Page 72 of The Outlaw Viking

Selik brushed featherlight kisses along the curve of her neck with little nips and butterfly kisses. When he got to the pulse behind her right ear, he sucked softly on the sweet flesh until he undoubtedly raised a passion mark, then blew softly as if to dry the skin.

When his hot breath inadvertently blew into her extra-sensitive ear, Rain’s eyes widened with alarm, her body stiffening with resistance. She couldn’t let him know how erotically sensitive her ears were. That chink in her armor could prove her undoing.

But Selik knew. Rain saw the dawning awareness in his hazy gray eyes and in the slow, silky smile that crept across his face.

“So, ’tis the ears for you, sweetling. Mayhap this is one of those fifty-seven erotic points on a woman’s body you boasted of once. Just nod your head if I am right.”

Rain shook her head vehemently. Good Lord! Had the man memorized every dumb thing she ever said?

Selik chuckled with glee, not believing her one bit. “Yea, for some women, the sweet spot is behind the knees, right at the crease. For others, between the thighs. Then there are the tips of the breasts. Even the arches of the feet. But I think I will start my exploration with your ears, dearling. What say you to that?”

She groaned.

“Ah, well, you do not have to say aught. I will kiss each place on your skin until I discover each and every one of your erotic weaknesses.”

“Gdmfppppft.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Selik said as he bit her gently on the earlobe and began a slow—excruciatingly slow—examination of the outer rim of her ear.

“Like a seashell it is, sweetling—all shades of white and pale pink,” he whispered huskily as he nipped the edges, taking small, teasing bites. “I wonder, do you taste as good?” Rain groaned and tried to avert her head, to no avail. His tongue traced a sensuous path along the secret whorls whose nerve endings connected to a hot, pulsing region deep in her body.

“Yea, I think I have discovered number one of fifty-seven,” Selik said with a soft laugh and began to push the tip of his wet tongue as deeply into her ear as possible. In and out, he thrust with slow, masterful strokes, and Rain’s hips arched upward instinctively. Although she pulled back immediately, that one contact with his ever hardening arousal caused that nub of sensation between her legs to swell and ache for his touch. She scrunched her eyes shut tightly, refusing to let him see how little it took for him to turn her mindless with desire.

Then he moved to her other ear, taking endless minutes kissing and nibbling and stroking with his tongue. When he began to repeat the thrusting motion, Rain’s arms and legs went rigid with opposition, trying to fight off the spiral of fluttery, swelling spasms she felt growing in intensity between her legs.

Humiliation over her quick arousal heated Rain’s flesh. She felt like some love-starved wallflower just yearning for a man’s touch.

“Open your eyes,” Selik demanded in a whisper near her ear. Even his breath caused little electric shocks of pleasure to shoot through her body.

Rain refused.

Selik pressed his hard maleness lightly against her swollen center.

And she lost the battle.

Rain’s eyes shot open, locking with his in carnal embrace, and the spiral spun and spun and exploded between her legs, and shot out with fiery sparks to ignite all the nerve endings in her body.

Selik made a low, hissing sound and removed his hand from her mouth, quickly putting it under her body, cupping her buttocks, and tipping her womanhood slightly against his thrusting hips. Rain couldn’t stop her low, keening wail of pleasure.

When her body slumped back in satiation, Selik gently wiped tears from under both her eyes. “Why do you weep?” he asked softly.

“Mortification.”

“You jest. I bring you pleasure and you feel humiliated?”

“You did it to degrade me.”

“I did? Ah, so now you read minds as well, my guardian angel.”

Rain searched his face, just noticing the continuing gleam of desire in his eyes, the beautiful lips slack with passion.

“I climaxed alone. That makes me feel cheap…wanton.”

“Climaxed? Hmmm. A good word, I think,” he said, rolling his eyebrows. Then he grew more serious. “But do not think I did not gain from your climax, as well. A woman’s pleasure is a man’s greatest gift in the lovemaking. Besides, we have only just begun, and I am saving myself for better things to come.”

“Selik, no. I don’t want this.”

“Neither do I,” he said rawly, gazing at her hungrily as the long fingers of his right hand circled the column of her neck, holding it in place for his lowering lips. His other hand still held her arms immobile above her head. Inch by agonizingly slow inch, his lips lowered to hers. Chest to breast, she could feel the wild beating of his heart in their close embrace. “’Tis a dangerous game I play, and well I know it. But I cannot stop.”