The Other Side Read online

  Jens held his hand out to me, but it felt too distant to take it. Instead I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, collapsing into him. I was tired of the chasm between us.

  “That’s the stuff,” he sighed, kissing me once. “There we are. We lost us for a little bit there. I didn’t like it.”

  “Me neither. Let’s never fight again. That sounds doable, right?”

  “I’m nothing if not doable,” he teased, waggling the eyebrows I loved. Foss pushed passed Jens in a huff. “Suzy Sunshine’s bunking with you tonight, Jamie. I’ve seen enough of Foss Junior for a lifetime.”

  Foss froze. “That wasn’t… do you mean to tell me… that really happened?”

  Jens nodded, his laugh vindictive now that things were in their proper place. He kissed my cheek before he let me down. “You were pretty vocal about your feelings for your little wife.”

  “It was that Huldra woman! Stina, that stupid rat!” He shook his fist in the air. “This is why their kind was banished to the Other Side. This is why! If I see her again, she’s dead!”

  “How did that song go he sang you, Lucy? The one about your golden hair?” Jens was being a jerk. While I couldn’t really blame him, it definitely wasn’t his sexiest shade of seduction.

  Foss looked like he was torn between vomiting and going on a Hulked-out rage. “Not the one about your golden eyelashes? Tell me I didn’t sing the song I wrote for you back in Fossegrim!”

  My head whipped to my husband. “I thought you wrote that because Stina scrambled your brains. You… you wrote the song that long ago?”

  Foss growled at me not to start with him.

  I wasn’t starting anything. I was genuinely touched. No one had ever written me a song. Unless you count the innumerable ones Linus had composed about farts to make me laugh. This was not the same. The words had been beautiful, dripping with sincerity as he recounted the details of my face, and the nuances he took notice of that added to his love for me. I’d been the only one to hear the whole song, and the lyrics stayed locked inside my heart so I could treasure them as something precious, something beautiful. Something of my husband that was mine to keep.

  Jamie slapped his hands together to relieve the tension. “So, anyone want to explain the leafless trees? Is it so cold here, they just up and die?”

  I shifted my coat around my torso. “Actually, that’s pretty accurate.”

  Britta intervened. “You’re welcome to stay with us tonight, Foss.”

  “If you want to watch my girl sleep again, suck on her shoulder or make love to her ear, knock twice first.” Jens’s teasing had a bit too much bite to it for my taste.

  “Let’s get some sleep, guys. I’m beat. Foss didn’t know what he was doing. Lay off.” I slipped off of Jens and led him upstairs after he checked us in. I was grateful for the privacy the two-room suite afforded us.

  “That was a long drive. You didn’t touch your lunch. How about we go grab a bite before we turn in? I could do with a little time away.” He stretched after setting down our bags.

  The room was like any other three-star hotel. High-traffic carpet, dresser only people planning on living there like us used, resale shop artwork, heavy burgundy draperies, big brown comforter on a giant bed, a too-small tub and various mini toiletries I liked to line up like little soldiers who obeyed my every command.

  Jens watched me deflate at the small size of the tub. “What do you say we order them some room service and you and I go out? Let’s ditch ’em. Go someplace nice. I’m tired of fast food and grocery stores.” He hooked his finger through one of my front belt loops to lure me closer for a swift kiss. “I saw they have an Italian restaurant just down the street.”

  He was playful Jens again. I loved that guy. “You mean like a date?” A small smile teased my lips. I kissed him again. “No one’s ever asked me on a date before.”

  His happiness vanished, and he pulled away. “I forgot your birthday, and I’ve never even taken you out on a proper date. I’m scum.”

  “Where would you have taken me? Tipping cows in Tonttu? Fishing in Fossegrim? It’s fine. We’re here now. You’ve asked, and I’m accepting.” I grinned, rubbing his back to rally him. “I date now. I’m a dating girl.”

  “That, you are.” He anchored his fist down into the mattress. “I really wished I hadn’t forgotten your birthday, though. I had big plans for your twenty-first.”

  “It’s fine, Jens. I don’t even know your birthday. I’m not upset with you. Just the whole missing my own birthday feels kinda crappy. Talk about compromising myself.”

  “Undrans don’t do things the way you do. I have no idea what day I was born. It was the year of the squash flower, sometime in the seventh moon.”

  My nose wrinkled. “When the smack is that?”

  “Exactly. Birthdays are a human thing.” He pulled out a nicer shirt. It was a black button-down with silver buttons on the cuffs. He shoved his arms into it as he spoke. With every modern article of clothing I saw him in, he looked less like Jens the sexy nomad, and more like Jens, hottest model in the universe. “Linus and I had it all planned out. You two were going to go to a bar, because you know, twenty-one and all.”

  “Sure.”

  “I was going to show up and buy you a drink from across the bar. You’d be all nervous and giggly, and you’d say, ‘Linus, that hot guy over there bought me a drink! What should I do?’” His voice went super girly when he imitated me.

  I rolled my eyes. “Your impersonation of me? Stellar.”

  “Then Linus would make you get up and talk to me.”

  I shook my head. “That’s it? That’s your plan? My parents make you wait to meet me until I’m an adult, and your big move is get me drunk?” I whistled. “Smooth operator.”

  He grimaced, pinching my side. “That’s not my big move. It’s the first time you meet me. I’m not telling you my big move. After that smooth operator comment, you don’t deserve it.”

  “Oh, do you say ‘Hey, baby. Is this seat taken?’”

  “Yes. That’s my big move.”

  “Do you ask me my sign?”

  “I’m not big on that. That’s Foss. He’s the closeted star-gazer. Let him wow you by telling you you’ll meet a handsome stranger today.”

  “Do you let me win at beer pong?”

  Jens scolded me with his eyes, cinching his hands around my hips and squeezing. “You’ll never win at that. I can’t get drunk off alcohol, and you’ve got bad aim when you’re stone sober.” He kissed me, and I let myself sink into his arms as our lips moved together. “I’m so in love with you.”

  “Then you should date me,” I suggested, adoring the idea. We kissed, and it was a sweet relief that rode through my body. “I hate the time we were apart.”

  “Have I said I’m sorry about that?” he asked, sucking his toned stomach in as I surprised him by working off his buttons and tearing open the shirt he’d just put on.

  “Only a hundred times.” I pulled the black undershirt he was wearing up over his head. “Less chatter from you. More kissing.” I weaved my fingers through his gorgeous hair as he pressed his lips to mine, grateful we didn’t have to rehash all the ways we went wrong. I pushed him onto the bed, and like a good sport for pretending I was strong enough to move someone like him, he fell.

  I loved the way he fell for me. It was a soft crash, but permanent. All the stories of the great Jens the Brave being such a hard nut to crack, and he was looking up at me through those thick lashes any girl would kill for.

  Jens’s hands were strong and large. When he looped his finger down the waist of my jeans to draw me to lay atop him, I tried not to let him see my shiver. When he cupped the backs of my thighs to move them so I was straddling him, I tried not to let my trepidation show. After months of bunking with his sister and a bunch of dudes, we were finally alone and far enough from where Pesta could track us. I could feel relief radiating off him, adding to the body heat building between us. Instead of
appreciating him from afar, I got to run my hands through the hair on his chest, rake my fingernails down his stomach and squeeze his hips with my thighs. I sucked on his lower lip, and he groaned deliciously into my mouth.

  Lucy! Jamie scolded me. This is not proper!

  Get out of my head and let me have a moment, here. I don’t need a third person in the room for this.

  Jens’s fingers crept under the hem of my shirt, and I thrilled at the sensation as I arched my back.

  I don’t approve of this, Jamie chided, his tone repugnant. We’re talking about this later. I can feel what you’re feeling, and it’s… this is not proper!

  Jens kissed my navel, and I melted all over him, dismissing the voice in my head that left in a huff. I was a pool of my former stoic self. Lucy Kincaid who never had a boyfriend, never had a date even, was losing her mind over a lick to her belly button. There was nothing else in the world but his thick, luscious lips and the magic they worked on my stomach.

  I shifted atop him, and he froze with his tongue on my abdomen. He jerked his arms off me and rested his head back on the fluffy comforter.

  “Why’d you stop? Am I doing this wrong?” I asked, my chest heaving like I’d just sprinted up four flights of stairs. “You can be on top, if you want.”

  Jens groaned, but shut his eyes and rattled his head like a dog to shake himself out of the moment. “Your mom would whistle me off a cliff for this.”

  “She would not. She didn’t use her whistle, remember?”

  Jens’s eyelids flared upward as he shook his head again, his arms stretched over his head to keep them honest. “She’d make an exception if she could read the thoughts running through my filthy mind.” He stared down at my navel again, and I could see the lust in his eyes. “I’m suddenly very aware I’m doing all this to my friend’s sister.”

  I harrumphed. “Well, all that’s always going to be true.”

  “Sure, but this is the wrong order. We’ve broken up and got back together all before I’ve even taken you on a real date.” He sat up, wrapping his arms around me so I could still straddle his lap. “You have to make me work harder than this.”

  I kissed him again, pressing up against him. “Harder than what we’ve already been through?”

  “That’s survival. I don’t want a relationship based on that. When this is all over, I want us to last. Trust me on this. We need to cover the basics before we get lost in a sex haze.”

  I eyed him. “A sex haze, eh? That’s awfully presumptuous of you.”

  He pfft’d in my face. “Please. I was two minutes away from pay day.” He kissed me, and I shivered. “One day when we’re not living to survive. When we can calm down, get you your white picket fence and make rational lifelong decisions.”

  “Okay, chief. Dinner and a movie it is.” I extracted myself from him and shifted my shirt back into place.

  He held up his finger. “I’ll need a minute.” When he eyed my form with lusty eyes, I did a little shimmy to garner the expected whimper. “What were my reasons again?”

  “Sorry. Does this help?” I stopped dancing sexy and switched to the chicken dance instead.

  Jens laughed, which only attracted me more to him. We were in quite the predicament. “Nope. Still hot. Sexiest chicken I’ve ever seen. Let’s go. This room’s laced with something that makes us take our clothes off. Dangerous.” He shoved his undershirt and button-down back on and put on nice shoes and socks, eyeing me all the while.

  I observed the difference between us and frowned. “I didn’t really shop for date clothes. I think I was still in survival mode.” I pointed to his black, square-toed shoes that would have fit in nicely at a jazz club or a board meeting.

  “You look like you, and I like you.” He kissed me again, stuffing his pockets with the essentials for leaving the room. You know, room key, car key, wallet and four concealed weapons. “We’re both wearing jeans.”

  I wasn’t the type of girl to wear skirts, but I kinda wished I was in that moment. “I look like a kid next to you. You look like the model for those clothes.”

  He gave me the stink eye. “Why do your compliments sound like you’re disappointed? I can change my shoes, if that’s what’s bugging you.”

  “No, no. I like the look of you. It’s a new side I haven’t seen before. No more black boots. You look… pretty in those.”

  Jens rolled his eyes. “Okay, now I’m changing.”

  I waved my hand to excuse my choice of words. “I didn’t mean that. Don’t change a thing. Just give me a minute.”

  I fished through my bag of clothes and found a black long-sleeved fitted shirt. I usually didn’t go for black, but they had a limited selection at the supermart, if you can believe it. I went to the bathroom to change and spent a few moments doing my hair. I hadn’t actually put my hair up since it had been cut, so it was a new series of experiments. I ended up with most of my curls pinned away from my face, and a few hanging down. This exposed my complexion a bit more than usual, and I was grateful my black eye had faded to a sallow yellow and wasn’t swollen anymore. A touch of lip gloss, and I felt like a new woman, or a woman, anyway, and less like a little girl or a dude.

  I settled on a red Chuck Taylor and a black one, not willing to leave myself entirely behind to look nice next to my boyfriend. Jens reached out and took my hand as we left the room, and I realized that’s all it took for us to look like we were together.

  15

  First Date

  “So, Jamie’s pissed at our improper behavior.”

  Jens looked guilty. “Yikes. How much did he see?”

  I shrugged. “He can feel it when I get… overexcited.”

  “Loving that bond more and more,” he groused. “So when we do finally go for it, it’ll be like making love to my best friend and my girlfriend. Really not the kind of threesome any guy wants.”

  I shook my head, blanching. “No, no. We just have to work out a heads-up system. He was able to walk away once he stopped Papa Don’t Preaching me.”

  “I really don’t want him seeing me like that. He’ll learn moves he can use on my sister.” We walked through the icy air down the street toward the only restaurant that wouldn’t take me too far from the tether. “Not that I don’t want her to be happy, but still. It’s weird.”

  “You’ve got moves?” I teased, feigning unimpressed.

  “I’ve got moves that’d blow your mind.”

  I shrugged as he opened the door for me, loving the chivalry that came with a real date. “I have yet to see evidence of that.” I reached up on my toes and pecked his cheek. “I love that you opened the door for me. Very boyfriendy.”

  “Well, I am your boyfriend. You need to raise the bar higher. Make me work harder than opening a door. Challenge me, woman!” He pretended to boss me around, knowing it would get a rise out of me.

  My head started to hurt when the hostess led us an inch past her stand, and I nearly cursed aloud.

  Lucy? Where are you? came my buddy’s voice.

  At the restaurant down the street. I sighed. Jens and I are on a date. We’ll only be an hour. Can you hold out?

  A restaurant… with food?

  That’s the thing about restaurants. Lousy with food.

  Okay.

  When his voice left my head, I relaxed.

  “Is Jamie alright?” Jens inquired, sitting across from me and reaching out for my hand. The hostess handed him the menu, but he didn’t give it a glance.

  “You could tell I was talking to him?”

  “Yeah.” He leaned across the booth and tapped the space between my eyes. “You get a worried little wrinkle right there when your head starts hurting. You want to go back?”

  “No,” I insisted. “It’s my first date. A little headache’s nothing. I can barely feel it anymore.”

  “It’s your call, Mox.”

  “Then I call that conversation over. On to the next.” I opened the menu and perused all the choices that merged together to form
one delicious restaurant. “I stinking love Italian food. And would you look at that? No kanins anywhere on the list. My kind of place.”

  Jens didn’t open his menu, but stood and kissed my cheek. “Be right back. Bathroom. Order me spaghetti, will you?”

  “Spaghetti? That’s it? Your first sit-down meal in months, and you want spaghetti?”

  “It’s hard to mess up marinara and noodles.”

  “True enough.” I watched him walk away, enjoying his swagger. He must’ve felt my eyes on him, because halfway to the bathroom, he stopped, lifted his shirt and gave me a nice swish of his backside. Really kinda loved that guy.

  A few minutes later, the door opened, and I caught sight of Jamie, Britta and Foss. My heart sank as I waved them over. They had no idea about restaurant protocol, so they kept their heads down and made a beeline over to me as quick as they could. “Hey, guys. Do you know what a date is, Jamie?” I asked, none too pleased.

  “No. I assume it’s going to a place to eat food, since that’s what you’re doing. Did we do it wrong?” He took off his jacket and sat down across from me. Britta slid into the booth on my side while Foss stood awkwardly in the aisle, not willing to look me in the eye.

  I sighed. “Nope. That’s about right. You guys look hungry. Have a seat.” I waved the waitress over. “Could we move to a table for five? Would that be possible?”

  The waitress was appropriately polite and hid that we inconvenienced her well enough. “Certainly. It’ll just be a moment.” She took in the beautiful giants surrounding me with a professional smile.

  We scooted out of the booth and followed her to a table near the window. “Oh, sorry. Could we have something near the back of the restaurant? I’m a little chilly.” Yup. Total high-maintenance customer. I know. But I also knew that when Jens came out, he would make us move to a less visible spot anyways.

  Poor sweet strawberry blonde waitress complied and even had the grace to apologize for not asking. She moved us, and I sat like a good little girl who never complains, the two of us apologizing to each other until she left for the kitchen to fill the beverage orders I put in for the table.