“Now. Please,” she whimpered.
He pushed further inside, taking it slow and easy. Inch by blessed inch, he stretched and filled her, possessing her completely.
Her gaze drifted down to the junction of their bodies. She was mesmerized by the movement of his cock in and out of her. He was so solid and long, she marveled she could accommodate all of him.
Holding the globes of her backside firmly in his hands, he began to move faster, driving his hips forward to impale her. He pumped up and down the length of her passage, making her channel quiver in anticipation. The friction was incredible. The sensation so right.
“You’re so tight, my sweet.”
“Yes, oh, yes,” she cried, surprised at the throaty, thick sound of her voice, the voice of a woman in the throes of unbridled lust.
He moved faster, thrusting into her like a piston. His breaths were quick and shallow, and the cords of his neck stretched tight as piano wire as he strained to fully possess her. His muscles, so hard beneath her fingers, were covered with a thin sheen of perspiration, heightening his musky, male scent.
Moaning and thrashing her head against the pillow, the pressure grew inside her, tightening, coiling, building into an exquisite tension that would either kill her or free her.
“Stein,” she cried, clutching him as she drowned in a sea of blissful contractions. “Yes, yes!” Like neon stars, bright colors flashed behind her eyes, blinding her. She clung to him as her sheath convulsed around his pounding length, propelling him over the edge to join her. “Aaaahhh,” he groaned, clutching her like a lifeline. Seized by his own intense orgasm, his body grew rigid as he spilled his seed inside her.
He collapsed on top of her, supporting his weight on his elbows. They lay in the still afterglow of their coupling, joined together, unwilling to separate. She clung to him, feeling the steady rhythm of his heart, while he placed little kisses on her hair and forehead. Cradling her head in his large, strong hands, he lowered his lips to hers in a tender kiss.
“Esme, I love you.” He stared right through her, his pupils dark and round as marbles, and in their depths, she saw her own reflection. They were truly one.
“I love you, too.” She’d never uttered those words to any man, and she knew she’d never speak them to any other.
She kissed him back, opening her mouth to receive his tongue, just as she had received his body. Her heart sang with happiness. She had never felt so free, yet so conquered at the same time.
“You’re mine,” he said simply.
“Yes, always.” Her eyes teared up with emotion. If only they could stay together. Surely the universe hadn’t brought them together just to tear them apart.
As her tears spilled over, he thumbed the soft skin under her eyes and licked the moisture from his fingers.
“I don’t know what the future will bring,” she pushed back his damp hair, “but I promise to be your woman for as long as I can.”
“I would be honored.”
A wave of melancholy swept over her. If she was swept forward into the twenty-first century, she'd lose him forever. In her world, in her real world, Stein Magnuson had been dead for almost a thousand years.
He pulled out of her body, rolled to the side of the bed, and grabbed his tunic off the floor. He wiped himself and then used the shirt to clean her thighs, following each stroke of the cloth with a little kiss or lick. She was touched by his tenderness.
They spent the night making love, exploring the mysteries of each other’s bodies, being careful, of course, not to irritate his burns. Every touch, taste, and smell was exciting and a delight to her senses. She had no idea a man’s body could be such a delicious confection of muscle, sinew, hair and skin.
Stein couldn’t stop touching her or kissing her everywhere. He was an incredible lover. Tender one minute, commanding the next. She was sure she’d set a new Olympic record for the most orgasms in one night.
Towards dawn, he even let her tie him up. Oh, how she enjoyed that! What was more amazing, so did he.
*****
The crowing roosters signaled it was early morning, but Stein and Esme lay in bed, braided together, not wanting to stir. The aroma of all-night sex swirled around them like an eddy around a river stone.
“Good morning,” she murmured in his ear.
“It’s a very good morning.” He rubbed noses with her. “In fact, it’s the best morning I can remember.”
Truth be told, it had been the best night, as well. With Esme’s help, he had dismantled the mile-high wall he’d built around his heart, and for the first time in over six months, he’d relaxed, smiled and laughed like any ordinary man in the company of the woman he loved. Her eagerness and ready-for-anything attitude made their lovemaking fresh and special. He felt young and unjaded, like a youth experiencing his first love.
“I don’t know if I can get up," she said, smiling coyly. "I’m so sore, I can barely move. That’s not a complaint, by the way.”
“Good. Then you’re pleased?” His fingers wandered down to her silky nest and made themselves at home. Again.
“Oh, very.” Her green eyes glowed with womanly satisfaction.
He nuzzled her cheek. “Fortune was on my side when I found you in the slave market.”
She played tag with her fingers over the contours and ridges of his chest. “Perhaps it wasn’t an accident,” she said with a secretive grin.
“What do you mean?”
“Perhaps fate brought us together.”
“You mean the gods arranged it?”
She chuckled. “Yes, the gods. Why not.”
“Then I pray they shall keep us together.”
“So do I.” He caught a glimpse of sadness in her smile.
A rustle of fabric drew his attention, and he looked up to see his mother poking her head through the curtain.
She was beaming. “May I come in?”
“Certainly, Mother.” He untangled himself from Esme and sat on the edge of the bed.
Ulla grinned at Esme. “I trust you both had a good night?”
“Yes, thank you.” Esme grinned back. “Your son and I have settled our differences.”
“So it would seem.”
“We have arrived at a new understanding.” He stood and pulled on his leggings. “One that will make us both happy.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” His mother made no move to go, shifting her weight from foot to foot as if she were standing on hot coals.
He donned his shirt and belt. “Is there something else, Mother?”
“I hate spoiling the moment for you, but it’s Magnus. Gudrun says he’s cursing and shouting like a lunatic. Making a fuss about something he’s found. He’s shouting about Esme. I don’t like it, son. I’m worried.”
*****
Esme froze as the blood drained from her face. Magnus found my cell phone!
“Oh?” Stein sat on the bed while he put on his boots. He shot Esme a questioning look. “What about her?”
“I don’t know,” Ulla continued, “but since she’s your responsibility, you’d better find out what’s upsetting him.”
“All right, I’ll go see what it’s about.” He stroked Esme’s cheek gently. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t go away.” He rose and walked to the curtain.
“Yeah, sure.” She stared ahead, paralyzed with fear. How in the hell would she get out of this?
He stopped. “Is something wrong?”
She snapped to attention. “Wrong? Uh, no. Nothing’s wrong.” She tried to smile sincerely. “I’m just tired.”
“I wonder why,” he said with a wink and disappeared through the curtain.
Esme was in a daze as she pulled on her shift. If Magnus had discovered her phone, the proverbial crap was going to hit the proverbial fan. There was no way she could explain it. No way that would make sense to a bunch of superstitious medieval Vikings. In their minds, she’d be a sorceress or even worse, the Devil incarnate.
“Let’s not wait for
Stein,” Ulla said, interrupting Esme’s thoughts. “I’m anxious to know what Magnus is complaining about. Come.” She gestured for Esme to follow her.
Esme trudged along behind her feeling like a condemned prisoner on the way to her execution. A few minutes ago she’d been happy as a clam at high tide. And now she was scared stiff. Things were changing so fast, her head was spinning.
As they approached Magnus’s longhouse, they found him arguing with Stein. Their booming voices ricocheted like cannon shots off the farmstead buildings. Esme didn’t catch everything they said, but she heard the words ‘witchcraft’ and ‘sorcery.’ Her stomach turned instantly into a war zone as fear churned the acid into an unpleasant maelstrom.
Magnus was shaking the phone in Stein’s face. “What else could this infernal device be? It is the instrument of the Devil, I tell you. You’ve brought evil to us all.”
Poor Stein looked completely baffled. “You’ve been listening to those Christian missionaries again. There is no Devil, and Esme is no sorceress. It cannot be.”
“There she is,” Magnus shouted, pointing his finger at her. “Seize her!”
A crowd was gathering, and two brawny farm laborers, eager to curry favor with the chieftain, ran at her like pro-football linebackers.
“No!” Esme shouted, dropping to her knees. She covered her head with her arms to protect herself.
“If you harm her,” Stein yelled at the men, “you’ll pay dearly for it.”
“Bring her to me,” Magnus shouted. “Now we shall learn the truth.”
The men seized her by the arms and half-dragged her toward Magnus.
“You have a lot to explain, witch,” Magnus said, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
Poor Stein stared at her with wide eyes. Like a deer caught in the headlights, he didn’t have a clue.
Esme sucked in her breath. Fate had brought her here for a reason.
Now it had better keep her out of a noose.
CHAPTER 16
Esme stood before Magnus and hoped her knees wouldn’t give out. Gudrun, Erik and Sigrid stood with him, while Stein and Ulla stood with her.
Stein reached for her hand and whispered, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
That did not completely reassure her. They were only two people, and already dozens of unfriendly onlookers had gathered. Word must have spread quickly throughout the settlement that a ‘sorceress’ was in their midst. She envisioned the mob hauling her off to the nearest hanging tree.
She squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”
“Remember, you must always tell the truth.”
“That may be a problem as no one will believe me. Not even you, my love.”
He leaned down. “I’ll try. I know you come from a distant land with strange ways which I do not understand, but you are no sorceress.” He smiled warmly. “Although you have bewitched me in other ways, and I fear the spell is permanent.”
She thrilled to his words even as her heart banged away like a sledgehammer against her rib cage. It was crunch time. The truth of her identity was worming its way toward the light, and the only way to protect herself was to maintain her web of lies.
If Stein and the others learned she was a time traveler from the future, they’d hang her for sure. Somehow she’d have to fabricate an explanation of her cell phone that made sense to these people.
Her mind flitted from one idea to the next, considering and tossing out several possibilities. Her throat clenched with fear, and her heart pounded so hard, she thought she was having a coronary.
Think, Esme. If not for yourself, then for Stein and Ulla. Do not endanger them.
Magnus stepped forward and raised his left hand to silence the crowd. “Come here, woman, and explain this device.” He pulled the phone from his shirt and held it out in front of him like a bag of dog doo-doo. “Will it bring harm to the clan? Is it evil?”
Esme swallowed hard and reluctantly dropped Stein’s hand. “It’s harmless, I promise. Where I come from, people use it to communicate with each other. It’s called a ‘cell phone.’”
Squinting, Magnus handed it to her. “Sell-fone. Show me how it is employed.”
She flipped it open and turned it on. “It takes a few seconds to boot up.”
“Boot up? What does that mean? You must kick it?”
She wanted to laugh, to diffuse the situation, but Magnus would think she was mocking him. Better to play it straight. The phone powered up, revealing a photo of Mr. Darcy about to attack a stuffed mouse.
Magnus jumped backwards. “What is that?”
“It’s my cat. This is called ‘wallpaper.’ It’s perfectly harmless.” She pushed several buttons and scrolled through a dozen pre-loaded, static images. “See? I have other options too.”
She was playing with fire, but she felt compelled to continue. In for a penny...
Magnus’s eyes grew large as he took in the show. “This is magic. Harmless or no, it’s not of this world. Show the others.”
She held up the phone and waved it in an arc toward the onlookers. It’s a good thing she hadn’t shown them the animated wallpapers or they really would have freaked out.
Gudrun and Sigrid bobbled their heads. “You are right, Magnus, it is magic,” Gudrun said, craning her neck for a better view. “Does it do anything else?”
Feeling reckless, Esme pushed the main ‘menu’ button and went to the ‘sounds’ menu, scrolling down to ‘ringer type.’ She hit the first option, a synthesized rendering of Mozart’s A Little Night Music.
Everyone jumped that time, and the crowd grew louder and more excited. She stole a glance at Stein over her shoulder. With his round eyes and gaping mouth, he was as weirded out as all the others.
Mozart continued for several more seconds. “It’s very beautiful,” said Gudrun, her voice tinged with awe.
“Yes. The music tells me that someone is trying to reach me. I mean, speak to me.”
“Speak to you? Someone actually speaks to you?” Magnus tilted his head like a puppy trying to understand a command. “Then do it. Show me how it works.”
“I can’t. First, no one else here has a phone like this, and second, I have no reception here. There’s no communications tower to transmit the necessary digital signal.”
He slashed his hand in a horizontal arc. “I don’t understand anything you say. Explain yourself.”
Esme blew out her breath and continued. “In order for two phones to ‘talk’ to each other, there must be a tower to send and receive the digital signal.”
Erik raised his hand to speak. “This is truly amazing. Are you saying that if someone else a mile away had such a device, you and he could converse?”
“Yes, if there’s a tower to transmit the signal.”
Magnus’s eyes lit up. “Could it be used in battle?”
“I suppose so.”
He turned to Erik. “This could be very useful.”
“Sorry, but it won’t work without another phone and a tower,” Esme interjected.
“Hmm.” Magnus stroked his chin. “You said others in your land also use this device?”
“Yes, people use them every day to talk to each other over long distances. I might be in Túnsberg, for example, and you could be here. We would be able to carry on a perfectly normal conversation.”
The crowd buzzed. Esme turned to Stein for moral support, but he was as incredulous as everyone else. The crease between his eyes deepened as he shook his head slowly from side to side.
“Give it to me,” Magnus ordered.
She placed it in his hand.
“It’s not very big.” He turned it over and over, inspecting it. “How can anything so small be powerful enough to speak with others miles away?”
“It’s the signal that’s powerful. I can’t explain the technology to you.”
Magnus began randomly pushing buttons. Unfortunately, the ‘camera’ button was one of them. Then he blindly pushed ‘photo gallery.’ She watched in horr
or as an image of his North American map appeared.
“What is this?” he roared. “I know this. Tell me.”
“It’s a photo of the map you showed me yesterday.”
His eyes gleamed unnaturally. “A foe-toe. What is that?”
“It’s a picture.” She held out her hand. “Here, if you give the phone back to me, I’ll take a photo of you.”
He returned it, eying her skeptically.
She held it up and centered him in the frame. “Now don’t move.” Pressing the button, she heard the audible camera click.
“What was that sound?” Gudrun asked.
“It tells me I’ve taken the photo.” She hit ‘save’ and scrolled to the ‘photo gallery.’ “Here,” she said, handing the phone back to Magnus, “this is the photo I just took of you.”
He took it, then dropped it like it was radioactive. “Evil! This is an evil device. It has captured my soul.”
“No. It’s just an image, a representation of you. There is no soul in there, nothing evil. Here, I’ll take one of myself.” She picked up the phone and took a self-portrait. “See? Would I do this if it was evil?”
“You are a sorceress,” Gudrun offered matter-of-factly. “It will not hurt you.”
“I’m not a sorceress, and this won’t hurt anyone.”
She glanced again at Stein, but was not comforted. Rubbing his stubbled chin, he shook his head at her and frowned.
Magnus knit his brow. “Why did you capture the map? Of what importance is it to you?”
“It’s a long story.”
He fingered the dagger sheathed at his waist. “I suggest you tell it to me.”
Stein, bless him, stepped into the fray. “There will be no violence against this woman. She is my property and, if she is to be punished, I shall do it myself.”
Magnus backed off, scowling. “Tell me your long story, woman.”
“No, do not listen to her words, Magnus,” Sigrid shouted. “She is a witch and will beguile you, just as she has beguiled Stein. We must get rid of her. She must be killed.”
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