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“I HOPE THURSDAY doesn’t decide to make this a threesome,” Delaney mused, carrying her tomato-red nightie into the bathroom to change after they’d enjoyed the fabulous celebration dinner Varik had prepared.
“Don’t worry, I had a talk with him. In Norwegian. Thor’s Day won’t be bothering us.” He set two stemmed glasses of champagne on the nightstand.
“You amaze me,” Delaney called, peeking from behind the bathroom door. “In more ways than one.”
“If you want to see amazing, just wait until you come out here and I get my hands on you.”
“I’m hurrying,” she promised, practically pulsating with expectation. Checking herself in the mirror, she fluffed her hair and practiced seductive poses. “Did you light the candles on my dresser? And light the lavender incense?”
“Done. There’s soft music playing in the background, and I turned down the bedding. All I need to make me one very happy Viking is my beautiful Snow White here in my arms.”
“Snow White and the Viking...who knew we were so kinky?” Delaney laughed. “Speaking of Viking, don’t forget to put on your outfit...and the helmet.”
“Yes ma’am.”
She could hear Varik chuckling while muttering something in Norwegian. “I can hear you laughing at me, you know. Just wait until I become fluent in Norwegian. Then you won’t be able to talk about me behind my back.”
Opening the bathroom door, Delaney stepped into the bedroom. There stood Varik the Bold, in full Viking costume, Brunhilde helmet in hand. Tingles of excitement rocked through her as she caught the way her sexy fiancé ate her up with his eyes.
“Delaney, you look just like a...” He frowned, cocking his head.
“Yes?” Maybe she wasn’t the silky teddy type and he was disappointed. She shifted her stance, doing her best to look alluring. “Please don’t say cartoon.”
“No...” Lifting his finger, Varik thought for a moment, then broke into a grin. “A sex puppy.”
Delaney’s impromptu burst of laughter ruined the sexy come hither pose she’d practiced.
Varik looked baffled.
“It’s sex kitten.” She undulated toward him, the way she imagined a sensuous sex kitten might. The moment she reached him her hands were on his chest, slipping beneath the reindeer hides, exploring his flesh, squeezing his biceps.
Happiness beamed from her every pore as she stood there eyeing the man she loved...the man she thought she’d lost forever. “I swear, Varik, I’m so happy I could burst.” She imagined her words would become a self-fulfilling prophecy once they got their hands on each other.
Varik bent to nibble her earlobe, before trailing a sultry path of kisses to her mouth, tugging on her bottom lip with his teeth. She savored the glide of his fingers as they slid over the teddy, tracing her curves.
“I want to eat you up,” he whispered, removing her teddy with agonizing slowness. “You’re like a tempting smorgasbord, full of one delicious lick and nibble after the other.” He took his time tasting her from her throat to her belly, making her sigh with delight.
His kiss spoke of lust, hunger and desire as he carried her to the bed. He placed her in the center and straddled her, looking down at Delaney as if she were a Viking’s prized treasure, earned in fierce, hard-won combat.
Every nerve ending in her body quivered with anticipation. “Please don’t make me wait another moment.” Delaney traced her fingers along his hard body, starting at his square jaw, loitering on his pecs and working down to his groin where his mannlig kjonnsorgan bloomed mightily.
“Delaney.” Her name rumbled up from his chest, emerging as a near growl as he lifted her hips, claiming her, making her his forever.
As her eyelids drifted closed, she sensed the force of all-encompassing love between them. They were undeniably destined for one another. Soul mates in the truest sense. She opened her eyes, watching his primal expression, determined to savor every moment.
Part of her feared it was all a magnificent, mystical dream and Varik would disappear when she awoke.
“Don’t disappear...” she whispered.
“Never.” Whispering her name, he fisted her hair and leaned close. “Varik the Bold will always be with you. Forever.” The soul-reaching power of his kiss told Delaney he meant every word.
They moved in tandem like they’d been precision engineered for each other in some heavenly factory. The first time they’d had sex together was incredible, but this time there was something almost otherworldly about their union.
The glint of the heartwish ring on his finger caught her eye. She glanced at hers as well. No one would ever believe the story behind their magical rings. No one would believe...
Caught in a whirlwind of pleasure, she was about to shatter.
“Mighty Odin!” Varik roared, clutching Delaney as if she was his lifeline, dragging her like a ragdoll hard against him, and kissing her with more passion than she could have dreamed possible. That kiss seemed to hold the secret of the ages as she succumbed to it.
Collapsing in a depleted heap, they lay silently, tangled together for what could have been minutes or hours. As long as she was in her Viking’s arms, time had no meaning.
Delaney noticed his Brunhilde helmet had fallen off at some point during their lovemaking. Sexy as the fearsome helmet was, she decided her Viking didn’t need the extra trappings. He was plenty sexy just on his own.
It was a while before the power of speech returned but when it did, the first words out of their mouths came at the same instant.
“I love you,” they chorused.
Bent over Delaney’s supremely satisfied body, Varik leaned close for a kiss as they basked together in afterglow. The heartwish ring on his finger clinked against the one Delaney wore.
With a near blinding spark of blue light, the rings disappeared from their fingers.
Bolting upright, they sat gaping at each other, breathless with astonishment.
“Oh my God...what just happened?” Delaney felt her heart skip as she examined her naked finger and Varik’s, as if perhaps the rings were still there but had become invisible. “Where did our rings go?”
“I don’t know. This can’t be happening.” The same incomprehension Delaney felt was evident in Varik’s dumbfounded expression. He inspected his hand and Delaney’s. They patted the mattress, looked under pillows and hunted beneath the sheets searching for the absent rings.
“Ow!” Looking aghast, Varik’s hand flew to the back of his upper arm. “Why did you pinch me?”
“I was checking to see if we’re dreaming.” It sounded totally illogical, ridiculous, as soon as the words left her mouth.
“Then you should have pinched yourself instead.” Rubbing the reddening spot on his arm, he looked at her like she was crazy and this time Delaney thought he might be right.
“Sorry.” She offered an apologetic shrug. “Ouch!” Her hand smoothed along the sore spot on her backside where Varik pinched her. “Varik!”
“Well now we know I’m not dreaming,” he told her. “And it seems you’re not either. So what’s going on? This is insane.” He got to his hands and knees on the floor, searching for the rings.
“Try under the bed,” Delaney suggested.
“I did. Nothing there but dust rabbits.”
“Bunnies,” Delaney corrected. “Varik...” She cradled her belly. “I-I feel something.”
He was back at her side in a flash, cradling her against him. “You’re going to be ill?”
“No...something I can’t explain.”
The pair erupted in another gasp as they spied a bright golden glow shining through the spaces around and beneath the closed bedroom door.
Varik grabbed Delaney close as she clutched onto him for dear life. Glancing at the clock on her nightstand, she noted it was twelve.
“It’s midnight. The bewitching hour.”
“Don’t be silly,” Varik said, “there’s no such thing as—”
A thunderous noise boomed from somewhere in the house, jolting them both.
Outside the bedroom Thursday started barking his head off.
“Hellig dritt!” Varik said the same instant Delaney cried, “Holy shit!”
“I have a feeling we just said the same thing,” she surmised.
“We did,” Varik confirmed, his jaw clenching.
“What in the world is that?” Delaney covered her ears. “Varik, what’s happening?”
“It sounds like a blaedhorn, a Viking blasting horn.” He was obviously just as stunned as Delaney. “I think it’s coming from the living room.”
“Oh my God, it’s ghosts. Viking ghosts! I told you the house was haunted.”
“Delaney...”
“Maybe they’re in there doing some sort of traditional Viking midnight welcome to the neighborhood ritual,” Delaney said. “Or maybe Grandma Bekka told all her deceased Viking buddies we’re engaged and this is their idea of an engagement party.”
As his gaze shifted from the bedroom door to her, Varik’s expression was beyond incredulous. “Delaney, this is no time for foolishness.” No doubt about it, he thought she’d lost it—her sanity, not the ring.
The horn’s blaring finally subsided. Releasing her, he leapt from the bed and shrugged into his jeans while she grabbed his sweater, yanking it over her head.
“Stay here,” he instructed, waving her back. “I’ll see what’s happening.” He crept ahead, peeking in her closet.”
“What are you looking for?”
“A baseball bat.”
“Why would I have a baseball bat in my closet?”
“For protection,” Varik said matter-of-factly as he grabbed the alarm clock from her nightstand and yanked the cord from the wall.
Delaney frowned. “What are you doing?”
“It’s the only thing in here heavy enough to use as a weapon.” His gaze fell on her dresser top. “Wait, one of those perfume bottles is probably heavier.”
Delaney gasped aloud. “My grandma’s antique perfume bottles? Break those and you’ll be getting a fast ticket to Valhalla, mister.”
Ignoring Varik’s warning to stay put, she clung to his back like a shadow, searching the room for something she could use as a weapon. She grabbed the pair of crochet hooks sitting next to her perfume bottles.
Pushing her back, Varik said, “There are intruders out there, Delaney, this could be dangerous. Get under the bed and hide.”
“No way.” Delaney seized the waistband of his jeans and held tight. “I just found you, Varik. If there’s an alien spaceship out there and it sucks you in, I want to go with you.”
Pausing, he turned to her, slanting a befuddled look. “Spaceship? Seriously, Delaney?”
Fisting the crochet hooks tight, she said, “Well it’s either that or Roger just drove his Lexus, with headlights blazing, into the living room.”
Varik’s expression screwed. “I’d rather be hijacked to Mars.”
“This is no time for jokes,” Delaney chastised, foolishly chuckling in the face of possible death.
Varik looked at her hand, a smile curling a corner of his lips. “And you’re planning to knit the Martian a sweater?”
“Yeah, right after you clock the Martian on his big green noggin with my alarm clock.” She waved her crochet hooks and retorted, “I can do plenty of damage with these if it becomes necessary.”
“Right.” He had the nerve to snicker at her.
“You know, I liked you better when you couldn’t speak English.”
Varik turned and reached for his champagne glass, taking a big slug.
“A little liquid courage sounds good.” Delaney followed suit.
Opening the door, they tiptoed out. Varik stopped in his tracks, sniffing the air.
“Do you smell that?”
Delaney sniffed. “It smells like pipe tobacco. Just like your—” Her eyes bugged. “Whoa...it seems Grandma Bekka’s not our only ghost.” She and Varik exchanged awed looks.
The bright light began to fade as they crept around the corner and down the hall into the living room. Thursday was at the far corner of the room next to the Christmas tree, barking at the ceiling. Varik and Delaney watched two white feathers float down from the ceiling just above the spot where Thursday stood.
“A bird must have gotten in here somehow,” Delaney said. “Maybe through the chimney.”
Varik shook his head. “Bird’s don’t make light. Besides, I closed the fireplace flue before we went to bed.”
“Look,” Delaney said, her eyes widening as she scanned the mantle and the coffee table. “Somebody lit all the candles. This is creepy. Why would robbers light candles? Or why would ghosts need candlelight to see their way around? Or why would—”
“Shhh...” Varik instructed. “This is not the time for jabbering.”
Tiptoeing, they padded cautiously toward Thursday who was quieting now. As soon as he spotted Varik and Delaney, he came to their side, brushing against Varik’s leg as Varik patted his flanks.
“It’s okay Thor’s Day. Good dog.”
Before the last glimmer of light died away, a spot at the center of the aluminum tree glowed with warm golden radiance.
“Do you see that?” Delaney wondered if she was entrenched in some bizarre dream. This time she pinched herself instead of Varik.
“Yes, I see it.” Close enough to the tree now to touch it, Varik bent to examine the glowing spot. An instant later, he stood ramrod straight, doing a classic double take as he prattled something in Norwegian.
Eyeing the spot Varik examined, Delaney did a double take of her own.
Jaws dropping in astonishment, they gazed at the tree and then at each other.
There in the center of the glow, on the tip of a tree branch, both heartwish rings swung together, as if they’d just been tapped. The pair of Norwegian ornaments Varik had given Delaney now flanked the branch, the man suspended on one side of the rings and the woman on the other.
A folded note card rested on the silver branch just above the dangling rings. The moment Varik removed the card from its resting spot, handing it to Delaney, the glow faded.
Delaney immediately recognized her grandmother’s flowery script. “This is Bekka’s handwriting,” she said, astounded.
“You’ve made your heartwishes,” she read aloud by candlelight, her voice wavering. “And have found your true loves. As promised, the stones have worked their magic. It has been more than a thousand years since the twin heartwish rings, each with one half of the same stone, have found each other. Their reuniting has amplified the potency of each ring. It is not necessary for the rings to be kept together for their magic to work, nor do they need to be kept within the same family. The only requirement is that the rings’ owners be pure of heart.”
Her own heart overflowing with love, Delaney paused to smile at Varik.
“You will each learn the identity of your ring’s next recipient when the time is right,” she read on. “It may be a family member, a friend or, perhaps, even a stranger. Your hearts will know when to pass your rings on to the right person. Until then, the rings will remain affixed to your fingers.”
The instant Delaney read those words, the rings disappeared from the tree and were positioned back on the ring fingers of their right hands. Holding their hands aloft, Varik and Delaney clasped hands, threading their fingers together.
“This can’t be happening,” Varik muttered. Glancing at the card Delaney held, he frowned. “How can you read that? It’s all in Norwegian. You haven’t learned that much already, have you?”
“No it’s not. What are you talking about?” She waved the card beneath his nose. “It’s in English.”
Varik’s eyebrows knitted as he took another look. “Every word I see is Norwegian. And it’s in my grandfather’s handwriting.”
Astonished, she said, “Wow...I guess this is more Viking magic.”
“Read the rest,” Varik urged.
“Now and forever more,” Delaney read, her hands trembling, “the magic will live in your hearts. Congratulations, dear deserving children, on your upcoming nuptials as well as—”
Staggered, Delaney gasped. “Oh my God...” Her fingers flew to her lips while she cradled her belly with the other hand. Thursday brushed his muzzle against Delaney’s belly, then sat in place, lifting one paw and resting it there as he looked up at her.
“Delaney? Are you all right?”
Unable to speak, she replied with tears as well as an affirmative nod. She gave the card to Varik to finish reading.
“...as well as the baby girl growing in Delaney’s womb,” Varik finished reading the sentence aloud. “Delaney!” His grin stretched as he held her gaze.
Thursday punctuated Varik’s words with a soft bark.
“He knows.” Delaney smiled so wide her jaws ached. “Thursday knows.”
Swallowing hard, Varik looked from the card to Delaney and back. “There’s more.” He took in a deep breath and continued to read. “Your hearts have spoken the name you’ve both chosen for your child, Rebekka Anders Jenssen.” He turned to Delaney. “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” he said, his voice full of wonderment.
“Me too,” Delaney agreed, taking the card again. “From the great halls of Valhalla,” she read, “with all our love, Grandma Bekka and Grandpa Anders.”
“A baby! Oh Varik, isn’t it wonderful?”
“Our little Becky.” Varik looked up from the heavenly card in his hand, a joyous smile taking hold. “You were right, my love. It wasn’t a bird, or men from Mars, or even a ghost.” He gathered the pair of white feathers from the floor, brushing one across her cheek. “It was angels. Our very own guardian angels from Valhalla.”
“Angels,” Delaney repeated, taking the feather Varik handed to her. “I knew it. I felt it in here.” Shedding gentle tears, she clasped the feather to her heart.
“I don’t understand it...but I don’t think you can explain a miracle.” Varik’s eyes glistened with tears. “You just accept it and give thanks.” Placing both hands on Delaney’s belly, cuddling the area, he gazed at her in wonder.
“Back in the bedroom I knew something special had happened,” Delaney insisted. “I felt it deep inside.” Throwing her arms around Varik’s neck, she cried the happiest tears she’d ever shed. “A baby, Varik! We’re having a baby girl! I’m so happy I could belt out a chorus of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” in Norwegian!”
“First the gift of finding my true love, and then the miraculous gift of childbirth where it seemed an impossibility.” Varik leaned close, giving her a sweet kiss. “It’s like we’re in the midst of a dream. We’re not, are we, Delaney?” He gave her a soft pinch after pinching himself. “I thought I’d save you the trouble this time.” His laughter was warm and tender.
“As long as we inhabit the dream together and never wake up, my darling Viking, I don’t care,” she said as the adoring father of her baby enfolded her in a loving embrace. “All I know, Varik, is that we are so very blessed.”
As they parted, Delaney looked at the card she held. “We need to save this so we can show our daughter one day. It’s proof of our Viking magic.”
Nodding, Varik held the other side of the card. “When she reads it I wonder if she’ll see it in English or Norwegian.” He gave a clueless shrug. “I still see it in Norwegian, in Grandpa Anders’s hand.”
“We’ll just have to wait to see what happens.” As they folded the card together, creasing it down the center, the card glowed bright in their hands, then disappeared in a flurry of sparkly sprinkles.
Varik nodded with understanding. “The magic was meant for our eyes only...” He looked into his fiancée’s eyes. “Just for this very special moment. Jeg elsker deg,” he whispered in her ear. “I love you,” he repeated in English. “My darling heartwish.”
“Jeg elsker deg,” Delaney harmonized. “I cherish you, my darling Varik the Bold. I always have and I always will.” Placing her hand on his chest, she added, “We may not have the card but we’ll always carry the proof of this magical night deep in our hearts.”
Lifting Delaney into his arms, he carried her back to the bedroom, the candles extinguishing themselves one by one as they passed by.
The kiss they shared was so full of love, joy, promise and gratitude that Delaney was certain Varik felt the effects clear down to his soul, just as she had.
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Dear Diary: It finally happened. It was on the night Varik and I were reunited and he proposed; the same night our mystical, magical miracle happened. For the first time, my treasured, recurrent dream finally reached its perfect, sigh-worthy conclusion:
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“Is it you?” I asked. “My Viking? My Varik the Bold?” Fire danced in his eyes as his lips drew close and he whispered...
“How I adore you, my sweet, beautiful bride to be. Your kind heart, warm humor, and loving, generous spirit all combine to make you a woman of great worth. And, oh, how I cherish the babe that grows inside you. I am indeed a fortunate man. I will love and protect you both until the day I die...and far beyond that. Jeg elsker deg, my darling Delaney...now and forever.”
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There, you see? Enchantment, fairytales, miracles, ghosts, angels...honestly, Dear Diary, how can I ever again doubt their existence? Or the very real magic of happily-ever-afters...
Until next time,
Delaney Malone Jenssen
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Thank you so much for choosing to read The Viking’s Heartwish. I hope you got as much enjoyment out of the story as I did writing it. Creating and getting to know each of the six Malone siblings and their mom, Astrid, has been satisfying and rewarding for me...well, except when one of them wakes me up at 3:00 a.m. to let me know they disagree with something I had them think, say, or do.
In the Heartwishes books I’ve created the sort of loving, close-knit, caring, and supportive family and friends that I wished I’d had growing up. For me, one of the best perks of being a writer is creating fictional worlds, populating them with a large cast of characters, then “living” in that world for hours on end as I tell their stories. Being so thoroughly immersed in a fictional world I’ve created, the pretend people and their hangouts soon seem to become real. My favorite part is getting to hang out with everybody.
I can’t imagine not writing. I write to make myself and my readers happy, which means you’re very important to me and I appreciate you! If you enjoyed this book I’d be delighted if you left a positive review or rating on the site where you purchased it. Your review can be long or short, or even just a star rating.
Good reviews tell me that readers enjoy my books, which helps encourage me to continue writing. They help new readers make decisions about whether or not to read my books. Reviews also help my books to be seen so they don’t get lost in a site’s complicated algorithms. The more reviews a book gets, the better chance it has of readers finding it. You can also help other readers find this book by recommending it to your friends.
As you can probably tell, I’d be exceedingly happy if you left a positive review for my book. Thank you!
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—Daisy Dexter Dobbs
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