Celtic Rune: Viking historical romance (Heart of the Battle Series Book 2)

by Lexy Timms

  She walked toward her room, anticipation for what was to come rolling her stomach into tight knots. She hadn't had a chance to really get into the details of sex with her mum, her being too young and her mother most likely waiting for the right time. That time never came.

  Linzi pulled the small towel tightly around her and tiptoed into the room, hanging her dress she’d washed in the creek on the single peg by the door. Her gaze immediately scurried to Erik. He lay on his back, the sheet covering him from the waist down. He was magnificent, the epitome of male seduction. He appeared so casual it made her jealous that he wasn’t nervous. The lustful look on his face seemed to also speak of love, but she could clearly see the outline of his arousal and it alone was distracting.

  Swallowing hard she moved toward him, her hand gripping the top of her towel so tightly that her hands shook. He reached out, his muscles and tattoos flexing in his arm, his fingers motioning for her to come to him. She stood in fear, worrying at what he might think of her after making love or whether she might be good at it at all. He had been with many women most likely and she couldn't imagine a virgin being the top of his list. “Come here.”

  She took a timid step and then bent to blow the candle out on the table beside her bed. The dark would hopefully help provide all she needed to maintain her dignity.

  He stopped her. “You’re going to want it on. I want to see you beneath me, not just fill you. Come here to me. I'll be easy and take care of you." He crawled out of the bed, his body on complete display.

  She steeled herself from reaction, instead turning to face him fully and let her eyes travel up and down him slowly as if seduction were a dish she served up often. Terrified would be an understatement for the emotions pounding through her, but she locked her resolve to not show an ounce of fear. As long as her body didn't betray her.

  He was far larger than she imagined a man to be, her gaze moving to his handsome face as he stopped in front of her and tugged hard at the towel, a soft cry escaping her as she reached for it. He dragged her in tightly, not allowing her hands to touch anything but him. She looked up as his strong fingers rolled down her neck, holding softly at the base of it and pulling her up to kiss him.

  It was soft and loving, his body tense, like hers. She slid her hands over his hips and up his back before dragging her nails back down his back and cupping his arse. The moan from his mouth told her more than words might have, Erik breaking the kiss and leaning down to pick her up, her legs across one arm and back pressed to the other. She covered her breasts with one arm and the junction where her legs meet with the other hand. He smiled down at her, laying her on the bed and crawling to sprawl out beside her.

  Ripping the covers from the bed, he tossed them behind him on the floor as she huffed. He laughed and pulled her toward him, Linzi turning on her side to face him. Soft, feather light touches along her side, her hip and thigh caused her to struggle for air. He dragged a finger along her chin, a thumb over her lips as he leaned in and breathed deeply.

  "I love the way you smell." He moved toward her ear, a slight tremor running through her. "Tell me your fears so I can remove them."

  "I've never done this." There. She bared her biggest fear to him in four words.

  He moved back and smiled. "You were made for this, Linzi. Men and women were made to make love, to give each other full access to the ecstasy that together we create."

  "Don't make it any easier." She grinned as he turned them, a hunger burning in his eyes as he pressed his upper body to her stomach and legs, wiggling a little to slide in between her legs. She shuddered.

  Erik looked up at her before kissing her stomach softly. "Do you trust me?"

  "What?" She stared down at him, hoping the shaking inside of her didn’t move to her outer body or, heaven forbid, her lips.

  "I want you forever, so I ask you – do you trust me?"

  Tears swam in her gaze, the fear of disappointing him, the worry over the pain to come, the idea of loving him already and him leaving, spilling over. She laid her head back against the pillow, whispering her response, "With everything."

  “Then reach above you and slide your hands around the bars of your headboard. For now."

  "Why?"

  “Trust me.”

  She lifted her arms, her breasts jutting out slightly as she tried to breathe. The action made her feel vulnerable, open and willing to let him lord over her. Her thoughts faded into nothingness as his tongue touched her hip bone, a soft whimper leaving her lips.

  "I'm going to memorize every inch of your body and make sure you're begging to enjoy mine." His words came out husky, his accent thicker than she had ever noticed before.

  She nodded, her eyes wide as she looked down at him. He moved to his knees, his eyes filled with foreign emotion as he brushed his nose along the inside of her thigh, nudging her to open her legs further for him. Her eyes closed again, unable to handle the sight of him scorching her skin with the look of an animal.

  "So beautiful. How could I have been given a chance to love an angel?" His words washed over her, his mouth moving up her thigh. Her back arched, a loud groan leaving her mouth, her hands gripping the wood above her so hard the bed shifted. She pressed her lips tight, terrified she would wake her father and have him rush in, sword in hand.

  Erik gripped her thighs, his mouth and fingers loving her in a way she had never been taught possible. Unable to help herself, she rolled her hips, small moans from her mixing with the deep low groans from him as the bed rocked with his efforts. Her eyes fluttered, her ability to reason lost to the passion he provided. A deep breath entered her lungs as she clenched, her body lifting, hands moving from the bed to dig into his shoulders, holding him tight against her as hot fire rushed along her veins and scorched her with release.

  He drove her past the point of breaking, her body running hard and fast with him toward another one as he continued to lap at her, his hands pulling and tugging as if she were his last drink of water. She pushed at the crown of his head, Erik moving back and looking up, his tongue brushing across his lips.

  "No more lest you kill me with pleasure," she whispered, her hands clawing at the sheet below her as she pulled at it, squirming a bit as he watched. His touch made her feel like Aphrodite herself.

  He crawled up her body, leaning down to pull her toward him with one hand, kissing her deeply as the flavor of lust rolled over her tongue. She drank from him, her hands digging into his back and pulling him to lie atop her.

  He kissed her once more before licking and kissing at her throat, the smell of sex delicious and strong.

  "You will be the death of me, I think," she whispered as he kissed her breasts, her worries of being on display lost to the intimacy of his recent actions.

  "I believe it's the other way around, lass." He sat up, brushing a rough palm down the center of her breasts, over her tight stomach and through the wetness of her sex. She moaned as her hips lifted, the naughty smile on his lips doing far more to her than his touch could.

  He rubbed her legs, his eyes moving across her slowly. "Heaven woman. You are easily the most sensual creature I've laid with. Tell me again that you've not given yourself away and that this gift might be mine."

  She reached up and pulled him back down, her legs wrapping tightly around his waist as she leaned up to brush her lips by his ear. "Only if you stop talking and take it."

  His breath caught at her sudden boldness, his body pressing to the entrance of hers. He was careful and tender, his motions speaking of lust and need, but controlled and considerate of her own newness to such things. His arms held her tightly, his whispered instructions calming her nerves and relaxing her body against the deep thrusts of his.

  Sweat stained the sheets below her, their bodies entwined for what seemed like hours as he made love to her soul, her heart forever his somewhere in the midst of the passionate groans and whimpers, the bites and kisses. He stiffened, his arms locking around her as his hands slid down her back and
cupped her rear tightly, his face pressed into her neck as he moved faster, his breathing so hot and movements undoing her resolve to let him go.

  He groaned loudly as he let himself go, the sound the most precious she had ever heard. Holding him tightly as he slowed, she kissed the side of his face and reveled in the strange soreness that pulsed throughout her body. Sated and breathing hard, Erik pressed his arms next to her head on the bed and hovered above her, wiping a few strands of wet hair from her face. "I love you, lass. I don't know what tomorrow brings, but I know I want you with me."

  Hot tears filled her eyes and she reached up to kiss him softly on his cheeks and lips, too terrified to talk of what tomorrow might bring.

  Chapter 13

  Linzi

  The early signs of pre-morning filtered into the room from the small window at the top of her room, her body deliciously sore, her heart on fire for the sleeping giant beside her. He lay on his stomach, his face turned toward her, breathing soft and steady. Linzi turned on her side, excitement causing her heart to race at the thought of belonging to someone forever.

  She reached over, careful to not wake him as her fingers moved down the curve of his back muscles, ebbs and flows making up the movement of his hard body. A soft sigh left her, the desire for more of last night causing her body to tighten. Was lust like this?

  After one taste of it, all you wanted was more? Would it consume you if you weren't careful?

  A soft knock sounded from outside the house. Linzi sat up carefully and slipped from the bed. Someone was at the front door from what she could tell. Sara? If so, she was incredibly early from where the sun had yet to rise beyond Linzi's small window.

  She pulled on her nightgown and tugged her hair into a loose knot as she slipped from her room, closing the door behind her and stopping only to shut her father's door as well. The knock resounded again and she grumbled, walking faster. "Hold on."

  She pulled the door open, half hiding behind, too aware of her gown being nearly transparent.

  A man stood just outside the door. In the dimness of pre-morning she did not recognize who it was. Her heart stuttered. “Kenton?” But why would he knock?

  “Linzi!”

  The young man stepped forward, a soft smile on his lips, his hair a little longer, his eyes rimmed with dark circles.

  “Luke!” She opened the door wider and looked behind him. “Where’s Kenton?” Fear gripped her insides in a way she had only experienced once before as a child – when Da’ told her Mum had died.

  Luke held out his hands. "He’s okay. Oh, jeez, I never thought…” He glanced up at the sky just beginning to lighten faintly. “He’s back at camp. My mother has fallen ill, I have leave to come home and say goodbye to her." His eyes travelled down her nightgown.

  Linzi crossed her arms over her chest, too aware of how the candle from inside the house must be silhouetting her body. She suddenly worried that Luke might be able to tell she was no longer a virgin. Could he notice she had been with a man? She quickly moved back into the house as he followed her.

  "I'm so sorry to hear that. Da' had it too.” She knew she was talking fast. She tried unsuccessfully to slow it down. “There’s a medicine to cure it. You have to trade with the witch-doctor at the edge of town. Da’s nearly well again. He took sick the day you and Kenton left."

  "Thank you, but I think she's too far lost to the illness." He reached out and touched her shoulder, his gaze soft and sweet, but different from before he had left. War would do that to a person. "You look radiant, like a burning star far above us in the sky."

  She smiled, not sure how to respond. His sweet words would have wooed her a week ago, now she tried to look everywhere but at him. “Let me go get, Da’. He’ll want to know how Kenton is.”

  "He's well, just so you know." Luke walked to the table, looking over his shoulder at her, like he had never noticed how much of a woman she was.

  She hurried down the hall, worry consuming her. What would he say if he knew she had been with another man? How would he react if he knew it was one of the enemy, right under her roof?

  Linzi rushed into her room, nearly knocking over the chair by the door in the process.

  Erik lay still sprawled out and asleep. Her stomach tightened at the possibility of Erik reacting poorly that an old suitor had come to visit.

  She would have to move fast and if things didn't work out as she hoped, she would do as she always did and improvise. She grumbled under her breath as she pulled her dress off the hook and slipped it on. The shoulders and collar were still damp from the wash she gave it last night.

  She stepped back into the hall and closed the door to her room quietly. Moving on to her father’s room, she gently shook his shoulder until he sat up, snorting loudly, eyes wild.

  “I’ll kill him.” He reached for his sword under his bed and hopped out, his legs wobbling.

  When he reached for the wall, Linzi moved in to help steady him. “It’s not that,” she whispered, nodding her head back toward her room. “Erik’s asleep." In my bed, she wanted to add but bit her tongue.

  "What's wrong, child?"

  "Luke’s here. He has news of Kenton."

  Her father's eyes clouded over, his brow pulling in tight as he nodded and motioned for her to go. "Let me change. You go to him."

  She left, returning to the kitchen. She stood silently, leaning against the wall after she had lit a few candles.

  Luke watched her. "How’ve you been, Linzi?"

  "Fine.” Sleeping with the enemy. “Is my brother doing well?”

  Luke smiled, running his fingers through his hair. "Kenton’s alive and well, spraying everyone with piss and vinegar."

  Linzi relaxed, the tension easing slightly from her shoulders. She worked to make a pot of tea, pointing to the hearth. "Start a fire for us and I'll make tea and scramble us all some eggs."

  Luke got up and walked to the kitchen, stopping behind her and running his hand along her arms before grabbing the matches beside her and walking to the hearth.

  He had never touched her before, surely today wasn't the day he was going to make himself known to her.

  "While we have a moment alone, I want to talk to you about something." He leaned over and poked at the wood, grabbing another piece and throwing it in the center of the broken wood and ashes.

  Oh dear. Please not now. He was thinner than she remembered, his ribs pushing against his shirt. She sat down on a chair near the table.

  "Before I left for the war, I figured perhaps of all of the lasses I had met, you would be the best suited for relationship with."

  "I thought the same—"

  “Love will come over time,” he said, cutting her off. He moved to sit across from her, reaching for her hands. “We barley know each other, but being together and sharing a life with each other will foster that feeling."

  She moved her hands back, tugging at her dress a little as she tried to work through how to tell him. “I've found someone else.”

  Luke blinked several times and then jerked back as if he'd been slapped, his eyes wide with hurt, his mouth a tight line of disapproval. "Who? We’re all at war right now." His question poked her the wrong way, his eyes filling with condemnation.

  "He was a stranger that fell ill on our land a few days ago. I nursed him to health beside my father and I fell in love with him somewhere along the way."

  "For the love of… He’s not English, is he?”

  She shook her head.

  “This war had yet to come to your doorstep. How would he have fallen ill on your land?"

  "He was shot with arrows." She stood, feeling the need to do something with her hands.

  Luke began to pepper her with questions, his voice growing more aggravated. She turned toward him, ready to cut him off at the knees when her father walked in, stopping and glancing back and forth between the two of them.

  "Am I interrupting?"

  "No, Sir. Just quarreling over who’ll make the eggs. Linzi
wins I guess." Luke stood and walked around the table, her father embracing him tightly and then slapping him on the back.

  "Tell me about my boy, Luke. Is he alive?"

  “Alive and healthy. He's busy running one of the infiltrates. He's mouthy and gained a wee bit of weight, so he thinks he can boss us around." Luke laughed and walked around the table, now ignoring Linzi altogether.

  "I'm going to get the eggs," she whispered and walked from the house, moving toward the chicken coop. He was upset, fine. That was understandable, but if he had made a move like he should have before leaving then she never would have looked toward Erik. She was faithful to a fault, but he hadn't. Like all boys playing men he had waved and smiled and hoped that she might simply get the hint. She knew she was fooling herself. Had she made a commitment to him, she still would have lost herself to the Saxon lying in her bed.

  She growled, marching with angst toward the back of the house. She ignored the sound of the door slamming and moved into the small makeshift pen they had for the hens, bending over and picking up the three eggs she could see.

  "’Ave you slept with him?" Luke's voice caused her to stand and stiffen, her dress too thin for the early morning light now sweeping around her. His eyes moved about her, his own childish expressions fading to anger and entitlement.

  "What did you say?" She stalked out, moving past him as her shoulder raked by his chest. He had no right to come to her home and demand anything of her.

  He grabbed her arm, pulling her to a stop and jerking her against him. Arms stronger than they appeared, wrapped around her tightly and he glared down at her. "You look like a sated woman, Linzi, not a silly little girl."

  She’d have slapped him had he not held her arms pinned against her sides.

  "Have you slept with him?” He shook his head as he repeated his question. “There’s no chance of me taking you as my wife."

  She struggled to pull back from him, her movements causing one of the eggs to fall from the basket and crack on the ground. He didn't seem to mind, his arms not giving her any leeway. "Find another woman to marry then. I'm taken." She wished she had said, I’ve been taken again and again.