Wanted by the Viking by Joanna Davis Page A

cursed, hearing the sounds of the stampeding marauders.
                  "Jayson. Head to the shore, go now. They will be less enthusiastic by the time they reach the sea."
                  And with that, she ducked her head and was gone.
     
     
     
     
     
    **********
     
     
     
     
                  "She must be here somewhere!"
                  Grayson spun his steed in a circle, surveying the melee. He saw no sign of the tell tale red cloak that Kendra wore. His men were under strict orders to corner the damnable woman before she could slip away.
                  Again.
                  Kendra Roundtree was the most conniving woman he had ever met. And the most intelligent. And the most stubborn!
                  She was also the most deliciously tasty looking morsel on either side of the sea. He knew, he'd sailed it many times over.
                  The first time he'd met her, he'd been robbed of thought and speech. She'd been tending to an ill child and castigated him when his men tried to set the hut aflame, her blue eyes blazing and golden hair streaming out from a  face of indescribable beauty. He'd been so transfixed by her face that he'd barely taken the time to notice her glorious bosom, narrow waist and gracefully rounded hips. They were the sort that cried out for a man to grasp them as he had his way with her. By the time he'd regained his wits, she'd been long gone, having bundled her charge away in a cart.
                  The second time he'd seen her, he'd been able to hold onto his thoughts, but barely. Long enough to command her to lift her skirts for him. She hadn't been as flattered as he'd expected her to be by his attentions. In fact, she'd looked at him much the way a mother looks at a slow witted child.
                  He was not slow witted dammit! At least, not usually. The woman had a strange effect on him, that was all. He was bound and determined to have her, if only to figure out what her strange appeal truly was.
                  For a Saxon, she had some good qualities beyond her exceptional good looks, he'd finally had to admit. Even after she'd refused his gracious offer to lay with him. He'd even offered to keep her! To put a roof over her ungrateful head!
                  But the woman had merely smiled and said 'No thank you.'
                  No thank you?!?
                  Nobody refused Grayson Hendrick. Particularly when it was such a reasonable request. It's not as if he had asked her to remove her head from her body! He swung his axe, making such a request from a running man with his blade.
                  He watched impassively as the man's startled head flew through the air, splattering the fleeing villagers with blood.
                  Sweet Odin the woman drove him to distraction!
                  And he would tell her so, as soon as he was done bedding her the first dozen or so times. Which he would do as soon as he found her! He'd been on her trail for months now, not having seen her since the start of the raiding season. Just the once, and that had been when she'd turned him down.
                  The thought still filled him with righteous indignation.
                  He rode to the edge of town, staring down the road. They would finish up here and send their ship back with the best of the goods. Then he would take a handful of men and continue on after her.
                  As long as he sent home riches, no one would be the wiser as to his true purpose.
                  Grayson narrowed his eyes and turned his horse back toward the burning village.
                  No one escaped the wrath of a Viking.

Two
     
     
     
                  Kendra eased her tired body into the hot springs. She'd been driving her cart for