Page 104 of The Outlaw Viking

A fiercely intense arousal began at the point of his expert sliding fingers, aided by the wetness of their previous lovemaking. “Selik, I don’t know if I like this,” she said hesitantly.

“You will.”

Unlike her other arousal, which encompassed all her senses, this fiery excitement centered in just one spot. When the first shutters of climax began to shake her, she tried to close her legs, afraid to increase such a powerful cataclysm, not sure where it would lead. But he forced her legs to stay apart with his arm, and, when the first spasms hit her, he did not stop. Over and over and over, his hard fingers rubbed abrasively over that sensitized inner spot until she rolled from side to side, trying to escape. She came and came and came until suddenly she shook and felt a gush of liquid come from her, like an ejaculation.

Selik released her legs then and entered her with his hard, hard length filling her. He soothed her with soft whispers, stroking in and out with slow, agonizingly slow, caresses. “Shh, it will be all right. You were wonderful. Magnificent. Can you do it again, sweetling, with me inside you? Can you? Can you?”

And she did.

Chapter Sixteen

“I’m hungry,” Rain gasped several hours later, and her stomach grumbled redundantly in agreement. She lay in Selik’s arms—depleted, wrung out emotionally and physically, and happier than she’d ever been in her entire life.

“Me too,” Selik growled and nipped at her shoulder playfully.

“Not that kind of hunger. Selik, stop it,” she squealed as he began nibbling lower and lower. “Keep it up and your precious manhood is going to fall off from overuse.”

His head shot up and his eyes widened in alarm. “Nay, do not tell me. One of your sex manuals claims that a cock can fall off from too much bedsport?”

Rain laughed. “No, but even if it did, there are surgeons who can sew a penis back on.”

Selik jerked upright and made a snorting sound of disbelief. “For shame, Rain! That statement is so outrageous it does not merit consideration.”

“Listen, Selik, there was this abused woman who cut off her husband’s penis…”

When Rain completed her explanation, Selik stared at her, mouth agape and eyes wide with astonishment. “And it worked as good as afore the cutting?”

“Well, no one knows for sure, but his doctors seemed to think it would be all right in time.”

“I do not believe you. Methinks you weave these tales for your own twisted amusement,” Selik declared with finality, lying back down beside her. “No doubt you will have great fun relating this jest to your friends when you return to your country—how you made the fool of a lackwit Viking.”

Rain turned on her side, facing Selik, and laid her right hand on his cheek, tracing his scar lovingly with her fingertips. “Selik, I’m not going back. I’m never going to leave you.”

“Do not make promises you cannot keep,” he said gruffly and pulled out of her embrace, folding his hands under his head and staring somberly at the roof of the barn. “Besides, I did not ask you to stay.”

The storm had ended, but the steady patter of raindrops against the barn boards made their little pallet seem like a tender cocoon of peace and love. But Rain knew this was only a temporary reprieve from danger and hate, and she had to convince Selik of her love while she had the chance.

“I can promise not to go near the Coppergate site in Jorvik,” she avowed fervently. “I can promise to stay with you as long as you want me. I can promise to love you forever. I can—”

“Do not do this,” Selik protested on a groan of despair, turning to face her again. His sad eyes and tightly pressed lips bespoke his conflicting emotions. Finally, unable to keep his feelings under control any longer, he pulled her roughly into his arms and hugged her tightly. “Ah, Rain,” he said on a sigh of utter hopelessness.

When he pulled away, his pain-filled eyes tore at Rain. He told her in a shaky voice, “I cannot protect you. I did not keep my wife and son safe from harm. I cannot promise to do any better for you.”

“And who appointed you my protector? Who said you were responsible for the safety of the world? Oh, Selik, can’t you see? It wasn’t your fault that Astrid and Thorkel died. Stop tormenting yourself with the past and start living. Living. Not just existing. Not waiting to die.” Rain stopped suddenly, realizing that she’d probably gone too far.

But for once Selik didn’t seem angry at her mentioning Astrid and his past. He gazed at her pensively, then said, “Mayhap ’tis true. If I had been able to accept my blamelessness years ago, soon after it happened, perchance I could have lived a normal life. But too much has happened since, too many deaths, on both sides—”

“But if you left Britain, started over somewhere else—”

“Give it up, Rain. I cannot rest until Steven is dead, and Athelstan will never allow me to live with the blood of so many of his soldiers on my hands.”

“But—”

“Nay, dearling, we have no future,” he said, cradling her against his shoulder, stroking her hair lovingly, “but we have now. Let us make the best now that we can.”

Later, after they had slept for a time, Selik shivered and shook Rain awake. The aftermath of the storm had left the barn drafty with frigid air.

“Bloody hell! ’Tis colder than a whale hunter’s arse on a glacier. Best we move to the pallet downstairs near the hearth or your tits may turn to snowballs.”