by Koko Brown
“What do you mean former lover? Have you already taken another?” he growled, pulling her against him. Reese winced as he increased his pressure on her upper arms, but she refused to give him any quarter. “Snakke...Speak!” he barked, slamming her against the stable door at her back. Reese gasped, more from surprise than actual injury. Before she could recover from his harsh manhandling, he lowered his head and slashed his mouth across hers, his tongue plowing its way past her lips.
His kiss conveyed more fury than passion, yet Reese could not keep her primitive instincts at bay as her clit began to jump in time with her erratic heartbeat. Inching closer to him, she rubbed her pelvis against the bulge in his leggings.
“Does your new lover make you crave his cock as much as I do?” He chuckled, running his tongue over her bottom lip.
His words like a bucket of ice water to her overheated libido, Reese stiffened while he continued to rain kisses down the side of her throat, his arms snaking around her waist. She slid her hands over his muscular arms, until she reached the wide expanse of his shoulders. Then, without warning, she lifted her knee in the vicinity of his groin while at the same time she pushed on his shoulders.
Even in an amorous mood, his warrior instincts had not taken a backseat, Reese realized, when her knee made contact with only air. Although her ploy didn’t cause the pain she’d hoped for, it still had the same result, because he released her.
She picked up her skirts once more and ran toward the barn’s open doors.
“No!” She shrieked when he lifted her from behind. She kicked and butted her head backward like a wild woman. Her efforts were futile as he carried her like a sack of potatoes to the nearest empty stall and threw her onto of a pile of hay stacked in the corner.
Reese tried to get up, but he landed on top of her. “Get off of me!” she shrieked. Mindless of the repercussions, she kicked and punched at him, and even got in a few licks, before he grabbed hold of both of her hands and pinned them above her head.
“Quiet down, kvinne!” he barked. At a stalemate, she had no other choice but to follow his directive. “Do you play me false?” he asked.
Reese turned her head away from his intense scrutiny, fixing her gaze on the far wall, but he grabbed her chin and brought her face around so she had no other choice but to look at him. She returned his stare. She didn’t falter even when he dropped to his forearms and settled between her legs.
“Answer me,” he commanded, his mouth mere inches from her ear. His warm breath sent a shiver of pleasure shooting through the delicate nerve endings to the rest of her body. Reese squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to regain a smidgen of self-control. Yet it became tenuous when he started to rock the growing bulge between his legs against her pussy and rimmed her earlobe with his tongue.
“Arrrrgggghhhh!” she roared. “I haven’t been with anyone else, unlike you!”
“I have not been with anyone else,” he murmured, his warm breath tickling her ear.
“But what about Ivar’s daughter?”
“I did not take her as my wife. She and her father refused my suit.”
Reese felt like a heavy load had been lifted from her shoulders as the implications of his words sunk home. “Oh, Eirik!” she cried. As soon as he released her wrists, she flung her arms around his neck and planted a barrage of kisses all along his strong jawline and throat.
“That’s more like it,” he crowed.
Reese slipped her hands under his leather tunic and pushed the buttery material up and over his head. His bare skin exposed, she rubbed her hands over his sinewy hard flesh, exulting in the firm warmness. Unable to resist, she rose up and nipped at a peach-tipped nipple. It hardened and she leaned forward and captured it between her lips. She circled her tongue once twice, delighting in the salty taste.
“Blessed Odin! What you do to me!” he hissed as he ground his pelvis against her. “Do you remember lesson one?”
“Remind me,” she purred, flicking the captive nipple.
Eirik sat back on his haunches, and Reese whimpered her displeasure at the sudden loss.
“Is this a good enough reminder?” he asked, placing his arms behind his back and thrusting his hips forward.
Reese’s eyes met his. Her lips curled into a knowing smile at the telltale shade of violet she knew so well. She came up on her elbows, and her eyes wandered over his body. Not content with just looking, she lifted her bare foot, placed it on his crotch, and rubbed her sole over him.
“Reese,” he groaned, half warned.
Empowered by her effect on him, she slowly sat up. “Reese what?”
He didn’t mince words. “Free me so I can be inside you.”
Reese pulled the stays loose, unthreading the buckskin lacings until they gaped open and his cock sprang free —the head already dripping in anticipation. Reese bit her lip. She could taste him in her mouth already —all eight inches of him, banging the back of her throat.
She bunched her hands in her skirts, to adjust her position, but he lunged at her, knocking her back down into the hay. Reese held her breath as he loomed over her, his hair escaping from a man bun and his cock pressing insistently against her belly.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I wanted to take you into my mouth.” Reese reached up and plowed her hands in his hair, pulling the pale strands free.
“Nei...I would not last with you doing that to me after I’ve dreamed of this for nigh a week.” His fingers curled around the hem of her bodice.
Noting the glimmer in his eyes, she warned, “Don’t you dare!”
Of course, warning a Viking warrior was pointless. The splitting of the soft linen simply added extra background noise to her indignant shriek.
She looked down at the damage, but instead of being angry at the carnage, she was turned on. Eyes locked with his, a seductive smile playing on her lips, she removed the remainder of her dress.
Like a man just returned from months at sea, he pounced on her, taking one of her breast in his mouth. She almost became lucid with desire, but something he’d said earlier gave her pause. Needing confirmation, she pushed on his shoulders.
“Wait! Why did Ivar and his daughter refuse your suit?”
Eirik tensed. However, he quickly recovered. “Both Inga and I are in love with different people. Normally, this doesn’t matter in our culture, but she has a father who spoils her.” And doesn’t like to be blackmailed by a tyrannical self-appointed king.
Thinking himself in the clear, Eirik removed his pants, kicked them aside, and then wasted no time regaining his seat. With a heavy sigh, he nudged her legs open and settled himself between them. Despite his troubles, being near her again gave him such immense peace.
“So...what now?” she asked.
Eirik looked down into her face, so full of emotional angst that he knew he’d made the right decision by withholding the particulars of his meeting with Ivar, that his returning unmarried amounted to treason, and that many of his men, including himself, would be soon be going to war for her.
“I have returned without a wife,” he murmured. Drawn to a pert nipple, he licked it, and an impassioned gasp escaped her plump lips. “All you need to concern your pretty head with is welcoming me home.”
Laughing, she held her arms out. “Welcome home.” The husky timbre of her voice hit a chord inside him and his entire being focused on being inside her. He planted his feet, drew his hips back and invaded her slowly.
“Now I am home,” he murmured. He licked out his tongue, tracing the pulse at the base of her throat as they both shuddered with desire. And when he was buried deep, to the hilt, she whispered, “I love you.”
Eirik groaned. He’d surely died and gone to heaven, so perfect was this thing between them. It felt like he’d gone his entire life with only one hand, and she was the missing appendage. Since finding her, he now felt complete.
“While I was gone, I almost went mad thinking about you. From now on, you will al
ways be by my side.” Erection swelling, he moved in her, his happiness filling his mind, body and soul to busting.
“I’ll hold you to that promise,” she panted, moving her hips in an intoxicating rhythm, slippery and wet around him.
Caught up in the emotions of their reunion, overwhelmed by a carnal hunger, eons beyond impatience, he pulled back and surged forward, driving deep, filled her, crushing her into the hay.
And she wrapped herself around him, wiggling her hips at the base of the downstroke, greedily following him on the upstroke. She welcomed him, chanting his name, egging him on with each thrust.
He slid his hand under one of her legs and lifted it, penetrating even deeper. “I am home,” he growled, already spilling inside her.
* * * * *
“God morgen!” Reese called to Gurta as she took a seat at the kitchen table.
“Good morning to you,” the older woman replied, her lips turned up into a knowing smile.
The old Reese would have blushed in embarrassment, but, as she’d learned of late, she no longer cared what people thought. Now, she was a woman well-loved, and that was all that mattered. Plus, she’d faced down the majority of such looks last evening, because it was no secret she and Eirik had made love in the barn for several hours after his return —thus the reason for her rising so late and Eirik still being abed.
Reese waited patiently as Gurta fixed her a wooden trencher. Famished, she was almost finished with her morning meal when the kitchen door swung back on its hinges and cracked against the wall.
Eirik’s mother, Brita, stood framed in the doorway —her pale blonde hair plaited into two braids twined around her head, and a spotless white apron tied over a burgundy-colored tunic dress. She would be considered handsome, even by modern standards, but her sour disposition marred her exterior.
Normally, they were civil toward one another since the change in her and Eirik’s relationship, but still neither of them spoke more than a sentence to each other. It wasn’t for Reese’s lack of trying —the woman simply didn’t like being around her.
Praying the other woman’s business in the kitchen had nothing to do with her, Reese continued with her morning repast. But as luck would have it, the other woman sought her out.
“God morn —” Reese tried, but the older woman waved aside her attempt at politeness.
“I have no idea how you have the stomach to eat anything considering the trouble you have caused my son,” she hissed.
“What are you talking about?” Reese kept her voice calm with effort; her insides were clamoring.
“Eirik has defied King Haakon’s edict to marry Ivar’s daughter! Not only will we lose everything, he will be hanged for treason!”
Hands clammy with sweat, her spoon dropped from her hand in a loud clatter. “Eirik told me Ivar’s daughter was not agreeable to the marriage. She is in love with someone else.”
“Of course he would hide the truth from you. Something this serious is not meant for a woman who...who is nothing but his pincushion.” Affected by the woman’s insult, Reese felt her cheeks blossom with heat. “Everything we built and fought for is for naught, and all for a...a... slave!”
“What do I have to do with this?”
Spittle gathered at the corners of Brita’s mouth. “Are you daft? My son sniffs around your skirts like a stag around a doe in heat. He gave you your freedom, so you have to be the reason why he did not take Inga to wife. Because of you, we have fallen out of grace with the gods! Brita wailed. “Mighty Loki, we are lost!”
While Eirik’s mother continued with her litany of gloom and doom, Reese slid off the three-legged stool and ran out the back door. She didn’t stop until she reached the training field, now empty because of the late hour and Eirik’s current incapacity. So, she had no audience as she upped the contents of her breakfast.
Reese knew he’d hadn’t told her the complete story behind his returning empty-handed. But not once did she think he’d sacrificed himself and the lives of his own people to keep her! Overwhelmed with despair, Reese fell to the ground in grief. There was only one solution to her present predicament.
Loki looked on as the woman doubled over again, his nose wrinkling in distaste when she purged the contents of her stomach onto the snow. She appeared to be in pain, but he felt no pity for her. She’d allowed a cock to divert her from her mission.
Those two fools had almost ruined everything by succumbing to their lust. He’d been so infuriated with their rutting like common beasts he’d been tempted a time or two to burn the whole settlement down. But he held himself in check, preferring to rely on his web of mischief. And if it worked as planned, in less than a fortnight, the female would be gone and the black tourmaline in his possession.
His work done here, he walked in the opposite direction of the main hall. As he passed the barn, the cumbersome feminine clothing he wore fell to the ground, replaced by a pair of wings. He flapped them once, twice, and launched himself into the air. In the form of a raven, he circled overhead and then headed home to Asgard.
Chapter Twenty-One
Reese rose before dawn.
Her preparations over the past few days completed, she now stood at the threshold of their bedchamber, but she could not make herself step over it. Her thoughts drawn to the lover who’d come to touch her heart, Reese looked back at him. The fire’s dying embers highlighted the breadth of his wide shoulders, the slimness of his narrow hips. His pale locks looked like spun gold in the muted light.
In sleep, the hard planes of his face were softened, making him appear angelic. Unable to resist, Reese walked back over to the bed and sat down. She reached out her hand and brushed the fine locks of his hair from his forehead. Since this would be the last time she would see him, she threw caution to the wind and bent over and grazed his lips with her own. He sighed, she drew back in fear. She scanned his face for any signs of having awakened him. Yet, to her relief, he did nothing more than snuggle deeper into the feather-stuffed mattress.
Since the sun would be up soon, along with Eirik and the rest of the village, Reese pushed away from the bed. She threw the sack over her shoulder and made her way across the room. When she reached the door, she yanked on the door strap to open it, and then closed it softly behind her.
She entered the main area, and noted her surroundings. Various household members lay asleep on benches lining the wall. The kitchen would have been the more obvious means of escape, so as not to draw attention to herself, but at this early hour, Gurta was already up preparing the morning repast. Reese drew the heavy winter cloak around her as she crossed the length of the hall.
She approached the keep’s double doors and cursed under her breath. She’d forgotten they were reinforced by a huge beam every night, fortifying it against attack. Sighing in resignation, Reese set her sack aside. She clasped the beam, bent her knees, and pressed all of her weight against the heavy piece of maple. At first, it wouldn’t budge. So she repositioned her hands, dug her heels in deeper, and shoved once more. Inch by inch, the joist slid through the iron braces.
Once the beam cleared the first rung, providing her ample space to slip through, Reese snatched up her travel pack. Her feet hit the ground, and she was off and running.
Even though it was the middle of winter, she remembered Eirik telling her the Sognefjord remained ice freeze all year round. So she made her way to the docks and selected the first fishing boat she came across. She slipped inside, unlooped it from its mooring and then used an oar to push off.
“Steady as she goes,” she whispered, settling into the hull. She grabbed the other oar and gave both a healthy tug, propelling the boat backward.
For the sake of self-preservation, Reese dared not look back at the tiny settlement because if she did —demigod be damned —she knew she would turn the boat around, return to shore and head straight into Eirik’s arms.
* * * * *
Eirik watched the small fishing vessel cut its way through the dark waters
and, with each lift and fall of the oars, his anger mounted.
“Here are your things.”
He looked down at Thoren, and not even the sight of his young brother’s rumpled red locks could bring a smile to his lips as he took the provisions he’d asked the youth to pack for him while he’d dressed.
Eirik gritted his teeth. He’d awakened the moment she slipped from the bed. Thinking she’d gotten up to feed the dying fire, he’d become uneasy when she’d crept around the room, dressing and packing a travel sack. She’d left everything behind except for the black tourmaline.
And when she sat next to him on the bed, it took everything in him to remain still. Her actions spoke a thousand words. She was like all women —they coveted material things over love. Unlike Oona, Reese would not get off easy. She would pay.
“Are you sure you do not want me to go with you?” Thoren asked, pulling him out of his black thoughts.
“Nei. I will track her down on my own. Plus, if I do not return you will lead in my stead.”
“Do not talk such nonsense,” Thoren balked.
“As soon as you stop talking about going with me,” Eirik rebutted. “Now come and help me shove off.”
In silence, they pushed the boat into the frigid waters of the inlet. Eirik held onto the side, and then hoisted himself in.
“Once you catch up to her, what do you plan on doing?”
Eirik turned his head to look out at the Sognafjord stretched before him like a blue carpet. “I will grant her lover a quick death. She will die slowly.”
* * * * *
Reese spotted the other boat, while breaking camp on the second day. Beached on the opposite shore, about a half mile back, she assumed the vessel belonged to a local fisherman. So, it wasn’t until mid-afternoon when she spotted the same tiny boat and its lone occupant again and curiosity grew into a deep-seated suspicion.
“Come on, girl, get a grip! If it’s Eirik, he would’ve overtaken you already and dragged you back to his keep.” If only.