Page 4 of To Tame a Viking Warlord

He looked about the great hall hoping to find something to distract his thoughts. Truth be told, he was itching for a good fight to burn away the feeling.

As if summoned by fate itself, his arch nemesis appeared in the doorway.

Brodie 'the Bear' Fletcher. A man Torstein loved to rile on any given day, walked in.

"What the devil are ye doing here, ye blonde sponge cake?" Brodie growled.

Torstein gave him a leisurely grin. "I've come to swive your wife, Highlander. Show her what a real man feels like between her thighs."

That was all it took for all hell to break loose.

Brodie roared and launched himself across the hall and knocked Torstein clean off his chair. Bystanders scrambled out of the way as the two men hit the rug grappling. Fists flew. Insults were shouted, mainly from Brodie, who bellowed with the full-throated outrage of a man who was about to turn berserker. Torstein dodged most of the blows, laughing the whole while, as though he were not one hit away from a broken nose.

Torstein had never understood men who grew more possessive of their wives with every passing year, more easily provoked, more willing to brawl over a jest they both knew was only a jest. He could not imagine being so thoroughly claimed by a woman that a man would fly into a fit of rage if anyone insulted her.

They broke apart. Torstein got to his feet and thumped a fist against his chest. "Come on then! Let's see what you're made of, baby's breath!"

"Why, ye ingrate!" Brodie roared.

They came together again in a clattering tangle of arms and curses, and the watching men roared their approval, taking sides, spilling more mead than they drank.

Then the axes came out.

It happened the way it always happened. A weapon appeared in Brodie's hand from nowhere a man could name, and the crowd that had pressed close now pressed back, though none of them looked away.

"Brodie Fletcher, put that axe down and step away from Torstein right now!" Zala Fletcher pushed between her husband and her childhood friend with exasperation. "You ken full well Tor's only trying to rile you. I am not running off with him, for the love of all that's holy. If I wanted to, I would have done it years ago."

Brodie lowered the axe, growling, glaring at Torstein over his wife's shoulder. Torstein mockingly mimed a wailing infant behind Zala's back.

"He's making faces at me!" Brodie protested.

Zala whipped her head around.

Torstein's expression changed immediately to a picture of angelic innocence when she glared at him. "I did nae do anything. I was just standing here minding my own matters," he said.

Zala turned back to her husband, laid a hand flat over his chest, and rose on her toes to kiss him. Right there. In front of Torstein.

Brodie's whole body unclenched at once. He kissed her back without a trace of his earlier temper.

"Husband," she murmured against his mouth, "after five healthy bairns and all these years, do ye truly believe I would leave ye for Tor?" She drew back just enough to give him a slow, knowing smile. "He may look like an angel from heaven. But I prefer my wicked, sinful Highlander to any other."

Brodie's jealousy dissolved into a grin that made him look ten years younger.

Which was, of course, the exact moment Torstein decided to ruin it. "I too can be sinfully wicked for you, Peedie Bird," he said, low and amused. "Give me just one night, Zala, and ye'll be screaming my name for the whole clan to hear."

Peedie Bird. The name he'd called her since they were children.

One moment Zala was gazing up at Brodie with open adoration. The next she was gently shoved aside as Brodie roared and launched himself at Torstein for the second time that evening.

It took four grown men to finally separate them.

They sported bruises and split lips and bloodied knuckles. But Torstein roared with laughter and could not help grinning from ear to ear. For the moment at least, the restlessness had eased.

***

LATER IN THE QUIET of their own chamber, after several vigorous rounds of lovemaking, Zala lay naked across Brodie's chest as they both tried to catch their breath.

Zala studied her husband with suspicion until it dawned on her.