Sandra Hill - [Vikings I 01] Read Online Free

still held her with feet danglingoff the ground. His well-developed, massive body moved with an easy grace, not unlike her own modern-day husband. Standing so close she caught the familiar masculine scent of his skin, Jack extended a questioning forefinger to lift her chin in a whisper of a caress. Ruby leaned into his stroke reflexively, but then jerked back at the sensuous shock that shot hot flames through her. Jack’s furrowed brows and intense, puzzled eyes told Ruby without words that he, too, had been affected by the simple touch. The very air around them seemed electrified.
    But then anger transformed Jack’s face. She soon found out why. Taking her chin in a painful, viselike grip, Jack snarled, “What manner of fool are you, boy, that you dare to strike Thork, son of Harald, high-king of all Norway?”
    Boy? He thought she was a boy, Ruby realized. No wonder he was upset by the sexual chemistry between them. Well, compared to the way these people dressed, she supposed she might look like a young male in her pants and short Sassoon haircut. And, hey, wasn’t Jack aiming high these days—son of a bloody king? Should she bow or what?
    “Who are you?” Jack growled again, bruising her chin with his fingers. “Do you spy for Ivar?”
    “Ivar? Who the hell is Ivar?”
    “You dare much with your coarse tongue, boy.”
    “Jack, don’t you recognize me? I’m Ruby…your wife.”
    “Nay, no wife have I,” he declared in a steely voice, shifting indignantly from foot to foot. “Nor am I a sodomite,” he added distastefully, looking at what he obviously considered her masculine attire. Then he released her chin and cocked his head in puzzlement.
    What now? she wondered. Was it something she’d said?
    Olaf let her slide down his body to her feet, but he pulled her arms behind her back and pinioned them there.Jack stared at the inscription on her chest and his eyes widened. That stupid Brass Balls logo again!
    Jack reached out a hand. His forefinger trailed sensuously over her bare arm as if asking a question, then grazed her quivering lips for affirmation. He smiled wickedly and nodded, as if answering his own question, at the same time pleased with the goose bumps he’d raised on her flesh with a mere touch.
    Then her husband did the unthinkable. He reached out with lightning swiftness and outlined the tips of her breasts. He actually touched her breasts in front of all those people! She’d kill him for humiliating her. Outraged, Ruby tried to squirm out of Olaf’s grasp.
    “Thor’s blood! ’Tis a wench,” Jack exclaimed, turning with a grin to his companions for confirmation.
    “No kidding! This has gone far enough, Jack. Tell this bozo to release me. This joke…or dream…or whatever it is has gone far enough. I want to go home.”
    “Explain this ‘jack’ you speak of.”
    “It’s your name, Jack. Jack Jordan. And I’m your wife, Ruby. And I’m tired of this stupid dream.”
    Tears choked her. Why was Jack acting like this? Ruby squeezed her eyes shut tight. She would have pinched her own cheeks, but Olaf still held her arms behind her back; instead, she bit her bottom lip until she tasted blood, hoping to awaken herself from the nightmare.
    It didn’t work.
    Some members of the crowd stepped closer, staring in amazement at her bloody lip as if she were truly crazy. She was crazy! Only a crazy person would find herself in this situation. Perhaps Jack’s leaving her had pushed her over the edge.
    “Nay, my name is Thork,” the Jack clone said. “Heed me well. No wife have I, nor ever want one. I am a Jomsviking.” Jack’s deep voice rang coldly, loud andclear, through the crowd, which nodded and smiled in approval at his putting this woman in her place.
    The people spoke an odd mixture of what sounded like Medieval Anglo-Saxon she’d once heard in an English Lit course and what was probably Old Norse. The languages were very similar. Strangely, she could understand both. Not so strange