“Unlikely.” Steinar, damn his eyes, had followed him. “Considering it was something like Arne would have said, and unworthy of you.”
“I told you a hundred times already, I had drunk more than I should.” Could he not just drop it? In the end, nothing untoward had happened. “I thought I was being clever, but I was just young and stupid.”
“I will agree to that. So, with Gytha I would try a more subtle approach if I were you. Because if I hear you’ve made her uncomfortable in any way, I will?—”
“I’m not going to ask her to suck my cock, all right!” he exploded.
At first, Haakon didn’t understand why Steinar had stilled and was looking at him with such a stricken expression. He understood when he turned around.
Gytha was just behind him, staring at him with huge eyes.
Fuck.
Had she heard the last sentence? Of course she would have, considering that he had all but shouted it, in his exasperation.But had she heard who they were talking about? By the time he’d recovered enough to clear his throat, Steinar, the coward, had disappeared, leaving him to deal with this on his own.
“Gytha. That was… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to?—”
“Don’t apologize. You can do what you want with whoever you want.”
“Yes, but as you heard, I don’t, in fact, do that to anyone, or rather have it done to me by anyone, at least, simply for the asking.”
She cocked her head, and he could have sworn she wanted to laugh. Good. Amusement was better than horror.
“You are aware that your sentence barely makes sense?
Yes, very aware, and no wonder, he had rarely been more embarrassed. “Anyway, did you want to tell me something?” Dare he hope that she’d come to talk to him?
“No, I was just looking for…Eirik. He asked me if I would dance with him earlier, while we ate.”
She turned around before he could tell her he knew she was lying. Everyone knew that Eirik very rarely danced. The only woman he would consider doing it with was his new wife, Freyja. The chances he would have asked a guest he didn’t know were slim to non-existent. She had simply been embarrassed and wanted to flee.
Which meant that she had come to speak to him, and then thought the better of it when he had heard him shout to Steinar that he had no intention of asking her to suck his cock.
He stilled. Had she known she was who they had been talking about? It didn’t matter. Either way it was a disaster. If she’d assumed he was talking about another woman it would paint him as a callous lecher. And if she’d heard her name, then she would have heard him snarl that he would never ask her to pleasure him. As men never refused such intimate acts, there would be only one conclusion to draw from this.
That he was not interested in her at all, even for a night of passion.
Damn.
6
The following morning found Haakon enjoying the sun on the bench in front of his door, a cup of ale in his hand. The warmth and the bright light did him good, as did the fresh air. He had barely had any sleep the night before. Instead, he had imagined Gytha on her knees in front of him, looking at him through sultry green eyes while she serviced him. Shouting to Steinar that he would not ask her to suck his cock had made him burn with the need to see her do just that.
What was wrong with him? Up until last night he had fantasized about kissing her and that had been bad enough. This new development was more than worrying.
He opened his eyes to see Arne looming over him.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Was there anything you wanted?” Haakon asked when his friend remained where he was, a grimace on his face. With his head pounding and his mind filled with inappropriate thoughts of Gytha, he could have done without a conversation right now.
“Yes, I suppose there is. Listen, Haakon, I came to tell you that I…” Arne ran a hand through his hair. “I mean, I blameEirik’s mead for it, mind you. I overindulged last night, I think and it— I hope you won’t get mad but I… The truth is…”
What was going on? Arne was not usually so nervous, rather the opposite. “But what? What have you done?” he asked, though in truth, he was not sure he even cared to hear it.
“I spent last night with a woman I know you are interested in and I’m not sure how you will react.”
