“Give up? Give up? If I was ready to give up, do you think I would be here, making love to you and breaking my own heart? What do you think your father would do to me if I argued with him in public against this marriage? I would be dead before you even discovered his guards took me.” Lena shook her head. “I haven’t given up, but I also know dead warriors don’t fight.”
“I would lay down my life for you.”
Lena gasped and her hands balled into fists. “Are you implying I wouldn’t do the same? How many times have I risked my life to save yours? Just as many times as you have done the same for me.”
“I meant I will die fighting to have you.”
Lena shook her head and covered her face with her hands. She took a deep breath before looking up. Ivar feared he would see tears, so he was unprepared for the fury she turned on him.
“How could you, even for a minute, think I would want that? When I have fought to save your life, you think I would want you to die just to be with me?” Lena shook her head again. “Perhaps you can appease your father with a trial marriage. If the two of you are suited, then a true marriage can move forward. If you don’t suit, then neither of you will be bound to the other. Eindride will take me to Kaupang.”
“No!” Ivar bellowed. “Absolutely not. You are not running away with my best friend. I will kill him if he’s touched you.”
Ivar reared back and stood from the bed. Lena watched the man who had just made love to her turn into a berserker. Her own temper flared as indignation consumed her.
“Touched me? You think I’m whoring myself to your best friend? He has never touched me. No man but you has, and you know it! How could you accuse me, or Eindride for that matter, of being so disloyal?”
“You just admitted you’re going to run away with him,” Ivar snarled.
“Run away with him? No, I said he would take me to Kaupang. Ein isn’t going to stay. He wants me about as much as I want him, which is not at all. Ein has his sights set on Brenna, and she welcomes his attention.”
“Lena, I never said you are a whore. I can’t stand that word being said about you.”
“Then all the more reason for me to leave, because your bride believes I am one. She said as much.”
“What?” Ivar exploded all over again.
“Nothing. I’m going to Kaupang. I have an uncle and an aunt who would take me in. I can find work there or sell my sword arm to a neighboring jarl.”
“Stop. Stop jumping from one subject to another hoping to confuse and distract me. You are not going to Kaupang or anywhere else. Your home is here. You are not traveling anywhere with Eindride unless he plans to die an early death. You are not traveling with anyone but me. And just what did Inga say to you?”
Ivar stood with his arms crossed, and Lena’s eyes gravitated to the rippling muscles across his chest and forearms. She closed her eyes before shifting her gaze to Ivar’s eyes. His heated stare was thunderous, and she forgot what they were arguing about as desire pooled in her core. Her breathing hitched, and Ivar’s nostrils flared when her desire registered. He stalked around the bed and used his size to inch Lena back against the wall. His forearms bracketed her head as her heart pounded.
“Tell me what she said,” Ivar whispered in her ear before flicking her lobe with his tongue then sucking it into his mouth. “Tell me what she said, and I will ease the ache between your legs.”
Ivar pressed his hardened rod against her belly, then tilted his hips to rub against her mons.
Lena licked her dry lips as her fingers itched to reach out for him. Her eyes drifted shut as two of Ivar’s questing fingers sought her entrance. She gasped as he thrust them into her.
“Tell me, and I will fill you with my cock. That’s what you want, what you need isn’t it?”
Lena wrapped her hand around Ivar’s cock and began stroking.
“You know it’s what I want. But I also know it’s what you want, too. I don’t want to talk about that woman right now. If you want me to ride you, then you leave this topic alone.”
Ivar thrust into her hand as his fingers continued to work Lena’s heated flesh. Their plan to seduce each other into submission was working too well. Their lips fused together as they battled each other, their tongues dueling. Ivar’s sudden withdrawal from her sheath, made Lena cry out in pain, the flaming ache within her core overwhelming her. She stroked faster as her deep blue eyes flashed shards of ice at Ivar. He might withhold pleasure from her, but she would overwhelm him with it. She used her free hand to lift her breast in offering to Ivar, massaging the flesh, then tweaking the nipple before offering it to him again. His head fell to her breast as he sank to his knees, tearing himself from her hand. He suckled hard before biting her nipple just enough to elicit a deep moan. He hooked one of her legs over his shoulder before returning to his earlier feast.
“Tell me,” he growled.
Lena waited for the sensation of his tongue against her nether lips before sighing and relenting.
“She said she was your wife.”
“I already heard that.” Ivar paused his ministrations long enough to respond.
“She called me a whore. And maybe I am, but I don’t care because right now, your head is between my thighs and not hers.”
Ivar rose to his feet and grabbed Lena’s hand. He led her to the bed and turned her to face it.
