Page 9 of The Reluctant Viking

Ruby studied Thork, and her heart ached for the pain he must have endured. She yearned to comfort him, to hold the memory of his ugly childhood at bay. Locked in a private hell of recollection, his expression turned bleak for a moment. It occurred to Ruby then that maybe, just maybe, she’d been given a clean slate with Jack in this dream or self-hypnosis or whatever it was. What fun it would be to go back to the beginning with Jack, knowing what she did today! She could avoid all the proven mistakes. She could capitalize on all the good things that had worked with them.

A second chance! Wasn’t that just what she’d prayed for before being hurtled back in time?

Scanning Thork speculatively, Ruby considered flirting mischievously with the fierce Viking to lighten his mood, the way she used to do with Jack. Actually, she hadn’t flirted with Jack in a long, long time. Maybe that was one of their problems. She inspected Thork through lowered lashes and grinned impishly. This dream business might prove interesting, after all.

“Have you ever heard of Kevin Costner?” she asked abruptly in a husky voice, hoping she wouldn’t lose her nerve.

“Who?”

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I was just wondering…how do you feel about long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days?” she asked brazenly.

That got his attention!

Ruby recognized the bright flame of desire in Thork’s sapphire eyes before he deliberately shuttered them, but he couldn’t conceal their quick blink of surprise. He opened his mouth as if to speak, closed it, swallowed, then stood abruptly. She and Jack had seen the Kevin Costner movie together. The screen words had aroused them both. At a glance, Ruby saw that Thork was no different.

Their eyes locked. Acutely aware of Thork’s scrutiny, Ruby parted her lips unconsciously in unspoken invitation.

But Thork ignored the temptation of her lips as he regained his composure and swore explicity. “Fine words for a whore, mayhap. Be that what you are? If so, name your price and be done.” He stood and paced, deep in thought, before confronting her again. “Mayhap, though, you really do spy, after all,” he concluded with narrowed eyes. “For a certainty, methinks you treat your situation much too lightly and hope to divert my attention. Your life hangs in the balance, wench, and you speak of…of…”

“Kisses?” Ruby offered impudently. “Don’t Vikings kiss?”

Thork blushed. He actually blushed. Ruby loved it.

“We like kisses fine,” he rasped thickly. Suddenly realizing her game, Thork twitched his lips sensuously as he offered, “Mayhap you’d like a demonstration?”

He obviously expected her to demur. Instead, Ruby decided to play along. “Perhaps. Of course, there wouldn’t be much attraction for you in kissing such a bony-arsed female as me. That is what you called me, isn’t it?”

Thork grinned provocatively, then watched with fascination as Ruby slowly wet her suddenly dry lips with the tip of her tongue. He moved enticingly close. Ruby thought he was about to kiss her, and she parted her lips reflexively. Instead, he placed his lips a hairsbreadth from hers and blew softly until the dewy wetness evaporated.

Ruby’s senses reeled. Thork’s tantalizing sensuality ignited a flame in Ruby’s midsection which hopscotched to all the sweet spots in her body that only Jack had ever touched before. Held prisoner by the magnetic pull of his drugging almost-kiss and the compelling masculine scent that was Jack’s alone, Ruby leaned forward, her heartbeat playing a rapid counterpoint to the hammering pulse in Thork’s neck. Ruby recognized the white-hot sexual desire she hadn’t felt for months with Jack.

But Thork soon jolted her from her carnal reverie as he brushed her cheek with his warm lips, then whispered into her ear an answer to her earlier comment,” ’Twas not your bony arse I was of a mind to kiss.”

At first, the insulting words didn’t register on Ruby’s muddled senses. She pulled away abruptly when sanity returned to jar her from her seductive trance.

Thork followed his outrageous comment with a suggestive wink. The cad!

The only salve to Ruby’s wounded pride was the fact that Thork couldn’t hide his obvious male reaction to her.

“Oh! You always were crude.”

Thork cocked his head quizzically. “Your manner of speaking—’tis strange. Not Saxon. Nor Norman.” A look of determination altered the thoughtful expression on his face, and he warned her, “Before this day ends, by Thor’s blood, I’ll know your whole story or else…”

He pulled her to her feet and put an end to their conversation. “Enough foolery! Too much time I have already wasted on such as you. Important business do I bring to my king. Tell me your tale…or tell Sigtrygg. Little difference it makes to me.”

“I’ll tell you, but I don’t know if you’ll believe me.”

His face showed wary interest but nothing more.

“Thork, this is a dream,” Ruby explained tentatively.

Thork stared at her, expecting more. When she remained silent, he snarled in disgust and turned to go. “That is all? ’Tis your explanation? Enough! We are off to Sigtrygg where I will be well rid of you.”

“Thork, listen to me,” Ruby pleaded, pulling on his arm as she realized how important his understanding might be when they got to the palace. He held himself stiffly, unyielding, but Ruby plunged ahead anyway. “Thork, I come from the future, the year nineteen hundred and ninety-four. I know, I know. It sounds unbelievable. It is unbelievable. But it’s only a dream.”

Thork’s eyes widened in surprise at her pathetic story. When she didn’t elaborate, he exclaimed in disgust, “’Tis outrageous that you would try to dupe me thus. Can you be so addlewitted that a dream is the best excuse you conjure up for your presence in our land? A dream! The future!” He shot her a haughty look of disdain and laughed snidely. “Fortunate for you that you did not mention this to the harbor mob. ’Twould be food for the vultures you would be by now.”

“You must believe me, Thork,” Ruby urged, speaking rapidly to forestall him and make sure she got a chance to explain everything. “In the future, your name is Jack and you’re my husband. In fact, we’ve been happily married for twenty years—that is, we were happily married until lately. You left me today. And that’s why this all happened. At least, I think that’s why it happened.”