Page 64 of Down and Dirty

Britta moved restlessly, and she turned to look at him through slitted eyes. “Are we almost there?”

“Pretty soon.”

She shocked the hell out of him then by reaching over and lacing her fingers with his.

A bit choked, he said, “I’m crazy about you, babe.”

She frowned. “Dost mean I turn you demented?”

He laughed. “You could say that.”

“Then I am crazy about you, too.” With those words, she closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

And thus a thousand-year-old woman managed to rock his world.

He lured her with the ultimate female temptation…

Britta was sitting at the scullery table, playing a game called poke-her with Danny, whilst waiting for Zachary to take her back to the base. He was upstairs putting an exhausted Sammy to bed.

“How long have you known my brother?” Danny asked the question, then took a drink from a long-necked amber bottle of mead. She was sipping from a glass of the same substance, Danny having told her that ladies usually drank from glasses rather than long-necked bottles, because the bottles gave men wicked ideas. Whatever that meant! And was it not odd that glass was squandered in this country for mere drinking vessels, when a horn or wooden mug would do as well? It must be a prosperous country, indeed.

“Um, two years, but I have not seen him in all that time till this past sennight. I have three of those asses. Are they worth more than your three kings?” They played games in her country, too. Dice and the board game hnefatafl, but ne’er had she heard of games using hard parchment “cards” with pictures and numbers on them. They would wear out too easily to last long, she would think, but then this was a wasteful country.

“It’s a-sez, not asses,” he said, smiling at her. “But, nope. Kings beat a-sez. I win.” With a mischievous grin, he drew the round chips toward his already impressive pile and began to shuffle the cards again. Then he studied her for a moment, as if an idea had come to him, unbidden. “Aha! So, you’re the one.”

“Which one?”

“Zach hasn’t been the same since he came back from Norway two years ago.”

For some reason, she felt pleased at that news. “How is he different?”

“For one thing, he’s more selective in… ” He let his words trail off, mayhap having second thoughts about disclosing such intimate details about his kin.

“More selective in which women he swives?” she finished for him.

Danny choked on his mead, spraying the table. After he got a cloth and wiped the table and the cards off, he studied her with speculation. “You talk peculiar.”

“Hah! Methinks you are the one who talks peculiar.”

“Touché! No, I wouldn’t say he was more selective about who he got involved with. He was always picky that way, and let’s face it, with a face like his, he always gets the pick of the crop. No, he cut way back on… um, relationships, period.”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “Surely you are not saying he became celibate.”

Danny laughed. “Hardly. But he stopped setting world records.”

“As if that is an achievement to be lauded!”

“You’re pretty hard on Zach. Why is that?”

“My father and brothers were evil fornicators. They tupped every girl or woman who caught their eyes, willing or not. Bastards abounded, so many I lost track years ago. In their opinion, women were property, their only worth in the breeding of heirs and coin from prospective husbands.”

“Wow! And you place Zach in that same category?”

“Well, nay, but ’tis best for a woman to steer clear of comely men with the morals of a goat.”

Danny laughed and reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “Babe, you are gonna be so good for my brother. Don’t be hard on him, though. There’s a good reason why we’re both so screwed up. We come from a dysfunctional family.”

“Diss-what?”