The Viking Queen's Men
Page 24
“Need me?” Ollie asked. His shield was down a bit, kind of like a car window only three-quarters up.
“Nadia wants to contact Heath. Need your verdict.”
“Shit. Now?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Later. Look, like I said, get a couple of the girls to be on detail near Tess and maybe a couple of the younger male guards for general security. The older they are, the more practical they tend to be. And by practical, I mean savage. Sorry, I gotta go.”
Just like that, Ollie fell off the web.
Great.
Harvey hated feeling cut off from Tess, as all Afótama did. Having a direct line to the queen quelled anxiety, and probably tenfold with him being her consort. He found it somewhat disconcerting that he felt a similar anxiety with his connection to Ollie being severed.
Disconcerting, but he understood why it was. It was what Afótama did. They became reliant on their lovers…but Ollie wasn’t his lover. He was Tess’s.
Harvey ground the heels of his palms against his eyes and let out a breath. “Ollie said to call them. He said ask for a couple of the girls and a couple of younger guys. They’ll be easiest to handle.”
She pressed a fingertip to one spot on the big directory’s page and picked up the desk phone. “Found his number. I’m on it.”
Harvey stood and was surprised to find himself a bit dizzy. He caught his balance by grabbing a nearby shelf. “Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be in my room. I’ve got the sudden compulsion to nap. A wave of nauseous exhaustion just hit me.”
Nadia wedged the landline phone’s handset between her ear and shoulder. She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and seemed to be looking through him rather than at him.
“Nadia.”
Her gaze honed in on his. “Yeah. Ah, it’s probably nothing. Just Tess’s burden leaching onto you. I can tell something’s amiss because we’re so closely related. She and Ollie might need to have some skin contact tonight.”
Probably, she’d said. Nadia wasn’t the kind of woman who spoke in probablies, but he was too tired to press.
He grunted and started for the door.
He could probably use a little of that skin contact himself.
The Chieftain’s Daughter is available now.
COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS
THE VIKING QUEEN’S MEN is a work of fiction. Names, places, entities, and scenarios in this book are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
Copyright 2014 by Holley Trent
Excerpt from The Chieftain’s Daughter copyright 2015 by Holley Trent
The Viking Queen’s Men was first published in the Vikings Unleashed anthology on October 7, 2014.
For more information, please visit www.holleytrent.com.
Cover stock images: copyright 3drenderings and Jim Mills – Dollar Photo, and Coka – Fotolia
First Edition