Page 33 of The Outlaw Viking

“God’s bones! Some captive you make when you can slip in and out of your bindings so easily.”

“It’s symbolic,” she said sleepily, then yawned widely, forgetting to cover her mouth daintily. But then she noticed his smile and frowned, trying to shove him away.

“Symbolic of what?” he asked, standing up and watching as she sat and rolled the kinks out of her shoulders. No doubt she had developed an ache or two sleeping on the hard ground. A well-deserved punishment for being so stubborn, he decided.

“My protest of your barbaric act.” Her face suddenly became hard as she seemed to come fully awake.

He raised an eyebrow in question and folded his arms across his chest. Even his tough flesh was beginning to feel the cold. “What barbaric act?”

“The taking of slaves,” she hissed. “How could you? As much as I hate violence, I understand how some people can justify it as self-defense. But taking captives when the heat of battle is over—well, it’s uncivilized.”

“I do not have to defend myself to you or any other person. And you do not understand civilization, shrew, if you think Norsemen are the only ones who consider captives part of the spoils of war. ’Tis universal. I know of no country or any people who condemn the practice.”

“But what do you know in your heart?”

Her question stunned Selik. There should have been an easy answer, but he could not form the words to defend himself.

A rustling noise drew his attention then, and Selik noticed that their conversation had awakened all the prisoners, who listened intently to what must seem a strange conversation. With a grunt of disgust, he leaned down and picked up the troublesome wench.

Rain exhaled sharply in surprise at his quick movement, but before she could protest, he tucked her face into his neck, wrapped a steely arm around her now flailing legs, pressing them against his hip, and pinned both arms against her body by the enclosure of his right arm.

Selik knew Rain considered herself too big to be picked up by any man, and he delighted in perpetuating her misconception. He pretended to trip and almost fall. She stopped struggling immediately.

“Mayhap, if you would not eat so much, you might stop growing.”

“Argh! Put me down.”

“Nay, I find the exercise good for me after a long day of riding. Much like carrying my horse.”

She stilled suddenly, then asked in a small voice, “Selik, where is your horse?”

Surprised by her question, he answered hesitantly, “’Tis picketed with the other horses near the pond. Why?”

“Would you take me to see Fury? Please. It’s important to me.”

Selik shrugged. He saw no harm in letting her look at the animal. Besides, he could use a quick bath in the pond. As he recalled, his saddlebag, containing soap and linens, lay on the ground near the horses, where he had left it.

But he did not want to acquiesce too soon. “And why should I? What will you give me for the favor?”

He felt her stiffen immediately. “I have nothing to give.”

“Oh? I do not know about that. You could promise to silence your shrewish tongue. Or pledge an oath not to escape.” A delicious, heart-stopping thought occurred to him. “Or…”

“Or?”

“Or you could kiss me of your own free will,” he whispered huskily as he nuzzled her hair. It still smelled of Passion, the perfume she had worn yestereve. And her own sweet, sweet scent.

“Hah! I gave you a lot more than kisses last night.”

“Yea, but not really of your own free will, since you were asleep. And, as I recall, there were no kisses.” In truth, he recalled a great deal more than that.

How odd, he thought, that he had touched her so intimately and not kissed her! If he had truly thought he was making love with his dead wife in his berserk state, why had he not supped of her lips? Mayhap he had not been as bemused as they both thought. Mayhap he had known exactly who was in his bed furs, but his inner mind wanted to deny the traitorous attraction.

“A kiss? All you want is a kiss?”

He nodded, releasing his hold on her now that they had reached the pond. She slid sensuously down his rigid body until she stood facing him, only a breathing space apart, but not touching.

“And then we will talk?”