Chapter 8 #3
He had been denied the opportunity to try the things he had fantasized about and thought would happen as a matter of course between two willing lovers.
There had been no suckling, no stroking her intimately, no kissing anywhere other than on the mouth.
She’d only ever allowed him to take her body, and though she never seemed to reach her own pleasure, she had not agreed to do anything to remedy the situation.
“Don’t you want to be satisfied?” he’d asked, bewildered. Wasn’t that what all women, all people wanted? Surely she knew she deserved the same release as him and could get it if he applied himself to the task properly, as he had every intention of doing?
“But I am satisfied.” And the most bewildering thing of all was that she had seemed to mean it. What sort of upbringing had she had that she thought what they were doing was satisfactory? Had she never touched herself and found out that there was more to be had?
“Well, I’m not satisfied,” he’d countered. “I know I can make you erupt in ecstasy, I can explore every inch of your body and make you enjoy my caresses.”
She had looked at him as if he were deranged for even wanting those things and he’d known there and then that she was not the woman for him.
Odd to think that his love life had been less satisfactory than that of a woman who had been a slave.
Odd and dispiriting. But he remained convinced that he was not deranged for wanting more out of lovemaking than single-minded thrusting and selfish release.
He only had to find a woman who agreed with him.
An adventurous woman, who was not afraid of baring herself or kissing unsuspecting men out in the open.
“I think it’s time to go back to shore,” he forced himself to say.
It was either do that or resume their kissing.
And if he kissed Ylva again, while they were naked, while her legs were wrapped around him like a vine and he was hard, he would surge inside her.
There would be no stopping him. And this time, he knew he would get all the satisfaction he had imagined and more.
Here was the wild, honest, mutual interaction he had dreamed of.
The only problem was, he could not allow himself to succumb.
Not here, not with someone who had been through so much so recently.
“Wait. Before we go, I just…”
Instead of finishing her sentence, Ylva licked his shoulder in a long, luxurious swipe of her tongue.
Ulf threw his head back and let out a growl that sounded animalistic to his ears. What was the woman doing to him? Hadn’t she guessed he was perilously close to impaling her onto his straining hardness? Apparently not. She thought he would not react to the feel of her tongue on his naked skin.
“Fye!” she spat. “Utterly disgusting.”
She made a grimace—and Ulf burst out laughing. Her innocent comment had mercifully broken through the haze of need threatening to overpower him.
“What’s disgusting? The water, I hope?”
She frowned, as if not sure what he was asking. “Yes, the water, what else—oh Lord!” she cried out when she realized how her words could have been construed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that you tasted—”
“I know,” he soothed, touching the tip of her nose with his. “So… The sea is saltier than you expected, I take it?”
“Yes. Much saltier. I won’t be doing that again.”
“Pity.”
She smiled. The light coming from the sun behind her was bathing her hair in a cloud of gold and joy made her eyes sparkle. No woman had ever been more alluring than her in this moment.
“Please carry me back to our clothes,” she whispered, hugging him even tighter in preparation.
He swallowed. The idea of carrying her out of the water in that position seemed very intimate.
Having her in his arms in the sea, with the water flowing between their bodies, was one thing.
Outside, she would be plastered against his skin and nothing would stop him from feeling her smooth, cool flesh and the heat between her legs.
Bloody, bloody hell. This, just when he’d thought he had himself under control once more. The woman would be the death of him. Well, she had almost been his death, in a real sense, so he supposed he should not be surprised.
“Are you sure—”
“Yes.”
The walk back to the beach was as trying as he had imagined.
The small, pert, perfect breasts he had glimpsed for a blessed heartbeat were pressed against his chest, the pebbled nipples poking against him in scandalous invitation.
Her hands were gripping his shoulders and her secret heat against his raging groin was torture.
Still, he walked as slowly as he dared, desperate to prolong the moment.
Eventually, there could be no more delaying. Ulf deposited Ylva back on her feet and after one last, lingering look at her beautiful face, turned his attention to the clothes at his feet. Keeping his gaze averted, he handed the shift and dress to her, then picked up his own garments.
A grunt, coming from behind the cluster of rocks to his left caused him to freeze before he could put one leg in his braies.
What was—
A groan, then a moan. Another grunt.
Ulf and Ylva exchanged a knowing look. While they had been in the water, kissing, a couple had taken refuge in the rocks. The reason why was not hard to guess.
“Yes, take it,” a masculine voice growled, confirming their suspicion.
It was imperative to tell the couple they were not alone anymore. Ulf had no intention of hearing any more crude instructions. He coughed. A yelp of surprise was heard.
“Leave,” the man shouted, before cursing between his teeth. “I’m about to… Ahhh, fuck it, yeeees! Let me fill—”
Horrified that she should have to hear this, Ulf swept Ylva into his arms and ran back to the blanket, far enough away that they didn’t have to find out what the man wanted to fill. What would she think?
To his relief, by the time he let go of her, she was laughing.
“I think we arrived at the wrong time,” she said, shaking her head. “Or rather at the right time for someone.”
“What were they thinking?” Ulf grumbled, struggling into his braies. Hadn’t the two people seen them in the water, or their clothes by the rocks? “Coming to the beach to—” He did not finish his question, not knowing how to do so without sounding rude.
“You mean you think that couples should never want to experiment with lovemaking outside their home or be swept away by the heat of the moment?”
“No, of course not.”
In fact, he thought the opposite. He had been reflecting only a moment ago that he needed a lover who was not afraid of trying out new things.
Like kissing in the sea, while naked and wrapped around one another.
Ylva—and he, as a consequence—had certainly been swept away by “the heat of the moment,” as she’d called it. In fact, he could still feel the effect of their scandalous embrace rippling through him, and hearing the man shout in pleasure had not helped.
Hands on his hips, heart pounding hard, head thrown back, Ulf stared at the sky, while he waited for Ylva to get dressed behind him. For the second time that afternoon, he needed a distraction, needed to stop talking about what he thought lovers ought to do or not, or he would do something foolish.
An idea came to his mind.
“The beach is very flat and rather long,” he told Ylva when he finally turned around.
She had placed a hand on his shoulder to signify she was decent once more.
Thank the gods, she was fully dressed, as he didn’t think he would have been able to handle the sight of even her naked shoulder right now.
“Yes, it is. What of it?”
“Would you like to take your first riding lesson? I think you would feel safe in such a place. Even if you fell, you would not hurt yourself on the soft sand.”
Her lovely eyes lit up. “Lesson?”
“Yes. We would see the basics.” He could tell she was tempted. Too tempted to refuse. “I will walk and run next to Ratatoskr while you get the feel of what it’s like to actually have control over a horse. We would not canter or gallop. Only walk at first and then trot if you feel good enough.”
She started running to the horse before he could even blink.
“Yes,” she said, her crystalline laugh trailing behind her. “Let’s do it.”