Eric woke me up on Boxing Day with a tray of warm pastries and coffee.
"What time is it?" I mumbled sleepily, hauling myself upright and he fluffed the pillows behind me cheerfully.
"Just after 6." He grinned broadly. "I've been awake for 2 hours!" Chuckling at his expression I took a sip of the perfect coffee and sighed happily.
"What did I do to deserve breakfast in bed?" I asked jokingly and his face lit up.
"I opened my Christmas present from you. We got so caught up in the stones yesterday that I didn't notice it tucked in beside the sofa." He said sofa in his best British accent. He loved that word and always mimicked when I said it.
"And? What did you think?" I asked cautiously.
"It's amazing. Where on earth did you buy it? I didn't know they still made Hefnatafl boards."
I winced. "They don't. I commissioned the board from a local stonemason and made the pieces myself using metal clay. I thought you could teach me how to play – I didn't really understand the rules or why one side has more players than the other."
"What did you do? Look up Viking games on the internet?" He grinned, turning my own words back on myself and I shrugged.
"I wanted to get you something that reminded you of home." I said simply. "You have everything you need or want so it had to be something for fun." He was looking at me like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry so I turned back to my breakfast, giving him some time to pull himself together.
"I think that is why I love you." He said suddenly and I nearly choked on my croissant as he startled me. Rubbing my back until I stopped coughing he smiled. "You always seem to see straight to the heart of a person. I didn't know I needed a home until I met you. I had cars and houses and more money than I could spend in a mortal span but I didn't know that my heart was empty until you filled it with board games and archaeology trips and hot water cushions." He looked astonished by this fact. "There is joy in my heart." He said it like it was a dirty word and he looked so bemused by this that I couldn't help myself. I roared with laughter and pushed the tray away before I spilt the coffee everywhere. He lifted it to the blanket box at the foot of the bed and then gathered me up for a cuddle as I giggled away.
"You do love me, do you not?" He asked and I squeezed him.
"You know I do. But then I love looking at piles of ancient rocks and reading the National Geographic too so that's not really saying much..." I teased and he growled happily, tickling me until I dissolved into a giggling, quivering heap.
When I was all laughed out and my sides were aching he made me finish my breakfast while he selected something for me to wear. Unerringly he went for my favourite jeans and I smothered a smile behind my coffee mug. That's my vamp, attention to detail as always. He picked a vest top, a long-sleeved tee and then a cute cable-knit sweater to go on top.
"Are we going somewhere?" I asked, eyeing the pile of clothing as he added woolly socks and underwear. "That's an awful lot of layers."
"Yes we are, but I'm not telling you where." He grinned at me, his blue eyes twinkling. "Are you done?" He took my now empty breakfast tray away and watched avidly as I dragged myself out of bed and started getting dressed. He loved watching me dress almost as much as he loved taking all my clothes off. I never really understood that but it kept him happy so I wasn't going to complain.
Finally toasty in my many layers of clothing I followed him downstairs to a scene of utter weirdness. Pam had appropriated my cork board and had clearly spent her last two waking hours printing random images.
"What is that?" I asked as she closely studied a montage of flowers and fabric prints interspersed with the odd photograph of piles of rocks.
"It's a mood board." She replied absently, shuffling through a notepad lying by her computer which looked to be full of list after list. "I looked up wedding planning on the internet and it said we needed a mood board." She pinned a section of fire cone packaging to the board and I wondered where pine cones fitted into wedding planning. Eric looked just as confused as I did but shrugged easily.
"We're just heading out for a bit. Won't be gone long." He said and Pam nodded.
"Oh, before you go, I sent an official request to the King of France." She grinned at me, all fang and pastel shades. "We're going wedding dress shopping in Paris."
"Oh. My. God." I said faintly.
"That's excellent Pam." Eric took my arm and steered me out of the kitchen quickly before I could start an argument.
"Just let her be excited." He told me gently, stuffing my arms into my coat and zipping it up for me. "She is fascinated by these human things. It is not just me that you have made feel human again." He selected a hat and pulled it over my head, handing me a pair of gloves before kneeling down to tug my snow boots on. I just stood there and let him dress me, feeling like an overgrown school kid. It suddenly occurred to me that this is what life with Eric would be like. I would never have to do anything for myself ever again if I so chose. The thought was not as disturbing as it should have been.
Finally he produced a black cashmere scarf and tied it around my eyes so I couldn't see a thing. "Isn't this going just a little too far?" I protested, hearing rustling as he shrugged on his own coat. "It's not as though you can take me anywhere I haven't already been."
"Stop arguing with me woman." I sensed him come closer and then he scooped me up into his arms easily as though I weighed no more than a feather. "Bye Pam!" He called back over his shoulder and then we were out the front door and into the night. The air was bitterly cold but there didn't seem to be much wind and it was crystalline.
"What do the stars look like?" I whispered in the stillness of the night air and I could feel by the swelling of his chest that Eric was smiling.
"They are glorious." He replied softly. "The sky is awash with brilliance, like millions of diamonds reflecting back the silver of the moon."
"And the moon?" I asked. "What does the moon look like?"
"She is nearly full." There was a hushed reverence in his voice as he studied the sky. "She is ageless and beautiful and everywhere her silvered gaze shines turns into something bathed in the light of grace."
"You have a beautiful heart." I told him as he settled me into the car and he chuckled.
"No, there are just some things I've been around long enough to appreciate. Like a beautiful woman." He leaned in through the door and captured my mouth with his own, his soft cool tongue plundering my own and leaving me breathless. With nothing else to distract me I could focus entirely on the sensation of his cool lips as they moved against mine, teasing and pulling, each caress more sensuous than the last.
"For shame!" I giggled when he pulled away. "Whatever will the neighbours say?" There was a brief silence and then he chuckled.
"Isabella looks concerned that you are blindfolded and being ravaged in the middle of the street but I do believe that Joe from number 7 is preparing a round of applause." I flushed crimson and he laughed, kissing me again before doing up my seatbelt and shutting the door.
"When we get home I intend to use that blindfold again." His voice was amused as he started the car and pulled away from the house.
"What on earth for? Surely if you put it on you'd just bump into stuff?"
"Not for me silly." Laughter bubbled up behind his tone. "For you."
"But then I'd bump into stuff." I really wasn't getting this and he roared with laughter.
"You won't be moving anywhere other than in the bed." He explained eventually, his voice full of mirth. "I'm going to tie you up so you can't move and then blindfold you and go over every inch of your skin with my tongue."
"Oh." My heart raced. "Oh my."
He chuckled. "I can hear your heart speeding. I assume the prospect excites you?"
"I'm not thinking about it." I said primly, knowing my cheeks were scarlet under the blindfold. He laughed again but didn't press the point. My traitorous libido was betting he was thinking about exactly what he'd like to do to me once I was totally at his mercy and wondering if I would enjoy it as much as my skipping hormones were telling me I would.
I tried to keep track of where we were going as we turned corners and went round bends. I knew the roads well so it wasn't too hard and when Eric stopped at a junction for slightly too long I smiled. "It's straight on for John O'Groats, left to Thurso or right for Duncansby Head." I offered helpfully. There was a long silence.
"How did you do that?" He demanded suspiciously and I grinned.
"I am exceedingly clever." I replied smugly and he growled, half in amusement and half in irritation.
"Well stop it. I'm trying to surprise you." He commanded and I grinned. It was too late – I already had some idea of where we were going. There was a place we had visited on his first trip here that was special to both of us and the fastest way to get to it was flying from Duncansby Head. Unsurprisingly he turned right.
As we drove the curving road up to the car park I leaned my cheek against the cool glass and let myself relax, trusting him to do whatever he thought he needed to. When we parked up he checked me over one more time.
"Are you sure you're going to be warm enough?" He fussed and I sighed.
"Yes Eric, I'll be fine. If I was wearing any more layers I'd be parboiled by now. Tuck me in your coat if it makes you feel better but quite frankly I'm not as fragile as you think."
There was a long silence.
"I don't think you're fragile." He said suddenly. "I just find that I want you to be comfortable."
I couldn't help chuckling. "Why do you say that like it's distasteful?" I laughed and I heard his coat rustle as he shrugged.
"It's not. It's just...novel." He sounded amused as he climbed out the car and came round to my side. There was still snow out here and I could hear it crunching under his feet. Lifting me out of the car he held me to him while he pressed the remote locking button and then the bottom fell out of my stomach as we soared into the sky.
It seemed longer this time, probably because I wasn't gawping at the beauty of Scapa Flow as we flew across it. I couldn't wait to see the islands in the snow on the way home, assuming he ever let me take this darned blindfold off. I could feel his chest moving slightly as he turned his head a couple of times like he'd lost where we were but then he huffed with satisfaction and before I could register the falling sensation I heard the snow as he settled into it.
"I'm going to put you down." He warned before tilting me slightly and letting me slide down his body gently until my feet hit the floor. He waited until I had my bearings and as I steadied myself I heard a weird humming noise. I tilted my head slightly – there was no doubt of where we were, I could feel the magic in my bones, but the humming was new and it confused me.
"Can I look now?" I asked, trying really hard not to sound like a kid and I could tell he was grinning.
"Stand still and let me take this blindfold off. Close your eyes." Obediently I closed them and the blindfold fell away. There was some crunching in the snow and then Eric told me to open my eyes.
I gasped. It felt like I'd stepped into Narnia or somewhere equally as magical. The hum was coming from small generators which were powering string after string of small paper lanterns that were hung from stone to stone in the massive Ring of Brodgar. It was all lit up like a fairy grotto and it was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes.
"Oh my God! Eric!" I turned round to find him kneeling before me, a box in his hands, and instantly my legs wobbled. I knew what was coming.
He smiled gently, his handsome face upturned into the light of the moon making his eyes shine with frosted silver as he took my hand. "Rebecca." His thumb was tracing circles on my palm and it was immensely distracting, enough to make my knees stop wobbling at least.
I took a heaving breath. "Yes Eric?"
"I have some promises to make to you." He told me quietly as the lights twinkled around us in the darkness. "I swear to you, on my honour, on my heart, that within two years of our marriage you would be with child. If I cannot do it myself we will find another way. I swear to you, on my honour and on my heart, that you can remain a daywalker and we will make it work. I swear to you that whilst I hibernate during the summer months you will want for nothing and that you and our child will be safe. I promise not to crowd you, not to smother you, to let you do the things that make you happy." He kissed my hand. "Rebecca, heart of my heart, most beautiful of heart, will you do me the extraordinary honour of becoming my wife?"
I wanted to make some joke about not making promises that he couldn't keep but the truth was I was choked up with tears by the time he finished and just nodded, speechlessly as he presented me with the red diamond. For one stunned, hushed, breathless moment we just stared at each other and then he whooped, surging to his feet and crushing me to him as we soared up into the air in celebration leaving the glowing ring behind us.
"Eric!" I gasped, giggling. "I'm going to lose the stone!"
He swore loudly with a beaming smile and we came back to earth where I admired the diamond again and then I folded it up and tucked it back in his jacket.
"You are mine!" He declared fierce with joy, crushing me to his chest. "Mine!"
"I think you'll find I'm my own woman." I said drily, laughing again as he kissed me.
"You are always mine." His blue eyes twinkled in the lamp light and he swung me round in a waltz between the stones, the snow crunching beneath our feet as we spun round and round giggling like a pair of children.
When we had celebrated ourselves into exhaustion he tilted my chin and kissed me gently. "Let's go home." He suggested softly. "I love you Rebecca."
"And I love you, my big handsome Viking."
"Big and handsome huh?" He grinned. "For that, I'm going to get you home at double speed!"
And we soared into the sky leaving our fairy circle behind.
Dear all, thanks for sticking with this story! A Viking Christmas is ending here. There will be a part three when Eric and Pam move to Scotland where the story will continue.
Thanks again for following and reviewing. *huggles all round*
