Page 45 of The Outlaw Viking

Rain gasped.

“Oh, I have rutted with women because I thought it was what a man should do, because I thought it would make me forget. But I tired of the meaningless couplings two years ago.”

“But you implied that you might go to Blanche,” she interrupted.

Selik shook his head wearily. “There have been a hundred Blanches in my life. But I have not really wanted a woman for such a long time. Until ten days ago. Until I met a maddening, shrewish angel, claiming to hail from the future, who has damn well turned my life upside down and inside out.”

“Oh, Selik.”

“Do not ‘Oh, Selik’ me,” he warned. “I do not welcome these softer yearnings. I mislike feeling again.” He started to say something more, then stopped abruptly, spinning on his heel and walking away from her.

Stunned, Rain just gaped at his departing back. Then she stomped right after him. He was giving directions to Gorm for the scouts when she finally caught up with him.

Without a thought to her rudeness in interrupting a private conversation, Rain put a palm on Selik’s chest and shoved. Of course, he didn’t budge at all, just stared at her brazen hand in disbelief. Gorm gawked at her as if she had two heads.

“Listen, buster, you can’t tell a woman something wonderful like that and then walk away big as you please.”

He looked pointedly at her hand still pushing at his rock-hard chest. Raising an eyebrow, he commented dryly, “’Twould seem you have a dark side, after all. For a pacifist.”

Glancing down and realizing that she had, indeed, picked up a few violent attributes, Rain dropped her hand as if his chest had suddenly caught on fire. Actually, the insufferable man did throw off a tantalizing heat. Oh, Lord!

Selik tilted his head in puzzlement then. “What wonderful thing did I say?”

Rain felt her face flush. “You said…” She hesitated when she noticed that Gorm still stood there, listening to her every word with intent concentration and a wide smirk. She glared at him until he snorted with disgust and walked away, muttering.

Turning back to Selik, she continued, “You said you hadn’t wanted to make love with any woman for ten years until you met me.”

“And?”

“And! There is no ‘and’, you dolt. You said it deliberately to tempt me, didn’t you? And then—”

“Are you tempted?”

“No!” she exclaimed too quickly and knew by the slow smile that teased his lips that she hadn’t fooled him a bit. “Anyhow, is it true?”

“Is what true?” He didn’t even try to hide his smile now, and Rain’s heart slammed wildly against her chest in reaction. “That I want you? That it’s been two years since I have bedded a woman? That I have not really desired a particular woman since my—since—well, for ten years?”

“Yes, all those things,” she agreed quickly. Finally, she was getting somewhere with the thickheaded, wonderful fool.

He thought for a while, rubbing his fingertips thoughtfully across his furrowed forehead, then nodded slowly, saying nothing. He just watched her intently.

She waited for him to say more, but he just stood silently like a damned statue. Stomping her foot in exasperation, she finally broke the silence, “Dammit! I know what you’re doing here. My mother told me all about you. I should have listened. The ultimate seducer, that’s how she described you. Oh, you are slick, I give you that. I’ll bet that line has worked on a thousand women.”

“A thousand!” Laughter, deep and rich, bubbled up from his throat. “You overestimate my talents, sweetling.”

She stepped closer, preparing to shove him again, but Selik put both hands on her shoulders and held her off. A jolt of white-hot fire ignited her skin under his fingertips and shot to all the delicious nerve endings in her body. Instinctively, she leaned closer.

“Nay, keep your distance, wench. My self-control has been pushed to the limits. I want you. Badly. And unless you intend to share my bed furs in the true sense, ’tis best you stay away from me.”

Rain couldn’t deny that the prospect enticed her. In fact, she would have liked nothing more at the moment than to surrender to all the wild new impulses beating throughout her body. But Rain had never behaved impetuously in the past, and her too-pragmatic brain put forth another message, questioning whether she could compromise her principles by making love with a man who stood for all that she abhorred. She groaned under the weight of all her warring emotions. “Selik, please, will you release the captives and give up fighting?”

“Nay, I cannot.” He shook his head sadly, then shot her a challenging look. “But I will teach you things your books never told, bring you pleasures your modern lovers never dreamed. I will make your blood sing and your bones melt. You will never want another man after me.”

Rain should have been affronted at his conceit. She wasn’t.

She licked her lips nervously, trying to bring her rioting hormones under control. “And how about you?” she asked softly. “Would you want another woman after having me?”

Selik studied her face closely, the passion in his eyes mirroring her own, before answering, “Probably not.”