The word hung in the heavy silence between them as she searched his gaze, but he wasn’t giving anything away. Did the way he had touched her the night before mean nothing? She’d forgotten about the bite, but now her hand went to her neck. There was nothing there. Of course there was nothing there. It hadn’t really been a bite and he wouldn’t really feel anything for her. It had been nothing to him.
‘Because I can’t keep you safe anymore.’
Had her actions done this? ‘But that man— I don’t understand. Even if you leave me here, someone like that could—’
‘That’s not what I meant.’ His jaw tightened. ‘From me. I can’t keep you safe from me. You should stay here with Kadlin because if you leave with me, I won’t be able to keep my vow to keep you safe.’
‘I don’t understand.’ But deep down she knew.
His eyes flicked down to her breast and back again. ‘Don’t you?’
Before she even realised that he’d moved, he had one hand tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck and she was on her back with his body on top of her. There was no denying the hard press of him against her thigh. There was no denying the little flip her stomach gave. It wasn’t from fear. It wasn’t from fear at all.
All she could look at was his mouth and wonder where it might go next. But nay, he was still in control. The faint lines that framed his lips told her that. ‘I want to be inside you more than I want my next breath.’ His fingers tightened in her hair, pulling her head back so she met his gaze. It might have hurt had she not already lost her mind. ‘You can’t fight me off, and I can’t promise not to take you.’
The words hit her low in the belly and crawled lower. He wasn’t as in control as he seemed after all. She flushed as the full impact of that statement washed over her and made that strange throbbing begin between her legs. ‘Are you offering me a choice?’ Freedom?
‘Aye, the choice is yours. If you stay with Kadlin, you’ll be her personal slave. She’s agreed to honour my vow that you not be harmed. No other man will have you.’
‘But last night—’ her voice lowered to a whisper ‘—you said that I’m yours.’
Possessiveness flared hot and fierce in his eyes. ‘And you will be...if you agree to come with me. This is my last offer. Stay or we leave in an hour.’ Eirik rose from the bed and strode from the chamber, leaving his words to linger behind him.
Chapter Fifteen
She was going to go with him. As she stood in the shadow of the doorway and watched him readying his horse for travel, Merewyn couldn’t help but imagine what that would mean. What it would mean to truly be his. He was magnificent. His back was broad and strong. The muscles moved under his tunic as he swung a bag across the back of the horse and tied it to the saddle. Those muscles had been hard under her hands. Even his stomach had been hard when it had pressed tight against her own as he’d lain on top of her. The memory had the power to warm her from the inside.
His austere, chiselled profile made her envision anew the Viking god who had landed on her shore. Powerful, focused, so in control. But the man he had been last night had not been in control. She closed her eyes to see the sheer violence Eirik had unleashed on the man who’d attempted to assault her. Last night he had lost the control that he tried so hard to maintain.
For her.
But when he’d approached her afterwards, his touch had been so tender and caring that it had brought her to tears. No matter what he said, she knew that a man who could be such a tender lover would not hurt her. Not intentionally, at least.
The tense set of his shoulders as he worked let her know that he was still just as bothered by their morning talk as she was. He kept glancing to the house, but she stayed in the shadows so he wouldn’t see her observing him. A part of her entertained the notion that maybe he was wondering about her choice. Perhaps he was anxious that she wouldn’t choose to go with him. But the reasonable part of her couldn’t give credit to the notion. Why would he care about a slave?
That thought had haunted her from the beginning and refused to be banished. But again, thoughts of the previous night soothed her. A man like him was too measured, too calculated, to allow himself to lose control because he thought of her as a mere possession. He did care. He cared enough to gentle his touch when he reached for her just moments after unleashing that violence. She blushed anew at the reminder of his tender touch on her bare breast. He cared enough to cradle her in his arms when she’d cried despite the undeniable evidence that his body wanted her. Merewyn didn’t know how long he’d held her, but she’d fallen asleep with a sense of peace that had everything to do with him.
Some part of him cared for her. It was that knowledge that gave her the courage to accept his challenge. Even if it meant he would touch her again. Especially if it meant he would touch her again and awake those strangely wonderful feelings he invoked within her. Her gaze went to his fingers where they were tying the knot of another bag. They were strong, graceful and rough from years of work. And so gentle.
She bit her lip and clenched her fists against the longing that washed through her. This was freedom. This was a choice. He was her choice, and now that she realised it, she was anticipating what was to come at the same time her stomach churned with anxiety of the unknown.
She forced herself to relax and smoothed the skirt of her dress. It was the hideous slave dress, but it was all that she had. At least she looked presentable thanks to Kadlin. She had surprised Merewyn by coming to retrieve her from Eirik’s bed and taking her to her own chamber to wash and dress in private. In her efforts to communicate and her gifts of new clothing, Kadlin had been nothing but kind. Merewyn might have been a dear friend instead of the slave that she really was. The encounter had left her hopeful that she had misunderstood Eirik’s relationship with the woman.
‘Merewyn.’ The softly uttered word drew her attention to Kadlin, who had come up to stand beside her.
Merewyn blushed, uncomfortable to have been caught with her thoughts by the woman who might have a rightful claim to him. If anyone should be having those thoughts, shouldn’t it be her, not his slave? He’d not even told the woman her name. She’d had to ask Merewyn in a series of gestures when she’d come to collect her from his bed.
When Kadlin had returned to her chamber, she’d had to use further gestures to ask Merewyn if she wanted to stay. Merewyn wondered if Eirik had explained to her why he wanted his slave to stay with her. If he had, Kadlin didn’t let on. She had only smiled brightly when Merewyn had refused the offer.
Now Kadlin spoke a few words in the Norse language and pressed a bundle into her arms. Merewyn looked down to see a second pair of fur-lined leggings—she’d already donned the pair given to her when she’d washed—and a small burlap sack tied together with twine. At Kadlin’s urging, she opened it to find small, crudely made cakes of a wonderfully fragrant soap.
‘Thank you.’ It was an unexpected gesture of friendship that Merewyn was unprepared for. The woman had every right to feel threatened by her, to want her removed from Eirik’s life, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Merewyn thought again that perhaps she’d misunderstood their relationship.
Kadlin spoke, but the only word Merewyn understood was Eirik’s name. Then she smiled and nodded towards him. Merewyn turned to see him standing, openly watching the doorway now. Waiting.
She took a deep breath, then took a step in the direction of the fate she had chosen. This would be her last day as a chaste woman. The thought in itself was jarring, but not any more so than the delicious expectation it brought to life within her.
* * *
The moment she appeared, Eirik tightened his grip on the reins. He’d had no inkling as to whether she would stay or not, but even more, had not known whether he wanted her to stay. She should stay. For her own safety, she should stay as far away from him as she could get. And yet she continued to
walk closer. His nostrils flared when her unique scent reached him. After sleeping so closely to her the night before, it was imprinted on his senses for ever. It carried the power to immediately make him hard from the memory of her body pressed to his, her body curving to meet the shape of his and her buttocks pressed against him. His body was eager to consummate the alliance she was agreeing to with her presence. He was glad his tunic was long enough to cover the evidence of how she affected him so easily. She heated his blood like no other, and he forced himself to recall the violence she had pulled from him the night before.
Eirik fought so hard for control, it angered him that she could so easily make him lose it. He so rarely unleashed that sort of violence on anyone, even in the heat of battle, but the threat against her had been too much. The simple notion that anyone would dare to touch her made him crazed. Something had to be done so he could get back that control. He either needed her out of his life or he needed to slake his need for her, break the spell that she held over him, before it destroyed him. Afterwards, he could go back to how he had been. As he watched her walk to him, he was strong enough to admit that he was glad she had chosen to come with him. Even if it meant his body would ache all day anticipating the evening ahead, even if it meant he would finally have to face down the demons that haunted him, because there was no doubt in his mind that he would have her before the day ended.
When she stopped before him, she looked down as if bashful and unable to meet his eyes, before finally gaining the courage to look up at him. He took a deep breath as he studied her. She was beautiful. He wondered how he had ever thought her anything less. The way her ivory skin curved gracefully over her cheekbones, tinted pink now either from the wind or her own thoughts of the previous night. Her fine nose, turned up slightly at the end that always seemed to hint at defiance. Her lush mouth with those pink lips he had yet to taste.
But he would. Soon.
The excitement coiled in his gut and he clenched his fists to beat it down. The need to have her under him, to be inside her, controlled him.
‘Why are you here?’ The question was a growl brought on by his own perverse need to hear the words from those lips he planned to claim.
It took a while for her to answer, so long in fact that he almost ordered her back inside. He was too far gone now to accept anything less than her total capitulation. But when she spoke, she surprised him. ‘Because the alternative is unbearable.’
Eirik closed his eyes against all the possibilities that answer implied. That she wanted to explore the pleasure he was sure his touch had given her. That by coming with him she meant to align her fate with his in ways that went far beyond the mere protection he could give her. When he opened them again, she was watching him with an odd expression. A knowing that hadn’t been there in the days before. An acceptance. It made his breath hitch.
Eirik couldn’t say anything as he took her bundle from her and stuffed it into the sack already tied to the saddle. When his hands went to her hips to lift her up onto the horse, she surprised him by putting her hands on his to stop him. He raised a questioning brow at her, but didn’t trust himself to speak without revealing the raw need coursing through him. It was too late for her to change her mind. If she refused to go now, he feared he’d throw her over his horse and take off with her anyway.
‘Wait. I need to know...’ She looked away again, unable to meet his gaze as she continued. ‘What of that woman? Kadlin. Is she your betrothed?’
His heart leaped in his chest. The question was further proof of her understanding of how things had changed between them. ‘I have no betrothed. We are childhood friends.’
‘Then you... I saw you with her... It looked...intimate.’ She fumbled over her words before falling silent.
Eirik would have smiled at her reticence if he wasn’t fighting his need for her so valiantly. ‘The only woman in my bed last night was you.’ His thumb caressed her cheek in a gesture that was developing into a dangerous habit for him. The need to touch her was becoming overpowering. He liked how his words made her skin pink and felt the need to drive home the point. ‘I will never have Kadlin the way I intend to have you.’
Before she could respond, he sat her on the horse and mounted behind her. His arm pulled her to him and her body settled against him as if she belonged there. He had to fight to keep his hand from closing over the breast he had fondled the night before. He wanted to remind her that it was his. To tear the fabric away to reveal the pretty nipple he had discovered and make it pebble beneath his touch. It belonged to him now. He wanted to discover the rest of her, claim the rest of her, just as he had that perfect mound of flesh. His arm tightened in a grip that was unmistakably proprietary. Before this day was out he would make her his.
Chapter Sixteen
‘What is this place?’ Merewyn asked.
Eirik walked before the horse, holding its lead while she rode. He’d set a slower pace today, often walking while she rode or letting her walk if she chose. There had been almost no conversation between them. After the night that had passed and the intimacy of his touch, she didn’t know what to say to him that wouldn’t sound insincere or forced.
The truth was that she had spent far too much time reimagining it. Every time she would look at him, her gaze would drift to his gracefully long fingers and she would feel them on her all over again. And then there were the times he would touch her. His hand would grip her hip and squeeze gently as he helped her dismount, or his arm would tighten and pull her indecently close to him, despite the awkwardness of the pommel. If the lingering touches were intentional or simply imagined by her hypersensitivity, Merewyn didn’t know.
When they stopped at midday to eat cheese and bread and allow the horse to rest, the air hung thick between them. It was awkward, but not entirely unpleasant. Especially not when she caught him watching her. No one had ever looked at her like that before. A few of Alfred’s men had looked at her with lust in their eyes. She knew that look. This one made the intensity of those pale in comparison. Eirik did more than look past the clothes she wore to see what was underneath. He seemed to look deeper, into her very soul, so that nothing was hidden from him. The more it happened, the more she wanted to open herself to him.
By the time they approached the sod house in the distance, she was distinctly unsettled and aware of him. Every nuance of his breathing and cadence of his step was noticed. He’d been tense for the past hour and becoming even more.
‘This is my farm.’ When he answered he didn’t even bother to glance back at her. His body had become tighter, his steps less fluid.
Merewyn glanced again at the sod house that blended in so well with the landscape. It appeared to be a part of the hill that was behind it. She hadn’t even seen it until they were almost upon it and the wooden door became clearly visible. She didn’t see any animals or people around to indicate it was a working farm. There were fields in the distance, but they were dormant now that winter was settling in. She couldn’t tell if there was a fire inside the house.
‘I thought you lived with your father.’
‘I do. This farm belonged to an uncle. My mother’s brother. He died a few years back without issue, so it’s mine now.’ They had drawn even with the door, so he dropped the lead and walked to reach for her.
A flicker of anticipation came to life in her belly the second before he touched her. His strong hands tightened on her hips as he pulled her swiftly from the saddle to stand before him. But he didn’t let go and instead held her there. She was entirely too close to him for sanity’s sake and held her breath as she looked up to meet his deep blue gaze. The fire in them threatened to scorch her as it warmed the air between them.
‘Are you hungry?’ he asked.
Food was more than her churning stomach could handle at the moment. Merewyn shook her head, afraid that to give voice to a reply would reveal her feelings. Feeling
s she wasn’t certain she was ready to verbalise. She just wanted him like he’d been last night. The anticipation was almost unbearable.
‘Me either.’ He surprised her by grinning. A sight rarely seen from him and made all the more wolfish for its scarcity. Eirik’s hand on her hip urged her towards the house.
The door opened into what appeared to be the main room, where there was already a small fire blazing in the hearth and a bit of meat roasting on a spit. A row of low benches sat against the wall with a hallway just past them that led into the interior of the home. There appeared to be other rooms but they were all dark.
‘Is someone else here?’
‘A man and his sons worked the farm while I was away, but they live on the other side of the fields. Jarl Leif loaned me a messenger that I sent ahead to give notice of my arrival.’ Eirik gestured to the low benches that lined one wall near the fire. ‘Sit and rest. I’ll see to the horse and return soon.’
Eirik barely glanced her way as he left. Merewyn drew her arms about herself, uncertain how to proceed. Eating was the last thing on her mind, so she walked to the benches and unrolled the pile of furs and blankets she assumed the caretaker had left there. She spread them out along two of the benches, but the task was completed all too quickly and she was left to her restless thoughts. Filled with nervous energy, she found wood piled in a corner and added a few sticks to the fire, prodding it until it was blazing and filling the small space with its warmth.
Task accomplished, she rubbed her hands together as she perched on the edge of a bench and closed her eyes to see him as he had been the night in the bath. His body bare to her gaze. Even then, even with her fears and uncertainties, his masculinity had attracted her. From the beginning she’d been aware of his strength, but that night she had seen it. His chest, arms and legs were all muscle. His stomach was roped in muscle. That night she had wanted to touch him, to feel that firmness beneath her fingers, to know how his skin would feel. Tonight she could know if she allowed him his way.
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