Chapter 20 #2
His eyes started to burn with a low fire, and he brought his face closer to her. “That kind of woman I would have found impossible to say no to. But there are not many who fit that rather specific description.”
“No.”
His face descended another inch. “There’s only one, as far as I can tell. And she also happens to have eyes of the most fascinating green color and a tongue as sharp as her blasted needles.”
“Yes.” Gytha could barely breathe.
“So?” His lips were now a hair’s breadth from hers. It took all her resolve not to bridge the tiny gap between them.
“So what?”
His mouth brushed along her cheek to come murmur in her ear, causing goosebumps to race all over her skin.
“So what is this very special woman waiting for to ask me to marry her? Is it because of her promise to wait until her father was no longer reeve? There are still a few months to go. Is she waiting for the winter to ask the question?”
Gytha stilled. She had sworn to herself that she would wait for the winter to start looking for a man to marry, but how did he know that?
In any case, she had changed her mind. Chances had to be seized when they presented themselves, and she had already concluded that Haakon was not interested in her father’s occupation.
“No. She has decided that she didn’t need to be so wary and trust that men could want her for the right reason.”
His grunt indicated that he agreed. “What is stopping her then?”
“Maybe she’s worried you might think it is the role of the man to ask the question.”
He shrugged, as if the idea had never even crossed his mind. “Things are not set in stone where manly and womanly roles are concerned. Women can propose marriage to men, in the same way that they can be the ones riding their lover.”
Gytha took in a sharp inhale as an impossibly lewd image exploded in her mind. Her, sat astride a naked Haakon, her head thrown back in ecstasy. “Women can ride their lover? I had no idea. How does it—”
“Saxon. Please. Ask me. Now, before I go mad.”
Oh, she had really driven him to the edge of patience. But she couldn’t resist one last taunt. “Are you saying that you’re not one of those men who think it is the role of the man to propose?”
Haakon actually rolled his eyes, just what she had hoped. “Not that. The other thing, you infuriating woman.”
She let out a shaky breath and went for it. “Haakon. Will you marry me?”
“Yes. Try to stop me.”
Gytha was lifted off the ground before she had time to even blink.
A moment later she was sitting on the table and her head was level with that of the gorgeous Norseman nestled between her spread legs. The man she was going to marry. Would he seal their promise with a kiss? Would it be scorching or sweet? Demanding or tender?
“I love you, Saxon,” he said, talking against her mouth. Her whole body started to tingle in anticipation but still he didn’t kiss her. “Thank you for making my dreams come true, even the ones I never knew I had.”
“It is my pleasure. Just promise me something,”
“Anything.”
“Anything? Mm.” She drew back and pretended to consider this for a moment. “I think this is worth remembering, you know, for when I—”
“Just tell me what you want me to promise now.”
Gytha’s lips stretched into a smile. He was not taking too well to teasing today. “Please, will you carry on calling me Saxon, even when I become a Norsewoman?”
Judging from the way his blue eyes softened, everything within him had melted also. “You will always be my Saxon dream woman, never fear. But I will call you whatever you want, especially mine.”
This declaration was followed by the kiss she had been aching for. It was so fierce it burned her bones to cinders. She moaned into his mouth. Haakon growled and said something in Norse. Even though she had no idea what he’d just said, Gytha’s core contracted at the dark promise in his voice.
“I don’t know what that means,” she breathed. And yet she didn’t mind. It had aroused her like nothing else.
“No, I imagine you don’t. I will have to teach you Norse when we are married, as I have a tendency to use it in bed without even knowing it.
” Yes, she remembered that from their night in the shed.
And she would learn, because she never wanted him to use any other language while she was in his arms. It was far too arousing.
“In the meantime, I can translate what I say.”
“Yes. Or you could always show me what you mean instead.”
Haakon stilled, then gave a throaty laugh. “As invitations go, this one is impossible to resist. And your wish is my command. So let me show you what I want you to do.”
He wanted her to spread her legs wider in readiness for his caresses, Gytha understood, when he placed a hand on her right knee and coaxed it further to the side.
And she was only too happy to comply. With a smile, she pushed him back a little, so he could see what she was doing, then slowly she gathered the hem of her skirt up to bare herself to him.
As she lay there, exposed to his heated gaze, she wondered where this brazenness had come from.
What would Haakon make of it? Would she have dared do such a thing with another man?
Then she realized that she would never have to worry about that.
She was with this man, would be for the remaining of her life.
With him there would never be any shame.
“Would you like me to take it all off?” she asked provocatively.
“Yes. I want you naked and spread out for me.”
With Haakon’s help, she disposed of her clothes in the blink of an eye. When he saw her reclining on the table, open for him, his face became a picture of hunger.
“Perfection. And all mine.”
A warm hand landed on her mound, cupping her gently.
A finger started to play with her seam, spreading the moisture it had found there.
Gytha’s head rolled back and she fought the urge to lie completely flat on the table.
She wanted to watch what he was doing, see him and the pleasure it gave him to stroke her intimately.
“Do you want me to carry on with this or do you want something else?” Haakon purred, keeping his gaze on hers.
“I…don’t…” She couldn’t help a moment of panic because in truth, she didn’t know. He saw it and instantly soothed her.
“Forgive me, I know you don’t yet quite know what you want, sweetheart.
Worry not, with me in your bed, it will not be long before you find out what you prefer.
But for now, I can help if you want.” When she nodded gratefully, he nuzzled at her throat, creating delicious waves of sensations unfurling all the way down to her toes. “So tell me, would you like my mouth?”
His mouth? Always.
“Yes,” she said, grabbing at his tunic to draw him back to her. “Please, kiss me.”
A groan escaped Haakon’s lips at her urgency and he crushed his mouth over hers.
This kiss tasted like more than desire, it tasted like love.
When he drew back Gytha was breathless. All the while his fingers had not stopped their gentle probing.
She had never felt anything so good. Well, apart from that night in the shed when he had made a woman out of her.
“Mm. Delicious.” There was a devilish glint in his eyes. “But I meant, do you want my mouth here.”
A nudge at the place between her legs made it clear where “here” was.
“You cannot mean…”
He wanted to put his mouth…there? Ever since Eadhild had mentioned the act she had fantasized about it. But she had never thought she would ever find a man ready to offer her this delight.
Well, here was her chance.
“I can. I can use my mouth to make you reach your peak. In fact, unless you explicitly forbid me to, I will do so. I have wanted to taste you for too long. I should have done that on the first night, in the shepherd’s shed.
I have a feeling you will be as sweet as the sweetest mead and just as intoxicating. ”
While he talked he carried on with his stroking, and his mouth slid from her neck to her collarbone, then brushed around her breasts and along her stomach, before settling at her navel.
There, he demonstrated what he would do to the folds waiting for him lower down, and Gytha melted.
Though this was new to her, she already knew she would let him do whatever he wanted.
This scent…
Haakon’s mouth started to water. His bold Saxon was allowing him to feast on her. New to the delights of the flesh as she was, she did not shy away from what gave her pleasure. He would make sure to reward her bravery.
He dropped to his knees, wild with need.
“Open for me, my love.”
The first lick, slow and careful, brought the sweet taste of his woman to his mouth.
The second caused Gytha to release the breath she had sucked in when he’d first touched her.
The third tasted so good that he plunged his tongue inside her depths to get more of the cream.
By the time he’d plunged his finger inside her she’d coiled her own fingers into his hair to keep him in place and was whimpering for more.
He gave it to her, lapping nuzzling, stroking, suckling with increasing intensity.
Never had he lost himself into the moment thus.
It was as if the two of them truly were one.
Was it because he loved her, and she him?
He didn’t know. Whatever the reason, he felt even the most minute tremor going through Gytha’s body, heard all her exhales, tasted every drop of her pleasure.
She responded to his caresses by writhing, begging, moaning.
After a while she fell flat on her back, unable to hold herself up anymore.
He sucked on the nub of flesh offered to him and she finally fell apart, giving the most shockingly arousing sound he had ever heard.
Beautiful.
Once she had stopped trembling he lifted her into his arms and deposited her on the pallet waiting for them.
“Take me in,” he rasped, feeling on the verge of control. He was still fully dressed. Pity but it couldn’t be helped now. He freed his erection with desperate, clumsy movements. The rest of his clothes would have to wait. “Please, take me in.”
“Yes.”
Gytha did not even hesitate. She spread her legs wide when Haakon settled himself over her burning body, readying herself. This time she would be able to see him while he plunged into her. This time he would stay with her till the end. This time he would make love to her.
He already had, with his mouth.
Because of this, and because she was so aroused, he was able to slide inside her in one smooth thrust. They cried out at the same time, in relief and pleasure combined, when he stilled, seated to the hilt inside her warmth.
“No pain?” he asked in a rasp.
“No pain. I love you,” she said, her eyes filling with tears at the intensity and the beauty of the moment. She had gambled and she had won. Fate had nothing to do with this. It had been her decision.
Her victory.
“I love you more.”
With these words Haakon started to move in long, fluid strokes.
And then, to her delight, he started to talk to himself—or perhaps her—in Norse.
Not understanding what he was saying was exquisitely arousing, but she couldn’t even begin to imagine how she would feel if she understood what lewd orders he was giving her.
Gytha moved, doing her best to match his rhythm and meet him thrust for thrust. This was like a dance, the most erotic, delicious dance she had ever imagined.
Haakon reverted to her language. “Forgive me, Saxon, this is not going to last. I swear next time will be better. I will take you for hours, make you ride me and show you how it’s done. But for now, I need to come. And so do you.”
He sat back onto his haunches and lifted her hips in the air, leaving her shoulders on the pallet. He carried on with his delicious thrusts and it felt amazing.
Gytha was delirious with pleasure. “Haakon, please.”
“Yes.”
He placed his thumb on the nub of hardened flesh at the apex of her thighs, just above the place where they were joined, the place where he had focused his attention earlier, with his tongue. Sparks shot inside her skull. Yes!
If he carried on like this it wouldn’t be long before she reached the release she desperately needed.
“This time I’m going to get my pleasure to the full,” Haakon told her through gritted teeth. “I’m not going to withdraw. I’m going to fill you up. Because we are going to get married, so it doesn’t matter if you get with child. It will be my child, and I will love it as much as I love you.”
That promise was what pushed her over the edge. Gytha screamed so loud she hoped no one was walking up to the hut at that moment.
And then it was Haakon’s turn. Head thrown back, he bowed his back and exploded inside her, scalding her insides. Never had she imagined anything half as decadent as feeling a man’s seed shoot up her body.
Haakon lowered her back onto the pallet and collapsed by her side, panting hard. It was only then she realized that he was still fully dressed, whereas she was naked as the day she was born.
“We will need to remove your clothes before you take me again,” she said, turning to the side to look at him.
Take her again?
Gytha blinked. What had possessed her to make such a scandalous declaration? But Haakon didn’t appear shocked or even surprised. He simply took her hand and placed it over his heart. It was beating wildly. For her.
“Just give me a moment, you demanding Saxon,” he drawled. “But no, I’m not finished with you yet.”
She smiled, hoping he would never be.