Free Heart of Honor by Kat Martin Page B

the professor agreed, speaking Leif’s language now. “My daughter was merely trying to suggest that you and she retire upstairs for the night.”
    The glitter of heat returned to Leif’s eyes. “That is what she said. It is the custom here, then, for a man to share his daughter with a guest?”
    “No!” they said in unison.
    Her father cleared his throat. “What we both meant to say was that the hour is getting late and you need to get some sleep. That is all we were trying to say.”
    His face fell. Then he straightened, making him look even taller than he usually did. “I am sorry, Professor. I meant no insult to you or your daughter.”
    “I’m certain you didn’t, Leif.”
    “I will admit that I would like to have her in my bed. Any man can see she is a woman of great beauty and strong passions. Once I have learned your language and customs and am able to make my own way, mayhap I will make you an offer for her.”
    Krista bit back a gasp and her father made an odd choking sound. He seemed to be groping for words. “Y-yes, well, we both appreciate your interest, Leif, but I think Krista may already have plans of her own.”
    “She is your daughter. It is up to you to decide what is best for her. But now is not the time. I have nothing to offer and no way to provide for her. When the time is right, mayhap we will talk again.”
    Her father looked to her for help, but Krista couldn’t think of a single thing to say. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I don’t believe time will alter things.”
    Leif’s jaw firmed. “We will see,” he said simply.
    Krista fixed her attention on the professor and forced herself to smile. “Come, Father. As you say, it is time for all of us to get some rest.” She took his arm and guided him toward the door. “Good night, Leif,” she said, her smile still carefully in place, and disappeared out the door.
     
    Krista couldn’t sleep. Good heavens, was the man completely mad? Make an offer for her! Ten cows, perhaps, or maybe twelve sheep? That was what a Viking warrior did when he wanted a wife. Indeed!
    Still, he had called her a woman of great beauty and strong passions. She had never thought of herself as either of those things, and it made her feel strangely feminine, womanly in a way she never had before.
    As she lay in bed, unconsciously her fingers came up to her lips. Leif might be a barbarian, but he certainly knew how to kiss. Perhaps that was it. The man was wild, primitive. Perhaps his untamed desires aroused something wild and primitive in her.
    Whatever the reason, she had discovered something about herself tonight, discovered that she was indeed a woman, one with the same physical desires as other women. It was a revelation worth the outrageous kiss, though that, she vowed, was never going to happen again.
     
    The week slipped into the next. Krista rarely saw Leif, who was ensconced from early morning until late into the evening in the study with her father. They even took their meals there, declining to join her, probably her father’s attempt to spare her from Leif’s lack of table manners.
    Still, it was obvious the professor was beginning to think a great deal of him.
    “The lad is amazing,” he said proudly one morning as she prepared to leave for work. “I have never known a more determined pupil. He is smart as a whip and his memory for words is astounding. In the course of a day, he manages to do all the work I set out for him, and master an entire new list of vocabulary words.”
    Krista could see how hard Leif worked. He remained in the study long after the household had retired for the night, and was already at his studies by the time she came down in the morning. He was fastidiously clean, but now he finished in the bathing room long before she was even out of bed.
    During the week, the professor twice accompanied Leif back to Stephen Ward and Company for fittings on his wardrobe. As promised, the clothes were delivered late in the afternoon