Page 110 of Valkyrie Unknown

I swore this group could turn any conversation to sex, and while I could brush it off some days, tonight it had me watching Azzie in ways I tried not to. The way she laughed and licked her lips and moved and was so easily herself.

She was also my student, and I wouldn’t let my adoration for her become a threat to her. Not again. “We should change the subject.” I kept my voice firm.

Finn snorted. “Are you sure Odin didn’t find you in a monastery?”

“Davyn is perfectly intact.” Enid jumped to my defense, and it took me a heartbeat to realize what she was implying.

Azzie nearly choked on her water. “I mean, she’s not wrong.”

“Not what I meant, ladies, but I prefer your interpretation.” Finn gave me a smug look.

This wasn’t what I meant bychange the subject.

“Did I miss something?” Zeke looked from face to face.

Azzie snickered and Enid’s face was nearly red enough to match the tablecloth now.

I sighed. “Vikings used to capture educated monks and sell them to Asian kings as eunuchs, because a smart man with no balls, who could read, was valuable in a lot of ways to a king.”

Zeke grimaced. “I agree. Let’s change the subject.”

“We could open gifts.” I had a feeling if we didn’t start now, we’d be here all night thanks to the distractions we caused for ourselves. Not that I would complain—despite the awkward bumps in conversation—this evening was going wonderfully.

The wait staff might start to question the conversation though. The encounter with Starkad and Kirby lingered in my mind. Things could’ve gone much worse, and the more we drew attention to ourselves, the more likely it would be that when the next immortal found Azzie,worsewas guaranteed.

“We should wait on that, too.” Enid was still blushing. Why?

The tiny smile on Azzie’s face turned curious and mischievous. “Can I open yours first, Enid?”

Enid twisted her mouth this way and that, finishing with a frown. She bobbed her head back and forth, her expression shifting again and again. It looked as if she was fighting an internal battle.

“Might as well get it out of the way,” Enid said softly. She reached into her purse and extracted two similar sized packages, wrapped in bright paper. They were both books, based on the shapes. She handed one to Zeke and one to Azzie. “Open yours first.”

Her tone made me thinkso we can move on from it quicklywas unspoken at the end of it.

Azzie tore into the paper, but kept it all in a nice, small pile next to her plate. In a blink, her playful expression vanished into one that matched Enid’s, and she moved the book under the table quickly. “I love it, thank you.”

“Whoa.” Finn leaned forward, reaching under the table, and grabbed the book before Azzie could pull away. “You have to show everyone what you got.” He held up the book, and his amusement grew. “The Berserker Who Loved Me.Scarlett Summers.” He read aloud as I scanned the title and author on the cover.

I raised my brows at the book title.

“It’s-at-the-top-of-the-charts-and-I-promise-the-one-in-the-book-is-nothing-like-Davyn.” Enid’s words ran together, and it took me a moment to process.

Nothing like me? What did she mean by that?

Zeke rolled his eyes. “I thought it wasn’t fun to read about if you lived it.”

Despite her flush, Azzie stood and reached across the table to snag the book away from Finn again. She flipped through a few pages, and paused, eyes glued to the words in front of her. “There are exceptions.”

“Besides, this one is more accurate than most.” Enid furrowed her brow. “I mean the world-building.”

“I thought you meant anatomically.” Finn was enjoying this too much. “Because a bear’s cock?—”

“The feeding hole is sacred.” I cut him off with the reminder, as much for my own sanity as his. My mind was wandering, wondering what kind of explicit details were in a book like that. Wondering what it would be like to show Azzie the reality?—

“As if you’ve never talked about dick at the dinner table,” Finn retorted.

Well, yes. Sex wasn’t a taboo topic. Except in this civilization, with this woman, things were different.

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