A Storm of Pleasure

by TERRI BRISBIN

  The men were all busy about various tasks in their camp. The storm had blown past, and the day dawned crisp and clear and perfect for sailing. Some of the men were already loading their supplies back into the boat. One of the men handed her a bowl of some kind of porridge and a cup of watered ale as he passed. Haakon and two others emptied the Truthsayer’s tent and took it apart, rolling the canvas around the short poles and storing it.

  As she watched, the camp was dismantled, packed up, and readied for travel south. Katla felt lost, for she knew not her place here. Last night Gavin had rebuffed her touch, when she’d thought that was the reason he’d brought her along. Then this morning, he’d not acted on the arousal she could feel against her back when he woke her. Now, he was nowhere to be seen and she was left with the men. She found a place to sit and finished the food and drink given to her.

  “Katla,” Gavin called out as he approached. “Come.”

  He held his hand out to her and she stood. The same man who’d brought her the food and drink took the empty bowl and cup from her, and she followed the Truthsayer along the shore and then away from the water. The path led over the rocky outcrop and into some trees. After a few minutes, he stopped and pointed to the left.

  “You can see to your needs at the stream there,” he said, nodding off the path. “I will wait for you here.”

  Truly, ’twas not why she’d thought he’d led her away from the others, but she was grateful that he was taking care of her. Katla spent only a few minutes, washing her face, braiding her hair, and seeing to her personal needs before walking back to where he waited. Still, she felt uneasy in his company, uncertain of her place with him. Surely the others on the voyage understood the nature of their involvement; they all seemed to know him well and be familiar with this voyage.

  Within half an hour’s time, they boarded the boat and continued their journey, this time without the constant rocking and rolling of the boat on rough seas. Haakon explained their route and the length of time it would take to travel back to Durness. A small sitting area had been arranged for her at one end of the boat, and mostly she stayed there.

  She watched Gavin, trying to sort out what kind of man he was now. She’d seen the angry, drunken man in pain. She’d seen the sexual creature he became. She’d seen the otherworldly being who shared his body during the ritual of hearing the truth. But now, she seemed to see just a man.

  He walked among the crew speaking to those rowing, and he even helped with the sails a time or two. He spoke at length with Haakon, and they spared her several glances during those conversations. He smiled more than she’d ever seen him do, and each time, the lightness of his expression and the lack of turmoil on his face made him appear much younger. He seemed almost carefree at those times, and she wondered over the change.

  “You look weary, Katla.”

  She did not realize he’d approached, but he crouched down in front of her now. “Are you well?” he asked. She nodded.

  “I did not sleep well,” she admitted. The Truthsayer sat next to her and drew her close.

  “Here now, lean against me and sleep a bit. We have hours of sailing ahead and nothing much to do.”

  There it was again—that carefree attitude and tone.

  “You are different, Truthsayer.”

  “Why do you not call me by name, Katla? Everyone else calls me Gavin. Save you.” He smiled at her, a wicked glimmer in his eyes. “Except one time yesterday morning when I heard you speak my name. Over and over,” he said in a whisper that matched the wickedness of his smile.

  She shivered for she remembered it well. He’d been seated deep within her flesh, rocking his hips, making her gasp with each movement until she screamed out his name and her pleasure.

  “Say my name, Katla,” he urged, his voice deepened by desire. Or the memory of it.

  She met his gaze and obeyed his words. “Gavin.”

  “Good. Better,” he said, smiling. “And, aye, I am different,” he admitted. He lowered the shoulder nearest her and nodded to her. “Rest a while. We have time to talk once we get to Durness.”

  With the long summer days and the sun setting late, they had enough light to sail for hours. From what she’d heard, they’d arrive at the cave by nightfall. She gave in to her exhaustion and slept, resting against him and waking sometime later to find her body reclining with his.

  Once more he saw to her needs, providing food and drink and a chance to relieve herself with a measure of privacy. When the cliffs and promontories of the north coast loomed ever larger, he stood next to her at the side of the boat, not touching, but close enough that the sound of his voice teased her skin.

  “Why did you agree?” he asked.

  “To save my brother’s life,” she answered without hesitation. She thought she might need to remind herself of that reason in the weeks ahead.

  “Are you having regrets already?”

  She turned to look at him. “Regrets? Nay, Gavin. I will carry out my part of the bargain.” His gaze was intense. “Why do you think that?”

  “You have been quiet. You’ve not spoken more than a dozen words since we left Birsay. I thought that mayhap you want to change your decision.”

  She heard it there—fear lay beneath his words. What did he have to fear?

  “I know not my place with you. In my father’s house, I knew what to do, and most answered to me. In Harald’s household, I had duties and knew what was expected of me. Now, I am here with you and do not know what you expect of me.”

  He surprised her by taking her hand in his and tugging her to face him.

  “You are my guest, Katla. I want you to be comfortable during your stay. The rest we will take one step at a time.”

  She wanted to be clear about this, for he did not seem to have the same appetites of a day ago. “And I am to please you in whatever manner you ask.”

  He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the inside of her wrist. “It will be about our pleasure, Katla. We will seek it together.”

  “I do not understand, Gavin,” she began. “Why did you ask me to come here with you, if not to serve you?”

  He turned away and stared out toward their destination. Then he smiled.

  “To save my life, Katla. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Gavin wondered if that was the answer he should have given. He’d believed her tied to his fate in some unexplainable way, but telling her that was not the best idea. Not until he’d been able to learn what she knew of him and his power and, more important, his origins or his end.

  One of the men called, removing him from her side for a short time. When he glanced back, she was organizing their supplies and clothing. Then he helped the men during their arrival at the cave, and it felt good. For too long he’d been a prisoner of the noise in his thoughts, forced away from others because of the pain. Now here he was, with silence in his mind because of her.

  Once they landed near the cave’s entrance, the supplies were carried down the path and inside to be stored, under Haakon’s direction. Afterward, the men boarded the boat to sail back to Durness village, a few miles west on the coast. They would stay there overnight, enjoying the hospitality the people offered. Some would visit family there before returning north. In a short time, Haakon excused himself, climbing to the small croft that he’d built on the ground above the cave.

  By the time night fell, Gavin was alone with Katla.

  She stood by the entrance to the cave, on the small beach there, staring up at the sky. Thousands of stars lit the clear night above them, and the sound of the sea lapping against the shore soothed him. ’Twas one of the reasons he’d sought refuge here. Now, he heard it with silence in the background of his thoughts and enjoyed it even more. Gavin walked up behind her and waited for her to notice him there, not wanting to invade her private thoughts. When she glanced back, he spoke.

  “It is beautiful at night, is it not? The sides of the cliffs seem to draw the starlight b
etween them.”

  “Aye,” she said, turning to face him. “Is that what brought you here?”

  “Nay. I only noticed it after I moved here.” He smiled.

  How could he explain to her the soothing effect of the rushing water from the river and the sea crashing on the beach? Would she decide that he was mad as others claimed?

  “Did you see the whole cave when you were here?” he asked. He’d been drugged and remembered very little about her first visit, except the pleasure of the dreamlike experience.

  “Nay,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought you were asleep and did not want to be discovered spying on you,” she explained, a soft pink blush creeping up her cheeks as she spoke of that time. He would ask her more about that later; for now he would play the gracious host.

  “Come,” he said, holding out his hand to her. “Let me show you the rest.”

  He took her hand and they walked along the edge of the river that led deeper into the cave. Crossing over a small bridge he’d had built, they entered the main area that lay open to the sea. Gavin took her into one of the side caves that led to the private area he used as a bedchamber. Sheltered deeper within the cave’s inner recesses, it was not as damp or cold as the outer chamber where she’d first found him.

  He observed as she entered and looked around. The earl’s men and wealth had turned it into a comfortable place—for a sea cave. The bed stood high off the floor, which lay covered in thick rugs. Furs were piled high on the bed, making it warm even during the colder nights. A metal brazier sat in one corner, where he could burn wood or peat to heat the room. The smoke followed the ceiling of the chamber and the corridor out. His trunks of clothing, a set of shelves with some books and supplies, a table and two chairs completed the furnishings—simple but comfortable.

  “Is this the only chamber?” she asked.

  “Aye. Haakon prefers to sleep above the ground in the croft there.” She nodded, clearly knowing the existence and location of it. “But there is more to the cave.”

  Katla followed him as he retraced their path back to the main chamber, where he took a torch down from the wall and led her down a different corridor. This one narrowed as it moved along the river that drained through the cave into the sea. They walked in the light of the torch for a few minutes and then he stopped.

  “Can you hear it?” he asked. They were very close to the waterfall, though they could not see it in the darkness.

  She closed her eyes for a short time and then nodded. “Aye, the waterfall.” When she opened her eyes, she laughed at him. “I did not simply enter your cave without first searching the area for an easier entrance.”

  “Did you not use the path in front? The way we entered?”

  “Nay,” she said. “I did not want to chance being seen on the open path, so I climbed down the cliff.”

  He choked back a gasp. She could have been killed by the fall from the cliffs. “Remind me to stay out of your path when you are determined to do something, Katla Svensdottir!” he said. Then he asked the question that had plagued him. “Why did you come here and leave without a word?”

  She did not answer him right away, apparently picking and choosing her words before speaking. Then she sighed and told him.

  “My task that day was to search your cave to learn more about you. I wanted to find out something I could use to convince you to help me…” Her words drifted off.

  “Save your brother’s life,” he finished.

  “Aye.”

  He offered his hand to her and led her back into the main chamber, then into his bedchamber before asking her more questions.

  “Why are you the only one seeking to change his fate? Do you believe he is innocent just because he is your brother?”

  From what Haakon had told him of Sven Rognvaldson and his son, it seemed that both were deeply involved in plotting against the earl, possibly with the Scots king. Now that there was a treaty between King Magnus and King Edgar, neither sovereign wanted to upset the tenuous peace between the two nations. Sven Rognvaldson had clearly had other plans and sought a way to garner more power and more importance to both kings.

  “He is innocent!” she said sharply. It did not take a truthsayer to tell she was also trying to convince herself of her words. He could see how upset she was, so he took her in his arms and held her close.

  “Hush now,” he whispered. “I did not mean to upset you so.”

  They stood like that for several minutes before he asked another question.

  “Why did Harald not help you?”

  “He cannot go against the earl without proof,” she explained. “Or appear to be disobeying the earl’s orders in this matter. My father had many enemies, and they would rather see no one left alive to claim his properties and wealth. Harald gave me leave to find proof that he could use to raise questions to the earl.”

  Even as strong as she was, Katla’s heart was the soft one of a woman. A woman who could not or would not see the failings in those she loved. But a woman who would hate someone who showed her those failings and forced her to see them. Harald clearly knew that, allowing her to seek the truth on her own so he would not be the one to prove her brother’s involvement.

  Especially not after being the one to accuse her father.

  The earl had not believed Harald’s claims of treason against the powerful chieftain, so he’d called on Gavin to determine the truth of the accusation.

  As he had, though he remembered nothing of the words spoken by Harald during the ritual. Gavin never did. Many times he did not even know whose truth he heard. Though the earl’s swift actions after the ritual told him everything he needed to know. Sven was guilty and Harald had spoken the truth. Magnus had carefully made his plans and set them in motion to rid himself of a traitor…and his son.

  “So you believe him innocent then?”

  She stepped back, out of his embrace, and he saw the tracks of tears on her cheeks. “Aye. I do.” She nodded her head. “He is young, not yet fully a man,” she explained. “He would never act with such dishonor.”

  Though Gavin could give her many examples of how her words were not accurate, including several children Kali Svenson had already fathered and other accusations made against him, he did not. He needed to understand her more fully, and her words revealed much about her character. Loyalty and love ran deep in her.

  “This has been a long day. Do you need something to eat?” he asked. He walked over to the covered tray on the table, lifting the cover and showing her the food beneath it. “Haakon left us a meal if you are hungry.”

  She shook her head, an expression of wariness now filling her gaze.

  “There is also ale or even wine, in these jugs here.” He pointed to the containers on a shelf. “You are welcome to it.”

  He walked around the room, pointing out both the necessities and the luxuries, so that she would not feel ill at ease asking for this or that. Then when he’d completed the instructions, he found he was nervous. Anticipation of the night ahead rippled through him.

  But the desperation to have her, to have any woman, was gone. Every month, once he recovered from the ritual and regained his hearing, he was struck by an overwhelming hunger for women. He coupled several times each day in that first week after the full moon, no more able to refuse a woman than he could refuse to breathe. Yet now, he felt only the expectation of enjoying a night of pleasure with Katla, not a life-threatening need to couple with as many women as possible.

  Another change caused by her? Had she some power of her own, one given by the same source as his, that restored balance and control to his life? Gavin finally realized that he was hesitating to take a beautiful woman to his bed, and he laughed aloud.

  “This is not something I do,” he tried to explain.

  “That is not what I have heard,” she said.

  He laughed again. “I meant bringing a woman here and not tearing her clothes off and having my way with her.”

  She did not smi
le politely in reply or look away; she trembled, her body shivering in arousal, not fear, and he felt desire course through him. This time though, it was desire the way he used to experience it before his power went awry. An increasing urge, not an out-of-control hunger. A pleasurable awareness of her body, not mind-emptying lust. A building desire to be with her, not an unavoidable one.

  Like a man should feel.

  But there were other needs pulling at him, and the strongest one was for sleep. Astonished, he realized that his body still craved that which had eluded him for so long. Undisturbed sleep. And with the comfort of his bed so close at hand, he found it difficult not to seek.

  “Would you mind if…?”

  How could he ask her to sleep with him when she expected something else? Would she laugh at him?

  “But for one or two nights, I have not slept soundly in months,” he blurted out.

  “Sleep then, if that is what you need,” she answered.

  For all his days, he would remember the look of disbelief on her face when he declared his need for sleep. Truly, he did not believe he’d said it either, but knowing that she would be there, in his bed, in his arms, removed the unnatural urgency that usually pulsed through him. As did the entire, sleepless night they’d spent together.

  “Would you give me leave to unpack my things or should I join you now?”

  He laughed again at her practicality and his own behavior. “Do as you wish. Consider this your home.”

  Gavin turned then, torn between watching her and getting into bed. He decided he could do both, so he undressed and climbed under the bedcovers. She moved quietly around the room, first folding his clothes and then her own. It was soothing in a way. She went from task to task, efficiently, silently, until her belongings were put neatly away.

  Katla could feel his gaze follow her as she sorted through the clothing and possessions she’d brought with her, doing as he’d suggested and making this place her home. For the next month, it would be. The cave was not so bad as one might expect. The earl had provided every comfort possible and made this a place fit for his counselor to live. She ignored the growing heat within her and finished her task before facing him.