Page 28 of Viking in Love

She would have liked to refuse the brutish order but did not want to disturb the others.

Grabbing her by the upper arm, he nigh dragged her down the passage and into a small guest bedchamber. When he released his hand, she staggered with weariness and with the effect of the cool air after all that heat. With a groan, she dropped down to sit on the edge of the bedstead.

“What is going on here?”

She told him what had happened and the status of the sickness at this point.

He nodded. “Why did you not contact me immediately?”

We were too busy saving lives. “I did not want to interrupt your wooing.”

A foul word was hurled at her.

She shrugged. “We did not know at first how bad it was. Rashid is a more than competent healer. We thought he could handle it. And he did.”

“That was not a decision for you to make.”

“I did…rather, we did what we thought was best at the time.” Ungrateful wretch!

“The little mite…Piers…” he seemed to choke up, then cleared his throat “…How is he?”

Well, mayhap not such a wretch, if he cares about the boy. “Close to death he was at one point, I believe, but he is getting better. They are all getting better. Except for the goatherder Ufric.”

Now would be the time for him to thank her. But did he do that? Nay! Instead, he studied her and said, “You look like bloody hell.”

She put a hand to her head where her hair was damp and sticky. Her face was no doubt dirty. And she probably smelled. “You would, too, if you had been sitting in a steam bubble for two days. Besides, dost think I care if you find my appearance repulsive?”

“Did I say that?” A smile twitched at his lips. “Truth to tell, I find your appearance…delectable. Even resembling a drowned rat, you make me tingle.”

What did he mean by tingling? She was the one who tingled when he was about. But then she glanced down and saw that her gunna was almost transparent with wetness. Her breasts and nipples were visible, as well as her nether hair.

She tried to cover herself but had not the strength. Instead, she started to laugh because, damn the man, she was tingling in those forbidden places he perused so arrogantly. But her laughter soon turned to tears of utter exhaustion.

Quickly, he walked over and picked her up in his arms.

“What?” she squawked. “Put me down.”

“I am taking you to the bathhouse. And then to a bed with clean linens for a long rest.”

“I must help Rashid.”

“I will help Rashid. You have done enough.”

“You?” she asked, skeptical.

“Dost think I am incompetent?”

Yea. “Nay. I just cannot see you wiping a sweaty brow, or cleaning a dirty bottom.”

A smile turned his enticing lips upward, and, amazingly, considering her sorry state, she felt a decided tingle in her tummy. Hunger, no doubt.

While her mind had been wandering, Caedmon had still been talking. She caught the tail end. “That is the best thing about being the leader, I can delegate. Methinks Wulf would make a good bottom wiper.”

So, the lout had a sense of humor. So what? she tried to tell herself. But then, against all good sense, she nuzzled up against his neck, inhaling his salty manscent, which was not unpleasant, mixed as it was with that of fresh air, leather, and horse. As hot as she had been in the steam heat, she was hotter now, but it was a different kind of heat, a heat generated by this man and this man only. Sex heat. “Just so it is not your bed where you deposit me,” she murmured.

He murmured something back that sounded like, “We shall see.”

“I am sorry to be such a bother.”