Page 74 of The Outlaw Viking

“When I thrust my tongue inside your mouth, you will pretend—”

“Please, Selik,” Rain protested on a groan, “I can use my imagination.”

“Can you?” he asked softly, moving closer, then stopped when he noticed the defiant tilt of her chin. “What?”

“I wonder what you will be imagining?”

“When?”

“When I return the favor and penetrate your mouth with my tongue. When I thrust in and out of your—”

Selik cut off her words with a hiss of startled pleasure and then with lips that taught her too well that he was a master at this particular art.

When the heat of his kisses drove her almost to the point of insanity once again, when deep within the hot, molten folds of her body a slow rhythm of increasing, thrumming need began, Rain knew that it didn’t matter if Selik came from another time. It didn’t matter that he was beastly at times. It didn’t matter that he often made her angry or hurt her deeply. He was beautiful. And he was hers—her love for all time. Even if this moment was all the time they would have.

“You are driving me mad. Never, never have I felt…ah, sweet Freya…holy Thor…” Selik’s hips slammed against her in perfect rhythm with the increasing thrusts of his tongue.

Red lights grew brighter and brighter behind Rain’s closed eyelids, then splintered into a kaleidoscope of a million exotic colors as a new pulse point lodged between her legs and convulsed against Selik’s hardness.

In a wondrous haze, Rain watched as Selik pulled her hips up off the cot and against him, arched his neck back, and cried out his raw release.

Rain must have lost consciousness for several moments in the aftershocks of the spasms rippling through her body, for when she became aware of her surroundings once again, her arms were free and Selik was slumped against her body. His face nuzzled against her neck, Selik breathed evenly and deeply—fast asleep.

“Well, you could have waited ’til after your bath.”

“What did you say?” Selik said thickly, rolling over on his side, taking Rain with him, kissing the curve of her neck.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I did.”

They both looked up to see Gyda standing in the doorway, a pile of linens in her arms and several of the male servants standing behind her with a large tub and buckets of water, ogling them lasciviously.

Selik sat up immediately. To Rain’s regret, Selik’s sensuous mood was broken by Gyda’s entry. He was probably reminded of his fiancée, Tyra. As he stood and testily directed the servants on where to place the tub, Rain saw that his gray eyes had turned stormy again and the muscles of his arms had roped with tension.

Gyda and the servants left.

As steam wafted up from the huge tub, Selik turned back to her. “Will you bathe first?”

Rain lifted her chin defiantly, her face flaming. “With you standing here watching like a voyeur? Not in a million years!”

“Ah, well! I will go first then,” he agreed easily, but pointed a finger at her warningly. “Do you but move one tiny bit off that pallet, you will be in this tub with me. And I swear on the blood of all the gods that you will have soap coming out of every opening in your body.”

“Bully,” Rain muttered.

“What did you say?” Selik asked, moving toward her menacingly.

“Goody. I said, ‘goody’.”

Selik laughed ruefully. “A most horrifying thought just occurred to me. I am beginning to understand your lackwit words.”

Selik dropped his braies then, preparing to sink into the tub. Despite her best intentions, Rain’s eyes caressed his wide shoulders and bunching muscles. She yearned to trace the letters, R-A-G-E, that he had carved into his forearm. Moving lower, she admired his narrow waist and hips and tightly curved buttocks.

He started to turn, and Rain forgot to breathe. She burst into a fit of choking.

Smirking, Selik sank into the hot water, taking great pleasure in taunting her with his body and with the fact that he was enjoying himself immensely while she sat there wallowing in the dirt of their day-long journey.

Not to be undone, Rain carefully reached over for her carryall on the floor, making sure she didn’t actually move her body, since Selik’s narrowed eyes watched her like a hawk. With childish petulance, Rain pulled out a new roll of cherry Lifesavers and popped one into her mouth.