She didn’t even take a heartbeat to think about it. There was only one answer to that question.
“Yes,” she said, smiling through her tears. “I will stay with you. I will marry you. I will give you three more little cubs after our son.”
He stood back up, looking both happy and confused. “Wait. Do you know something I don’t?”
“No.” She laughed. How could she? “Only, I had a dream the night before you were captured. In that dream I saw three blond children and a baby with my hair color.”
The smile Ulf threw her was radiant. “That sounds perfect. We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we? In the meantime…” The cloak was sent to the floor in a flourish. Then he stilled, as if seized by doubt, and glanced at his chest, which was mottled with bruises. “That is, if you don’t think me too frightful to?—”
She stopped him with a fierce kiss. “You could not be frightful if you tried. But I worry you might be in pain.” Slowly, she brushed a finger over his injured face.
“Pain or no, I have to have you. Now.”
Another heated kiss followed this declaration. All Ylva’s doubts melted and soon, they found themselves on the pallet, panting with need. Out of consideration for her swelling stomach, Ulf had placed her on top of him. She was straddling him, his hands were at her hips, holding her over the hardness pressing against her molten core.
She let out a long breath.
Ulf could not believe the contrast between this morning and the previous one, when he’d lain on the cold, stone floor of the cell in town, aching and filled with despair. He had thought he would die and never see this beautiful woman again. And she was sitting on top of him, offering herself to his gaze and his touch.
He had a sudden vision of how Ylva would look naked, riding him, with her beautiful breasts bouncing, her hair loose over her shoulders and her head thrown back in ecstasy—and he couldn’t wait to make it come true.
“Will you ride me, my love?” he rasped. The heat of her over his rock-hard shaft was sweet torture. “I’m bursting with need.”
He cursed himself when she grew still. Of course, though she’d had a lover in her bed, though the two of them had already shared pleasure, though she was with child, she was still untouched. He would just have to forget his needs and take this slowly.
“Forgive me. This was the wrong thing to say.”
“No, I too am bursting. Only…”
He waited, while she found the best way to explain what was bothering her.
“You were right that first night. I am scared,” she finally admitted, her gaze averted. “Not of you, as I said, but of…being taken. All my life I tried to avoid it. Every time a man entered the house, I feared Mildred or her father would ask me to service him. I quickly learned to dread anything associated with men. Then Judith was attacked. She told me how much it had hurt. I know, deep down, that it was so painful for her because she didn’t want Walstan and he was rough with her, but I-I can’t help how I feel.”
He cradled her cheek in the palm of his hand. “Of course. I understand.”
She had gone through something highly traumatic and he wished he could erase the memory from her mind.
“But I do want you. I’m burning.”
Yes, so he could feel, even through his braies. Ulf stroked her cheek slowly. “I can give you pleasure in many ways, as you know.” Forget his own bursting body, he would find his release, one way or the other. He was more concerned about Ylva right now, and making sure he did nothing she didn’t want. “You know we don’t actually have to?—”
“We do.” She stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Because I love you and I want you. Because we are going to get married and have a family. Because I want to share pleasure with you. Because I trust you.”
There she was, the brave woman he had fallen in love with.
“If you take me in this position, it might be better in every sense of the word,” he breathed. “Better because of the baby, better because that way you will be in control, and able to stop whenever you need to.”
Better for him, who would enjoy the sight of his woman using him for her pleasure. And if he wasn’t able to dictate the rhythm, he might have a chance at lasting.
“Yes. But I don’t know how to do this.”
“Me neither. We’ll learn together.”
Unsurprisingly, he had never experimented this position with Revna, who would never have agreed to take what she saw as the role of the man. To his relief, Ylva didn’t ask any questions or hesitate. Instead she started to remove her clothes with slow deliberation. And soon, he saw what he had wanted to see.
The most alluring woman in the world naked, sat astride him.
“Your turn to get undressed,” she murmured.
