One Night with the Viking

by Harper St. George

  Then his hands were on her breasts, framing them between his palms as his thumbs stroked across the sensitive tips. Her whole body clenched from the pleasure of that touch. An involuntary whimper escaped her throat as she opened her eyes, surprised to find his gaze on her face instead of her body. The knowledge that he preferred to watch her as she revelled in the pleasure he gave her was more powerful than any words he could have said. Any lingering barrier to having him inside her that night crumbled beneath the power of that look. Of their own volition, her hips moved against him, bringing her into deliciously harsh contact with the erection straining against his trousers. Knowing his effect on her, he pushed his hips against her, pushing his hardness up against her aching centre. She bit her lip to stifle the cry that begged to be released. But he only did it again, this time stroking his tongue across her nipple before sucking it into the wet heat of his mouth.

  Her cry rent through the air in the room, but she barely heard it as she arched into him, her hips moving in rhythm to his tongue on her body. It wasn’t enough. Moving herself against his hard length had only made her want more, crave more of him. She wanted him inside her, stretching her, moving within her, filling her until she couldn’t think of anything but him. ‘Gunnar...’ Her voice trailed off on a gasp as he moved to her other nipple, laving it with the same heated attention. Yet it didn’t stop the ache that was only growing worse within her.

  Her hands moved between their bodies, trembling as they brushed against his impressive erection before working at the fastenings of his trousers to release him. Finally the fabric gave way and she pushed a hand inside, groaning in pleasure when she palmed his swollen manhood. She’d almost forgotten how he felt there, so hot and incredibly hard she couldn’t imagine how he’d fit where he was meant to go. But he would fit and her body trembled with the remembered pleasure of him moving within her.

  Testing her own effect on him, she squeezed, smiling when he released her nipple with a wet pop and turned his head to the side, eyes closed tight from the pleasure. When she released the pressure only to squeeze again, his eyes flew open, staring at her with a fierce hunger that might have been frightening if she didn’t want him so badly.

  ‘Don’t tease me, Kadlin. I’ve been too long without you.’ The words tore from his throat in a growly rasp that caused an involuntary shiver to vibrate through her.

  She exhaled a shaky breath and moved her hips forward. ‘We can’t risk another child.’

  There was a pause, an infinite hesitation as he processed her request. ‘Aye, I can be careful.’

  ‘Then it’s not a tease. I want you inside me.’

  Before she knew what was happening, she was on her back, watching him push the trousers down to free his length. Then he was pushing her thighs apart to move between them. But he paused to look down at her, and it brought back a memory of their first time together so clearly that she blinked back tears. He’d looked at her then, too, there between her legs where no one else had ever seen her. Just like now, the look on his face had been full of love and reverence, as if looking upon her was some great gift she was bestowing on him. At that moment she realised that was exactly what he thought. That she was the only one giving. He didn’t understand that he was giving just as much to her.

  ‘Come to me.’ She reached for his shoulders, pulling him over her until he was seated in the cradle of her thighs. ‘I need you.’ Brushing his lips across her temple, he made his way down to her mouth. When she tasted the salt on his lips mingled with the sweetness of his tongue, she realised she was crying. His arm hooked under her right leg, presumably to keep her from accidentally jarring his injury, but it had the effect of opening her up to him. The head of his manhood stroked across the sensitive flesh of her sex. ‘Please, now,’ she urged against his mouth, pulling him down to her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gunnar watched her face as he nudged her opening with the head of his shaft. She was so incredibly wet; he only wanted to sink into her with mindless oblivion. Anticipation thundered through his veins, but he forced himself to go slowly, to savour every moment of her. She bit her lip and her eyes widened as he pushed forward, breaching her silken channel with the head of his erection and pressing inside. By the gods, she was tight. Though his arms were shaking from holding back, he moved slowly, allowing her time to adjust to his invasion as he sank to the hilt without withdrawing. The pinkening of her cheeks and her sigh of pleasure when he filled her was almost enough to make him push harder, but not quite. He wouldn’t rush this. Pushing in that last final bit so that their bodies were fully joined, he finally allowed himself to revel in the heat of her embrace.

  She was so tight, felt so good squeezing around him that he could find his release in only a few strokes, but it wouldn’t be enough for her. Closing his eyes, he buried his face in her neck until he could get a grasp on his control before he dared to move within her. When he finally mastered himself, he pulled back again to look at her. She clutched at him eagerly, her fingers tangling in his hair as she lifted her hips up for him. Her eyes were pools of liquid blue, her tears wrenching his heart in his chest. He vowed that he’d only make her smile going forward.

  Holding himself off her with his palms flat on the blanket and using his one good knee for leverage, he dipped his hips and pushed into her...hard. The movement jarred his aching calf, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except her pleasure and the way she cried it out as her tight, hot passage gripped him. Everything about this was right. Her smell surrounding him, her taste on his tongue, her cries in his ears, her hair clinging to the sweat of his body as he rode her. This was everything that should have been all along. This was everything that would be in the future as long as there was breath in his body.

  Her eager hands clawed at his back, eventually settling on his buttocks, pulling him into her with each thrust. He bared his teeth in a grimace, fighting against the need to take her savagely until he came within her. The way she urged him on told him she would enjoy it just as much as he would, but he fought the impulse, intent on respecting her wishes. Even though the very idea of her round with his babe made him want to keep her in his bed until his seed had taken root.

  But it wasn’t to be. He couldn’t be the husband she deserved, so he pushed the provocative thought aside.

  Tonight was about her pleasure. He kept his eyes fixed on her face, watching each flicker of bliss that swept over her precious features. Her fingernails dug into his flesh with a sweet pain. When she closed her eyes, his name spilled from her lips, torn from them with a cry of pleasure so raw and true that he felt his own release building despite the ache of his leg. Just as the tremors of her body were subsiding, he pulled out of her with a hoarse groan of his own, spilling his seed against her thigh.

  He fell heavily on to her, only managing to pull himself off after taking a few gasping breaths. Even then he only moved his torso so that it fell to the bed beside her, his shoulder still pressing her down. His leg throbbed, but he could barely feel it he was so exhausted. She must have felt the same, because she surprised him by curling herself into him, pulling a blanket over them before putting her arms around him and burying her face against his chest. Cupping her cheek, he ran his thumb over the blue shadow that marred the perfect flesh beneath one eye; evidence of how exhausted she was. He was to blame and the guilt chafed.

  We can’t risk another child. Did she even realise what she had said? Another child. She’d all but told him that Avalt was his, but somehow had managed not to say the words. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he vowed to give her time, to make everything better for her so that she would trust him enough to confess all. It was the least he could do; the least he planned to do. Before he was finished she’d admit how good things were between them.

  * * *

  Some time later, Kadlin awoke to a large, muscular arm around her. It pressed against her belly, pulling
her back against a chest and body that was just as solid and firm. Gunnar. Letting her eyes slide closed, she remembered everything that had happened and savoured the warmth the memory lit inside her. Or maybe it was the man sleeping behind her and not the memories making her feel so warm. Slipping her fingers between his, she lightly squeezed his hand where it rested against her. How did it feel so perfect to lie with him after so many years had passed? She’d awakened to his arm around her countless times when they were children and could still recall the wave of contentment that would sweep over her before she fell back to sleep. It was the same now, only more because he was hers, at least for the moment.

  She wanted to look upon his face until she had memorised every crease and contour, just as she had memorised those of the boy he had been, but she didn’t want to chance waking him by turning in his arms. Instead, she contented herself with relishing the solid press of him along the length of her body. As she snuggled closer, she became aware of the insistent press of a certain part of him, hard against her bottom. That had never happened when he’d come into her bed years ago. A smile curved her lips and an answering heaviness seeped into her limbs, while a pleasant thrumming began at her centre, that part of her he had filled so completely just hours ago. He was a man now. A warrior who was as magnificent as any warrior had ever been. And he was hers.

  He was Gunnar. The man who had made her eschew all of the warriors her father had presented to her for a husband. The only man she had ever dreamed of marrying. The man who had fathered her child. The man who would hold her heart in his hand for ever.

  ‘Tell me about your life, Kadlin. What have I missed?’ His sleep-roughened voice caressed her ear, just before he placed a kiss on the shell.

  The fingers of pleasure that stroked down her neck from the contact made her smile. She wanted to tell him everything. It felt wrong to not share how afraid and happy she had been to discover her pregnancy. But she couldn’t think about that now, not yet. For once, she just wanted to be happy and enjoy that happiness. Instead of talking about it, she shook her head. ‘Nay, you know my life. Tell me of yours. I haven’t really known you since we were children. I barely knew you after you began travelling with your father. Tell me of your adventures. I want to know of the places you’ve seen. I want to hear your voice.’

  ‘Do you want the tales of pillaging and fighting?’ he teased.

  The rumble of his voice seeped through the bones of her back to settle in her chest. She closed her eyes to savour the feel of his lips moving against her temple. ‘Aye,’ she whispered. ‘Tell me everything.’

  ‘Bloodthirsty wench.’ He chuckled, but obliged her with tales of the adventures that had occupied him over those years when he was caught between boy and man. As he spoke, she could pick out the lingering excitement he had felt in travelling to new places and experienced a pang of jealousy that she hadn’t been a part of that life. When he spoke of his more recent time in the Saxon land, the pride in his voice was evident as he recounted how he had led his men to victories and, though he never said the words, how he had earned their respect. The boy she had known was still there, hiding beneath the hurt and disappointment that had been his life.

  How would their lives be different without that hurt and disappointment? It was a question that haunted her. When he fell silent, she turned in his arms and stared at the shadow of his face. Light was just starting to come in from the front room, but it barely penetrated this deeply into the house. She wanted to see more of his face, but was loath to rise and light the candles that had flickered out. ‘Is Eirik truly happy with Merewyn?’

  He paused, probably wondering at her change of conversation, but he answered, ‘Aye, Eirik’s content with his choice.’

  ‘I’m glad of that. You realise he owes that happiness to you?’

  Even in the pale darkness, she could see that he shook his head. ‘Nay.’

  ‘Aye. There are two reasons that’s true.’ Her fingers brushed over his cheek, unwilling to be this close to him without stroking him in some way. ‘I heard what your father said to you. He had commanded you to bring Eirik back home without her. You could have done it, but you didn’t.’

  His laugh filled the small space between them, but it was without mirth. ‘I thought about it, had even made a plan to take him during the night on my ship. I kept thinking that if I brought him back, then my father might reward me with land so that I could finally claim you. But it’s you who kept me from acting. I knew that you would be disappointed, so I didn’t. He owes his happiness to you, love.’

  Her fingertips came to a rest on his bottom lip. ‘Do you have no shame in admitting that?’

  ‘I have no shame with you.’

  Silence stretched taut between them, filled with all of the things that hadn’t been said. It was only broken when he kissed her fingertips, one by one. He cupped her breast in his palm and his thumb circled around her nipple, causing a tremor in her belly that she vowed to ignore until their conversation was finished.

  ‘What is the second reason?’

  ‘Eirik told me that it was you who found Merewyn hiding in that cellar during the Northumbrian raid. It was you who brought her up.’ When he held his silence, she prompted, ‘Is that true?’

  His thumb stilled its fondling of her nipple. ‘Did I want her for myself, do you mean?’

  The hint of bitterness in his voice twisted something in her. She moved her hand to tighten her fingers in the hair at his temple. He wanted to lump her into the group that included his father, those who always expected the worst of him. Who would accuse him of taking a woman against her will. She suspected it was his way of keeping himself closed off. If no one cared for him, then he didn’t have to care for anyone and everything would be so much easier. But they had come too far to go back to that now. ‘I’m not like the rest of them, Gunnar. I know who you are.’

  He breathed out and the sudden tension drained from his body. His turned his face to nuzzle her palm and his hand closed around her breast. ‘I found her, aye. I brought her up so that we could use her in bargaining.’

  It wasn’t until his admission that she realised she had been holding her breath, awaiting his answer. She let it out in a huff too unplanned to be subtle, so of course he heard it. It wasn’t that she thought he would have forced his attentions on a woman, it was that he had wanted her at all.

  He chuckled near her ear and this time it was real. ‘You were jealous,’ he accused and nipped her earlobe.

  Closing her eyes and arching into his touch, she laughed, too. ‘Of course I was jealous. I don’t want you to want any woman but me. Do you know how it killed me to watch you with those other girls when we would visit your father, walking hand in hand into the dark to do all the things that I wanted to do to you? I’m still so angry with you for that.’

  ‘You don’t have to be jealous any more. I’ve told you there hasn’t been a woman since you. You’ve ruined me for any other. I’m all yours.’ For now. The words lingered, but remained unspoken so she shoved them from her mind. His teeth scraped her neck and when he would have pushed her on to her back, she resisted and pushed him on to his.

  ‘Then I’ll take what is mine,’ she teased and moved to sit astride his hips.

  His strong hands grabbed her hips to pull her on to his length and she eagerly obliged, already slick with wanting him. As she sank on to him, she leaned forward to kiss him, absorbing the purely male groan that came from the back of his throat when he was fully seated and pulsing within her. She tried to move, eager for the friction of his hardness within her, but he held her tight.

  ‘I’ve only ever wanted you.’ His whisper caressed her lips and filled the air in the room. It was exactly what she had said to him their first time together.

  Squeezing her eyes closed to fight the ache in her throat and the tears threatening to fall, she took a deep, shuddering breath.
Though it was dark, when she opened her eyes they rested on the shadow of his face and she knew that he was watching her.

  She raised her hips and he brought her back down, hard. Her breath caught on a gasp as pleasure rippled through her. He didn’t give her time to catch her breath before his mouth plundered hers and he pulled her down hard again, impaling her on his shaft. She kissed him back, her body clenching him tight with every stroke of his tongue against hers. Only then did his hands move from her hips to cup her bottom, giving her leave to take over and rock against him as he squeezed her tight.

  It wasn’t slow and gentle like he had been with her earlier. It was fast and full of all the need that had accumulated between them over the years apart. With one hand fisting tight in his hair, she rode him hard until the first tremors of her release snaked through her, stealing her strength so she moved against his chest. Then he took over, his strong hands moving back to her hips to bring her down on to him over and over again, while his teeth and tongue tortured pleasure from her nipples. It pushed her over the edge, so that she was falling to her release, coming apart at the seams as her cries filled the room. Even then, he didn’t stop. Holding her tight on him, he thrust his hips, pumping into her until his own gruff cry of pleasure reached her ears and he pulled out of her.

  Kadlin lay sprawled on his chest, struggling to catch her breath as an incredible peace swept through her. His hands moved up and down her back in soothing strokes that made her feel cherished.

  Curling her arms around his shoulders, she held tight and whispered into the warm skin at the hollow where his neck met his shoulder the words she knew would be true for as long as she lived, ‘I love you.’ The words were too soft for him to hear and a gentle exhale of his breath was his only reply, except that his arms tightened around her, causing warmth to bloom within her.