Come Back to Me
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Vikings Trilogy 3
By
Josie Litton
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH TO WALK?" HE asked.
"Of course I am." She took a step and sat right back down on the ground.
Dragon cursed under his breath. He scooped her up, ignoring her protests, and started back to the lodge. She frowned the whole way, including when he set her on the bed.
Gently, he said, "You'll feel better after you've eaten."
She looked up at him and he saw for the first time that she had been crying. His heart turned over. She might not have much sense but she had courage aplenty and he admired that. "Look," he said, going down on his haunches and taking her hands in his; "you've been through a bad time and I suspect I don't know the half of it. But things will get better now. You just have to trust me."
Truth.
He actually meant it. This fierce warrior intended to help her. For a moment, the temptation to unburden herself to him was almost overwhelming. She was stopped only by the knowledge that if she told him who she was, he would be caught between duty to his lord and desire to help her. That was no way to repay kindness.
She stared down at the powerful hands holding hers and felt an odd tightening in her throat: Such strength and yet such gentleness… Locked in the tumult of her emotions, she did not notice the single silver tear that fell like a sparkling star against his wind-roughened skin.
Also by Josie Litton
DREAM OF ME
BELIEVE IN ME
New York Toronto London Sydney Auckland
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or locales is entirely coincidental.
COME BACK TO ME
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam paperback edition / November 2001
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2001 by Josie Litton
Cover art copyright © 2001 by Alan Ayers
ISBN 0-553-58164-3
Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam
Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOR
FOR LONG WALKS AND
HAPPY TALKS
A RIM OF FIRE RISES AT THE EDGE OF THE world, searing away gentle night, setting the sky aflame. The Dragon watches it come, welcomes it. He moves silently over the soft earth. A stag flees before him, crashing through the brush, ignored.
The fierce Viking warrior Dragon Hakonson has not come to the forests of Essex to hunt today. Today, he seeks the quiet of the pines at the edge of the sea for a different purpose. On the verge of taking a step he can no longer avoid, he has sent his attendants on ahead and given himself this small chance for reflection.
But his solitude is about to be interrupted. Golden eyes watch him from the protection of the trees. A slim, lithe body holds very still, hardly breathing. Slowly, oh, so slowly, the intruder tries to creep away. A twig snaps. His senses honed by a lifetime of struggle and danger, Dragon reacts at once. Swifter than the saying of it, he pounces, dragging the struggling, squawking creature out to study at his leisure.
So quickly! The speed with which the stranger moved stunned Rycca. One moment she was kneeling in the cool moss where she had slept a few fitful hours, watching with wary care the man who had appeared without warning, and the next was only a blur. She was clasped so tightly she could scarcely breathe. Pain radiated up her arms and along her ribs. A little more pressure, only a little, and they would snap as readily as the treacherous twig.
She had no idea who the man was, nor did she care. Nothing mattered save wresting free of him. Growing up a victim of her brothers' casual cruelties, she had honed her skills. She grabbed hold of the powerful arm within easiest reach and bit down hard. In her experience, the surprise of such a counterattack caused the miscreant to loosen his grip quickly.
Yet now a different surprise awaited her, darkly circled with shock. The man did not so much as grunt. He merely tightened his hold on her enough to prevent her from breathing altogether.
She held on as long as she could, until colored lights whirled before her eyes and unconsciousness was scant moments away. Only then, fearing what total incapacity would mean, did she let go. For an instant he did not, and she felt herself plummeting into nothingness. Absurdly, she clung to the same arm as though it might anchor her in the world. Even as her lungs screamed for air, it was granted. She inhaled long and deeply, gasping.
"Fool," the man said. His voice was a deep rumble out of his chest, felt against her back, oddly pleasant for the circumstances. He shifted his hold to her shoulders and turned her to face him. "What were you thinking, boy? All I want is a look at you. A man likes to know who's lurking behind his back."