The ship heaved in heavy waves, rising high and then slamming down onto the frothy surface of the sea. Chessa sucked in a pained breath as her head bumped against the wall.
Despite his longing to take her slowly, enjoy every inch of her on his terms this time, his cock had been unable to wait. A surge of renewed interest began to afflict his loins. And she wanted him, too, he could smell it on her. He closed his eyes for a moment. No man could endure such sustained longing.
This must be punishment from the gods.
He reached toward her face, tucking behind her ear each unruly strand of hair he could find in the darkness. With each touch, his body grew ever more taut with want of her, unsatisfied with not having taken her fully. He pressed closer. He’d never relinquished his seed in such a manner before. And he did not like it.
The village whores were for such. Not his Chessa.
“Where did you learn to do that?” His voice rasped, jagged as broken stone.
“Do what?” The waves seem to ease, no longer slamming her back and head against the wall. The ship settled, moving more gently now.
Bodin’s finger hooked underneath her chin, her shallow, nervous breaths proof that she faced him. “Make a man spend his seed in such a manner?”
“Have I done something wrong?” Her tongue darted out quickly to moisten her dry lips. “If you are displeased, tell me why. Next time I’ll do better—”
“No!” Bodin pressed a finger to her mouth. All of a sudden he didn’t want the answer to his question. He traced the side of her face. “Just do not do such again.”
“But I only did as you—”
His mouth closed over hers, possessive and fierce, angry as he punished her for daring to question his wishes. His tongue forced past her teeth, demonstrating the fact that he was indeed to be obeyed. He pulled back slightly. “Defy me and I assure you, you will not like my wrath.”
Panic began to set in at his volatile mood. Chessa struggled to worm away from him. But the support beams on either side of her prevented it.
“Cease.” His hand went to her ankle. “Hold yourself still, Chessa. I am not done with you yet.”
6
C hessa froze, with the exception of the air squeezing through her heaving chest. Bodin would have to catch each slippery beat of her heart with his bare hands to hold her still in that manner.
She tried to swallow back her fear and slow her breathing. She must keep her wits about her if she was to figure out what she had done to make him so angry.
His grip on her ankle tightened. “Just so we are clear: from here forward, I determine when and where to spend my seed, not you.”
She blinked, trying to make sense of his words. She’d only done as he’d asked. Had she somehow caused—
“Do you understand me, Chessa?”
“Yes.” Just for good measure, she nodded in answer as well.
“That was our bargain, correct?”
“Yes.” His thumb raked across the very moist center at the juncture of her thighs, and she gasped. Heat melted her insides.
“That is your need.” He took one of her hands and put it to his again straining cock. “And this is my need.” He gritted his teeth and took her hand away. Taking a deep breath for control, he continued, his voice a harsh whisper. “And right now, I wish my needs to be tended.”
A loud knock interrupted, and Chessa jumped at the sound.
“What!” Bodin snapped in answer.
“We’ve beached for the night, sir,” came the male voice from the other side of the barred door.
Bodin pulled the hem of Chessa’s bed gown up over her knees, out of his way as he gathered her wrists in his hand. “Spread your legs for me.”
Chessa moved her drawn-up legs slightly apart, opening herself willingly. She wanted him to touch her more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. Didn’t he realize she suffered far more from the lack of him than she ever could because of him?
His fingers slid against the slick, heated folds cradling her passion. Chessa gasped, closing her throat to a whimper. Her breasts heaved with the need for more air than she could manage to get in the stifling darkness. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. The last thing she wanted was for the soldier to hear Bodin’s touch stirring her.
“Sir?”
Bodin’s lips curled over his teeth as he whispered, “Do you like that, Chessa?”
She squeaked, unable to think. His words sounded thick in the muddled cloud of passion. Her body burned for more of him, all of him. The only thing that mattered at this very moment was that he not stop. He began to concentrate on one spot, and she no longer had control of her body.
Chessa’s head dropped back against the wall with a loud thump as she arched into his touch, the tips of his fingers slipping just inside her. A groan of gratification and rising need erupted from her, the sound distant and odd, even to her own ears. She no longer cared what the soldier on the other side of the door heard.
The loud, insistent knock came again. “Sir, are you hurt?”
Bodin stilled his fingers, and Chessa began to pant in protest. She writhed, searching, seeking more of his touch. He closed his eyes and removed his fingers from her sex. His cock throbbed in protest. “I’m—ahem—” He cleared his throat, trying to dislodge the deep thunder of passion clogging his voice. “I’m fine.” One more breath for sanity’s sake. “Stake my tent a good distance from the camp.”
Chessa tugged at his hold on her wrists, trying to bring him back closer to her. He couldn’t stop, not just yet. If she could only touch him, maybe he would cease her need as he’d done before. She needed his touch so much at the moment, she could scream.
Bodin dropped his voice to a low, warning whisper. “If my needs must suffer to wait, Chessa, so must yours.”
“Sir? Are you certain? How far away? Because…”
The voice continued to drone on about some trivial matter Bodin couldn’t have cared less about. Chessa’s breaths came in little moaning pants, disrupting his ability to think with any amount of clarity. She opened her legs wider, inviting him. Bodin gritted his teeth, determined this time that he would take her at his discretion, in his own good time. With a tight grip on her wrists, he pulled her to her knees.
Chessa took a deep breath, her breasts swelling as she tried to get closer, to lean into his broad chest. She pressed her hips forward, seeking relief from her need against his thigh. The friction drew a deep breath and a moan from her.
“By the gods…” Bodin cursed and then turned his head toward the door. “Just do as I said!”
“Uh…yes, sir.” A hurried bumbling of feet signaled the end of that conversation.
Bodin took a step back from Chessa. He began to work loose a strip of cloth tied just above his boot.
She tried to press closer, to garner his full attention. Her fingers grabbed for his shirt, but he held her at a slight distance. “Bodin?”
He spun her around, releasing one of her wrists just long enough to pull them both behind her back. “You’ll touch no part of yourself. Not this night.” He tied her small wrists together and then pulled her backward against his chest. “I alone have discretion over your body.” His hands closed over her linen-covered breasts, thumbs grazing her swollen nipples.
Chessa’s fingers grappled to reach his straining appendage that pressed against her backside. Instead she could only manage to grab his shirt.
He pinched her swollen, extended nipples hard.
“Ahhh…” A heated flash of silvery need knifed downward from her breasts through her belly and pulsed wet and slippery between her thighs. Chessa’s legs gave way as she sunk low to her knees. Her full weight came to bare against his chest. “Bodin, please…”
His hands began to roam her belly, the tops of her thighs, her breasts, everywhere but the place she wanted most. “My needs, Chessa…that is our bargain,” his voice rasped, lips pressed against the curved outline of her ear. He sucked at the soft pad of flesh and l
et his fingers graze promisingly over the red curls nested between her spread thighs.
Chessa shuddered and moaned, unable to affect any control over where he touched her, what he did to her. Another wave of liquid heat prepared her body to take him. But still he denied her. “You,” she licked at her dry lips and tried to swallow, “you are in need, though, I can feel—”
He pinched her nipples again, silencing her words of persuasion with the groan that rose from deep within her small body. “Need, sweet one, is not always about gratification.”
This would be done his way, by his rules. Not hers.
7
B odin draped the cloak over Chessa’s shoulders, securing the clasp. He stood and slipped one hand beneath the heavy fabric, pinching her still-aroused nipples.
Chessa sucked in an agitated breath as her body arched, breasts swelling, longing for more of his touch. The wooden bar slid from the door, and she blinked in the flood of light. Bodin guided her toward the hatch. A pair of hands reached down as he gripped her waist and lifted.
Up on deck, the wind whipped all around her, pulling and pushing and tugging her in different directions. With her hands still tied behind her back beneath the cloak, keeping her balance was more than a little difficult.
Bodin stepped behind her, pulling her against him, making certain she had no doubt he was still very much aroused as he assessed the site his men had chosen for the night. The corner of his tent peeked from a rocky cove some distance from the boat and the main camp. He leaped over the rail and onto the soggy beach.
Chessa was handed down to him.
But Bodin didn’t set her on the sand as she expected. His arm tightened around her, suspending her off the ground so their bodies were exactly aligned. His eyes, dark with steely determination, made her stomach flutter. He had plans. Plans that included her exclusively. Of that he left no doubt in her mind.
“You are very right, sweet one,” he whispered in her ear.
Chessa’s heart pounded, reverberating against her ribs. Could he truly read her thoughts? His free hand slipped beneath the folds of the wind-whipped cloak and cupped her buttock, rubbing her sex against his erection as he squeezed. She gasped at the friction, her body shivering in his arms, wanting him, needing release from the ever-present urges he stirred with intent, she tried to wiggle closer.
“We will not sleep much this night.” With his gaze locked into her wide green eyes, he licked his lips in anticipation. A wicked grin curved his mouth. Tonight she would learn to submit to his wishes, his desires. His cock pulsed at the thought. Or did it pulse because of her? Bodin slid her diminutive body down the taut, straining length of his body.
The rough, wet sand enveloped Chessa’s bare feet. Bodin’s hand at the base of her back propelled her past the campfire and more than a dozen watchful, lingering gazes. The dissipating stares of his men came as a relief. She wanted to be alone with Bodin. Alone so he would touch her again.
Chessa tensed as Bodin’s fingers tightened into the dip of her waist, digging into her sides. She stopped as he stepped around her, partially blocking her view.
“Will this do, sir?” An eager young soldier stopped adjusting rocks as a windbreak to the small fire. He rushed to stand, dusting off his hands on the front of his trousers. His gaze flitted up and down Chessa and then to the tent.
“Go back to the camp,” Bodin ordered the young man, his voice heavy with warning as he spread his feet shoulder-width apart.
“But I was told to stand watch and keep the fire—”
Bodin’s hand went to his belt, fingers no more than a hair’s breadth away from the hilt of his dagger. “I will manage, Erek.”
Casting a sideways glance at the tent, the young man lowered his head and scratched the back of his neck. “The—the others, sir.” He nodded in the direction of the beach. “They don’t think this is quite fair, you keeping a,” he licked his lips, “a slave all to yourself.”
Bodin’s hand went to the oiled leather sheath slung over his back. He slipped the long, sharp blade free. “And what do you think?”
A lopsided grin broke through a sparse, white-blond beard. “I think,” he looked at the tent again, tilting his head just slightly, scratching the side of his face, “that you better take care to watch your back, sir. And her.” Erek’s gaze went to Chessa.
Bodin stared at the young man. In a swift motion he pressed Chessa backward against the rock wall, stabbing the tip of his sword blade into the dry sand inches in front of her, trapping her. Already moving toward the tent, Bodin drew his dagger. He rushed inside.
Chessa blinked in disbelief. The wide hilt of the sword pressed into her stomach, trapping her against the cold, rocky cliff. The edges of her cloak snapped defiantly in the wind. Bodin reappeared in moments, his dagger pressed to Gavit’s throat.
She stared, wide-eyed. Anger darkened Bodin’s features, his lips pulled back over bared teeth as he twisted Gavit’s arm behind his back and pushed him toward the main camp. Chessa glanced at Erek still standing by the fire. A look of jealousy and something else she couldn’t be sure of crossed his face.
For the first time since Kaol had taken her as a child, she felt afraid. She tried to remain calm, but she began to tremble. If Bodin died, if his men overran him…
Erek took a step closer.
Chessa struggled to move sideways, slip out from behind the sword, but there was not enough room. Bodin had left her trapped like prey with nowhere to hide.
Hearing someone approaching, Erek smiled and straightened. He craned his neck for a better view, and then his shoulders slumped.
Bodin strode through the overgrown, sprawling bushes, single-minded and determined as he wiped the flat of the blade on his trouser leg, cleaning off the blood. He stopped, glancing sideways at Chessa, and then turned to face the young man. A slight nod indicated the owing of a debt.
Erek took his leave.
A dark, unreadable expression masked Bodin’s thoughts. Half a dozen steps, and he was on Chessa, the width of his body blocking the storm winds, hands braced on the cliff wall just above her head as he loomed. Her body tensed, and some instinct from the depths of her gut demanded she acknowledge his dominance. She lowered her lashes and looked to the side, not daring to meet his gaze.
Bodin bent his head beside hers, his breath ragged with a mixture of subsiding anger and pent-up desire.
A ripple of anticipation betrayed Chessa, and she closed her eyes. She ached for the rough touch of his calloused hands, for his fingers skimming along her skin to find hidden places, his fiery, heated kisses bringing the truth of her wants to the surface for him to see.
“That’s right, sweet one.” His voice grated harsh as rough gravel. “Submit, for tonight I enforce this bargain of ours to my full satisfaction.” Bodin pulled the sword out of the sand as he took half a step back, releasing her from confinement. He strode to the tent and pulled open the flap, giving her one opportunity to obey.
Chessa swallowed, careful not to meet his dark gaze. He seemed in an odd mood. Not angry, exactly, but not to be trifled with either. She ducked through, shrugging her aching shoulders, hands still secured behind her back.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him unrolling several large, thick furs. Bedding? It didn’t matter, she’d find out soon enough—at least, she hoped she would. The slippery friction between her thighs made every movement far more torturous than anything his touch could inflict.
Bodin turned and faced her, one knee holding him balanced on the ground. “Come here to me, Chessa.”
The tent flap snapped in the rising winds, a sharp, cracking sound.
Her stomach quivered at his command. And that’s exactly what his every word was: a command. Negotiation not allowed. Their bargain had been struck, and, as she’d agreed, there would be no going back.
Her nipples tingled with anticipation, erect and nearly raw from such prolonged need. Even the soft fabric of the bed gown tormented her, provoking her to
boldness. She could stand it no longer. “Bodin—”
“Be silent. And bring yourself to me.”
Restless, rapid breaths swelled in her chest with each step she took until, finally standing before him, her head spun. His large, tanned hand wrapped around her small ankle, pulling her into a wider stance.
Bodin’s fingers slid slowly up the back of her calf. The warmth of his touch nearly melted her. He reached the back of her knee and drew his thumb to the inside of her leg as he continued upward. Eyes closed, she took a deep breath, anticipating.
“Look at me. Look into my eyes,” he demanded. “Think only of me.”
Chessa bit her lip. Tentatively she swallowed and drew her gaze to his. The color of his eyes darkened in the dim light of the tent. His languid exploration of her only fueled the crisis between her thighs. As he reached the undeniable evidence of her need, she could not help but moan in pleasure. His thumb glided over the slick opening.
Chessa inhaled a desperate breath, biting down harder on her lip to keep her words of begging silent as he’d commanded. Unable to take the intensity of his stare any longer, she squeezed her eyes shut.
His questing finger pried a little deeper as he growled in warning, “Do not take your eyes from me again.”
Her legs trembled, threatening to buckle beneath Bodin’s attention. But she bit into her lower lip and managed to meet his gaze again.
“Much better, sweet one.”
Bodin withdrew his touch, and Chessa whimpered, trying to stifle the sound of disappointment as she swayed toward him. She’d been wrong. His touch could inflict a more tortuous need than she thought possible to endure. And at will, it seemed. How could his needs affect her own so? And what of his needs would he have her attend with hands bound behind her back?
A dark, pleased chuckle rumbled from him as he stood. “That is right, Chessa. You debted yourself to me, and tonight you will learn just how much it takes to satisfy my needs.”
Pleasure of His Bed Page 21
