Page 91 of A Tale of Two Vikings

“I have been thinking—and, yea, I have had plenty of time to think—about your situation with Evergreen. I understand your overpowering drive to regain what is rightfully yours, but why would your father, a wealthy man in his own right, care so much for such a small estate?”

“Greed?”

“Greed goes only so far. There must be something about this property that makes it valuable to your father. Ponder the question whilst you lie in the bed you have made for yourself.”

She curled her upper lip at him.

He soon uncurled it when he reached over and touched one nipple with a forefinger. It immediately peaked, as did the other one. Two obedient soldiers standing to attention…his attention.

He pulled his chair closer and examined her breasts in more detail. He should have pinched and prodded her in punishment till she was black and blue, but instead he used gentle fingers and soft sweeps of his palm to fondle her. Against her will, her body betrayed her. It liked what he was doing. He could see that in the widening of her eyes and the flare of her nostrils.

He moved his hand lower then, spending some time on her indented navel and the smooth skin of her flat belly. Finally he allowed himself to touch the silky curls of her woman-fleece and the damp folds hidden within.

She groaned aloud.

He swallowed his own groan.

“Are you going to eat me…again?” she asked.

“What?” He whipped his hand back. He could not believe she had asked him that. “Uh…not right now. Mayhap later. I do not want to give you pleasure. This is supposed to be torture.”

A voice in his head asked, For her or for you?

He stood abruptly and walked away from the bed. As he was reaching for his cloak on a wall peg, she asked him in a panic, “Where are you going? Are you going to leave me here…alone?”

He secured the wolf brooch on his cape and walked back over to her. Taking one last look at her luscious body, he flipped the fur pelt up to cover her from the coolness which would fill the room once the fire died down. “I am going back to the keep. There is much news that I must catch up on.”

She nodded.

“But you are not to worry, wench. I will be back to sleep with you.”

She said something then that ladies rarely say. But then, she was not a lady. Hadn’t he learned that the hard way?

Sometimes laughter is the best medicine…

Toste was soaking in a large brass tub in an upper bedchamber of Ravenshire.

He’d eaten a huge meal belowstairs, then come up to his room to shave his bristly face. Finally he’d lowered himself into the hot water. It seemed a year and not ten days since he’d bathed completely.

The relaxing soak also gave him time to think. What to do about Esme? He still did not have all the answers, but one thing she’d accomplished with her outrageous abduction was that he didn’t intend to leave right away in pursuit of Vagn’s killer. That could wait till he’d resolved some other problems. Like Esme.

His relaxation was soon broken by the entrance of Eirik, Tykir and Bolthor, who’d been in the stables helping a mare with a difficult birth.

“How goes it?” he asked.

“Not so good. The colt did not survive, and the mare probably will not, either,” Eirik said.

“Sorry. I know that Sunlight was one of your favorites.”

“She was. But she has given us four other colts in the past, and she had a good life.”

“Speaking of the good life,” Tykir said, pulling over a low stool and sitting near the foot of the tub. Eirik sat on the bed, and Bolthor leaned back against the wall. “How is yours?”

“Just wonderful.”

They all grinned at him, waiting to hear the whole story. Figuring they would not leave him alone till he told them everything, he began with the seductive message he’d received and how he’d wound up tied to the bed. He even told them how he’d originally misheard Esme’s name as “Eat me.” When he finished, the three of them stared at him as if he’d grown another head.

Eirik was shaking his head from side to side. “You and Vagn always did have a talent for attracting preposterous situations.”