Chapter 18 #2
“I’m sure it will be fine. I trust you. Please, I need you.” She would never get enough of him, of this pleasure. They were husband and wife, and she already knew they would spend all their nights thus.
He pushed his way in, gently but confidently. The shaft entering her felt like tempered steel gloved in precious silk. No need to worry about him being able to perform, she doubted any man could be harder without hurting himself. A sigh escaped her lips.
“All right?” he asked, pausing once he was fully embedded inside her.
“Yes.” It was more than all right. There was no pain, as such, only the odd but wonderful sensation of being stretched and filled, complete at last. Perhaps her nightly exploration had prepared her for a man’s possession, perhaps she was simply too desperate to finally make love to Torsten to register any discomfort.
Whatever the reason, she was glad for it.
She could, in all honesty, reassure him that he was not hurting her. “It didn’t hurt.”
“I need to move.” He sounded strained.
“Then do.” She needed him to move also.
The more he thrust in, the easier it became. Soon he was gliding in and out with delicious ease.
Torsten threw his head back and let out a guttural moan. “Aife, this is…I’m not going to last. It feels too good. You feel too good. I can’t stop.”
“Don’t stop. Take your pleasure,” she whimpered. He deserved it, deserved to know what it was to erupt inside a woman. She’d already had her pleasure, and anyway, they had all night. And then the next. And the next.
Releasing one ankle, he bent forward and took her left breast in his hand. “Touch yourself,” he ordered. “Do what you do when you’re on your own. Help me. I will learn, in time, to please you, I swear, but for now I need—”
Aife saw how desperate he was to have her reach her pleasure with him inside, and she could feel she was not too far from blessed release.
The fingers teasing her nipple, the shaft sliding in and out of her, the love burning in Torsten’s eyes, it was all too much, and had brought her to the edge of ecstasy.
She put her hand over the place where the two of them were joined and started to rub with the finger adorned with her new ring. A few strokes were all it took. She’d been so well prepared by Torsten’s hand and mouth that she erupted in no time, milking him when violent spasms overtook her body.
“Torsten!” she squeaked, shocked by the violence of this second, even more devastating release.
“Yes. Just like—ah!”
Liquid heat flooded her insides. Torsten roared, jerked, and a moment later collapsed by her side, looking utterly spent. For a long moment he just stared at the ceiling. Then he turned to face her and placed a possessive hand on her breast, smiling.
“My love. I fear you have married an insatiable man eager to make up for lost time, a husband who will give you little respite.”
Aife smiled back. Was this supposed to scare her? It did not.
“Fine by me. As long as you don’t mind having a wife desperate to explore every inch of you.
” A wicked idea formed in her mind. She had alluded to it earlier, and the notion wouldn’t leave her.
“I might even cover you in honey once the bees have done their work and lick you clean. Thanks to you, it has become my new favorite treat,” she breathed in his ear.
“Fine by me. Every inch of me is yours, anyway.”
The knock on the door broke through Aife’s sleep with all the subtlety of a bucket of icy water thrown over her.
In a distant part of her mind she heard Torsten open the door and whisper to their shameless visitor, hopefully to send them away.
She hid under the fur covers with a groan, protecting her eyes from the admittedly still feeble light.
Really, who dared come visit at this hour? Didn’t everyone here know last night had been her and Torsten’s wedding night? Couldn’t people guess they would be in no mood to be awoken at dawn?
“What was that? Who thought it all right to disturb us so early on such a day?” she grumbled once she’d heard Torsten close the door again.
“Early?” she heard him say from behind her, mirth in his voice. “’Tis almost evening, wife.”
Aife threw back the covers and sat bolt upright on the pallet, looking at the window facing west. Indeed, the light was coming from there. She blinked in disbelief. Had she really slept all day? This had never happened to her before, not even once in her life.
“Evening?”
“Evening,” Torsten confirmed with smile so broad it unveiled all his teeth.
Then he sat on the only chair to look at her, his long legs stretched out in front of him.
He was dressed in the same blue tunic he had worn the day before and looked just as mouthwatering as he had then.
“You did wake up at dawn, as usual, but so did I and…well, let’s just say that once I was finished with you, you went straight to sleep. ”
Oh. Now she remembered. Indeed, he had not given her any respite, taking her over and over again until she couldn’t remember how to say the word yes.
“Who was at the door?” she asked, doing her best not to let her embarrassment show, though she suspected her cheeks had gone flaming red.
“Moon.”
Oh no. The heat burning her cheeks crept all the way to her ears. Now her brother would know she had been so well pleasured the night before that she had slept the day away. Well, at least Torsten still had all his limbs, which meant Moon had not taken exception to the idea.
“What did he want?”
“A visitor arrived in the village today. She’s very anxious to see you so I said you would go see her as soon as you were ready.”
His eyes were sparkling with delight. Or was it mischief? Aife frowned. A visitor wanted to see her. A female visitor. She had no idea who that might be.
“It’s not… Please tell me it’s not Edita?
” Surely her cousin would not be back so soon?
Unless she had decided she would rather have a Norse husband instead of the uninspiring Wulfric?
Had she set her sights on Knut, who had made a strong impression on her?
If that was the case, she would be disappointed, as he was now seeing Brenna, a woman he had hated all his life.
But perhaps Edita would do all she could to break the two of them apart and—
“Calm yourself,” Torsten cut in before she could get her thoughts into a tangle. “It’s not Edita.”
Yes, it was mischief playing in his eyes, she decided. Who on earth had come to visit? Unable to wait another moment to find out the identity of the mysterious woman, Aife jumped to her feet and gave a gasp of surprise.
The table was laden with delicious-looking food.
A loaf of wheat bread was surrounded by bowls of various sizes containing smoked fish, slices of hard goat’s cheese, cracked hazelnuts, wild berries, and thick cream.
A handful of blue harebells in a wooden cup was lending a touch of color to the feast.
“You…you prepared all this while I slept?” Her throat was almost too tight for her to speak.
“I did. Sorry there are no cockles. I know how much you like them, but I am not the best at finding them, as we now know and they would not have been ready in time anyway. Besides, I didn’t want to venture too far from the hut, so as to be there when you eventually woke up, all warm and soft for me to enjoy. ”
He took her hand to draw her to him, trapping her between his spread legs. It was only when his mouth closed around her nipple that Aife realized that she was still naked. Warm hands landed on her buttocks, bringing her closer to him. Mm, she could get used to this new life.
“Torsten,” she moaned, taking his head into her hands to force her nipple deeper into his mouth.
Instead of obeying the silent instruction, he drew back, looking contrite. “Forgive me, I couldn’t resist. But I know you are eager to go see who your visitor is.”
The visitor. Of course. She was curious, admittedly, but for a moment she had completely forgotten about it.
In fact, she had been about to reach out to the bowl of cream and ask him to feed the contents to her with his fingers.
But he was right. Someone was waiting for her. She had better not let them wait.
As soon as she was dressed, they made their way to her brother’s hut together.
The setting sun had thrown a crimson banner across the pink skies, confirming that it was indeed evening.
On the bench by Moon’s vegetable patch, enjoying the last rays of warmth, were a man she had never met—and a woman she had not seen in years.
“Hedda!” Aife cried out, letting go of Torsten’s hand to break into a run. A moment later she was hugging her sister in her arms. “But…but…what are you doing here?” she asked, laughing and crying at the same time.
“We’ve been wanting to visit for months. It was about time I introduced my husband to my family, don’t you think?” Hedda gestured to the tall Dane waiting by their brother’s side. “Here. This is Thorsten. Please note that he only speaks Norse,” she added in that language.
“Thorsten?” Aife stared at the blond man in disbelief.
As girls, she and her sister had always jested that they would end up marrying a man with the same name one day.
It seemed that, against all odds, their fanciful prediction had come true.
“Welcome into the family,” she told the Dane, who gave her a warm smile.
“And what about you? Moon tells me that, had we arrived a day earlier, we would have been able to attend your wedding?” Hedda said, her eyes wide with excitement. “But the wretched man refused to tell me who you married. Is it someone I know?”
She craned her neck to look past Torsten, who she had naturally assumed was still only a childhood friend. Except that he was now so much more.
Aife smiled and took his hand back in hers.
“It is someone you know. Here. My very own Torsten.”