The sound of his wife’s chuckle was almost enough to lead Ragnar along on the belief that the fires of each other’s ire was blazing in a very different direction, her ‘unacceptable’ low and teasing inspiring the wolfish grin that exposed his sharp teeth at her, his gaze heavy and heated as he looked her over in a manner that was akin to an artist observing a masterpiece. Admiring and calculating, awe-struck and knowledgeable. “I have scorned a lot of women,” He murmured in a contradicting tone, doubting his wife’s confidence that the women he left used and abandoned would jump at the chance to have at him once more. “What is it they say? Hell hath no fury like a woman left scorned? I do not know this Hell,” Ragnar assumed it was some type of mythological wolf — not realizing that it was a place and one that Nerian believed in at that — “But if a scorned woman’s fury is greater than his I think that is bad.” Given that Ragnar didn’t fully understand the saying he couldn’t say for sure. “I do not think they would want me again.”
Not that Ragnar wanted them to want him again because he didn’t. Whatever lust the Viking had felt for them had been brief and entirely extinguished.
“It is not Nerian’s fault, either,” Ragnar spoke quietly in his slave’s defense when Thistle informed him that her ire was not at him. That left only Nerian in his mind and it wasn’t fair that she bear the brunt of Thistle’s wrath when she could no more help that she had fallen in love with him than Ragnar could help others falling in love with him. He understood Thistle’s disposition but then again he understood that all Nerian knew of him was his flighty behavior with women. It was no wonder she thought that what he had with Thistle would not last. Yet, there were outlining differences between his relationship with Thistle and the relationship with all his previous women. The most important, outlining difference. Love. “You don’t need to speak to Nerian about this,” Ragnar spoke suddenly, touching upon one of his wife’s thoughts without even realizing it. “I will tell her to stay clear of you. She is my responsibility, and I need her.” It was one of the reasons why he had yet to grant the Priestess her freedom. Ragnar still needed the unwilling loyalty that bound her to him, tested time and time again. He had promised her her freedom once he got what he wanted, what Odinn demanded; and in that meantime Ragnar did not need them going for one another’s throats as if he were some prized bull they had to fight to the death over.
