Page 76 of Truly, Madly Viking

"Will you take off your undergarments for me?" he suggested all of a sudden.

"Wh-what?"

"Now, do not go all atwitter on me. I am not suggesting we make love, precisely. I just want you to go into the bathing room and take off your undergarments. You said we could not make love with the girls in the house, and being a creative fellow, I have come up with a plan for having sexless sex."

"That's some creativity." Her nervous giggle betrayed her interest.

"Yea."

"It sounds a little... perverted."

"Yea," he concurred with a little smile.

"Joe," she protested.

"Now, sweetling, you can put your braies and sweat-her back on. But when you return, and sit here chattering about this and that, I will know you are naked for me beneath. You will be aware of me, and I of you. Perchance it will satisfy my baser instincts, for now. Do it."

Maggie had never heard of such a thing before. Certainly no man had ever suggested anything so... well, erotic.

To her surprise, she did as he asked, blushing even as she complied, alone, in the bathroom.

When she returned, Joe was sitting in one of the wing-back chairs beside the fireplace. He motioned for her to sit in the chair opposite him.

"Sit as I do," he directed in a husky voice. He moved his hands so that they clutched the wings at the top of the chair, and he spread his legs wide.

She followed suit.

Then he just stared at her for a long, long time. Under his intense, carnal scrutiny, the fine hairs rose to attention all over her body. Her nipples became hard, aching points, pressing against the suddenly heavy weight of her sweater.

Between her legs, hot liquid pooled in the swelling folds. With just a look, Joe made her want him...

more than she'd ever wanted any other man.

A moan escaped her parted lips.

He moaned, too, in reaction, a low, male sound of pure temptation.

She thought he would smile then, his ego appeased that he had reduced her to this pathetic state with a mere stare... but he did not. Instead he held her gaze, communicating some seemingly serious message.

Then he said, "I have wanted you from first time I set eyes on you."

"Oh," was the only response she could come up with. What a perfect thing for him to say! Had he sensed her need to hear those words... to justify her hair-trigger arousal?

"When I look at you, I want to make fierce love with you... to teach you with my callused hands and hard staff not to tease a fighting man."

Merciful heavens! She was picturing all the wonderful things those rough palms could do to her soft skin... how his hardness would feel inside her. A thrum of stimulation rippled through her and lodged between her legs like a sweet burn.

"I never teased—" she started to say.

He shook his head to stop her protests. "At the same time that I yearn for savage bedplay with you, I yearn as well for gentler things. Your head upon my chest. Our fingers laced. Soft kisses. Whispered words."

Maggie's heart felt as if it were ballooning inside her, and would surely burst with the pure joy of his declaration. Did he realize just what he was saying?

"These things frighten me, Mag-he," he confessed. "I am much more at ease with lust, you know."

She nodded, understanding perfectly.

"Arch your chest for me, Mag-he," he entreated.