Chapter 17 #2
Zarabeth was sitting up on Magnusa?? box bed the next morning.
He had gone before she awakened, but now she was hungry and needed to relieve herself.
But she hesitated to go into the main hall.
Ingunn would be there, and Cyra and all the others who had heard and seen and held her as naught but a murderess and a liar and a slave.
a??Coward,a?? she said to herself, and rose. She was stiff and it hurt to straighten her back. Ingunn was there, naturally, overseeing all the household chores as she sewed.
Lotti was with Eldrid, and the woman was showing her how to sew. Zarabeth had to lean down and hug her before the child noticed her. Lotti gave her a big grin and pointed to the stitches she had just made in a small gown.
a?? a??Tis lovely,a?? Zarabeth said, and kissed her. But Lotti wasna??t to be distracted, and turned back to Eldrid.
Ingunn said in a very neutral voice, a??Aunt Eldrid is looking after her. It is Magnusa?? order. He is not here, but out hunting with the men. He said you were not to do anything.a??
Zarabeth wasna??t aware that there was strain in her voice, but all the women and children in the longhouse who were listening heard it and felt the pain of it. a??I would like to bathe.a??
Ingunn snorted. a??I had heard stories that the people of the Danelaw were animals and smelled like the pigs they tended. Why wish you to bathe as often as a Viking?a??
a??I did not tend pigs. Perhaps that is why.a??
a??Ah, is it because Magnus demands it? a??Tis true he likes his women to be sweet-smelling. You still think to hold him, dona??t you? Have you looked at Cyra, you stupid woman?a??
a??Aye.a??
a??You are nothing compared to her! You are but a new diversion to him, nothing more, just a fresh womana??s body to use and then discard.
It is your coloring that fascinates him, but that is already passing.
He already sees your hair as coarse and common.
He will have Cyra again, you will see.a?? Then, to Zarabetha??s surprise, Ingunn turned a vicious eye to Lotti.
What was happening here? She moved unconsciously nearer her sister.
It was Eldrid who spoke, her voice loud and clear and seemingly guileless. a??Magnus loves the little girl. He gave her into my charge. Nothing will happen to her, I have vowed it to him.a??
a??Ha! He merely feels pity for her, as he would for a wounded animal. See you to the little idiot, then. I care not!a??
Zarabeth wanted to yell at Ingunn that her bile was foolishly wasted on Lotti. The child couldna??t hear her, and thus the vicious words could not wound her. But they hurt Zarabeth deeply. She forced herself to turn away. She went to the bathhouse.
a??Remove the gown. I wish to examine your back.a??
a??Leave my gown alone. My back is fine. I have no need for you to strip me again.a??
He smiled at the fierceness in her voice. The pain had lessened and she was feeling stronger. She was hardy, Zarabeth was, and he suspected she could hold her own easily with Ingunn, if she werena??t a slave. But she was; he had made her one.
He said with great patience, a??Be quiet and remove the gown. I will rip it off you if you dona??t obey me, Zarabeth.a??
She didna??t want to. It was daylight. The chamber was dim, as usual, but she knew he would look at her, and she couldna??t bear it, she simply couldna??t.
He was a man and he had taken her, and, truth be told, he had given her a pleasure she had never expected could exist, but he didna??t love her, he scorned her, and this assumption of his that she would do whatever it was he wanted was beyond what she could endure.
She turned and ran from the chamber. Her back was stiff and sore, but she had no more of his mothera??s healing cream, no more need for him to bathe her back.
a??Zarabeth! Come back here!a??
But she didna??t. She turned to see him, only to run into the solid wall of Horkela??s massive chest. His hands grasped her upper arms.
a?? a??Tis enough,a?? he said, and merely held her as she struggled against his grip.
Magnus looked over her head and met his frienda??s eyes. a??She might have run all the way to Kaupang. She has little sense and more pride than my father. However, hers isna??t tempered with wisdom.a?? He held out his hands, and Horkel turned her about and shoved her toward Magnus.
She kept her head down even as she stumbled against him.
Magnus sighed and dragged her back to his chamber. He didna??t care that all his people were looking avidly, wondering what was between him and this slave. He didna??t care what anyone thought.
He flung her onto the box bed. He sat down beside her, and calmly began unlacing the front of her gown.
a??I am glad you dona??t wear the overdress our Viking women wear.
The shoulder brooches must be unfastened and the entire thing lifted over the womana??s head.
This is easier, faster. Ah, yes, your breasts.
They please me, Zarabeth. Their size fits my hands.a??
She turned her face away from him, her eyes closed.
She hadna??t the strength to fight him. She would endure.
The pleasure he had made her feel before was forgotten.
Perhaps it hadna??t even existed. Then suddenly he leaned down and gently began to suckle her nipple.
Her eyes flew open and she cried out in embarrassment.
She couldna??t allow him to continue doing this to her, she couldna??t.
She tried to rear up, but he pressed his hand against her shoulder and pushed her back down.
a??Hush,a?? he said, his breath hot on her flesh. a??Lie still and let me give you pleasure.a??
She shoved at his shoulders, at his head, her body twisting madly. a??Nay, Magnus, please, dona??t shame me like this. All know that you have brought me here to your chamber, to your bed. Please do not shame me!a??
He ignored her and suckled her other breast. He loved the taste of her flesh, her scent. He knew the moment she responded to him. There was an immediate softening of her body, a gentle lurching as she arched her back very slightly, but arch it she did, to press her breast closer and closer.
She moaned softly and he knew she hated the sound of that moan, for it had come from the very depths of her, from someplace inside her that should have stayed hidden and alone and untouched.
But he was kneading her belly now with his hand, even as he was tugging and caressing her breast with his mouth.
Then his fingers moved lower and she was suddenly holding her breath, expectant, flushed because of the throbbing there, nearly frantic at the ache that was centered there, and it was becoming more intense, more powerful, even as his fingers neared and came nearer still.
When his fingertips touched her flesh, she cried out, shuddering with the force of it.
He raised his head then and looked down into her face.
a??I will bring you pleasure. Should you like that, Zarabeth?
a?? He didna??t expect her to reply. He smiled painfully as he watched his fingers touch her soft flesh again and find a rhythm to please her, and he knew quickly enough that soon she would be helpless against the onslaught of wild feelings that were coursing through her.
He realized that Zarabeth didna??t want to lie there passive beneath his searching fingers, she didna??t want him to so completely control her, and so he encouraged her softly as she pressed upward, her hips lifting off the bed, and she felt his other hand beneath her buttocks, helping her, pressing her even harder against his fingers.
a??I will watch your face when your pleasure overcomes you,a?? he said, and she would have given anything to keep that pleasure at bay, to fight him now, to swear that there was no such pleasure that she wanted, but she was helpless against it and she knew it, and finally she accepted it, she wanted it, she would die if it didna??t come to her.
a??Magnus,a?? she whispered, pain and excitement blending in her voice. He shook with the force his name on her lips brought him. By Odin, he wanted her, wanted all of her. He didna??t want her to fight him with her spirit, he wanted all that she was and would become in the years ahead.
He felt the tensing in her legs and the shudders that convulsed her entire body.
He watched as her eyes widened and glazed with the strength of the passion that was building inside her.
He watched as she could no longer hold that pleasure back.
He watched her mouth when the cries, raw and deep, erupted from her throat, and he pushed her then, and pushed himself to give her all that he could, to make her realize that she belonged to him and to no other, to make her realize that she was no longer alone, locked inside herself, for he wouldna??t allow it, and she belonged to him.
When it was over, when he was gently kneading her womana??s flesh to soothe her rather than excite her, he said, a??I want to look at you now, sweeting.
I want to see if you can take me comfortably.a?? She had no chance to protest, and no great hope of trying to before he pressed her thighs open wide and parted her with his fingers.
She was still sore and he saw the redness of her flesh and knew he shouldna??t take her again, not now.
She needed another day, and then he would have her, and she would enjoy his entry, she would cry out with her acceptance of him.
He smiled a bit painfully. But it didna??t matter. He had given her pleasure, he had drawn her more inexorably to him, bound her to him, and now she would not be able to so easily deny it.