Spotlight: The Viking's Captive by Ingrid Hahn
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Thorvald Longsword can’t believe all he has to do is kidnap the daughter of his jarl’s enemy to get his land back. Easy. But when he finally snatches the princess up and tosses her over his shoulder, the beautiful spitfire makes him question his determination to get his land back at any cost.
Alodie gladly agrees to impersonate the princess so the bloodthirsty Northmen will take her instead. While Alodie might be ready to die for her people, she wasn’t prepared for how her pulse races for the maddeningly noble captor whom she’d just as soon hate.
But what happens when Thorvald finds out she’s not who she says she is…
Excerpt
“You may choose your own punishment.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Being near you is punishment enough. There. Are we finished?”
“For me as well.”
She raised her brows at him. “Pardon me?”
“It’s a punishment for me to be near you.” He stepped closer. His voice was raw and needy. “Torture. In ways you don’t even want to know about.”
Awareness stirred between them. All the things Thorvald had thought he could live without—around her, they became as vital as air.
Her voice lowered. “Nothing you can say will frighten me.”
“This would. But I think…I think you already know.” The admission was so close he could taste it.
“Sometimes things need to be said.”
It was what he needed to hear. “Don’t you see? I want to touch you and caress you and do things to you like I’ve never done to a woman before.”
She licked her bottom lip. “And yet you handed me over to him.”
“It was what I had to do.” Thorvald rubbed his brow and let out a heavy sigh. “I gave him my word—”
“Your word. Your word. Your word. Are you as weary of hearing that as the rest of us?”
“It’s not an excuse.” There was a note of desperation in his voice that made him hate himself. It was like he was clinging to a thrashing beast that would kill him, yet he was still unable to release himself.
“Then you have no right to say these things to me.”
“I’ve wanted you for so long.” Now that he’d started, he couldn’t stop. “But while you were in thrall to me, I couldn’t touch you. Not because I knew you would ultimately belong to him—”
“I belong to nobody,” she snapped. “And you did touch me.”
He nodded. “I was wrong to do so.”
She paced to one side of the room and lingered, her back to him. Neither spoke. Beyond the walls were the sounds of the food being enjoyed and laughter that would only grow louder as more ale was consumed.
“Is that your idea of punishment? Is that why you brought me here? Were you merely obeying him or did you think that you and I…we might…”
They were perilously close to speaking of something dangerous. Something forbidden. Something he wanted with all the dust in his bones. Did he dare?
He was a warrior. He’d been trained to tread into the unknown. Since his first summer as a man, he’d fought and felled bigger, heavier, stronger warriors than himself.
Being with her was different. What he said here didn’t threaten bodily harm. It threatened what was inside of him should she see how desperately he wanted her. If she saw, she could rip him apart and he’d never recover.
Oh, yes. He dared. If he remained silent, he’d never forgive himself. “I think about it constantly. You. Me. Everything a man and woman can have together, I think about that with us. More than you can probably begin to imagine.”
“But you still have to punish me.” Her voice was flat.
A tortured sigh escaped his lungs. “I still have to punish you.”
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About the Author
Ingrid Hahn is a failed administrative assistant with a B.A. in Art History. Her love of reading has turned her mortgage payment into a book storage fee, which makes her the friend who you never want to ask you for help moving. Though originally from Seattle, she now lives in the metropolitan DC area with her ship-nerd husband, small son, and four opinionated cats. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves knitting, theater, nature walks, travel, history, and is a hopelessly devoted fan of Jane Austen.
