Page 99 of The Blue Viking

Really, he was not going to like her clumpy eyelashes, or her trembling mouth… even if it did look moist and kiss-some … and he most definitely was not going to notice those bobbing breasts.

“Because I want to,” she said boldly, “… to seduce you, that is. Because it seems to be the only way to break through that wall you’ve erected around yourself. Because I’m so sorry, and I want to make it up to you. Because it’s not right for the parents of a little boy to be so at odds with each other. Because I’m afraid you’ll leave suddenly, and this might be my last chance.”

He was not going to … oh, to hell with the inner protests!

He didn’t know what to say, being drawn in two different directions as he was. Anger and the need for revenge were powerful emotions, even when offset by a soul-deep yearning to surrender to her seduction … not to mention an erection, luckily hidden underwater, strong enough to float a boat.

Tears welled in Maire’s green eyes as he waited too long to respond, and she spun around, proceeding back to shore with steady, proud steps.

“Oh, all right,” he called after her. Rurik didn’t know where those words came from. They just emerged, and he had to admit, they felt good… as if he’d just shrugged off a huge weight.

She stopped in her tracks, and waited.

He couldn’t find the right utterance to please her; so he decided to act, instead. Diving underwater, he came up quickly behind her. Wrapping his arms around her knees, he dragged her underwater with him, hearing her squeal of surprise through a watery filter.

They rolled around together, underwater, as each tried to wrest control from the other. Legs entwined, arms around each other’s shoulders, they pressed their lips together, then let the waters float them to the top.

For a minute, they stood, just staring into each other’s eyes, afraid to speak, not wanting all their problems to intrude. Maire’s hands were still on his shoulders, his were at her waist. Her breasts ebbed and flowed against his chest hairs, and he could see that the nipples were turgid from the cool water.

He was about to tell himself that he was not going to be aroused by that erotic sight, but that would be a lie. And Rurik was not about to risk the fate of a lying Viking … especially not at this instant.

“Wrap your legs around my hips,” he urged in a sex-husky voice.

Without speaking, she did as he asked.

He took her buttocks in each of his palms and eased himself into her sheath. “You are so incredibly tight… and welcoming,” he whispered against her exposed ear, as he adjusted himself inside her.

“You are hot marble,” she whispered back. “How can you be so hot when the water is cold?”

“You heat me, heartling.” Rurik had no idea where that endearment came from when moments ago he had been hating her… or thought he’d been hating her. But he could tell that the endearment pleased Maire because she moaned softly and repeated the endearment back to him. He had to admit, he liked the sound of it on her lips.

Then he showed her how to move on him. And, Holy Thor, she was a fast learner. By the time he lowered his mouth to hers, he was voracious in his appetite. His hands were everywhere at once. His lips were alternately pressing and gentling her, his tongue plundering, then licking. As his peak fast approached, he wanted to end his torment, and he wanted this agonizing pleasure to last forever.

“Aaaaaahhhhhhh!” he cried out, his head reared back over his arched neck as his orgasm arrived in deep waves that seemed to suck the very life out of him. And Maire’s insides continued to clench and unclench him as she arrived at her own peak and shattered with little sobs of, “Oh … oh … oh … oh!”

He stood stock still in the water, her face buried in his neck, his arms wrapped tightly about her lower back as he kissed the top of her hair. What had just happened?

He’d been seduced, good and proper, and in a humiliatingly short period of time, that’s what. He should have been angry, he supposed. Instead, he smiled.

“Uhmmmm, Rurik,” she inquired, leaning back slightly, which caused his “Lance” to take new interest in her shifting channel, “you did not pull out before the end. Do you suppose that spilling your man seed inside my body while we are in a loch will prevent me from conceiving? Will the water wash it away?” Her face was flame-red as she asked her question, but it was an important one … one he’d obviously not thought of.

“I have no idea,” he answered truthfully. “Later, I will probably be alarmed by that fact, but for now I cannot care. I am more interested in what ‘Lance’ is up to.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and flexed himself inside her body.

She laughed… a most frivolous, joyful sound. “Up being the most important word, I presume,” she replied impudently.

“Precisely.” He was about to show her just how far up he could go, when he heard an odd sound. Close by. And it sounded like … a dog.

Swirling about, with Maire still in his arms, and Lance still in his element, Rurik almost fell over with astonishment. It was a dog, all right, who was swimming rapidly toward him, his tongue lolling out with excitement.

“ ’Tis Beast. My pet wolfhound,” he informed Maire.

“But how can that be? Isn’t he in Northumbria with…”

They both looked toward the shore, and groaned simultaneously. Standing and sitting astride horses were a vast array of finely dressed folk: Tykir, Eirik, Selik, and their wives, Alinor, Eadyth, and Rain, not to mention a large number of children. And witches were swooping forward, too. And a slew of Scotsmen. And his comrades-in-arms, Bolthor, Stigand, Vagn, and Toste, including Jostein.

Lance immediately drooped and slipped out of his safe harbor. Maire drooped and slipped down into the water till it covered her up to the chin.

“Do something,” she ordered him, as if this were all his fault.