Table of Contents
Praise for Viking Heat
As always, Sandra Hill has penned a delight of a book. You can always count on hysterical moments and lots of hot love... Sizzles on the page.
Romance Junkies
I really enjoy Sandra Hills writing style. She throws in a ton of humor, mixes it with some romance and sex, and the end result is whoa.
The Best Reviews
Viking Heat delivers... A very funny, sexy tale. Hill has a knack for the kind of engrossing storytelling that transports a reader to a different placein this case, a very different place.
The Romance Reader
Praise for Viking Unchained
Sandra Hill has truly outdone herself.
Night Owl Romance
Hill goes a-Viking again!... Its a blast!
Romantic Times
Praise for Down and Dirty
Hills fans will be delighted... and readers new to Hill will be charmed by her entertaining style and unique voice. A welcome, poignant, and relevant addition to Hills sexy, hilarious, and clever time-traveling Vikings series.
Booklist (starred review)
Praise for the novels of Sandra Hill
Exciting, unexpectedly erotic, and entertaining ... Another winner.
Booklist (starred review)
Wickedly funny, deliciously sexy... Loved it!
New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning
Smart, sexy, laugh-out-loud action, Sandra Hill always delivers.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan
Wildly inventive and laugh-out-loud fabulous... Once again, the talented Sandra Hill proves that a real hero isnt stopped by any obstaclenot even time.
New York Times bestselling author Christina Skye
Hill writes stories that tickle the funny bone and touch the heart. Her books are always fresh, romantic, inventive, and hilarious.
New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs
Some like it hot and hilarious, and Hill delivers both.
Publishers Weekly
Another wonderful story that includes action, adventure, passion, romance, comedy, and even a little time travel.
Romance Junkies
A perfect ten!... A must-read for everyone who loves great romance with heartfelt emotion.
Romance Reviews Today
Only the mind of Sandra Hill could dream up this hilarious and wacky scenario. The Vikings are on the loose once again, and theyre wreaking sexy and sensual fun.
Romantic Times
Feeling down? Need a laugh? This one could be just what the dock whore ordered.
All About Romance
Berkley Sensation Titles by Sandra Hill
ROUGH AND READY
DOWN AND DIRTY
VIKING UNCHAINED
VIKING HEAT
DARK VIKING
This book is dedicated to Hazel Green Brungard, an old classmate of mine. Hazel has long been a vocal and appreciative fan of everything I write, no matter the genre. She generously supports the Ross Library in Lock Haven, where we both learned to love books in its Victorian nooks and crannies. And most of all, she has an enthusiastic sense of humor when it comes to reading. Bless you, Hazel, for sharing my belief that the best books make you smile.
Ones self only knows what is near the heart.
Each man reads but himself aright.
No ailment seems to a sound mind worse
Than to have lost all liking for life...
That I saw for myself as I sat in my keep,
Awaiting a maid to woo...
For I did think, enthralled by love
To work my will with her.
FROM HAVAMAL (THE WORDS OF ODIN THE HIGH ONE) OF POETIC EDDA, EARLIEST ORAL VERSIONS, CIRCA 800 AD
Chapter 1
Double or nothing...
With a loud whoosh, Rita Sawyers body went up in flames, and she prepared to catapult through the fifteenth-floor window of the burning skyscraper. The whole time she pondered whether shed have the time or the inclination to shave her legs before her date this evening with her ex-husbands brother.
Darron, who was suffering major post-divorce guilt... on his brother Scotts behalf, of all things... had made it his mission in life to find her a mate to make up for his hound dog brothers betrayal during Scott and Ritas short-lived marriage. As a result, he was bringing along the perfect man for her. His words. Presumably heterosexual with a job. Absolute essentials for her as a twenty-nine-year-old veteran in the dating wars.
To be honest, she was still raw and angry over Scotts infidelity, whether it was one time, as he outrageously claimed, or dozens, as she suspected. Shed seen what adultery had done to her mother, as well.
Having known Scott since kindergarten, shed seen him at his worst, and it wasnt even when shed caught him in bed with a fellow physician. Think seven years old and green snot. She shouldnt have been surprised when hed turned out to be an adulterous snot when he grew up.
She had an ulterior motive for meeting with Darron tonight. He was a top-notch financial advisor, and Rita was facing monumental money problems since her mother had died, leaving her with medical bills out the wazoo. It wasnt the long bout with cancer that caused all the problems, but the experimental treatments not covered by insurance, for which Rita had gladly taken out loans, and the year as a caretaker when shed had no income. Unfortunately, all in vain. Collection agencies now had her on speed dial.
Scene Three, Take Two. Lights! Camera! Action! Larry Winters, the director of this latest spy thriller star-ring Jennifer Garner and Hugh Jackman, shouted through his bullhorn.
Whoosh! Bursting into a ball of flame, Jennifer went sailing through the glass and the air with expertise, landing on a trampoline that looked like the roof of another building, from which she then front flipped onto yet another rooftop, aka a padded platform. Of course, it wasnt really the fifteenth floor, but the third, and it wasnt really a skyscraper, but a set prop, and it wasnt really Jennifer Garner, but her, Rita Sawyer, stunt double.
Cut! the director yelled. Thats a wrap! Great job, Rita!
Immediately, a technician began hosing down her flames while others were peeling back her flameproof wig along with the tight cap that protected her short, spiky blonde hair la the singer Pink, two Nomex jumpsuits, and gloves. Still others wiped the retardant gel off her face.
Hey, Rita. Got a minute? The producer, Dean Witherow, called out to her. I have a couple gentlemen whod like to meet you.
Noticing the two military types in the visitors area, probably consultants on the film, she sighed with resignation. Folks were fascinated with her after witnessing some of her stunts, especially men who fantasized about what she could do in bed. Being a proud lady of the SWAMP, as in Stuntwomens Association of Motion Pictures, shed heard it all. One lawyer from Denver once asked, before theyd even gotten to the entre in a fancy L.A. restaurant, if she could do any kinky stunts during sex. Jeesh! And, yes, she could, actually. Not that shed told him that.
After a quick shower in the doubles trailer and a change of clothes to jeans and an Aerosmith T-shirt, she walked up and let Dean introduce them. This is Commander Ian MacLean and Lieutenant Jacob Mendozo. Theyre Navy SEALs stationed at Coronado.
