The Outlaw Viking

Gorm and the soldiers rode up at nightfall, leading the saddled Fury behind them. Selik strode forward and spoke with them, and Rain cringed before the fierce warrior into which her lover had transformed himself. He wore leather braies under his calf-length flexible chain mail. A wool tunic of deep blue covered the armor, and a heavy fur mantle covered all. He attached his sword, Wrath, and his helmet and pike to his saddle, then turned back to Rain.
She walked up to him, daunted by this stranger in fighting garb, but there was not the usual berserkness in his eyes now, only a deep, abiding love. She hoped she hadn’t weakened him with her love.
“Come back to me, Selik.”
“If I can,” he promised in a soft voice

Rain’s heart felt like fine crystal shattering into a million tiny pieces. She didn’t know if she could survive without this man—the other side of her soul, the beat in her heart . . . her forever love

Once, when he stood to replenish his goblet of mead, Adam walked up and kicked him in the shin. “What was that for, you bloody imp?” he snarled, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and lifting him high in the air.
“Fer leavin’, ya damn heathen bloody

cod,” he said on a sob, flailing out at him. “Yer jist like all the rest. Me father. Me mother. Nobody ever stays,” he blubbered, kicking wildly with his arms and legs.
Stunned, Selik just stared at the angry boy for a moment, then groaned, almost painfully, and drew Adam into his arms, hugging him tightly to his chest. At first, Adam fought him mightily with scratching hands and vulgar obscenities. Finally, he calmed down and buried his face in Selik’s neck

She resigned herself then and gave herself up to their mutual enjoyment.
When he knelt between her legs and lay upon her body, his thundering heart pounded against her breasts. She looked up at him in wonder, murmuring, “Our hearts seem to beat with the same rhythm.”
“Yea,” he answered softly, putting a hand over her breast, between their two hearts. “They seem to be repeating one word—love, love, love, love

“If that’s true, then why do you have to leave?”
“Steven,” he said flatly. “I could stop blaming the entire Saxon race for Astrid’s and Thorkel’s deaths, perchance even give up my vendetta, but not against Gravely. I love you, Rain, but honor demands I remove his demon presence from this earth

his beloved Rain.
“Will I ever see you again?” she asked, her soft voice breaking as she bravely tried to stifle her sobs.
“Mayhap.”
“But, Selik, if you die, then I’ve failed. If I was sent back in time to save you, and I—and I can’t, then what was the point?”
He smiled gently and pulled her into the crook of his shoulder, caressing her gently. He fingered the edges of her hair, tenderly traced the line of her jaw, brushed her collarbone with a whispery caress. “I think your God accomplished all that He wanted—if ’twas He who sent you. Can you not see that you have healed me of my shame? You have melted my heart, taught me to love again. Even if we never meet again, I cannot regret that

He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. And moved another step closer.
“Tell me, dammit,” she cried out, a sob catching her unsteady voice. Then she whimpered in a low plea, “Tell me.”
“I love you,” he groaned out. “God help me . . .’twas He, no doubt, who brought you into my life . . . but I love you. I do.”
He thought he heard a clap of thunder in the distance and rolled his eyes upward. That was not necessary

Tell her.
Something deep inside, long hidden, melted and exposed a part of him so vulnerable, so open to pain, he could not bear to think on it. And he moved another step closer.
Tell her.
“I love you,” he whispered, so softly she could not possibly have heard. Still, the words burned his lips and made his hands tremble.
And she turned. “What did you say

“You are so beautiful. You take my breath away.”
He smiled, and Rain felt warmed. “I am not, but it pleases me that you think so