Valhalla Cupcakes Read Online Free

wooden tables was not Valhalla. Odin wouldn’t be so cruel.
    He ambled around, enjoying the feel of his feet hitting the floor, inspecting his surroundings. He recalled a woman kneeling over him and wondered where she was. It had been an awfully long time since he’d had his hands on a woman.
    He thought of the witch who’d imprisoned him, longing to wrap his hands around her neck. He needed to figure out where he was first, assess what he’d need. He’d seen many things from his different vantage points over the last centuries, and he knew for one thing the clothes he’d been wearing when he was cursed would bring unwanted attention to him. He knew he’d need the currency of the time and place he was now in to get anywhere. As much as he wanted to race out the door, he had to be smart and get some answers first. If only someone was around that he could question.
    “Hello,” he shouted in the last language he’d heard spoken.
    Sometimes he listened to what the people around him had to say, sometimes he drifted off in his own world. Five hundred years was an unbearably long time, and he’d been unable to do anything but listen and stare straight ahead. It was long past time for action. He thundered halfway up the stairs and bellowed his greeting again, more forcefully this time.
    He heard a door open and feet padding along the floor above him and smiled, moving to the center of the room and crossing his arms in front of him, feet wide apart, ready to greet whoever appeared.
    There she was, that woman who’d fallen on him earlier, coming down the stairs. He liked the looks of her much better than when his vision had been restricted. His eyes were clear again, and he let them roam appreciatively down her body. She wore a form fitting skirt and a shirt that clung to her breasts, her feet were bare and her dark russet hair was rumpled as if she’d been asleep. The moment she saw him, she stopped dead on the stairs, her rosy full lips parted in shock, her deep green eyes wide. Every inch of visible skin looked soft enough to want to run his fingers over.
    “Don’t be afraid.” He smiled invitingly at her, thinking luck had finally got back on his side, being freed by such a beautiful woman. This was going to be fun.
    Until she wrenched an antler off the wall and flung it at his head, screaming loud enough to frighten a kraken.

    ***

    Audrey closed her mouth and sat down on the stairs, hard enough to let her know she wasn’t dreaming.
    “Harrold?” she choked out.
    He stood in the middle of the room, smiling welcomingly as if he owned the place, and she was right about one thing. He was as gorgeous as she thought he’d be without that murderous scowl. In fact, right now, the smile seemed infinitely more dangerous. Feeling an overwhelming urge to scuttle down the rest of the steps and let him do all the mischievous things to her that her mind conjured up, she pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t still asleep.
    Ouch, nope, she was awake. It was a shame, because she thought she deserved a dream in which a hot Viking swept her off her feet. As soon as she got over her disappointment, she realized she had a far bigger problem than her lack of any good sex lately.
    There was a giant Viking standing in the middle of her bakery. Completely blank, she stood up and screamed again.
    He actually laughed, making his way to her in two strides. He clapped his hand over her mouth before easily picking her up under one arm and hauling her down the stairs.
    “I won’t hurt you,” he rumbled, dropping her onto the floor and holding out his hands placatingly. “My name is Erik Agnarsson, not Harrold.”
    “How in the hell are you even here?”
    Even though she’d just been squashed against his extremely hard body, confirming that he was not a figment of her imagination, she jumped forward and hit him in the chest with both palms. Yes, extremely hard. Definitely real.
    “Unless I lost my mind?” she wondered aloud,