Sandra Hill - [Vikings I 05] (19 page)

Niche? Cavity?
Her heart stopped for a second, then began beating again at a more rapid pace. Heat infused her, and not just her face; she suspected that her skin was turning pink all over her body.

“Have you naught to say about that, witch? Have I for once struck you speechless?”

“Why?” was all that came out of her mouth and that in a strangled whisper.

“Because I want to.”

She couldn’t see him with her cheek pressed to hands folded on the pillow and she couldn’t tell by the tone of his voice whether he was serious, or jesting. “Are you grinning?” she asked, unable to control her curiosity.

“Widely.”

“This is just a game you play with me … a game of torture. Isn’t it?”

“Yea, ’tis just that. Sexual torture. The best kind.”

Maire should have known he would give a perverted answer like that. She resolved then not to ask any more questions.

He moved her hair aside so that her nape was bare. Then, for a long time, he did not touch her or speak. The only sounds in the room were those of the rain and Rurik’s heavy breathing. Or was it hers? She held her breath for a long time, just in case. Eventually she had to release it in a whooshy exhale.

She thought he might have chuckled softly. Leastways, she felt something move against her shoulder blades, like warm air. This waiting was driving her nigh insane, but she would not… could not… ask the brute to get on with things. That would indicate an eagerness she did not feel.

Finally, she felt the lightest touch … probably a forefinger … trailing a path from her neck, down her spine, over the crevice at her buttocks, between her thighs and calves, across the back of one knee, then skimming the bottom of first one foot, then the other. The sensation was light as a summer breeze but so intensely erotic that Maire felt as if he’d lit a trail of fire. She had to clench her fists and bite her bottom lip to restrain herself from jerking or crying out.

But that was just the beginning.

Next, he followed the same path, but this time with his tongue, even over her backside—
wicked, wicked man!
He must have sensed her distress over his tasting that part of her anatomy because he nipped with his teeth at the soft flesh there, before moving his tongue down her thighs. When he got to the bottoms of her feet and lapped at the ticklish arches, Maire closed her eyes tightly to fight the urge to squirm … or worse yet, giggle.

You’d think he would have been done by then. But, nay, he had barely started. Now he fashioned new paths of survey for his tempting fingers and slick tongue and his palms, which she’d discovered were tantalizingly callused, no doubt from weapon-wielding. Her underarms. The curve of her neck. The sides of her ribs and hips. The small of her back, which she discovered was sinfully susceptible to his expert caresses. When he tried to separate her thighs and stroke her in between, from behind, Maire could take no more. She rolled over on her back and wailed, “Enough!”

That was her biggest mistake thus far. She could
tell even before he spoke, from the gleam in his mischievous eyes and the sensuous parting of his lips, that the rogue had her exactly where he wanted her.

“Nay, witchling, ’tis not nearly enough.” He arranged her suddenly boneless arms above her head in a posture that could only be described as wanton. Then he conceded, “ ’Tis a good beginning, though.”

Their eyes locked, and Marie was riveted in place by the message in his compelling blue eyes. She was not very experienced in bedplay, but she knew without a doubt that this man wanted her… badly. Why did he not just take her then? That was what Kenneth had done. None of this teasing aforehand. Usually, he’d been fortified with a goodly amount of
uisge-beatha
first, as if he could not bear to touch her unless he were intoxicated. Not that she had wanted his love-making … if it could be called that… especially after his true, vicious nature became apparent.

But Maire couldn’t think about that now. She had to concentrate on the present, lest the Viking catch her unawares … lest
she
do something she might later regret.

Rurik did not pounce on her, as she’d expected. No jamming apart of her legs and heavy weight pressing his staff into her tender parts for a quick one-two-three strokes before rolling over into a snoring slumber. Nay, Rurik did things his own way, in his own good time. She should have known.

Now that Maire was exposing new territory for Rurik’s exploration, he began another slow, leisurely investigation … first with his hot eyes, then his hands and mouth. The man knew things Maire had never dreamed of.

“Are all Vikings like you?” she blurted out once on a panting breath when he was touching her breasts … just the undersides, with the pads of his fingertips, when she yearned for something more, like the sharp suckling of his lips.

He glanced up at her through thick, sooty eyelashes … and winked. The rascal had the nerve to wink at her! “Nay, just me,” he said. “And just with you.”

“Liar.”

Eyebrows raised, he looked pointedly downward as if to prove that he told the truth, then renewed his “assault” on her. “Is this what you want, sweetling?” he murmured as he began to minister in depth to first one breast, then another. Had she spoken aloud? Did he know what she’d been thinking?

“Nay,” she said in a choked voice as her back bowed upward in response to the delicious agony caused by his playing with the areolas and nipples of her breasts. Tracing. Stroking. Fluttering. Squeezing.

“Who’s the liar now?” he asked, even as one hand cupped a breast from underneath and pressed upward, creating his very own pleasure mound … even as his moist lips closed around one taut nipple … even as he began to suck on her with a savage rhythm.

Maire cried out… she couldn’t help herself… and tried to shove him off. Without breaking his sucking cadence, Rurik took both her wrists in one hand and forced her arms back over her head. Each time he drew on her, Maire felt the ache in her breasts intensify, and there was an answering, building throb between her legs, which she held tightly together.

“Watch me,” he commanded.

Maire hadn’t even realized that she’d squeezed shut her eyes. For some reason, she didn’t balk, as she normally would have. Nay, she did as he’d ordered.

Then he did the same to her other breast… as she watched. His long hair was clubbed back with a leather thong into a queue at his neck, thus exposing his face for her scrutiny. As he suckled her breast, his cheeks moved in and out with the force of his efforts. Maire did not think there was a more erotic sight in all the world than a stunningly virile man, such as Rurik, paying homage to a woman’s breast.

“Did you like that?” he inquired silkily as he adjusted himself to lie atop her body.

She shook her head.

Which was apparently her second mistake of the day … or was it the third? She was in such a muddle she could scarce recall her own name at this point.

“Nay? You did not like that? Tsk-tsk! Well, I guess I will have to try harder.”

Maire groaned with dismay, but Rurik caught her groan in his open mouth, which was already moving over hers. One of his hands still held her wrists above her head, but the other hand cradled her jaw.

Oh, he was a good kisser. An exquisite kisser. Maire had to credit the Viking with that. She didn’t want to think about where he’d learned all those tricks with his lips and teeth and tongue. She was more concerned about how he made her feel. If she wasn’t careful, she would be having one of Rurik’s famous fits … over nothing more than kisses.

He was attacking her ear now, alternating puffs of breath with wet licks of his tongue. Somehow, her
hands had come loose, for her arms were wrapped around his wide shoulders, caressing the ropey sinews of his back, and his hands were under her buttocks, lifting her up against his raging erection. Maire realized with astonishment that her legs had parted somewhere along the way, and her knees were cradling his hips.

Maire wanted Rurik inside her. She really did. A strange inner excitement rippled through her and centered in that place where he should surely already be by now.

“Now,” she pleaded, and arched her middle up off the mattress in encouragement.

Rurik’s head reared back suddenly and he stared at her, gasping, as if trying to swim out of a haze of confusion. She knew just how he felt. But he surprised her by declaring vehemently, “Nay!”

“Nay?” Here she was, as open to this man as any woman could be. The only thing missing was the welcome trumpet.

“Not yet,” he explained, giving her a quick kiss before he sat back on his knees between her widespread thighs.

In a rush of embarrassment, Maire tried to cover herself with her hands, but Rurik would have none of that. He pushed her hands aside. Then he did the unthinkable. Before she had a chance to blink or say him nay, the brute grabbed for the pillow and shoved it under her hips, lifting her higher and more open to his perusal. And peruse her, he did. Not to mention other things, which were surely sinful.

No one had ever gazed at her
there
.

No one had ever touched her
there
.

No one had ever told her how she looked
there
.

No one had ever praised her wetness
there
.

No one had ever explained in explicit, sexual detail what he intended to do
there
.

No one had ever prepared her for the feel of a man’s tongue
there
.

Everything in Maire centered on him then … this man who obviously reveled in a woman’s body … whose every gesture and touch were attentive and unhurried.

By the time Rurik was done tending to her
there
, Maire was a mewling, fist-pounding-on-the-mattress, shivering mass of female desire. She felt as if she were … well, climbing a mountain. If only she could reach the peak! Only then would this horrible-wonderful throbbing ache be relieved.

And Rurik knew of her distress. She could see it in his admiring eyes. And she saw something else in his eyes, too. Intense, bone-melting desire. He wanted her just as much as she wanted him. And yet he held back. Why?

Before she could ask, he delivered a message to her in a low, masculine growl, “Heed me well, Maire. This is my
mark
on you.”

While she observed, his long middle finger flicked back and forth, rapidly, against the slick surface of an oversensitive part of her she hadn’t even known existed. Maire keened and bucked, but he would not stop. Inside and outside, she began to spasm with the most incredible sensations. Not pleasure … more like the foreshadowing of some great event. But then the pleasure came, too, like a lightning bolt between her legs, and his mouth and tongue were there again, relentless,
hurtling her up and out over some great abyss.

Ecstasy, that’s what this was. Sheer ecstasy.

Ecstasy?
Maire eyes shot wide open at remembrance of that word… a word that Rurik had used just that evening. “What… was … that?”

“That, my dear, was an orgasm.”

“Oh.
That
was one of your sex fits?”

“Yea… I think so. Did you have tremors?”

She was not certain, but she thought he might be teasing her. Risking his mockery, she nodded.

He cocked his head to the side. “Perchance you did, then. I was too busy rolling my eyes up into my head to notice.” Hah! The rogue had noticed every blessed thing. And he
was
teasing her.

Her gaze immediately went to his groin, where a rampant erection still raged up out of a nest of black curls. It was bigger than before, if that were possible. Maire sensed the tightly coiled power that he held in check. “You did not have an or-gaz-him yet?” she asked tentatively, not sure she was using the right term, or in the correct way.

He tried to smile but a choking sound came up from his throat. At the same time, his male member jerked. Just because she was looking?

“I thought it was painful for a man to wait too long.”

“ ’Tis true. ’Tis true. I am definitely in pain.” He stretched himself over her then, bracing himself on his extended arms. Adjusting his hips from side to side, he maneuvered his sex into her wet female channel. “Will you be helping to relieve my pain, dearling?” he asked then.

Maire did not have to consider for even a moment before she decided that she, indeed, would… because, surprisingly, she was developing a new pain of her own.

Maire must be a true witch, for Rurik was surely under her spell. Had she somehow given him a love potion, or just surrounded him with her enticing aura?

As he stared down at the now willing, most alluring maid, he was more than prepared to join with her in the way of men and women through the ages—
God’s pleasure gift to men… and women, too
. He knew with a certainty, though, that this time would be different … life-changing. And that was frightening to a man who prided himself on self-reliance. Had he not told himself from the time he was a boy that he needed no one?

But he needed Maire now … desperately.

Would that need be assuaged once the lust-mood had passed? Damn, he hoped so! Never, in all his misbegotten life, had he wanted a woman the way he wanted Maire now. He was a man who loved women
and sexplay. He savored both the giving and the taking of passion-joy amongst the bed furs, and it had been especially important to him with Maire to bring her to ecstasy first, which he had done … and done well. But it had never been so difficult before for him to forestall his own satisfaction, and he truly feared now that there would be no satisfaction even when he spurted forth his seed. But he had to try.

With his straightened arms positioned on either side of Maire’s head and his hips nestling between her thighs, he reared his head back, the veins standing out tensely on his neck and breath hissing through his clenched teeth. Only then did he begin to enter her tight sheath of hot silk. Slowly, slowly, slowly, he eased his staff one tiny bit at a time, savoring every welcoming clasp of her folds. His head spun with the intensity of his excitement. And he was only in halfway.