He misconstrued her hesitance and whispered, ‘I’ll be careful with you, fair one. I’ll not hurt you.’
If she didn’t know anything else, she knew that with certainty. Her hand automatically went to his chest to keep herself balanced, but his left hand covered it and moved it across the dips and bulges of his chest. ‘Feel me.’
Her fingers couldn’t resist their own exploration of him. He was so powerful, so wrapped in muscle that she could hardly believe he was real and hers...at least for the night. Her hands moved over his shoulders and down his chest, which was covered in a light furring of hair, to the ridged muscle of his flat stomach. His shoulders were so wide and his waist so narrow, she couldn’t help but admire him. Just below his navel, dark blond hair created a path that led down into his trousers. She’d somehow managed to keep from looking at that very obvious sign of his arousal, but she did now and felt her mouth go dry. The bulge seemed quite as large as it had felt. It wasn’t surprising considering the size of everything else about him, but still. She licked her lips and allowed her hand to go further down, cupping him, though he had entirely too much to contain in her hand.
His fingertips skimmed up the sides of her body to her breasts. She hadn’t expected such a direct approach. His thumbs circled around her rigid nipples before his fingertips scraped across them through the thin material of her nightgown. She might have gasped before she managed to close her mouth, containing the sounds to tiny exhales through her nose. His gaze wasn’t on her breasts as he worked. It was on her face, taking in every nuance of her reaction.
She felt so exposed to him, but he didn’t seem to mind her reaction. In fact, it seemed he was looking to cause it. When she breathed heavier, he’d repeat whatever it was he’d just done. When he pinched her nipple, the resulting dart of pleasure was so unexpected she startled and he merely grinned in approval.
‘You seem to have done this before.’ He seemed to know her body as well as he knew his sword. He’d obviously known women.
His grin widened. ‘Some things are instinct. Your face tells me all that I need to know.’
She couldn’t explain what made her voice her next question. Perhaps it was her own desire as much as his. ‘Would you like to see me?’
His eyes widened before seeming to darken even more. ‘Very much so.’
It gave her the daring to shimmy from his hold and grasp the skirt of her nightdress. She hesitated only a moment before raising it, gaining courage by the way he followed the hem up her legs with his eyes. Though she lost her nerve as she reached her hips and faltered, holding the bunched-up skirt there.
He didn’t allow her to falter for long. His warm palms moved beneath the fabric, cupping her hips and making her gasp aloud from the contact. She’d never known her skin was so sensitive as it prickled beneath him. The linen tugged from her hands as he pushed it upward. Before she realised it, he was pulling it off over her head.
He wasn’t smiling any more as he allowed it to slip from his fingers to the floor, his gaze on her body. His hand moved up slowly, as if giving her time to object, but she didn’t want to do anything to dissuade him, so she stood still and allowed his hand to cup her breast. The rough skin of his palm abraded her sensitive nipple, sending a jolt of pleasure straight down to her centre. He stepped forward again, so that barely any space was left between them.
She’d worried that he might find her too small, but he didn’t seem to mind as he cupped her other breast. His thumbs made gently circles around the nipples, mimicking his motion from earlier, before flicking across the sensitive tips. Only, this time the sensation was so much sharper now that his calloused fingertips abraded her bare skin.
‘You’re beautiful.’
He pulled his gaze from her breasts to her eyes. She hadn’t been quite sure what to expect from this exchange. At its surface it was him giving her what she needed—his seed—in exchange for saving his life. Yet it felt like so much more than that. They could have finished by now.
Nay, this wasn’t a simple transaction. This was something more. She wasn’t quite sure what to say that it was, but it was more.
His hands dropped from her breasts, fingertips grazing across her stomach and hips before landing on the fastenings to his trousers. She took a deep breath as she watched him work them, anticipation coiled tight within her. He paused after he finished. She knew he looked back at her, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from the massive bulge. He pushed his trousers down just a little so they dipped past his hips and his manhood sprang loose. It jutted up proudly from the thick dark blond curls at its base, curving upward towards his navel. He was long and impossibly thick. She was quite certain that if she grasped him, her fingers wouldn’t meet her thumb.
‘I don’t...’ She licked her lips to give herself time to find the right words. ‘I don’t know if this will work. I’m not certain we’re properly matched.’
He exhaled on a laugh, making the thing bounce with the movement. ‘I’ll fit.’
‘How do you know?’ She looked up at him, suspicion niggling at a corner of her mind. ‘Have you memory of doing this before?’
That made him frown and his brow furrowed as if trying to remember. ‘Nay,’ he admitted. ‘But I’m a man and you’re a woman. We’re supposed to fit.’
She wasn’t so certain. It seemed entirely possible that some women and some men just wouldn’t fit properly. Yet before she could tell him so, his hands slipped around her and pulled her against him. One arm went around her shoulders to hold her close, while the other moved down over her hip. His fingers brushing against the curls at the apex of her thighs.
She gasped and pulled away as much as he’d let her. ‘What are you doing?’ She had a suspicion that her body was entirely too ready to try him. It wouldn’t be seemly if he felt her and realised just how much.
He didn’t answer immediately and instead pushed his fingers through her curls, between her closed thighs. ‘Open your legs for me, fair one.’ A gentle push of his knee encouraged her feet to step apart.
His longest finger found its way between her lips, spearing them apart to find the liquid proof of her arousal.
Aisly closed her eyes to hide her shame, just waiting for him to mock her. He didn’t say a word, though. He only made a guttural sound deep in his throat that was suspiciously like approval as he rubbed his fingertip round and round, raking over her tender and aching flesh. Before she realised it, she was clinging to that arm with both hands, her face pressed to his biceps as she gasped silently against his warm skin.
The word ‘please’ tumbled from her lips in a repeated whisper. She just wanted to be filled, an ache expanding within. Somehow he knew. His thick finger found her and pressed inside, retreated and pressed inside again. It wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. Her greedy body only ached for more to fill her. It wasn’t until he pushed a second one in, slowly working its way inside her, that she realised what he was doing. He was showing her how she would accept him. He was making a way for himself.
His right hand tangled in her hair and pulled her face back so that he could look at her. She had no hope of opening her eyes, though, not while the fingers of his left hand kept moving in and out in that maddening rhythm that made her hips move right along with him. But she felt his mouth against her cheek as he spoke.
‘Do you feel how your body is made for mine? We’ll fit, I swear it.’ He pressed his erection against her hip, grinding it against her. His groan brushed against her cheek and she clenched around his fingers. ‘I’ll go slowly,’ he said and withdrew his fingers, only to pick her up and lay her on the bed.
She could barely open her eyes from the consuming pleasure to watch him sit back on the edge of the bed to undress, but she did because she didn’t want to miss any of his magnificent body. His boots fell to the floor, followed by the trousers, just before he was turning into her arms.
His massive thigh tucked itself between her legs, pressing against her folds in a way that would have been vulgar had the pressure not have felt so good. Just the one was so wide and muscular, a tingle of excitement moved down her spine. One arm wrapped itself in her hair, while the other pressed to the mattress to hold most of his weight from her, as his mouth crashed down to hers.
His tongue filled her mouth, but this time she was expecting it and opened beneath him. It didn’t stay there nearly long enough, before he was dragging hot, open-mouthed kisses down her neck. The subtle scrape of his teeth made her bite her lip to keep from crying out. Then his hot, glorious mouth found her breast and it opened over the tip, drawing her nipple deep inside. The pleasure was so profound, so primal that she couldn’t stop the sounds, so she closed her mouth, making a series of stifled groans instead. She hardly realised she was grinding her hips against the hard muscle of his thigh until his thumb worked its way between them and found her there. It circled around and around her aroused flesh until she only knew that she ached more than she ever had in her life.
Just when she thought it might be possible to die of longing, he rose up, supported by his knees and the forearm that was wrapped in her hair pressed against the mattress. His hold on her hair should’ve been too tight, too controlling, but she liked it. She liked that he handled her as if he knew exactly what to do. With a start, she realised she trusted him completely. His hold wasn’t to control her...it was to reassure her. He grasped his shaft, pulling back the foreskin to reveal a rather large glistening head, but she got only a quick glimpse. As his other knee gently spread her thighs wider so that he could settle between them, her earlier fear returned.
He must have sensed a change, because he met her gaze, then looked back to where she was splayed out beneath him. ‘You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.’ He let go of his shaft to gently run his fingertips between her open folds.
He really did seem to think she was precious. The action, so simple yet so eloquent, calmed her fears a little. At least until he lined up the head of his erection with her opening and gently pressed forward. At first the sensation was indescribable, an exquisite pressure that countered the ache within her perfectly. But then it was too much, she was stretched too taut and her body rebelled. She was too small. He was too big. Too tight. She involuntarily bucked her hips, but he held fast with his hand on her hip and didn’t allow her to move away.
‘Does it hurt?’ he asked. His eyes were so gentle despite the firm hold he had on her, and the obvious desire in their depths that she felt immediately comforted. If she said aye, he’d stop.
‘It’s too much,’ she whispered.
‘Then I won’t go further yet.’ He released her hip and brought his thumb to his mouth. She was almost jealous as he brought it between his lips and sucked the tip, wanting more than anything to have his mouth on her breast again. It was glistening when he pulled it out and returned it to that place just above where his body was joined to hers. As he worked over that nub of swollen flesh, that all-consuming ache began to return, throbbing harder with every beat of her heart. He must have read her thoughts, because his mouth returned to her breast, sucking a nipple into the hot, wet heat of his mouth. She bit her lip to stay silent as her hips pushed against him. Just that quickly she went from afraid he would push forward to afraid that he wouldn’t. Mercifully he sank in a bit more, drawing a reluctant gasp from her. His own groan against her breast drowned out the sound and his thumb abandoned her as his hand grabbed her hip to hold her steady. Only then did he slide in, filling her so completely that their hips were pressed flush together. She was so full of him, so completely possessed by him, that she wasn’t certain how anything could feel any better.
At least, not until he moved. His hips pushed against her in a slow grind. Not a thrust really, just a gentle rocking that had her clenching around him for more. He released her nipple, but his clever tongue stroked over the puckered flesh, a vison so sinful she imagined it would stay in her head for the rest of her days. Then he looked at her and the intensity and concentration of that look made her tighten around him. ‘You’ve taken all of me. How does it feel?’
He ground against her again, so hard and thick that he should’ve been uncomfortable, but she only wanted more. Her voice sounded breathy and not her own. ‘It’s never felt like this before.’
He grinned and gave a little push of his hips. Waves of pleasure moved through her. It must have shown on her face, because he got bolder and withdrew nearly all the way. She was certain she’d never be whole again. Only, he pushed back in again, making her whole only to take it away again. The drag of his hard shaft against her overly sensitive body was nearly more than she could stand. ‘By the gods, Aisly, you feel so good. So tight.’ He fell forward and gasped the words against her neck.
Some thrill moved through her at his words of acceptance. This was better than good. It felt incredible. Her arm held him clasped to her, afraid that he might stop if she didn’t, while her other hand clutched at his nape. Her legs flailed a bit. Every time she got purchase with her heel on the bed, he’d move in that delicious way he had and dislodge her.
His arm took pity on her and hooked itself beneath her knee, solving her dilemma and holding her open so they both gasped at the new level of pleasure as he sank even deeper. She managed to stop the sound halfway through and he noticed. Drawing up a bit to look at her, he stopped that wonderful rhythm, making her hips buck beneath him because she wanted it back. Her body clenched desperately around his shaft. ‘Why did you do that?’ he asked.
‘What?’ Though to be fair, it was more a sound than a word she made.
‘Why do you stifle your sounds?’
She shook her head, too far gone in pleasure to even be capable of deciphering his meaning. He meant to get an answer, though, and grinned as he pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. It might have hurt had it not already been swollen and anxious for his attention. She couldn’t stop her cry as pleasure darted through her body straight to where his shaft was nestled deep within her. He did it again and she nearly shattered inside.
‘I don’t know.’ She did know. Only whores made sounds, but she didn’t care to enter into that conversation just yet, not when there was still pleasure to be had.
‘I want to hear your pleasure. Don’t hide it from me.’ The way he looked down at her, that smile that curved his lips and the adoring way his eyes caressed her face, made her not care what was right any more. She just wanted to please him and would do whatever it took.
She nodded and reached for him. Her arms going around his shoulders as he fell over her, hips pumping against her, hard and deep. Prickles of light danced behind her eyelids. She almost managed to quell the gasps, but he was relentless and she couldn’t stop them any more.
‘Aye, that’s it.’ His jagged voice prickled across the skin of her neck. The firm slide of him thick and hard inside her felt so incredibly good that more cries fell from her lips. He grinned against her ear. ‘Good girl.’ His voice was strained as he set a harsh and fast rhythm she couldn’t hope to keep up with, so she held on and cried out as deep, wrenching spasms rippled through her body, causing her to clench around his shaft.
He redoubled his efforts, holding her tight until his hips faltered and he found his own release within her. His grunts of pleasure echoed her own.
Chapter Thirteen
Magnus fell on to her, crushing her, so weak he didn’t think he’d ever be able to move again. He just wanted to lie there between her thighs, half-rigid within her, her scent all over him, her soft body beneath him, her arms clutching him tight. This was what he wanted, he realised as a sudden clarity came over him.
Aisly was what he wanted. Aisly and everything life could be with her. The thought was wrong in so many ways. His life was not here, and his life—the life of a warrior—was not meant to include
someone like her.
Her breath came in soft pants against his ear. He hesitated, because he didn’t want to see regret or anything resembling it in her eyes, but after a few moments, he couldn’t resist rising up a little to look down into her lovely face. The tiny flecks of colour on her cheeks stood out against the paleness of her skin, making him realise that he hadn’t kissed them all yet. But her hand on his cheek drew his eyes up to hers.
‘You’ve done that before.’ She smiled.
He settled a forearm on the mattress above her head. Knowing how to touch her had been instinctual. He had to admit that must mean he’d done it many times before, just the way he’d been able to find faults in the security of her village. It came from years of training, practice. But the way his heart raced as he looked down at her, and the way he couldn’t get enough of her, had nothing to do with his past experience. It had everything to do with her.
‘Aye, but never like that.’
‘How would you know? You can’t remember.’
‘Because I’ve never done that with you.’
She blushed and her face returned to that same glowing pink that had overcome her when she’d found her release. He’d already been half-rigid, but that made him harden with wanting her again. Gently, he pulled out of her and leaned to his side. She moved over, but the bed was so narrow that his shoulders took up most of it. After some shuffling, she ended up half-draped over him, her knee resting between his thighs and her hand on his chest. His arm went around her, keeping her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, but it took a little longer for her to relax against him. When she finally did, her hand on his stomach, her breath soft on his chest, he felt like he’d won a victory. For a moment, everything seemed right.
‘Aisly?’
‘Hmm...’ Her eyes were closed and he couldn’t resist stroking her cheek as he pushed a piece of her hair back off her face.
In Bed with the Viking Warrior Page 14