're going to be somewhere else. I think you two are bound together now. If I didn't know better, I'd say that you're his shield-maiden!"

Now that was a thought. I was nearly forty and had not been to a gym in close to a decade. The idea of me being a warrior was a little far-fetched. Yet that was exactly what I was going back to Canada to do. Merde, this was a weird scenario in which to find oneself.

"I would not worry too much about labels Lucille. Whatever you and Kristófer do, I am sure it will work out. Now, go and get that massage he's been promising you. Oh, and you might want to give me my pants back now. I don't want them getting any more stained than they already are. Besides, I don't think you'll need clothing for the type of massage that he has planned for you anyway."

Inga snickered to herself at her joke as I undressed before her. One thing was certain, I was now confident in who I was as a woman. I stripped and gave her back all the clothing that she had lent me. Then I took off my bra and panties, and threw them into the laundry hamper near my room as I paraded fully naked towards the third story of the inn without a care in the world. The only thing I wanted was to feel my lover's hands on me.

I sauntered into the massage room on the third floor totally nude. I still had Kristófer's dried cum on my inner thighs, and I felt like pure sex. I felt confident in myself, and for the first time in my life, I was happy with my body. Sure, my breasts were large and a little saggy, and my butt was flat and I was a little thick in the waist, but fuck if I could make love with my man like I did this morning, then I had the body of a goddess.

Kristófer was warming up some massage oil on a hot plate with his back turned when he heard me enter. He was wearing his brown hiking pants from earlier and a form fitting t-shirt. He turned around and I watched with a grin as his jaw hit the ground at my naked body. His eyes didn't know where to look. In the time it took me to walk from the door to the massage table, I caught him gawking at my tangled red bush, my breasts, and my thick thighs. I knew he was enamoured.

I walked over to the massage table and hopped on, lowering myself onto my tummy and letting my arms hang off the sides as Kristófer warmed up his hands.

"Kristófer, please give me a deep massage. I have stress all down my back. Be firm. I'd like to remember this," I said, with as much sexual confidence as I could muster.

When his hands touched me, it was electric. He started with my upper thighs, right where they meet my bum, and he ran his hands down towards my feet. I could practically feel him staring at my ass as he took his time massaging each of my feet. I spread my legs slightly to give him access to my thighs, and the treasure that was hidden between them.

He played me like an instrument. He ran his hands along my thighs and calves, massaging the tension from our hike out of my body, and relaxing me. His hands passed over my butt and into my inner thigh, glancing my labia but never making full contact. He knew he was teasing me. I knew he knew. What I wanted was more.

When he ran his hands over my butt for another pass at massaging my upper calves and thighs, I arched my back a little and pushed my bum out. He got the message. He got it a little too well, actually.