little did we know

There had been other trips – you didn’t go sixteen years without having some time away from your kids – but this one had knotted Theo’s gut up with nerves as they’d told Hazel her uncles would be watching out for her. It wasn’t like they were leaving a four month old in the hands of two grown men. The first time that had happened he’d clung to his phone, anticipating Frank’s panicked call at any moment. It didn’t matter that he and Kit had served in actual combat, this was a baby.

Having his phone off for all that time in the air had brought the nerves back, fingers drumming on the arms of the seat, apologetic smiles shot Freyja’s way. Hazel was sixteen, hell, she’d probably celebrated the moment her parents had driven off to the airport. Days without them, probably days without rules of any sort – Frank was a beast and Kit literally wasn’t much better – must have been a teenager’s dream. And this was theirs.

It had been hovering on the horizon when the hunter had lured him out into the woods. His suitcase packed, tucked into the corner of his closet to remain there until they’d actually moved out of the apartments and into the house. The thin sheen of dust on its surface brushed off, the clothes unpacked to be put back in all this time later – miraculously still fitting his dad bod.

Theo tugged one of the t-shirts on over his head now, fingers smoothing it down as he waited anxiously at the door of their room. The trip had been about ironing out all the tension, spending time together as a happily married couple. He’d balked at the idea of massages and treatments at first but after hours out on the slopes – even after Freyja had bugged out, chicken – the heated treatment room had been a little piece of heaven. His cheek pressed to the table until his masseuse had clucked her tongue at him, smiling goofily at his wife, he’d wondered why they’d waited so long. Those early days after Hazel had been born, those terrible twos with the house filled with two shrieking voices, the times they’d tried and both failed at succeeded at getting away with Hazel they could’ve been doing this.

Maybe if it had happened before that goofy smile wouldn’t have cut off with wide eyes and his head jerking up until the masseuse had forced his head back into the dip for his comfort. He’d laid there, heat and chill warring in the pit of his stomach as Freyja had tried to sweeten the pot. The sneak. He knew better than to trust entirely what she was up to. His warrior princess had a wild side to her that had dragged him into all sorts of trouble since love had gotten its hooks deep enough into his heart to have him freaking worshipping her.

That shiver rolled out of him as they eased of their room. He looked round every corner as though the hotel staff were gonna be waiting there with stern expressions and fingers jabbing back towards their room, as though they’d be that harsh in a place like this with every whim had been catered to with a warmth that had him cringing at the thought of how much this had cost Freyja in the days before the equally adorable little money vacuum had come into their lives.

Theo stood at the edge of the sky pool, shivering in the t-shirt and shorts he’d put on for the walk. Hands clamped under his pits, eyes sweeping the space around them that had been littered with people when they’d enjoyed this during the day. ”You know we’d be toasty back in the room right? I can get the fire lit up, we can get down on the rug in front of it … after that massage earlier I’m feeling pretty limber.” He practically sing-songed the words before his mouth went sawdust dry and his tongue stuck to the top of his mouth. That wasn’t a bathing suit under the robe. ”You wench!” Theo got out with a strangled laugh. The water was crystal clear, its warmth rising from its surface in a shimmer that misted the bitter air, and hid nothing.

The water wasn’t the only thing. Standing on the edge, hands covering the lower half of his face now Theo grinned at his wife. Frank might’ve been the animal out of the two of them once but Freyja had dragged him squarely over the line towards wild. He still kicked and screamed at times but … He sucked a breath in through clamped lips, let it out in a strangled groan as he dropped his hands away. ”If we get kicked for this I’m kicking you under the bus. No, sir, my wife has these mind control powers. She made me strip off to join her in the pool.” His fingers tangled at the hem of his t-shirt, his hair sticking up after he dragged it off of his head. His swim shorts were kicked down, flip flops tossed aside.

He probably could’ve gotten away with leaping into the pool cannonball style with no squawking guests or staff around but he slipped into the water slowly. A shiver ran through him as the heat hit cold limbs. Theo let himself sink deep almost immediately, wading towards Freyja until he ducked under entirely. He stroked towards her, snaring her under the water and dragging her into him before he burst from the water. ”We should get a tail for you. You could be a mermaid, luring unwitting sailors out into the water. Are you trying to lure me Mrs. Damasca?” Hazel eyes narrowed at her before he settled his mouth hotly against hers. God, it still didn’t feel like any time had passed since their wedding either. Just six weeks past their anniversary now, all those years since he’d slipped the ring onto her finger, a life so incredible he wouldn’t have swapped a minute of it despite their shaky start and those months he’d lost.

Tagged: FREYJA DAMASCA * Word Count: 1020

Theo had always classed himself as the sort of guy who dipped a toe first. Easing into cold water a toe at a time, tossing decisions around in his head for weeks with columns of pros and cons filling and emptying, working problems through until he’d made an informed decision. Frank was the one who worked from the gut – although charging in before he had almost got himself gutted, literally. Freyja … Freyja cannonballed. She might tuck her knees up to her chest and wrap her arms around them to protect the soft centre of her but she leapt right in without hesitation all the same and he loved her for it. Stumbling after her he’d plunge right in it up to his neck, his breath stolen for a moment but she had taken him to places he’d never imagined his life would go.

Theo made a low noise beneath the snare of his t-shirt as he pulled it off over his head. For her, for Hazel, he’d go anywhere, do anything. He supposed it was cheesy as hell to say that looking death in the face and running as fast as he could the other way the minute someone offered to get him out of there had made life all the more special, but without Freyja, without Hazel, he’d have been heading down the same path as Nixon, alone and miserable, married to the job instead of an incredible woman who was gonna get him arrested one day.

His head popped from the t-shirt, his own grin aimed back innocently at Freyja. All wide hazel eyes and pooched lips, Theo nodded. ”Totally, you’ve got me by the … heart … you could lead me anywhere.” And he could do the same from time to time, his stunning moments of supposed impetuousness (alright, so he planned them, but he didn’t tell her about them) dragging Freyja along in this crazy life of theirs.

Dragging her under the water to have his selkie pressed to him under the surface for just a moment before he allowed them both to surface. Water beading on skin, that slight steam rising up around them. Fingers that would prune by the time he let her out of the water gripped her bare waist, stopping his wife from slipping away from him again. Hundreds of years ago he would’ve been one of those sailors lured from the ships by the … nope, he wasn’t about to start shivering here, thinking about that thing … or stepping into the depths of a lock to end up husband to some lonely selkie. Theo’s lips quirked up into a satisfied grin as he shrugged. ”What can I say, your husband’s easy.” He was a man, still as thoroughly in love as he had been that first night at Di Marco’s. Wet then, wet now, although the yellow sundress kinda paled in comparison to this.

Her fingers were working their way through his wet hair now, thumbs massaging behind his ears in a way that had his knees going weak. Theo braced himself, letting his eyelids fall to half-mast as he purred. ”Mm-hmm,” he drawled low. ”Never thought I’d enjoy a massage but I think I might be spoiled now. You know we’re gonna have to do this again right? A tradition for Valentine’s day.” Even a spa back home, somewhere he could see her limbs go all loose and where he could get the fruits of all that work later. Oh yeah. Theo’s eyes slipped shut as he laughed huskily. One hand slid down to Freyja’s ass to make sure she didn’t slide away from him, slippery as an eel before he could return the favour.

Lips had dragged down under his chin, trailing heat with them until Theo was pretty sure he was the one steaming up the water here. He wanted to dip his head, to trail that heat back down her neck, following the line of the water that ran down her spin but she was whispering against his skin, the words most men probably dreaded hummed out against him. ”There are all those bedrooms to fill,” he rumbled softly as he began to walk, taking the two of them further out into the pool until he was balanced on tiptoes, the glass edge that separated them from the endless stretch of the mountains right here. Theo nudged her up against the glass, his lips curling a second before he nipped at her mouth. Sixteen years and they hadn’t been blessed again yet but there was time, and now there seemed to be magic too. ”Five kids turning their mom’s hair grey, lighting up her face every time she looks at them. You’re never more beautiful than when I see all that love shining out of your eyes.” As it had to be from his now.

Theo nodded, that little ache starting up behind his eyes in a way that had him laughing as he lifted her just a little. He pressed his lips to her neck, lifting her a little higher with each skim of his lips until they were fixed over the spot where her heart pumped beneath warm, damp skin. ”Yeah,” he whispered there, imagining the winks sinking into her skin, straight to the heart of his wife. ”We should. We’re incredible…” Hazel was incredible too, so much of her mom in her. A kid that made him so damn proud that he’d sobbed shamelessly at her kindergarten graduation – until the teacher had pressed a box of tissue into his hands. ”I love you, every day it’s a little more. I wanna see get so big you have to waddle again. I wanna get woken up in the night cause you left it so long. I want a family so big the house is busting at the seams.” I want you. Theo knew he didn’t have to say those words aloud but they burned in his throat as he slid his hand to the small of her back to draw her in until they were joined in the steamy hold of the water.

Tagged: FREYJA DAMASCA * Word Count: 1017