Honey. To be spread all over him and licked in slow, sensual swipes of her tongue. For the second time that evening, Sven feared he had unmanned himself.
“Yes. Go get the honey,” he rasped.
“It’s in the other room.” She straightened back up and restored some order to her bodice. “Wait here, Heimdallr.”
Bloody hell, if hearing that name in her mouth didn’t reduce his loins to cinders. How was he going to survive this? He wasn’t sure.
“I’ll not be going anywhere.”
Even if he had not been tied up to the wall, he would not have wished himself anywhere else for the world. Finally, his Alva seemed to have accepted what she felt for him, allowed desire to dictate her actions.
Today would mark a turning point, he could feel it.
16
“Get her, quick.”
Before she could understand who had spoken and what they were doing in her house, Eahlswith found herself with her mouth trapped under a filthy hand and her arms pinned to her side by an iron arm. She could no more talk than she could move. Behind her was a man as solid as a boulder, impossible to shake off.
In front of her was the living image of herself.
Ealawynne.
Her twin sister.
The sister she had thought never to see again.
Eahlswith froze as everything suddenly made sense. Sven had told her earlier that she had ignored him when he’d placed himself in front of her at the market. Silly her, she’d thought he had lied or been mistaken. She should have known something was amiss, Sven was not the sort of person to lie or make such glaring mistake. He had seen her twin, who had not recognized him, it was the obvious explanation. She should have guessed from what he’d told her that Ealawynne was in town but she’dbeen so confident she was safe—and so bewildered by Sven’s visit—that she had not even taken that possibility into account.
Why was her sister doing here? And, more to the point, how had she found her? Eahlswith had made sure to vanish without a trace when she’d left the village, and to choose a big town days away to hide.
Well, she had failed because her twin was definitely here, and she was not alone.
“Sit her down on this chair,” Ealawynne instructed the man who was holding her. “Tie her up, and gag her mouth.”
A moment later Eahlswith was trussed up and unable to do anything other than glare at her sister and turn her head to try and catch a glimpse of her accomplice. She had still not seen him and had no idea who he might be. Not many men she knew were that huge. Except one.
One who would no doubt take exception to the treatment inflicted on her.
While the Saxon had tied her to the chair, one thought had helped her to keep panic at bay. Unlike what her attackers thought, she was not alone. Sven was in the house. He would never let the ruffians take her away, or even hurt her. With the filthy rag stuffed in her mouth she couldn’t call out to him, ask for his help but that was no issue. He was not too far away, he would be able to hear the threats issued to her. He might think she had visitors at first and not wish to interrupt but it would not take him long to understand that she was in danger and come to her.
Thank God he had chosen today of all days to come give her the comb. Thank God he had not given up on her, despite her efforts to push him out of her life. Eahlswith closed her eyes. As soon as she was free, she would have to ask herself some serious questions and make some decisions. She had already concludedthat she wanted to give him a chance but she might even have to accept that she wanted to fight to keep him in her life.
“I bet I know what you’re thinking,” Ealawynne said once the man had joined her. Hewashuge, at least a head taller than her and he would have been handsome if a spark of intelligence or compassion had warmed his gray eyes. As it was, he just looked like a brute. “You are wondering to what you owe this visit.”
Visit.
Eahlswith would have scoffed if she’d been able to. Since when did visitors tie their hosts to their chairs? Seeing as she couldn’t answer anyway, she waited for the explanation that was sure to come, because she was curious. What was her sister doing here, and why had she asked a mountain of man to attack her?
“Fuck, Ealawynne, she looks just like you.”
“I know.” Her sister didn’t seem to like the comment. Eahlswith shared the sentiment. “We are twins, I told you.”
“Yes, but there’s twins and twins. This one is definitely a twin, if you know what I mean, not just a twin.”
Mm. The man definitely did not have the sharpest mind. Good. Muscles were one thing, but they would be useless against a man who had musclesanda brain.
Eahlswith kept glancing at the door to the storeroom, knowing that Sven would emerge any moment. Placed where she was she would be able to see everything. The fury on his face when he saw what had been done to her, the fear in her sister’s eyes when she realized she would not get away with her little scheme, the confusion in the brute’s mind when he found himself on the receiving end of an irate Norseman’s blows. She would relish every moment of it.
