‘Wine.’ He opened it and brought it to his nose.
‘I didn’t know Vikings drank wine.’ She smiled. It was good to see her smile.
‘Vikings enjoy many things from all over the world.’ He smiled back and knew he had surprised her. She wasn’t used to this smiling man in front of her. He wasn’t used to him either. She made him do many things he wasn’t accustomed to doing. ‘It’s Lotharingian. Brought it back a few years ago. I’m not sure if it’s still good though.’ He poured some into a cup and took a drink. ‘Ah, still good.’ Then he passed it to her.
She took a tentative sip and then a larger one. ‘It’s better than the wine I’ve tried at home,’ she proclaimed.
Eirik’s smile lingered as she handed the cup back to him and he took another swallow. The rich liquid washed over his tongue and left a faintly sweet aftertaste. It felt good to please her. He thought again of spending more time with her at the farm and decided that when he returned from the spring raid he would bring her here. It would be years yet before he assumed his place as jarl. He could have her to himself here until that time came.
Though Merewyn resisted her place with him now, she would come to accept it and even enjoy it. He was as endowed with riches as her brother, if not more so. He could bring girls to help her care for the house and keep her in furs and finery. Here, away from the longhouse, she could even wear dresses that were more comfortable, not the undyed wool reserved for slaves. It could be a good life. It would be, and she’d see that leaving the Saxons had been a good thing. He would provide for her better than a Saxon could. He would never beat her.
‘Tell me of your home.’ Eirik surprised himself by voicing the command aloud. Now that he had imagined her life with a Saxon man, he found himself wondering if she’d actually been partial to one.
Her brow furrowed as she watched him. ‘What do you mean? You already know of my home.’
The smile vanished as he looked down and swirled the wine around the bottle. It wouldn’t do to let her know that he was jealous of a man who would never have her now. Eirik didn’t even know if the man actually existed or not. ‘I know what I saw,’ he agreed. ‘But tell me what I didn’t see. Who was important to you there?’
She hesitated, but after a moment she began to speak about her family. The younger nieces and nephews she had spent her life attending to. It wasn’t what he wanted to know, but he found himself listening anyway. Some part of him was eager to know any morsel she was willing to divulge about herself. He told himself it was because it would make her feel more comfortable with him, but on some level he knew that was only the partial reason. The need was his own.
‘And your parents?’ he prodded.
‘My parents died when I was young,’ she began. ‘My father I don’t even remember, but my mother died during my sixth year. I’m not even sure what happened to her. She fell sick that winter and one day didn’t wake up. But I have nice memories of her. She used to take me swimming in the summer. Though Alfred never approved, we did it anyway.’ She smiled and her voice trailed off as she became lost in the memory. ‘And then there’s Sempa, my nursemaid as a child. After my mother’s death, she took her place—at least with getting me in trouble with my brother. Not that I needed much help with that.’
He smiled at her obvious fondness for the woman. ‘Was she there in the cellar that day?’ The question was out before he could think better of it. It probably wasn’t the best idea to remind her of the circumstances of their meeting. Not if he wanted her willing again. But he couldn’t take it back so he sat waiting for her answer.
Merewyn shook her head. ‘She goes out every morning to gather herbs. I’m sure she hid until everything was over.’
An uneasy quiet settled over them. They were in unchartered territory. Intimate, yet not. Lovers, yet she was still the captive and he her master. To be fair, he liked that she was his and had no interest in changing the arrangement. But he also realised that he wanted her to give herself to him, to submit to being his. It could happen. He was sure of it now, after the way she had responded to him. She could accept his touch.
Finally, she spoke through the silence. ‘What of your mother, my lord?’
Eirik ran his fingertips across his bearded chin. His mother had been so overpowered by his father that it seemed as though she had been gone years before her actual death. He tried not to think of her, but wanted Merewyn to feel comfortable in opening up to him, so he answered. ‘Vidar’s birth was a difficult one. He was strong, but she never seemed to recover her strength.’
‘And do you have sisters or is your father only capable of siring boys?’
He smiled at her humour. ‘I have two. Two from my mother anyway. They were born between myself and Vidar, but they’ve both been married off. My father betrothed them young and, just after my mother died, sent them to their new families.’ He allowed the silence to stretch between them just long enough that the next question seemed natural. ‘Were you betrothed?’ It was his reason for starting this conversation, but he despised that the answer meant so much to him. His breath lodged in his chest as he waited.
‘Nay, not betrothed,’ she answered easily, completely unaware of his interest, as she stretched. Their shared wine was making her lethargic. ‘Alfred had planned to see me wed in the coming summer, but I wasn’t promised to anyone.’
His relief was palpable. He wanted her exclusively to himself without the shadow of another in her heart. Startled by the depth of his feeling on the matter, he took another long drink of the wine. It was dangerous to want her the way he did, but he didn’t care. He was past that point. Already he was half aroused, thinking of having her again, and his acknowledgement of the thought pushed him over the edge.
* * *
Merewyn barely managed to hold her smile in check when he asked about her betrothal. She’d toyed with the notion of lying to him just to see his reaction, but she hadn’t because he seemed so eager to know. His behaviour towards her over the past two days had convinced her that she had been wrong to judge him so harshly. He had left her after having his way with her, but there was a tenderness now that he couldn’t hide as well as he had before.
He went out of his way to spend time with her, to tease her and make her smile. Sitting there with him in the easy silence that had fallen, she could almost imagine that they lived there as husband and wife. Obvious newlyweds who barely knew each other, but wanted to know more. The rational part of her realised those were dangerous thoughts, because the truth was that she was as far from a wife as one could get. But the part that wasn’t entirely rational, the part that had convinced her that choosing him was a sort of freedom, recognised that he liked her and that...maybe they could have a good life together.
His eyes had that intense and hungry look she’d come to recognise. It wasn’t an unpleasant thing at all to be on the receiving end of that look. Even knowing the pain of the first time and the pain of his rejection in leaving her, her body warmed in response, and it made her wonder if it could be different this time.
He didn’t watch her as she went to the far corner to remove the apron dress and leggings, but his attention jerked to her when she approached him wearing just her underdress. The heat of his gaze made her stop and press her thighs together to combat the power of her desire for him. Her lips parted, but then she realised she didn’t know how to tell him that she wanted him again.
But it seemed she didn’t need to say anything at all. Setting the wine aside, he rose and stepped up to her, making the air heavy and hard to breathe.
‘I foolishly thought that once would be enough.’ His mouth quirked in an attractive smile. ‘But I want you again.’
She nodded and watched his eyes become heavy. Her heart pounded furiously against her chest when his hands moved to her waist. She took shallow breaths, afraid to move for fear that he wouldn’t continue. He didn
’t move either. Even without his touch, her body was ripening to the pull of his. Her nipples were taut peaks beneath the linen of her underdress and he hadn’t even touched her.
Finally one hand curved itself around her hip while the other came to hover just above the neckline of her dress. His thumb ran lightly along the string of the tie there.
‘I know that I hurt you before, but I believe that’s because you were untried. I think it’s possible to have you without pain.’ He’d watched his thumb caress the string as he spoke, but then turned the full force of his sapphire gaze on her.
‘You don’t know, my lord? Have you never had a virgin?’ she whispered.
Eirik shook his head once. ‘Never.’
For some reason, knowing that he was as lost as she was settled her. They were equal, in this at least. ‘I’m told that if...’ She blushed and looked away. Just because they were both ignorant didn’t change her embarrassment in discussing it. ‘I’m told that, if properly prepared, there should be little pain. Perhaps none if I’m lucky.’
‘Who told you that?’
‘My nursemaid.’
Eirik was silent for a moment, but then seemed to come to a determination. His eyes flicked to her mouth, and when it came back to her eyes a promise lurked in their depths. ‘You don’t have to rely on luck, Merewyn. I want you to crave my touch, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that you do.’
Chapter Twenty
Merewyn didn’t speak as she watched him unlace the strings holding her bodice together and force it down to reveal her breasts. He looked at them with a reverence that made her breath hitch, until he leaned forward and took the pink tip of one into the scorching heat of his mouth. Then she let her breath out in a harsh rush of air that ended on a moan when he sucked gently. He drew away with a tug that made a wet popping sound when he let go, leaving the pink flesh glistening. Slowly, he moved to the other to lavish it with the same attention. And she felt vividly exactly what it had been like before the pain of his entry and knew why she would capitulate to his touch again and again. He touched her as though she was precious.
Her arms came up to tangle in his hair and hold him captive against her. The coarse hair of his beard was abrasive against her tender skin, but even that felt wickedly delicious. But he pushed against the restraint of her arms and raised to look down at her, his eyes dark with wanting.
Her hands fell away to clutch at the fabric of her dress as she gathered it and pulled it off over her head. It had barely touched the ground before he grabbed her and pulled her to him, his mouth devouring hers. Merewyn threaded her fingers in his hair, relishing the groan that came from deep in his throat. The rough silk of his tongue stroked hers, and it ignited that all-too-familiar throb within her. When he picked her up in his arms, excitement fluttered wildly in her belly.
He sat her gently on their bed and moved back to pull his shirt off over his head. It was quickly followed by his boots, socks and trousers until he stood gloriously bare before her. He was so perfect, she might have been intimidated by him if he had given her the time. But he was pushing her back and climbing in beside her, his lips on hers again as his hand moved between her legs.
Though she’d felt the pleasure of his fingers the other night, she was still jolted by the shock of sensation they sent through her. His thumb parted her and massaged, making her groan against his kiss. When she did, he pulled back to watch her face as he repeated the movement. ‘You like this.’
‘Aye,’ she whispered, and grabbed his shoulders as her hips moved involuntarily against his touch.
‘Tell me what you want. Don’t be afraid.’
Merewyn wasn’t sure how to tell him what she wanted when she wasn’t even sure herself what it was that her body was moving towards. So she told him what she had liked. What she wanted him to do again. ‘I like your mouth on me.’ She was incapable of speaking above a whisper. To say the words aloud was almost more than she was able to do.
Eirik immediately complied with her request and kissed a trail down the sensitive skin of her neck to her breast. Except instead of taking her nipple as he had earlier, he lapped at it with his tongue. And then when she was straining upwards to him, her back bowed from the bed, he scraped his teeth over the sensitive peak. She cried out from the pleasure, the sensation moving like a bolt of lightning from her breast to the place between her legs that his thumb caressed. Only then did he take the entire nipple into his mouth and suckle. The ache between her legs had intensified so much, she knew that she needed something more.
‘There.’ She moved her hips. ‘I want you there.’ Without even thinking, she reached for him, that hard, wholly male part of him that she knew her body craved. She instinctively knew that only his shaft could ease the swollen ache within her.
The back of her hand brushed the hard, flat planes of his stomach, intent on touching him, exploring him on its way to her goal, when he suddenly jerked away from her and held her hands pinned against the blanket beneath them. For a split second, she registered the look of fear and alarm in his eyes, before he blinked and the facade of control had returned.
‘Don’t touch me.’ His voice was back to the authoritarian master, not the tender lover who she was learning existed just beneath the surface.
‘But...’ She thought back to the times she had touched him and then realised there hadn’t been many. On the horse, her body had rested against his back and then his front, but she’d never actually touched him intentionally. His hair, his shoulders, his hands, but not really his body. ‘But I want to feel you.’ The hurt in her voice was impossible to hide.
Eirik shook his head and the husky timbre returned to his voice when he spoke. ‘You’re perfect, Merewyn. Just lie there while I have you.’
He moved slowly, as if unsure of his welcome now that the mood had shifted, and gently brushed her lips with his. She parted for him and he dipped inside, a soft, tender atonement for what she couldn’t have. Her eyes closed and she gave herself up to him as his mouth moved down her neck and onto her body, reigniting her with his touch. When his tongue dipped into her navel, he pushed her knees apart and she tensed, but didn’t stop him from settling his wide shoulders between them.
‘Eirik!’ she cried out when his mouth replaced his fingers on her sex, her back arching off the bed. His hot tongue stroked her deliberately as his thumb pushed into her. Her own fingers tangled in his hair, determined to pull him away, but only managing to hold him close as ripples of pleasure pulsed from where he kissed her.
Finally, when the ache within her became unbearable, she whispered, ‘Please. I need more. I need you.’
‘Say that again,’ he commanded, his voice harsh against her pulsing flesh.
‘I need you.’
He immediately let her go and moved up her body until his hips rested between her thighs, his weight on his forearms. His gaze raked her face, coming to rest on her eyes as he aligned himself to her and ever so gently pushed the tip of himself inside. ‘Are you in pain?’ he asked when she gasped.
She bit her lip and shook her head, but to speak was beyond her as his exquisite length filled her. Everything narrowed to that place where he coalesced with her so completely it felt as if he’d been made just for her. Her hips angled instinctively, greedy for more of him, and he answered by rocking into her in a gentle but steady rhythm. His gaze never left her face, as if he could gauge her pleasure by her expression. But she wanted him with her and pulled him down to kiss him.
When her tongue stroked his, he made a soft groan of capitulation and ground himself into her. He wasn’t gentle anymore, but with each stroke something tightened inside her. Then suddenly her entire body clenched, especially that part gripping him so tightly, and everything came apart. Nothing mattered, nothing was real, but the solid weight of him above her and inside her.
He pulled back to watch a
s she cried out her pleasure and shuddered beneath him. But then, a strong arm went around her waist to hold her steady and he rode her harder until his own cry filled the room and he fell atop her, heavy and sated.
It took several minutes for the euphoria to fade and Merewyn to realise what had happened. Though she still wasn’t sure what to call it, only that it had come over her body and swept her away. When she found the strength to open her eyes, Eirik was there looking down at her.
‘What happened to you?’ His voice was tender and soft and just a little bit awestruck.
‘I’m not sure.’ Despite everything, she blushed. ‘Don’t you know?’
‘Merewyn, I—’ But he seemed to think better of whatever he planned to say and simply shook his head. ‘Are you certain you’re not hurt?’
‘I’m not hurt.’ In fact, she wanted to explore what he had awakened within her. ‘That was incredible.’
She shifted, but he must have assumed it was a subtle reminder that his weight was smothering her smaller frame, because he moved to leave her. It wasn’t a reminder. He could crush her for all she cared as long as they could go to that place he had taken her. The intimacy had been so vibrant, so real between them, she was afraid that he would leave like he had the first time and it would be gone. She didn’t want to be used and discarded like she was a slave. When he touched her, it became more than that between them.
‘Don’t go.’ Forgetting his earlier admonishment, she grabbed at his waist to pull him back to her, but he flinched as if she’d struck him. She touched the back of his hand instead.
He surprised her by dropping to his side beside her instead of leaving. His eyes were closed as he struggled to slow his breathing back to normal. She smiled because she knew that she had done that to him, because he had done it to her. Her gaze caressed him all over, settling on his face. He was a beautiful man. But she realised now that he was also a broken man. There had been real fear in his eyes when she’d reached out to touch him. He’d hid it well, but she’d caught a glimpse of it before he’d managed to hide it.
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