Viking Warrior

by Connie Mason

  “Sleep well,” Olaf called after him. His brothers’ snickers followed him from the hall. Wulf paid them no heed. They were just jealous because they did not have a woman like Reyna in their lives.

  “I thought you would never get here,” Reyna said when he entered the stillroom.

  Wulf sniffed the air. The fragrant scent of herbs wafted to him through the air, teasing his senses. Torchlight cast a golden glow through the hut and the scent of wildflowers mingled with the aroma of herbs. A thick pallet of wolf pelts covered with pristine linen had been laid out.

  “Did you do all this for me?” Wulf asked, in awe of what Reyna had done. “Were you working here when you were supposed to be resting?”

  “I have a lifetime to rest. Do you like it?”

  “Aye, but I do not need embellishments when I make love to you.” He sent her a lusty grin. “I am humbled that you would go to such lengths to please me, wife.” He reached for her.

  She tactfully avoided him. “No, not yet, come join me in the steam hut. When we return, I have something to tell you.”

  Wulf went still, fearing she would tell him that Elgar had done more to her than bruise her face. Not that it would matter. It might, however, convince him to return to kill Elgar before the bastard sailed off to parts unknown.

  “Tell me now.”

  “No, first the steam hut. Relax, ’tis something that can wait till after we bathe.”

  Though Wulf feared the worst, he hadn’t the heart to press Reyna. They walked to the steam hut together and undressed. She sat on the bench while Wulf poured water onto the hot rocks. Steam rose up to engulf them. Wulf had to admit the steam felt good on his sore body. Though the battle had been brief, it had been intense and the hot steam soothed away his stiffness.

  He glanced at Reyna. Her eyes were closed, her head thrown back. He wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was. Reaching out, he turned her toward him. She sighed and leaned into him.

  “I have never felt such happiness,” Reyna sighed.

  “I intend to make you happier very soon,” Wulf growled.

  Then he kissed her. Her mouth opened beneath his, inviting his tongue inside. She drowned in the scent and taste of him as his hands roamed the hills and valleys of her naked body. When he started to lay her down on the bench, she placed her hands against his chest and pushed.

  “Not here,” she said. “I want everything to be perfect.”

  “I hunger for you, my sweet. How long must I wait?”

  “Not long—I am as eager for you as you are for me. Fetch soap and warm water.”

  Reluctantly Wulf did as Reyna asked. He could deny her nothing, even though he was hard as stone and aching. They washed each other with tender care, rinsed the soap off their bodies and wrapped themselves in drying cloths. Then they gathered their soiled clothing and walked hand in hand to their cozy bower.

  The moment the door closed behind them, Wulf took Reyna into his arms and kissed her wildly, abandoning all pretense of control. A thrall had started a fire in the hearth while they were gone and the hut was warm and sweet smelling. With their mouths still fused, Wulf removed the damp drying cloths from their bodies and tossed them aside. Then he scooped Reyna into his arms and carried her to the pallet, following her down onto the furs.

  The kiss went on and on. When Reyna feared she would die from lack of breath, his mouth left hers, sliding down her cheek to the tender hollow beneath her ear, and then to that sensitive place where her neck met her shoulder. After he teased and nibbled to his heart’s content, his mouth blazed a trail of fire to her tender nipples. Reyna let out a gasping sigh when his mouth closed over the tip of one breast.

  Her fingers bit into his shoulders as he fed hungrily on her nipples. His hunger only served to heighten her desire as she arched beneath him, asking, begging for more. Wulf obliged, kissing a burning path down her midriff and over her stomach, to the patch of golden fleece between her thighs. Reyna let out a long, shuddering breath, yearning for the scorching pleasure of their joining.

  Parting the moist petals of her sex with his fingers, Wulf placed his mouth over her wet center, flicking his tongue in and out of her honeyed sweetness, drawing a low, keening wail from her. When he sucked the erect bud of her femininity into the hot well of his mouth, Reyna jerked wildly and exploded. While her body still thrummed with the force of her climax, Wulf rose up over her and sank into her, his sex piercing deep. In and out, he thrust, increasing the pressure with each powerful stroke, igniting a renewed burst of fire in her blood. She arched up. Wulf’s hands unerringly found her breasts, stroking them, teasing her taut, puckered nipples with his fingertips.

  “Come again for me, sweet,” he urged.

  She rocked against him. He met her stroke for stroke, driving his engorged shaft into her again and again. His face grew hard with need, his lips compressed as he drove upward with ever increasing urgency. Her moans seemed to inflame him. Grasping her bottom in his cupped palms, he raised her so she could take him deeper. Her inner muscles clutched around him as he lowered his head and kissed her, his tongue plunging into her mouth to mimic the driving rhythm of his flesh moving deep inside her body.

  Overwhelming need built and swelled; the fire nearly consumed her. Moments later Reyna cried out, convulsing wildly, overcome by relentless waves of raw bliss.

  As he relinquished control, guttural groans came from Wulf’s throat and his climax burst from his powerful body into hers. His strong arms came around her as he buried his face in the hollow of her neck and whispered her name. Still panting from his exertions, he lifted his body weight off of her and rolled to his back, bringing her against him.

  “I waited a long time for that, sweet. Do you have any idea how bereft I felt when I thought you had carried out your threat and left me? Your leaving made me realize how desperately I loved you, how empty my life would be without you.”

  Reyna snuggled against him. “My threats were empty ones. All I ever wanted was for you to love me. There are so many reasons I should not love you, but one by one you destroyed them all. You were a bitter man bent on revenge when I came to you, but I came to love the person you are beneath all that bitterness and hate.”

  Wulf rolled her on top of him, his expression watchful as his silver eyes gazed deeply into hers. “You said there was something you wanted to tell me. What ever it is will not change how I feel for you.”

  Reyna chuckled. “Oh, my love, I fear what I am about to tell you will change our lives forever.”

  “No,” Wulf denied. “Just tell me so we can put it behind us.”

  A nagging fear that Wulf would not want their child gave Reyna pause. But Wulf’s tender smile dissolved her fears. If he loved her, he would love their child.

  “I am with child,” she said.

  Wulf went still beneath her; Reyna could not read his closed expression. Did he not want their child?

  “By Odin’s sword!” he swore. “Now I know I should have killed Elgar. All the time you were under his control you were carrying my child. What if you lost our babe? What if he had harmed you? What if…”

  Relief flooded through Reyna. She touched his lips. “Hush, my love. Naught happened to me. Our child is safe beneath my heart. I did not realize I was with child until after Elgar took me away.” She smiled down at him. “You want our child, truly?”

  He gave her a puzzled look. “How could I not? I love you, Reyna, and I will love any and all the children you give me.”

  They made love again, so slowly and with so much meaning it brought tears to Reyna’s eyes. Their troubled past no longer mattered. Wulf had proved his love in so many ways that she could not find it in her heart to blame him for what had gone before. The future stretched before them, endless and shining brightly.

  Several days later, after Borg and Dag had returned to the farmstead, Reyna boarded Wulf’s dragonship and waved good-bye to her family as they sailed up the fjord to the North Sea. Reyna felt only happiness, for her
parents had promised to visit in time for the birth of her child, their first grandchild.

  Everything was right in Reyna’s world.

  “Do not be sad, sweet,” Wulf said. “You will see your family again.”

  “I am not sad, Wulf. I have everything I need right here beside me.”

  “As do I, sweet, as do I.” Then he kissed her, sealing their pledge of eternal love.

  Epilogue

  Six Years Later

  Reyna stood on a sloping hillside overlooking the ocean, a misty rain dampening her hair and clothing, clothing that was lovelier than anything she had ever worn before. Wulf had purchased the silk material and other equally luxurious items during his summer trading voyages to Byzantium.

  They had found a new life in this lush, green island called Ireland. Wulf had claimed the land six years ago and built a home for them before bringing her and their one-year-old daughter Aleta to their new home. Wulf’s brothers, Olaf and Eric, arrived a year later and had claimed land for themselves. Helga had divorced her husband and was now living with them. Reyna was happy Helga had learned Rannulf’s true nature and had the good sense to leave him. Olaf had married the village blacksmith’s daughter and settled down, but Eric wasn’t ready yet to become domesticated.

  The three brothers still went adventuring but no longer for the purpose of gaining plunder or slaves. Hagar had even brought his family and Thora for a visit last summer and her parents and brothers had visited twice.

  Life was good here. The land was lush and welcoming, perfect for raising sheep and crops. Even now their flocks of sheep grazed contentedly on nearby hillsides. Their cottage was different from their old hall on Hagar’s farmstead. Wulf had built it with his brothers’ help and had even added a few embellishments that their old hall had lacked. At Reyna’s urging they had built separate sleeping chambers with leather hinged doors instead of the less private curtained sleeping alcoves. Their cottage had four such chambers in addition to the main hall and kitchen. It also had more windows than the old hall. Reyna never tired of looking out the window at their lush, new land when weather kept her inside.

  Reyna lifted her face to the cool misty rain drifting down from a charcoal sky. Sighing in contentment, she dashed the rain from her face and gazed one last time at the sea before returning to the cottage and her beloved family. Besides five-year-old Aleta, there was three-year-old Deter, a small replica of his father. And now there was another babe resting beneath her heart.

  “You should not be here in the rain,” Wulf said from behind her. His arms came around her, pulling her into the curve of his body, sheltering her from the fine drizzle misting her clothing and hair. His hands drifted to the slight swelling of her stomach. “I would not have you sicken and endanger our babe.”

  Reyna turned in his arms and smiled up at him. “You worry too much, husband. I am healthy as a horse. This child will be born as easily as the first two.”

  “Come into the house, sweet. I will help you strip off your damp clothing.” He grinned at her, his eyes twinkling mischievously as he urged her toward the house, one arm clasped tightly around her waist.

  She returned his smile with one equally mischievous. “And then what, my fierce Viking warrior?”

  He leaned down to whisper into her ear, “Then, my courageous warrior woman, while the children play with the wooden toys I carved for them, I will lock our bedchamber door and join you in our bed, where we will while away the rainy afternoon making mad, passionate love.” And so they did.

  Romantic TimesRaves About

  New York TimesBestselling Author Connie Mason!

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  “A delight…. This is a must read for Mason fans.”

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  “Another wonderful story filled with adventure, witty repartee and hot sex.”

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  “Ms. Mason has written another winner to delight her fans who want sexual tension that leads to hot explosion, memorable characters and a fast-paced story.”

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  “[Ms. Mason] crafts with excellence and creativity…[and] the added attraction of mystery and magic.”

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  “…upholds the author’s reputation for creating memorable stories and remarkable characters.”

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  “This is a real keeper, filled with historical fact, sizzling love scenes and wonderful characters.”

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  “Ms. Mason has written a rich medieval romance filled with tournaments, chivalry, lust and love.”

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  “Ms. Mason always provides the reader with a hot romance, filled with plot twists and wonderful characters. She’s a marvelous storyteller.”

  The Outlaws: Jess

  “Jess is filled with adventure and passion. Ms. Mason delivers.”

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  “Ms. Mason begins this new trilogy with wonderful characters…steamy romance…excellent dialogue…[and an] exciting plot!”

  Gunslinger

  “Ms. Mason has created memorable characters and a plot that made this reader rush to turn the pages…. Gunslinger is an enduring story.”

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  “Ms. Mason has written interesting characters into a twisting plot filled with humor and pathos.”

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  “Connie Mason at her best! She draws readers into this fast-paced, tender and emotional historical romance that proves love really does conquer all!”

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  Copyright

  A LEISURE BOOK®

  November 2008

  Published by

  Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.

  200 Madison Avenue

  New York, NY 10016

  Copyright ® 2008 by Connie Mason

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