“Harold, what else has Signy said about Ivar and Inga’s marriage? Your father is leaving something out. He assumes you won’t tell me. If there’s a secret I should be aware of, but no one tells me, the alliance is off.”
Harold and Rangvald exchanged a silent look then crossed their arms. They held the secret to what Signy had seen, and if it meant keeping Inga from marrying Ivar, an ally they already had, then they would risk their father’s wrath. Neither of the current jarls would live forever. The agreements Harold, Rangvald, and Ivar made with each other would last longer than either of their fathers would.
“So that is how it is to be? You intend to sabotage the alliance your father and I have spent months working on. I shall be interested to see how he reacts to that piece of news. Sven might not be so lonely on that ride home after all.”
Rangvald and Harold both dropped their arms. The older man had played them both. Rather than gain information, Soren would remove any detractors. He would clear the path to Ivar’s wedding, taking names of new enemies as he went.
Ivar looked at Rangvald, Harold, and Sven as his father stormed out of the bathhouse.
“Well, that didn’t go as we might have hoped,” Ivar’s dry tone filled the steam room with sarcasm. “Now there is no chance that my father will back down.”
“Have Signy cast the runes before Father and Jarl Soren. Then what will they do? No one can deny Signy’s gift. They would make fools of themselves if they did. We need only have enough witnesses that they cannot deny it.” Sven looked at the older men and shrugged.
Rangvald wrapped his arm around his younger brother and pulled him against his side.
“Perhaps being the youngest has forced you to be the quietest, but it has given you the wisdom to watch and think. You may be the strategist of us all.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Harold scoffed. “The boy barely has any hair on his chin and hasn’t led a raid yet. Let us see his strategy when his life depends on it.”
“It may very well if Father intends to send me home alone. With no marriage yet, Soren’s men may murder me along the path, my body never to be seen again.”
A shiver crept along Ivar’s spine at Sven’s observation. He suspected the young man spoke more truth than any of them wanted to accept.
Fourteen
“Hurry,” Inga hissed as Einar scrambled through her window. Inga leaned out of the opening and looked around. When she was convinced no one had seen her late-night visitor, she pulled the fur covering over the window.
Einar pulled Inga against him and ravished her mouth with a brutal kiss that had Inga melting against him. He bit her lower lip as he spanked her backside, the sound ringing throughout the chamber.
“You don’t issue orders to me,” Einar hushed tones held menace that both frightened and titillated Inga.
“Yes, Einar. I’m sorry.” Inga pulled her robe open. She lifted her breasts in offering to him, and he did not need a second invitation. He pinched and twisted one nipple as he suckled her other breast. Inga tried to swallow her moans as she clung to Einar’s shoulder and fisted his hair. “Please don’t make me wait. I’ve missed you so since this morning.”
“Ivar not satisfy you? Not enough for you?” Einar sneered.
“He couldn’t get it up. Then when he did, he couldn’t go through with it. He vomited, then ran away like a little girl.” Inga’s scorn made Einar chuckle.
“Well, you had better get him hard and up to the task, or you will have a very hard time explaining how you’re carrying his child.”
“Are you--” Inga was breathless as she looked at the ridge hidden by Einar’s leather pants.
“Am I going to take you again?” Einar whispered in her ear as he once again tweaked her nipple. “Yes. Everywhere. Down.”
Einar pressed Inga’s shoulder until she kneeled before him. His head dropped back as she released his cock and lowered her mouth onto him. It was impossible to overlook that she knew what she was doing. Even if he had no one to compare her with, she made him want to climax with only a few passes of her tongue. When she ran her teeth along the ridge on the underside of his rod, he leaked. Einar let her continue to work him closer to release until he was close to losing control. He grasped her hair and pulled her to her feet before tearing the nightgown from her body. He pushed her toward a chair that sat before the fire. Einar bent her forward over the high back before bringing his hand down in a series of punishing spanks.
“You had but one duty tonight, Inga. You were to make Ivar bed you. You were to have him spill inside you. What if you’re already with child? My child. How will you pass him off as Ivar’s son if the man’s never plowed your field?”
“I’m sorry, Einar. My mother and sister were there. Both of his parents, too. I think he couldn’t perform with an audience.”
“Ha,” Einar’s laugh was hollow. “He’s barely gotten Lena out of sight before fucking her. There have been plenty of times when both he and Lena were aware everyone heard them, and it would have taken but a stretch of the neck to watch them. Ivar doesn’t fear performing as a man in front of anyone. More likely he didn’t want you.”
Inga gasped; a ragged sob followed. Einar smiled at the back of Inga’s head. He grasped her backside and nudged her feet apart. Einar pulled her hips toward him, letting his cock slide along her sheath, her dew coating him. He swept his fingers into her sheath then took the moisture and pressed against her most sacred spot. Einar fisted himself twice before thrusting into Inga, disregarding her cry of pain. It excited him.
“You know who wants you, don’t you, my sweet Inga? I do. Feel how hard I am for you. Fell how tight your arse is around me. I won’t last long.” Einar thrust over and over as Inga gripped the arms of the chair. “But you like it like this, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Inga croaked. “I do. Only you understand.”
“That’s right. Only I understand what you need. Only I can give you it.” Einar pulled her head back and captured her mouth, but where the first kiss was callous and possessive, this one was tender. The contradiction of how their bodies moved together and their mouths fused excited them both, but for different reasons. Feeling wanted at last combined with her physical need to be aroused made Inga willing to accept any of Einar’s demands. The control he had over Inga and the pleasure her body gave him inflamed Einar.
