Ruby soon found her master plan easier to formulate than to enact. The only time she got to see Thork was at the evening meal, where Linette wrapped herself around him like cotton candy. And just as sickeningly sweet! Thork must be back in his “Avoid Ruby” mode. Hadn’t he said earlier that she put stumbling blocks in his Jomsviking activities.
Hah! Hold on, Thork, I’ve got a few boulders coming your way.
It rankled Ruby, however, to think she’d have to deliberately seduce Thork into marriage, especially when his arrogance and cold-blooded killings repelled her. She refused to think about that other side of him that drew her enticingly, that reminded her of Jack and all the good things they’d shared. Worst of all, Ruby wasn’t exactly sure how to seduce a man. Jack was the only man she’d ever been with—literally—and he’d always been the pursuer.
Late the next afternoon, she enlisted Ella’s aid. “Try to lure Vigi away from me for a little while so I can slip into Thork’s room. Do you think you could do that?”
” ‘Twill never work,” Ella grumbled as she went off to do as Ruby bid. “Bloody flux! I must be as barmy as she is. Prob’ly get my head chopped off, too.”
Ruby stealthily opened Thork’s door, first looking right and left to make sure no one saw her. Luckily, Thork was alone.
He stood with knees bent to bring his face level with a sheet of metal on the wall above a small table. Barefoot and bare-chested, he was shaving the lather off his face with a sharp knife. Ruby took one look at his pants riding low on his slim hips, and her mouth suddenly went dry.
“Thork, I have to talk to you,” she croaked out.
Caught off guard, Thork jumped and the knife cut his face. Blood immediately oozed out against the white lather. “Holy Valhalla! What do you here, jumping out of corners?” His eyes narrowed. “And where the hell’s Vigi?”
“Now, Thork, don’t get mad at Vigi. I needed to talk to you, and you keep avoiding me.” Ruby wrung her hands nervously, not certain how to launch her mission.
Thork turned his back on her to resume his shaving. “Go away, wench,” he growled through lips pressed together to accommodate his shaving. “We have naught to discuss.”
Ruby moved to the side so she could see him better. Entranced, she watched as he puffed out his cheek and slid the razor in a smooth furrow through the lather. Lord! The urge to touch his skin was overpowering. “Do you want me to do that for you?” she offered weakly.
Thork arched his eyebrows at her, feigning horror. “You with a knife at my throat? Hah! The image makes my skin crawl.” He slanted an amused glance her way and shook his head despairingly. “Do I look like a lackwit?” Then quickly, without waiting for a reply, “Do not answer that!”
He didn’t look like a lackwit at all, Ruby thought, mesmerized by the motions of his long fingers as they wielded neat furrows through the foam. His knee-bent stance outlined the corded muscles in his thighs and tight buttocks. Ruby was acutely aware of golden hairs that dusted the planes of his rock-hard chest, trailed down the ridges of his washboard-firm abdomen and disappeared invitingly below his exposed navel. Her eyes shot back upward from that forbidden territory to land on the flat brown nipples. She had to restrain herself from reaching out and touching them, to feel their texture in her fingertips, to test their sensitivity.
Almost done shaving, Thork winked at her devilishly, aware of her too-obvious scrutiny. With a warm chuckle, he said, “Spit it out. What did you want to say to me?”
Ruby dropped her eyes before his perceptive gaze, but then blurted out the first thought that came into her head, “You have a marvelous chest.”
Laughter gurgled up out of Thork’s throat at her spontaneous remark. He couldn’t help but see the flush of embarrassment on her flaming cheeks. How could she have said something so stupid?
“Yours is also… marvelous,” he offered graciously, his blue eyes twinkling. Then he scrutinized her chest in mock seriousness. “Leastways, I think it is. Of course, I have only seen it totally uncovered once. Would you care to remove your tunic and show me?”