Page 65 of A Tale of Two Vikings

“Nay, you misread me, Helga. There will be no more than this.” He stepped back from her as if suddenly aware of what he’d just done…of the danger he’d placed himself in.

“We shall see,” she said and sashayed off the way Rona had taught her, which was a real feat because her legs were as weak as melted butter and her woman-place was seeping moisture.

She thought she heard Vagn say behind her, “Gods help me!”

When one clueless man confronts another clueless man…

Vagn confronted Finn the next day in the bathhouse.

He was bare-arsed naked, as was Finn, but men did not care about such things. However, Finn was doing something rather outlandish, even for a Viking.

“What in the name of Odin are you doing?”

“Combing my manhairs,” Finn answered, not bothering to look up. He was indeed running a small comb through the short curls that surrounded his balls and cock…occasionally moving his staff from side to side to survey the effect, even pulling out a pair of shears and snipping the stray hairs.

“Why?”

“Because women like it.”

“They do?” Vagn pulled himself up short before he contemplated getting himself such a comb, and broached the subject he’d come to discuss with Finn. “Stay away from Helga.”

“Huh?” Dumb as dung, Finn was, in Vagn’s opinion. He had to be to be combing his cock.

“You heard me. Stay away from Helga.”

“Why? Does she belong to you?”

Vagn felt his face fill with heat, and not from the hot springs. “Nay. But I am looking out for her.”

“Isn’t that a bit mean-spirited?” Finn inquired with a sly glint in his eye. Mayhap he was not so dumb after all. “You don’t want her, but you don’t want anyone else to have her, either.”

“My reasons matter not. Just stay away from Helga.”

“Or?”

“I’ll lop off your head.”

Finn laughed, showing off way too many perfect teeth. “What makes you think she’d want me anyway? Her father tried to arrange a match betwixt us five years past, and Helga rejected me.”

“Really?” Now, that was interesting news. Helga must be playing her seduction game again…trying to pretend interest in Finn to make Vagn jealous. Not that he was jealous.

“On the other hand, she may have changed her mind about me. Five years can make an old maid less picky.” Finn waggled his eyebrows at Vagn, enjoying his discomfort far too much.

“Helga is not an old maid,” Vagn surprised himself by saying. “She is a woman who is alone by choice.” Oh, gods, stop my blathering tongue afore it runs away on me.

“Hmmmm.” Finn resumed his combing and snipping.

Vagn decided it was a useless cause trying to converse with Finn. He turned and was about to don his dry clothes and leave the bathhouse when Finn called out to him. “Have no worry, Vagn. Helga is not to my taste anyhow. I ne’er did relish cold women in my bed furs.”

Hah! If Finn and the other men in this keep only knew! Helga was hot as sin. The question was: How can I avoid the flame? I ever was a man attracted by a good sinner.

A hard nut to crack…but beware of flying shell…

“Ooooh, Vagn, could you please help me?”

Uh-oh! Vagn had been walking by the storage room, heading toward the great hall and the midday repast, when Helga called out to him. Once again, she’d caught him unawares. “Help you with what?” His voice sounded more churlish than he’d intended, but, by thunder, the woman had him walking on hot coals these days, so leery was he of being in her presence. But he prided himself on being a hard nut to crack in the games women played with men. He’d never lost yet.

“I can’t reach the candles on the top shelf.” She was standing at the bottom of a ladder which was braced against a set of built-in wooden shelves that went all the way to the ceiling. Well, that appeared a reasonable request. No harm in lending a hand. So he climbed the ladder for her all the way to the top, not even becoming alarmed at the way she gaped at his buttocks in his tautened braies. He did have a good arse. “Which ones do you want? There are many different sizes.” They were all the same length but of different widths. He held three out to her.