by Jenika Snow
I wish I had been able to give her warm water, not only to make her happy, but also to marvel at her curves. I could see the way her breasts rose and fell under her shift, and my body reacted instantly. My cock, always semihard when she was near, sprang forth like a beast. I was insatiable for her, wanting to claim her, make it known she was mine in every single sense of the word.
I reached out, took a strand of her long blonde hair, the plait smooth, a shine coming through some of the dirt in her braid. I was pleased she didn’t move away from me, that she seemed to enjoy me touching her, given the fact that she panted even more.
“What did you mean when you said I was yours?”
I lifted my gaze to her face. I brought that plait to my nose and inhaled deeply. There was this undercurrent of sweetness and earth. “It means exactly what it means.” I started undoing the plait, my focus on her eyes as I moved to the other one and undid that, the tight waves moving along her face. “It means I’ve claimed you, that you’ll be my wife.” I pushed the hair off her shoulders, slid my finger along her gently curved collarbones, and held in a groan. “It means I’ll protect you until I draw my last breath, until the sun stops shining.” I leaned in an inch closer. “It means that if anyone thought of touching you, I’d rip out their heart and serve it to them as dinner.” I heard her swallow, a little sound coming from her. I could have taken her right then, but that wasn’t how I wanted this to start. That’s not how I wanted any of this to begin. “Tell me what that sounds like to you, Ingrid.” I waited for her to answer me. I needed her to.
“It means you won’t let me go.”
The way she said that told me she wanted this too. “And…” I urged.
“It means I am yours—”
“And I am yours.” I leaned in and kissed her then, slanted my mouth on hers, made her take my tongue, urged her to take mine in return, to suck on it. I groaned, reached out and cupped the back of her head, and fucked her mouth like I’d be doing to her pussy soon enough.
I pulled away far too soon, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself. I wouldn’t have been able to wait, to make this right for her. I could be a patient Viking, and I sure as hell could wait for my mate until I had her on my pallet back in my village.
4
Gunnar
I stared out at my village, my home. Everyone gathered by the shore, lining the white-pebbled beach, their welcoming smiles letting me know where my heart was. I turned and looked at Ingrid. I’d wrapped a thick fur around her, her slender body so much smaller than mine.
“Home,” I said, the pride in my voice evident. She nodded and smiled, and I wanted to pull her in right then and there and kiss her until she was breathless. To think I’d gone on this mission to end the lives of demons, to take them down and bring peace within my village, only to find my future wife. I brought her in close then, needing her right beside me, protected, safe.
I glanced at Thorsen and Viggo, both men keeping their warrior expressions in place, their hardened exteriors the type of men they were…the type of men we all were. They just hadn’t found the one woman they wanted to claim, to make theirs. Rutting between furs was all they’d know unless they could feel that pull, that need to fight heaven and hell, the very gods, to make sure this female stayed right by their sides.
And when their time came—and I knew it would—they’d fall to their knees, just like I had when I’d first seen Ingrid.
Once we were docked and off the ship, I led her through the village. I assumed she noticed the way people regarded us, the way they showed their respect in addressing their leader. I took her toward my hut, wanting her to get out of the chilled air, needing to get her alone. It was nice having her close on the ship, but we were never fully alone. I wanted to be able to look at her, make her comfortable, and see that pleasure wash over her face. I wanted to be the male that gave her what she needed.
“You lead the village, their king?” she asked, the fur still wrapped tightly around her. I wanted to rip it off, to see what lay beneath.
“I do. I am, although I don’t want to be held in that regard. I make sure they are fed, protected. I make sure they are safe with the help of the other men.” I lowered my head slightly, my focus on her, watching as she looked around. “It’s why we went after the raiders. They took from us, put this community in danger, killed friends and family. I couldn’t stand for that, couldn’t let them get away with what they’d done.” I could see the question in her eyes. She probably thought Vikings were all the same, and I suppose in a sense we were all alike in that we wanted to provide.
“You don’t take from others?” Her voice was soft, as if she were hesitant in asking the question. I’d never hurt her, and she’d come to find that out soon enough. My priority was making sure she was happy and safe.
“We have, but we don’t kill for sport. We kill to protect, to keep what’s ours. If we need something to make our village thrive, we don’t question how to get that, how to provide. If someone stands in our way, trying to stop us from making sure we can get what we need for our people, we take them down.” I cupped her cheek. “But the raiders we killed, they’d been out for nothing but blood. Raping, killing, that was their sport. They were not true men, not males that cared about anything but themselves. Hurting others is what gave them pleasure, not making sure their people survived.”
She nodded, and I could see she understood what I meant. I focused on the village again, seeing my hut in the distance. We made our way closer, and I pushed the wooden door open for her, allowing her to enter first. There wasn’t much to it, but it was warm, a fire already roaring from a villager who’d no doubt seen our approach. My bed was thick, the furs making up the pallet more than wide enough to accommodate both of us and keep my wife warm.
“I’ll have some food brought in, and then get a bath ready for you.”
The way she looked at me, the appreciation in her eyes, made me feel proud I could give her this. I quickly found Finn, a young boy desperately wanting to become a skilled warrior. He ran off to get my female food, as well as hot water for her bath.
“You were born into it, this position?”
I took a step closer to her, saw the way her pulse beat frantically beneath her ear. “No.” I took another step closer. “I fought for the title, killed the tyrant who had led us.” Her eyes only widened a fraction. I could see on her face that this wasn’t news to her. She had lived in a village, and most practices were done most places. If you wanted to rule, you needed to be willing to die, to kill for it.
I looked into her eyes and reached out to grab her hand. Her skin was warm and soft. Her palm fit perfectly in mine. She was just so small everywhere, so tiny, feminine. I wanted her right then and there, but her needs came first, not the other way around.
She gave me a smile, and the sight had every part of me rising up, needing to say fuck the bath, fuck the food. I wanted to make her feel good, meet her needs that way. It might be hard to control myself, but I wouldn’t be an animal with her, not the first time at least. I wanted Ingrid comfortable with my touch, craving it, begging me for it. And once she was soft and ready, primed for me, then I’d spread her thighs and push my cock deep into her body. I watched as she lowered her gaze to my chest, then lower to my leathers. Her eyes widened, and I knew she was taking in the stiff erection pressed against the material.
My cock was big, just like the rest of me. I’d need her stretched, primed, and ready for when I took her for the first time, for when I claimed her pussy as mine.
Finn entered, a crate of food in his arms. Another young man pulled in a bath basin. Finn set the crate down and went out, coming back a few moments later carrying two jugs of water. He filled the basin and left the hut, doing this over and over until the basin was filled with steaming hot water. The other young man had been setting up a table and food. A feast was spread out, a bath was prepared, and my woman would be well taken care of.
“Come, my sweet I
ngrid.” I gestured for her to come closer, needing her to obey, to give in to me. I saw the way she eyed my body, the arousal in her gaze, the confusion that she could feel anything for me after such a short time. I was a man and she was my woman, and I wasn’t letting her go. I couldn’t.
I would bathe her and run my hands along her smooth, creamy skin. I’d wash her hair, let the wet strands move between my fingers, and watch as she reacted to my touch. Then I would take her to bed. I wanted it to be gentle, sweet for the first coupling, but I was a warrior, a skilled fighter, a killer. I was raw and untamed on the best of days, and taming my passion for her was almost an unspeakable promise.
I was hardened, but I’d be gentle. I could be gentle.
I lowered myself down and started undoing her boots. I worked the leather off, rubbing her feet in the process, and looked up at her from my crouching position. Once those were off and to the side, I went for her pants, then her shift. She didn’t stop me, and in fact breathed harder, her little hands in fists at her sides, as if she had a hard time controlling herself. I knew all about that. I placed my hands on her waist, moving my thumbs over her smooth skin, and although she was now naked for me, I kept my focus on her face. And when I looked down at her mouth, I held in a groan at the fact that her lips were red and slightly swollen. She’d been biting them, bringing the blood to the surface.
“You want me, wife?” I asked, feeling my eyes growing heavy-lidded. She licked her lips and nodded, and I didn’t hold in my moan then. “Then we’ll bathe together. I’ll wash you, make you clean, feel good.”
She breathed harder, her full breasts rising and falling. I looked my fill then, taking in the creaminess of her skin, the way her nipples were pink and hard. Her waist was tucked in, tiny. She was so small compared to me, almost fragile. And between her legs... I ran a hand over my face, feeling the scruff under my palm. Blond hair covered her pussy, but I could see her slit, knew she was wet for me.
Despite the fact that the hut was warm, so warm I felt beads of sweat line my back, I saw her flesh pucker as if she were chilled. I started removing my clothes, and when I was nude, I let her have her fill of me. She looked at my chest, moved lower yet, and when she looked at my cock, her eyes widened slightly. My dick was hard, so hard it ached. I wanted to touch myself, to ease some of the strain I felt, but I refrained. I didn’t want to be a bastard about this. I wanted Ingrid to be the one to pleasure me, to touch me, to see what she did to me in all ways.
My dick jerked with every second she looked at me.
I held my hand out. “Come here, Ingrid.” My voice was pitched low. I was immensely pleased that she came to me right away, slipping her hand into mine, allowing me to pull her into the hardness of my body.
“I want to bathe with you, want to wash you, tend to you.” I watched as she swallowed, the slender line of her throat working from the act. “You want that, don’t you?” I felt pleasure when she nodded, when the little pants of her warm breath went along my chest. I was hard as fucking stone right now, and tonight I’d claim Ingrid as mine.
5
Ingrid
Gunnar was all hard, cut muscles. He was all male, all powerful, and all mine. I don’t know the exact time I decided he was mine, the same way I was his. I didn’t even care, because it felt good, right.
And he was so big…everywhere. I stared at him, at the cut lines that made up his form, at the Norse tattoos that covered his golden flesh. I let my gaze follow the scars that marked his chest and arms, and surely his back, too. He was a brutal warrior, had probably seen countless battles.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured under his breath, his arousal for me apparent in his expression but also in the thick, monstrous rod he sported between his legs. “I want you, want to devour you, make you cry out in pleasure.”
Wanting to be honest with him, I opened my mouth, needing to tell him this was my first time, that although I wanted this, I might not be what he expected…needed. “I’m untouched,” I said, my voice soft, my emotions reserved. He might not want me, might want a female more experienced, who could handle the passion a warrior like him could provide.
“Sweet Ingrid,” he said and cupped my face, bringing his lips down on mine. He kissed me softly, but I could feel the fire deep in him, the need to take me in the way he was: raw, unhinged. He pulled back, and I swore his dick got harder, thicker. His blue eyes were trained right on me, and he looked so intense, so wild.
“I need to touch you,” he said on this guttural groan.
“I need you to touch me, Gunnar.”
The only thing he did was to let out a harsh sound of pleasure before stepping up to me. He cupped a breast, and I couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe. I was wet right now, my nipples hard, my body tight, feeling like I was on fire. He ran his thumbs over the peaks of my breasts, and tingling spread through me, making me shiver, making me moan as if on command.
“You’re ready for me.” He didn’t state it like a question. He said it like he knew me so well, despite the fact that we’d only been in each other’s company for a short time.
He does know me so well. He knows what I want, what I need. I can see that reality on his face, in the way he touches me.
“I’ll be gentle, my female.”
My heart thundered, and I found myself shaking my head. “Maybe I don’t want gentle.”
His nostrils flared, and I knew those words had done something intense to him. Gunnar had his hands on my waist and lifted me into the air. I was forced to brace my hands on his shoulders to balance myself. But he had a tight hold on me, and I knew he wouldn’t let me fall. He turned us around, and in a matter of seconds he had me in the tub, moving in behind me. The bathing tub was on the smaller side, and with two bodies in it the fit was tight. But I had a feeling that’s exactly what Gunnar wanted.
I was in front of him, with his big, muscular thighs on either side of me, and his hard cock prodding my back. He had his hands on my knees, smoothing them up and down, and I marveled at the white crisscrossed marks lining the backs of his hands. They were the hands of a warrior, one who had seen battle, who had survived. I placed mine atop his, the water making my motions slick, smooth. He was tense behind me, his huge body coiled tightly, telling me he was really trying to keep his control. I softened toward him more. He could have easily overpowered me, taken me like a savage, a beast.
Before I knew what was happening, he turned me around, the water splashing over the edge of the metal. I gasped from the sudden movement, from my skin kissing the chilled air…and especially from the way my thighs were spread on either side of Gunnar’s. His waist was lean, his dick a hard rod between us, the tip peeking out of the top of the water. He had a cloth in his hand, and I didn’t stop him from running it over my back, along the curve of my bottom, and over the outside of my thigh. He moved it over my belly, up my rib cage, and finally engulfed my breast with his cloth-covered palm. A shiver worked its way through me. I was aroused, so ready for him that I would have told him to take me right there and then and not felt ashamed about it. The sound that left him was gruff, maybe even barbaric.
God, it made me hotter.
“You feel good on top of me, my female.”
And you feel good under me, my Viking.
I didn’t say those words aloud, couldn’t say anything. My throat was too tight, the words stalling on my tongue, refusing to submit, to reveal themselves. He was hard between my legs, his massive shaft prodding me, almost demanding entrance into the most sensitive, intimate part of me.
“I want you, want to take you right here.”
I closed my eyes at his accented words, his voice deep, his body pressed right up against me.
“But when I take my wife for the first time, it’ll be in the bed we share.” He pushed my hair off my shoulder, the ends wet, sliding along my skin like a lover’s touch…like Gunnar’s touch.
The rest of our bathing was done without anything more than Gunnar touching me
, stroking my flesh with the dried flower- and oil-infused cloth. When he’d washed my hair, making sure every part of me was clean, perfect, and content, he helped me out of the bathing tub. He dried me off with gentle motions, paying attention to every part of me, making sure no droplets of water lined my flesh.
Desire coursed through me violently, weaving its way in my body, making me a servant to it. He rose from his haunches. His body was so big, making me feel like such a helpless female, yet strong in my own right because I knew the effect I had on him. And then he lifted me up, and I was forced to brace my hands on his chest or I would have toppled over. He smelled clean, like pine and fresh ocean air with a hint of salt. We might have just bathed together, but this was his scent, the way he always smelled.
I felt my body grow warm, my nipples harden, and I became wet between my thighs.
“It’s time to rest,” he said, his command not to be broken, but I wasn’t tired. I needed to feel his hard body pressed against mine, wanted to submit to him in a way that had us joining as one.
I could have argued, could have told him I desired him then, but I didn’t want to force anything.
When we were on the pallet, he moved behind me, wrapping his arm around me, pulling me in tightly toward his body, and making me feel protected. I could handle myself, had been trained somewhat in my village to protect myself, but I was physically weaker than Gunnar. That was just a fact. Having his strength and power surround me made me feel like the world wasn’t falling apart more times than not. I felt like I didn’t have to be afraid of what would happen the next day, if I’d be alone, and not knowing where to go from there.
The feeling of his very large, very pronounced erection digging into the small of my back had my entire body coming awake. I stared at the fire, at the flames licking over the wood. I listened to the howl of the wind right outside the hut, the villagers talking softly. And if I listened carefully, I could almost hear the sound of the water lapping along the shore.
