by Lea Bronsen
Heart in his throat, he spun and headed to the animal barn, needing to talk to Roeland now. He didn’t know why, maybe to warn him.
Most villagers slept at this late hour, so, hopefully, he’d get there unseen. When he reached the large hall, a leather-clad guard at the door squinted at him. Alv offered a piece of hack-silver and whispered, “For your silence.”
The guard nodded and lifted a heavy bar that blocked the door.
Alv entered the wide room and held his breath. Whether the inhabitants were sick or not, the place always stank. Moonlight shone through sparse windows, revealing human frames beneath simple covers and glittering iron chains zigzagging across the hard ground. He tried not to step on anyone as he made his way to the back, where Roeland sat against a wall, chain hanging from his slave collar.
He stopped at Roeland’s feet. “Hey. You’re not sleeping?”
“Plotting my escape.” With a crooked smile, Roeland got up and met Alv face-to-face. He looked pleased to see him. “What’s going on?”
“Ssh, keep your voice down.” Alv’s pulse hammered in his chest. They hadn’t been this close in a week. His yearning blossomed, heating every cell in his body. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Roeland and connect with his luscious mouth.
Stop it.
He needed to focus on explaining everything from the beginning. “My Mother wants me to become the next earl, but Torsten is more popular than me. That’s why she insisted that I marry your sister, because she’s carrying the village’s unborn heir and I need to father it in order to earn my dad’s title.” He babbled, but hoped Roeland would understand.
Roeland shrugged. “You don’t need to care about that. Torsten is a great leader, so he should be the one in command. It doesn’t make you a lesser man.”
“It’s not just that. He’s with your sister. I saw them kissing now, out there on the beach.” Alv turned and pointed to the closed door, hand trembling.
“Oh.” Roeland widened his eyes. “Damn.”
“Exactly! It means she’ll marry him instead.”
“Well, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. If she’s happy with him…”
“But then I can’t pardon you, as I would if I had authority.”
Roeland stared, gaze shining. “You… You’d pardon me? Set me free?”
“Yes. But Torsten won’t. He hates you for killing the son of his brother-in-arms.”
“I know. He came to see me and threatened to bleed me to death.” Roeland grimaced.
“He did? When?”
“The evening before we got sick.”
Alv gaped. Had Torsten been the one who poisoned the prisoners?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Roeland said, “but he also told me Elke saved my life. That her suffering was the only reason he let me live.”
Alv nodded. It sounded plausible.
“He seemed to care for her already then.”
“I see.”
Who then had tried to kill Roeland? If Alv didn’t find that person, he or she would make another attempt, and maybe Alv wouldn’t be there to save Roeland this time. The thought drove him mad.
In fact, everyone was driving him mad. Everyone contributed to making his life a complicated mess, from Joar to Mother and Father, then Hedin, and now Elke and Torsten. He was sick of it!
Oh, and Roeland was to blame, too. Most of what had happened lately and would undoubtedly unfold in the near future was his fault. And why the hell did he have to be so damned gorgeous? Why did he cause Alv to burn with desire? Weren’t things difficult enough to handle?
All of the sudden, Alv hated Roeland for making him fall for him, hated him for putting him in a desperate situation there was no solution to.
“What?” Roeland frowned and took a step back.
He was afraid? Ha, he should be!
Alv snapped, wanting to hurt Roeland, wanting to punish him for turning Alv into this crazed love monster. He collided into him and plastered every hard surface of his body to Roeland’s, pressing him against the wall and holding him in place.
Caged, Roeland stared into Alv’s eyes not blinking once, seemingly tolerating their extreme intimacy. Warm puffs of air brushed Alv’s lips, and each time Roeland breathed in, his chest pushed into Alv’s.
Even more pissed because he’d lost his temper, Alv growled to his mouth. “All of this is your fault! Why did you have to kill my brother?”
“He hurt my sister, remember?” Roeland’s black gaze flared with something fierce.
“I know.” Alv gritted his teeth. “And I’m sorry about that.”
“I’m sorry, too. More than you think. If I could take back what I did, our lives wouldn’t be what they are now.”
Exactly.
Alv tried to calm, but his lungs pumped fast, and his heart beat a furious pace against Roeland’s ribs.
And here we are, glued to each other.
As moments passed, the intense physical contact with the man of his dreams made Alv sweat, and his dick hardened inevitably.
The skin on Roeland’s tanned face glistened, too, and his eyes shone. Surely, he had to feel Alv’s erection against his crotch. Since he didn’t push Alv back—which meant he enjoyed the sexual intimacy, right?—Alv went ahead and kissed him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Roeland was stunned. It was the first time he experienced anything like this. His relationships with women had never reached such a level of anger-fueled desire. Alv’s entire being seemed to envelop him, body, mind, heart, and soul. Though the two men were the same height and Alv slim and bony, his power surpassed Roeland’s. Maybe it was the alcohol in Alv’s veins that gave him such a superhuman presence—the smell of fermented honey drifted from his mouth with a comforting, ensnaring even, hint of sweetness.
This was surreal, like a dream. Alv’s sexual energy absorbed Roeland, and he couldn’t fight it. A week after his poisoning, he didn’t have physical strength. Why resist anyway? He didn’t have anything in life but a little time here and there with his daughter. The rest of the day and night, he sat chained to a wall in a stinking animal barn, waiting to recuperate enough to do hard labor like most of the other slaves. If that was supposed to be his fate, he didn’t mind receiving warmth from a fellow human being.
To be honest, there’d been something between them since Alv stopped him from jumping into the deadly ocean. Alv had protected, nursed, and defended him, always with kindness in his ways and warmth in his blue-green gaze. Roeland had believed their relationship to be brotherly and enjoyed their exchanges, but tonight, their feelings for one another seemed to morph fast into something more.
Though he’d never been attracted to men in the past, he didn’t oppose. Alv’s desire didn’t appall or repel him like the one of another man might. Maybe it was the effeminate side of Alv that made it acceptable. No, not only that: it was fascinating, genuine. And it revealed a fundamental truth: Alv needed him. Like a spider feasting on its captured prey, Alv’s hunger ate Roeland alive, and strangely, he liked it. It’d been so long since he’d felt this way—alive. He didn’t care that Alv’s intensity consumed him if it made him feel real and sharply present in the moment. It might even help him forget about his slave collar and chain for a little while.
The erotic kiss had Roeland’s body give into lust, some parts of him melting, others swelling and hardening. His breathing quickened. His mind became numb and succumbed to the need for comfort, relief from reality, and heady pleasure. He kissed Alv back, tentatively at first, discovering him, learning to know him, getting used to the idea of kissing someone after Hilda had passed.
Thank goodness his inner voice said it was okay, that he deserved love, sex, and shouldn’t feel bad about it. When she died, he’d believed he loved her so much he could never be with another woman, but now he did just that with Alv, this half-man, half-woman being. It didn’t feel like he was cheating on her. If it had, he would’ve loathed himself for the rest of his life. But Hilda would�
��ve wanted him to be happy. Speaking of life, the Vikings might do away with him any given time, and what was happening with Alv could well be his last chance to share intimacy with someone.
He parted his lips, and Alv slid his wet, sweet-tasting tongue inside his mouth. God, delicious. Roeland moaned in appreciation, his body melting even more, his cock growing.
Alv released his lips with a small sucking sound and whispered, “Ssh, be quiet.”
Oh, right, they weren’t alone! Cold flash back to reality.
Roeland had heard moans and hard breathing in the darkened prisoner barn in the past nights, but Alv and he needed to be discreet. If word got out that a man of nobility snuck in here to sleep with a slave, especially when both were men… He didn’t want to think of the consequences, and it would probably be wise to stop playing before things went farther.
Alv attacked his lips again, with silent furor this time, thrusting his tongue inside Roeland’s mouth and toying with his. Didn’t he understand the danger? But Roeland didn’t have willpower to refuse him. He would go along then, but careful not to make a sound.
As if reading his thoughts, Alv brought his arms up to Roeland’s neck and circled it, pulling him into a tight lover’s embrace and pressing their stomachs and erections against each other. Fire rushed from Roeland’s cock to his chest. Stifling a groan, he wrapped his arms around Alv’s slim waist and hugged him back.
It felt right to hold another person like this, to tangle their lustful tongues, to savor their swollen cocks’ throbbing of desire. It had been so long since he’d gotten laid. When Hilda announced her pregnancy, he’d decided he wouldn’t touch her—smother her—until after she gave birth. Most men didn’t mind sleeping with women whose wombs carried a fetus, but he did. And so, month after month had passed without him allowing himself to go into sex mode. He hadn’t even used his hand to get off on his own, out of respect for his wife.
“Get down,” Alv ordered, breathing hard but silently to his mouth, pushing Roeland to slide onto his knees. Before they found their balance in the dark shadow of the wall, Alv reached for Roeland’s pants and pulled them down.
Oh! His cock uncurled from its constraint, like a snake in a bag. Alv grabbed it and stroked upward in one slow motion, toward the tip, his fist warm and firm. The intense sensation caused heat to course through Roeland, and he held his breath to stop a low growl from erupting in his throat. Fluid rushed to the tip of his dick and leaked a droplet, the wetness in contact with the air reminding him of how chilly it was inside the barn.
Alv kissed him deeply again and continued stroking base to tip, each time pulling the foreskin over the bigger head, enhancing the pressure in Roeland’s tense cock.
His world spun. He trembled. He wouldn’t last, the wait had been too long. At the same time, a small part of his brain that still worked acknowledged he should return the favor.
He fumbled for Alv’s erection in his pants and pulled it out, caressing slowly then pumping the long, veiny shaft in a steady rhythm, the way he would to himself. It was the first time he touched another man’s dick, but it was quite all right. And from the choked sounds of pleasure deep in Alv’s throat, it had to feel pretty good to him, too.
Kneeling on the hard ground in the dark, linked by eager mouths and hands, they kissed, masturbated, and held each other closely until a familiar tightening of Roeland’s balls told him he was going to come.
Suddenly, he didn’t know what to do about it—he was going to ejaculate all over Alv’s clothes!
Too late, a ball of heat unfurled in his groin, rushed through the length of his stiff cock, and sprayed out of the tip as burning, pulsating fluid. His mind blackened. His release seemed endless. Riding waves of insane delight, he knocked his forehead into Alv’s, closed his eyes, and gritted his teeth to stop a long, deep growl from slipping out.
* * *
Alv hurried through the darkened village to his house, a mix of feelings raging in him. Excitement, because he’d had sex with the man he desired, and vivid passion, for his heart burned twice more for Roeland after what they’d shared. But he worried that Roeland had faked it, that he was so desperate to be freed, he would have agreed to anything to keep Alv happy. A heart-breaking idea.
That was nothing, though, compared to the fear cramping Alv’s limbs, freezing him as if an ice-cold liquid had been injected into his veins. The more he thought about the recent events, the more he was certain the next days would become dangerous. If Elke and Torsten married, Alv wouldn’t become earl, but Torsten would. And he’d likely get Roeland killed. Not openly, because Elke would oppose, of course, but something would happen to Roeland at some point. Of that, Alv had no doubt. Joar had been far too cherished by the population of Eðni to remain unavenged.
The only solution was for Roeland to leave. Just imagining losing him from sight gripped Alv’s throat and made him want to stop running between houses and cry, but he saw no other outcome for his lover. “You have to escape,” he whispered into the night, gazing up at the sky. “Or else you’ll die.” The moon shone high and bright as if nothing had happened, but truly, everything had been turned upside down.
“Who?” a young man’s voice asked from the shadow of a house.
Heart jumping, Alv halted and froze to the spot.
A male figure stepped out of the dark, wearing short-cropped hair, a tunic, and a scowl. Hedin. What was he doing out here at this late hour?
Before Alv could reprimand him, Hedin asked, coming closer, “Who has to escape?”
Alv pinched his lips. He didn’t owe his slave, didn’t need to tell him anything.
“Are you talking about your lover?” Hedin asked, voice laced with sarcasm, and tilted his head to a side. “Your assassin lover?”
Oh, Hedin knew what had happened in the prisoner barn! That made things even more complicated.
“Did you follow me?” Alv asked, frowning, tone hard.
Ignoring the question, Hedin moved toward him, a sharp, metallic object in his hand reflecting light.
Alv gasped and stepped back, alarm coursing through him. “What the hell are you doing?”
Hedin lunged at him, so Alv had to jump aside.
He couldn’t believe the violence, how badly their relationship had escalated. “Are you threatening me?” His voice came out high-pitched with incredulity.
“You’re mine,” Hedin wheezed, a terrible grimace on his young face. “You belong to me.”
So, it was jealousy that fueled this demented behavior?
“But you and I can never be a couple, and you know it,” Alv said in a conciliate tone, moving sideways to gain distance. “It’s not only that we’re men, you’re my slave. These are not things for me to decide.”
“You’re still mine!” Hedin followed him.
Step by step, they moved in a circle, one menacing, knife in the air, and the other trying to buy time.
“No.” Alv shook his head. The boy had never understood, or wanted to understand, the difference of their positions. “It’s the other way around. You are mine. I can give you orders. I can decide what to do with you. You can’t. You have no authority, no right to demand anything from me except that I treat you well.”
“And that makes it okay to fuck him?”
“What does he have to do with anything?”
“He killed your brother.”
“I forgave him.”
“You’re a traitor. You dishonor Joar.”
What? The boy was mixing things up. While Alv tried to come up with a coherent answer, a thought struck, so ugly it made bile rush to this throat. He groaned, almost didn’t dare speak the words. “Are… Are you the one who poisoned the prisoners?”
Hedin paused for a moment, but didn’t reply.
“Uh-huh…” Memories flashed in Alv’s mind, from his many lessons in Gorm’s medicine hut. Hedin had often been there. “You knew about the foxglove, right?”
Hedin’s hateful gaze fixed him, his silence confirmi
ng the suspicion.
Alv nodded. At the time, he’d appreciated that his slave paid attention to the old man’s teachings. A passing of knowledge from one generation to another. Never would he have thought Hedin might use it to hurt someone. “You’d heard what Gorm told me about the plant’s effects. And so you cooked some, put the brew into the prisoners’ water, and gave it to the guards. Am I right?” Alv’s eyes filled with searing hot tears and his throat clutched tight. “You are the traitor.” To think that this young man he had shared his bed with for a year was capable of murder!
Hedin sneered. “I’ll do anything to protect my love.”
“Love?” Alf huffed. “You’ve never loved me, you wanted to own me. I’ve done the great mistake of treating you like an equal, but you were too greedy, you couldn’t accept your social rank.” Then, Alv falling for another man had provoked a hatred so strong, Hedin had tried to kill Roeland—and all the other prisoners—and now he threatened him!
Growling, Hedin thrust the blade forward.
By Odin! Alv stumbled, tripped, and fell hard on his butt. Hedin came down after him, but Alv rolled aside in the grass and lifted his arm to shield from the next blow. His heart cried. They who had been so close, so intimate!
In any case, Roeland needed Alv alive.
Grab that knife! Concentrate!
When Hedin charged him again, Alv kicked out and connected with something soft, Hedin’s stomach, perhaps? The boy grunted and lost his momentum. Alv seized the chance to catch Hedin’s wrist, wrung the knife out of his hand, and turned it toward him instead. He pushed the boy to the ground, onto his back, and straddled him, holding one of his forearms while inserting the blade point at heart level, between two ribs.
Hedin gasped, fear in his widening eyes.
“You said you’d do anything to protect your love?” Alv asked, pressing the knife deeper, through muscle tissue, meeting resistance. “So will I. I’ll do anything for love.”