He unclasped the bearskin from around his shoulders, letting it fall around his thick thighs and slim hips. ‘No. My feelings for Gertrud have long since faded. I feel nothing when I think of her.’
‘Then why have you not taken a wife?’
‘There was no one that interested me...’ He paused, staring at her mouth with an intensity that made her heart burn for him.
‘No one?’
He shifted onto his knees, and looked down at her. ‘No one,’ he repeated, leaning in close to whisper, ‘until you.’ And then he smiled sadly. ‘But you do not want me...do you?’
Dare she risk ruining the friendship between them?
‘I do not wish to hurt you,’ she said, staring into his sultry eyes and wondering why her body always softened beneath the intensity of his gaze.
‘How could you hurt me?’ he chuckled, but the words sounded as if he were already in pain.
‘Because I will leave in the spring...’
‘I know that!’ he snapped, and she blinked in surprise at his sudden anger. He cursed softly, and then ran a hand through his hair, sweeping it back. It was as if he were struggling to find the words. ‘I do not want to speak of it or think of it. Do you think I was happy before you came? I was not!Youhave made me happy.’ His tone softened. ‘Why mourn the loss of you now? What would that win me except more misery? We still have time together...’ He leaned closer, his eyes raking over her hair and face, as if he were committing them to memory. ‘Instead of being sad, I would like to embrace every moment I have with you and be grateful for it.’
He wantedher. Not because of what she could do for him, or to ease his loneliness as his companion. She hadn’t had toearnher place with him. He would and could live independently without her. He had no need for a servant; instead he hadchosento want and need her, becauseshemade him happy. Her mere presence was enough.
She was enough!
And for once she believed it, deep in her heart, because Runar had planted the seed of that belief, and their weeks together had nourished it. Until all at once her confidence had bloomed in her heart like a summer rose.
She grabbed his hand and held it tight. Unsure if she could trust his words, she longed for them to be true. ‘I have changed my mind.’
His eyes widened, and his hand clenched beneath hers. ‘About what?’
‘About...you kissing me,’ she whispered.
A moment of silence passed, when neither of them seemed able to breathe, and then he grabbed her face with both his hands, cupping it gently as he crushed his lips against hers. A sweet mix of power, passion and tenderness.
She arched her body upwards and shifted onto her knees, reaching up to tangle her hands through his messy hair and tug him close. Her breasts pressed against his chest, and she sighed with pleasure as she drowned in the feel of him. Tasting her with a desperate hunger, he swept his tongue inside her mouth and slid over her tongue.
The hardness of his big body pressed against hers made her moan with pleasure, and she clung to him as if he were her raft in a storm. His hands slid possessively down her neck and chest, touching her with firm, needy caresses. When he fumbled with the brooches of her apron dress, she helped him, unclasping and throwing them aside, along with the beads she strung between them. He tugged the ties of her shift loose and shoved both dresses down her shoulders to her waist.
‘Take off your tunic,’ she urged, desperate to see more of him, even as he nudged her to lie down among the furs.
He gave her another deep and carnal kiss before rising up to sweep his tunics over his head. Hunching down to rest on one elbow, he trailed his lips down her neck.
She shivered at the tingles of excitement that ran down her spine.
‘Are you warm enough?’ he asked, shaking out his bearskin and draping it loosely over them. Then he stroked his hand lovingly down her breasts, lightly brushing his thumb across her nipple.
She jerked at the intimacy of his touch, and bit her lip to stifle a groan. ‘No, I’m not cold.’
A lazy smile stretched across his face. ‘You like me touching you?’
She nodded, dizzy with anticipation. ‘Yes.’
His dark head dropped, and he licked the tight flesh of her nipple with a teasing lap of his tongue. Her spine arched, wanting more, and she ran her hands up the thick muscle of his biceps to his broad shoulders. There was so much of him to admire, and she revelled in the feel of him beneath her fingertips.
He lifted his head and closed his eyes with a sigh, as her fingers slid up into his hair. ‘I like it when you touch me too,’ he sighed, opening his eyes and looking down at her with raw passion. ‘And when you kiss me.’
She rose up, as if he had enslaved her with his words and she was helpless to do anything but obey. She pressed her mouth to the pulse at his neck, and when she felt the little jump his blood made beneath her lips, her own desire answered, igniting fire within her veins.
There was more tugging of her clothes, and they were roughly discarded to the side until she lay naked beneath him. Reaching up, she trailed her fingers over the smooth planes of his golden chest, and down the waistband of his trousers. She pulled on the cord holding them tightly to his hips. As the knot unravelled, she eased the fabric down, but then slowed as her throat tightened.
