"You will be perfectly fine," he said, watching her hesitation with a softer look. "Don’t you have faith in ?"
Her lips pressed together. She didn’t answer, mostly because she didn’t know how to.
"The water has to be freezing," she insisted instead, scrambling for any excuse she could reach. None of them seed particularly convincing.
Ragnar looked like he was two seconds away from hauling her over his shoulder and dropping her in the lake himself.
She heaved a heavy sigh, feeling her reluctance crumble, inch by agonizing inch. He sensed it and amusent flickered in his eyes like he had already won.
Then her expression sharpened. She lifted a hand and jabbed a finger warningly at his smug face.
"Turn around," she ordered, her fingers already sneaking toward the laces at the front of her dress.
His gaze went molten, deepening into sothing like liquid bronze. For a heartbeat, his expression turned serious.
"Princess," he said, voice warm and dangerously intimate, "I have seen and kissed every inch of you."
Her cheeks burned instantly. She masked it by giving him an imperious look. "Stop being a lecher and turn around."
She had no idea where this sudden surge of propriety ca from. She certainly hadn’t behaved modestly with him last night.
Ragnar chuckled but obediently turned his back, though she suspected he did so with great effort.
With him facing away, Circe loosened the laces with nimble, practiced fingers. The cool air brushed her skin as she slipped the dress off and folded it over the grassy patch he had pointed at, leaving her in nothing but her thin linen shift. The sunlight barely ward her arms, and for a fleeting mont she almost changed her mind.
Bracing herself, she dipped one toe into the lake and imdiately hissed. "Ragnar, it’s cold."
"You’ll adjust." Even with his back turned, she knew he was grinning wider by the second, wicked, and unfairly confident.
"No, I won’t," she argued, her tone making it clear he was being absurd.
He turned slowly. Then he swam closer with easy, unhurried strokes, almost erging entirely from the water. Sunlight glinted off the droplets sliding down his shoulders and chest. He extended a hand toward her.
"Co," he murmured, amusent lacing through each word. "I’ll help."
Her eyes narrowed. He was laughing at her, she could tell by the way one corner of his mouth twitched, by the barely suppressed mirth in his gaze. It would have made her flush in embarrassnt but it didn’t because she knew he wasn’t doing it to mock her. She simply amused him.
She stepped toward him and placed her hand in his. His fingers intertwined with hers, and he pulled her into the lake with him.
The water reached her calves, then her knees, then her thighs, soaking through her shift. A shiver rippled up her spine, not entirely from the cold.
Ragnar’s hands slipped to her waist, steadying her. "Just a little more."
"Ragnar, wait—"
But it was too late.
With one smooth pull, he drew her fully in, sinking her waist-deep into the lake. She gasped sharply, grabbing his shoulders as the cold wrapped around her like a sudden, shocking embrace. But after the first icy bite, she realized the water wasn’t nearly as frigid as she had feared. It was cool, but tolerable. Almost pleasant, when her body got used to it.
"Ragnar!" she yelped, half scandalized, half dissolving into breathless laughter.
His amusent vibrated through his chest beneath her palms. "See? You survived."
She splashed him squarely across the jaw and chest. "You did that on purpose."
"Of course," he said serenely, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You took forever to get in."
She tried to glare at him, she really did, but the sun caught on the droplets clinging to his lashes and it made him look impossibly ethereal, like the water nymphs from her mother’s old stories. Those breathtaking, perilous creatures who lured n and won alike to their doom with nothing but beauty and an outstretched hand.
Sothing like awe flickered through her eyes as she stared at him, longer than she ant to. And for the first ti, she wondered whether she would be one of those unfortunate souls, drawn into an inescapable depth.
She quickly shook her head, as though the motion could scatter the thought like droplets off her skin. But she knew it would return, just like every other tangled, confusing thought she had been having about him lately.
She waited until he was montarily distracted, then flicked her hand through the water and sent a splash straight at his head.
The grin he shot her was all teeth and mischief. A heartbeat later, a wave twice as large crashed over her, soaking her hair and plastering her shift to her skin.
He moved to splash her again, but she thrust out a hand to stop him.
"Oh no, you—" she began, but the wicked gleam in his eyes said he wasn’t hearing a thing she said.
Instead of another splash, he lunged forward, caught her around the waist, and pulled her into him.
Circe squeaked, laughter bubbling from her as she clung to him on instinct. He waded further into the cool water, carrying her with him as though she weighed nothing.
"Ragnar!" she gasped between giggles. "Stop, I’m cold!"
"You won’t be for long." He didn’t stop.
The playfulness softened as his grip shifted, one arm steady at her waist while the other swept damp strands of hair from her face. Sunlight spilled over them, its rays scattering across the lake’s surface.
Circe eased into him, their bodies drifting together with the gentle sway of the water.
"Still cold?" he murmured.
"Not as much," she admitted.
His thumb brushed her cheek. "Good."
Buoyed by the closeness of their bodies, she lifted her hand and cupped his face, wiping away a droplet clinging at the corner of his eye. "You’re terrible, you know."
He leaned in slightly, eyes glowing with that familiar, quiet heat. "And yet you followed ."
"Against my better judgnt."
"You enjoyed it anyway."
"That’s debatable," she said, though her smile betrayed her.
Her smile softened even further when he kissed her, a gentle press of lips made softer still by the cool water embracing them. Circe lted into it, fingers curling loosely at the back of his neck as she kissed him back.
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