Sandra Hill by Down, Dirty Read Free Book Online Page A

T-shirt.
    Pssssh! Like a deflating balloon, every logical thought in his brain shooshed out under testosterone overload. Finally, he shook his head like a wet dog. “You’ve got to ring out. I’ll take you over to do it right now.”
    “And then what?”
    We could sneak off to the nearest motel, where we can have wild monkey sex. Maybe. Or maybe not. “What do you want to do?” He wasn’t about to suggest babysitting again, or wild monkey sex. Besides, with her attitude toward him, she would be a bad influence on his kid, who had a bad enough attitude already.
    “What are all those women doing out there?”
    He waved a hand airily. “It’s a new experimental program for females. Like SEALs, but different. They’ll be called WEALS.”
    “Like wheels on a cart?”
    He laughed. “No. It stands for Women on Earth, Air, Land and Sea.”
    “Female military?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Good. ’Tis what I want to do.”
    “No, no, no! You don’t understand. This program is going to be brutal. Absolute torture.”
    “Dost think I cannot endure hardship?”
    “I didn’t say that.” Not exactly.
    “You wish-prayed me here. If I do not become a wheel, you are responsible for me. Dost want that responsibility?”
    “Hell, no, but—”
    “You cannot have it both ways. Ah, do not trouble yourself, lout. I will take care of myself. I will be a wheel, but, Holy Thor, I hope no one intends to roll me down a hill or attach me to a wagon, especially with this ale-head.”
    He laughed again. “Britta, we don’t have much time. I don’t think you understand what has happened here. You, my dear, have traveled through time one thousand years.” Folding his arms over his chest, he waited for her reaction.
    It was quick in coming. “You. Are. An. Idiot.”
    “Believe it or not, that’s what happened. Same thing for all of Max’s family…the Ericssons and the Magnussons.” Max was the SEAL nickname for Torolf Magnusson. “They’ll tell you that if you meet them. And Hilda, too. Not to mention Geek and Cage and JAM.”
    “Yo, Pretty Boy!” Cage yelled from an upstairs stairwell. “Haul ass, buddy. Lean Mean is lookin’ fer you.”
    Okay, convincing Britta about time travel would have to wait. Hell, he wouldn’t believe it either. Wasn’t sure he did even now. “Let’s make a deal here, honey. You ring out of WEALS, and I’ll find a way to send you home to the past.”
    “Nay, let’s make this deal, honey . I do not ring out of WEALS, and you learn to live with the fact that I am to become a woman warrior in your land.”
    He bit his bottom lip to keep from making a derogatory remark.
    “You are not aware of this fact—not that you would care—but my father wants me wed to one of his evil toads, or dead. I have been hiding in a nunnery for more than a year. There is no reason for me to go back.”
    Britta? In a nunnery? He clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from saying something he for damn sure shouldn’t.
    Suddenly, her face brightened as something seemed to occur to her. “Didst say that Hilda is in this land?”
    He nodded. “She and Max are married. In fact, they have a son named Styrr, named for her father. He’s a little over one year old.”
    “That is wonderful. See. One more reason why I should stay.”
    “I could take you to her. She runs a kind of women’s shelter.”
    “So you can dump your responsibility for me on Hilda? I do not think so.”
    “Britta, you have no clue what torture you’re going to have to endure to get your body in shape.” Although, truthfully, I like your body just the way it is. “And I’m going to be one of the task masters wielding that whip.” Whips? Hmmm. “Do you think you can take orders from me?” I can think of a few that might be fun.
    That last question seemed to give her pause. The stubborn wench! “Orders regarding military matters?”
    Well… “Of course.”
    “Yea, I can.”
    “So be it.” He threw his hands up in the air with resignation.