A Heart of Fire (26 page)

"Tell
me what it is you mean to do, Viking?" she all but cried.

He
growled at her as he lifted his head to stare her back down into submission,
but as he looked back at her body, his stare shuttered and he sucked in a sharp
breath.

"Finna,"
he breathed. Valdrik ran his hand reverently over her breasts and came up to
sit on his knees beside her, pulling her dress down the rest of the way, off
her arms and to her waist. His look turned raw by what he saw, his eyes bright
and sparked with something a little too wild to tame. "Your body is more
beautiful than I could have imagined. Aye, your skin is like fine silk. You are
a beautiful woman. More enticing than any other I've ever held. There is no
comparing, you must know that."

Finna
watched him with a wild expression as he moved over her and pressed her legs
apart. She pulled them up and put her knees together in effort to block him,
but he reached down and his hands skimmed up her calves to her knees, and he
pressed her limbs back apart. His stare locked with hers, glittering with
triumph and excitement.

"Allow
me and you'll not regret it," he rasped.

He
came over her fully then, his body heavy between her legs. Valdrik kissed the
hollow of her throat. His ragged breath was warm on her neck and sent pools of
heat to her belly.

Finna
drew one leg up beside him, and Valdrik turned to kiss her knee and down the
inside of her leg. He sucked in a jagged breath. "You drive me wild. Do
not deny me again, nor lie to me. I know you want me as much as I want you. I
can smell your desire, Finna, do not tell me again that you do not want
this."

He
reached down to touch her sex, and Finna jolted at the warmth of his fingers,
the pressure of his thumb on the sensitive nub. She whimpered, going lax under
him and shut her eyes.

"The
wet heat awaiting me is my undoing," he said.

Valdrik
pressed his lips to her thigh again, and Finna gasped for tortured breath and
shuddered.

He
left not a thought in her head. No thought toward his desire for other women,
or his love for her sister, or any of her excuses for not allowing her husband
his due.

She
only knew one thing: that she wanted him. She desperately wanted whatever it
was to come. He'd made her so restless she felt as though she might burst from
her body at any moment.

"Whatever
it is you are bent to do, Viking, do it, and cease with your torture," she
begged.

He
chuckled, and with one quick lash of his tongue across her sex, Finna cried
out.

Oh, aye.
She knew what he
was about, for he had done it before. Her pulse quickened with excitement and
anticipation. This time she would not be so hesitant of his touch.

His
fingers gripped her thighs, and he spread her, tenderly, but with enough force
that she was helpless in his grasp. Valdrik pressed her legs further apart and
swirled his tongue over her opening, pressing inward with thrusts.

Finna
grasped at his hair, holding him in place as her legs began to shake, every
nerve in her awakened. A quiver rippled across her belly as an ache began to
surge through her, and she arched her back off the bed. 

Whatever
he was doing felt so wondrous she wanted to beg him not to stop. And she did,
again and again, the words spilling through fractured sobs as he flicked his
tongue against her, thrust into her.

"Valdrik,"
she cried. "I … I must—" She panted hard, fighting to reach for
something she wasn’t sure of.

"Just
let go," he commanded, and then took her in his mouth again.

Finna
cried out with the force of her pleasure, her body plummeting away from
awareness, her being melting into the haze of white-hot pleasure. Her heart
filling, and growing, pounding.

Valdrik
came up her body so quickly Finna had little time to react, but she did. Using
all her strength, she flipped him underneath her.

"What
is it that you did to me, Viking?" she asked, panting. Her breasts rose
and fell with her labored breath. Her hand at his throat, her body poised over
his with her knees on each side of his hips.

Valdrik
sank into the bedding under her. His mouth and beard were wet from what he had
done with his tongue.

"
That
is pleasure, my wife. Do you wish
for more?"

Her
brow pinched quickly, and she sat back from him. Her nightdress had fallen down
around her hips and trapped her legs to the sides of his hard thighs.

More?
There could be more?

"Remove
that," Valdrik said, tugging at the bunched linen with annoyance.

Without
hesitation, Finna took the hem, a look of warning in her eyes, but she yanked
her dress over her head and tossed it away, not caring in the least where it
landed.

Valdrik
ran his hands over her, lifting his head from the bolster to admire all her
smooth curves and the flat of her belly, the tips of her breasts and the length
of her thighs spread over him. He still looked just as undone as he had before,
un-sated and wildly aroused. A line of sweat had broken out on his forehead and
he panted as she did, but she had the idea he strained very much to control
himself.

Finna
chanced a look down to his manhood, rising from a patch of coarse, dark hair.
He was swollen and hard, his skin stretched so tightly he looked near ready to
burst. Geera had told her where he was to put it, but looking upon him now, she
did not see how he would fit.

A
thick vein coursed from his heavy sac up to the rounded tip where a pearl of
liquid seeped from the slit. She sucked in a hissed breath through her teeth.

"Gods,
woman," Valdrik said through clenched teeth. "Do not look upon me so
or I may very well lose my seed this instant."

His
hands came quickly to her hips, and he lifted her over his cock urgently,
then grasped himself around the base of his erection, and positioned her to
take him. He began to press her downward, onto him, but Finna cried out in
panic and put her palms into his chest to keep him from going any further. She
looked down to his turgid member against her slickened flesh, the head of his
shaft pressing urgently against her soft curls.

 "Surrender
to me, maiden," he rasped. His demand came out as more of a plea that sent
pleasurable stabs through her core.

His
member surged upward of its own accord, and Valdrik's head fell back. He
groaned, the cords in his neck taut with the force of his restraint. She closed
her eyes and gasped as a hot spurt of liquid erupted from his turgid flesh
against her and seared her tender opening. It was only a slight amount, not all
his seed.

As
throbs of her own engulfed her, the steely flesh of her Viking warrior beneath
her, she could no longer deny what her body desired despite her fear.

Finna
eased herself down on Valdrik, instantly delighting in the fullness of him
within her.

"Aye,
that's it. Slide down me," he urged, watching her. He took her hips in his
hands and kept her from pulling back.

She
sucked in a breath as her legs weakened and the head of his manhood pressed
inside deeper, her tight sheath stretching to accommodate him.

"Quickly,"
he said through labored breath. He groaned, arching his head back into the
bolster, his fingers digging into her hips like a vise.

Finna
sank down on him, taking the head of his cock into her body, biting back cries
of pleasure as he began to stretch her.

"Are
you all right?" he asked, his voice full of strain.

"Aye.
'Tis only pleasure I feel," Finna said, taking a slight bit more of him,
but as the head of his shaft reached her maidenhead, she indeed cried out and
jerked away from him until his cock sprang from her body. She gasped, first at
the tight pinch, and then at the loss of him.

Valdrik
growled and tossed her to the bed.

He
came over her body at the same time her head hit the mattress just below the
bolster. His knees roughly shoved aside her legs as he gathered her tight in
his arms.

She
reached for his shoulders and pulled him down, wrapping her legs around his
waist. His mouth sought hers as he positioned his hips. "Take a breath, my
warrior maiden. ‘Twill only hurt for an instant."

Valdrik's
mouth stifled her cry as he forced his way into her, and the thin barrier gave
way to his powerful thrust as her body took him in. He stilled until her
frantic clawing on his shoulders ceased and Finna relaxed under him once more.

He
was so deep within her she could scarce breathe.

"You
shall kill me, Viking. You must stop," she panted.

"Nay."
His lips seared hers as he began to move within her again.

Finna
flinched at the first few thrusts, but after a moment, she went slick around
him and the friction became unbearable. She began to move with him, closing her
eyes as he rocked over her, their bodies undulating in perfect rhythm.

Tiny
swells of pleasure streaked through her blood, tightening every muscle until
she quivered with the strain. An unfulfilled ache began to throb endlessly,
making her desperate for something she was not certain of. Something she did
not understand.

She
writhed under him, tossed her head against the bed and cried out. She pulled
him to her even tighter, wrapped her legs solidly around him seeking more.

Her
orgasm erupted without warning, rippling through her once more, surrounding
him, squeezing, pulling him into her body. Valdrik was caught in her wake. She
heard his guttural sound as he threw his head back, felt him spill into her
with powerful thrusts. He roared at the intensity of his pleasure, and her
intense cry broke away into a sob of pleasure as the last waves left her.

Valdrik
pulled himself from her and fell to the side, his breathing ragged.

For
a long while he lay there, until she thought him to be asleep, but then he left
the bed and went to the fire. He stoked the dying embers to a roaring blaze.

"Are
you not hot enough already? I surely am," Finna said, rising from the bed
to look at her husband. She blushed at his nakedness, at the sight of the lean
cords of muscle that pulled his abdomen taut. The long steel of his thighs, the
power of which she'd delighted in as he had hammered into her.
That
part of him was not so full and
thick now, nor hard, but hung against his thighs. A streak of blood, her blood,
traced the length. At the sight, she cringed.

Before
her stood a man without equal, a warrior.
Her
warrior. Honed by the fires of battle, Valdrik was scarred aplenty, but still
his body was beautiful. He towered above even her, his strength overwhelming—a
tangible thing in such a small space as their dwelling.

Briefly,
curiously, she allowed herself another look at that other part of him, but as
he turned his stare to her, she quickly looked away.

"What
are you doing?" she asked as he pulled his leggings up and laced them.

"You
shall see," he said, reaching for his cloak and swinging it over his
shoulders.

Finna
rose up on her arm to watch him leave the dwelling, and a few moments later he
returned with a bucket of fresh snow, which he dumped into a pot. Valdrik
placed the pot over the fire before disappearing outside once more. He returned
with a tub, then made several more trips for snow.

It
became clearer to Finna that he was making a bath.

Once
he had filled the tub with steaming water, Valdrik went to a shelf near the
larder and took out a bottle. He poured it into the water, and a sweet scent
flooded the small space, tickling Finna's nose. It was a heavenly scent,
whatever it was.

"What
is that?" she asked, inhaling.

Valdrik
smiled and held out his hand to her. "'Tis a bath oil made from flowers.
Come, get in," he said.

Finna's
brows drew together. He meant to bathe
her
?

She
bit her lip as she drew her legs to the side of the bed, and hesitantly she
dropped the bed covering and stood. No matter that he was fully sated,
Valdrik's stare was like fire on her skin.

She
looked down herself and balked when she noticed the blood streaking her thighs.

He
must have sensed her apprehension, for he took a step toward her. "'Tis
natural, wife. Come, let me wash you."

Finna
looked back up to him, finding his expression tender, but still she drew her
arms up to shield her nakedness. Her insecurities in being looked upon so had
not faded yet, but Valdrik closed the gap between them and took her in his
arms. He kissed the top of her head, causing her to blush. It was like smooth
silk where their naked skin touched.

"You
must not be ashamed to show your body to me. 'Tis a lovely body." Valdrik
gave her a little push toward the tub, and Finna stepped in, easing down with
her knees pulled up. She hummed in delight as the warmth of the water lapped
over her body.