Leif froze as he took in the scene of clothes strewn around the room and the couple in bed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I would have---” Leif stuttered and backed out of the room.
Strian gave Gressa peck on her nose before leaving their bed. He moved to the door, but Gressa gasped.
“Aren’t you going to put some pants on? At least wrap a blanket around you?”
“No.”
“Strian!”
“I have every intention of letting Leif know I plan to return to my wife. The man can’t keep his hands off his own wife. She was pregnant within a moon of their marriage. He’ll understand.”
“Still--”
Strian was through the door before she could finish her thought. He pulled the door closed and crossed his arms as he glared at Leif, who in turn laughed.
“There’s nothing funny about barging in on a man with his wife. A wife who was content to laze the day away in bed with her husband. Speak.”
Leif continued to laugh, able to tell Strian had plans for the morning, and they didn’t involve anyone but Gressa.
“We were wondering where you were.”
“I think your sister sent you to rescue me. Who couldn’t guess what I would be doing with Gressa in our home? Especially after the scene I made last night. I thought it was rather obvious to everyone I still consider her my wife.”
“Freya’s nagging might have had a little to do with it, but we all still thought you would make it to the training field. This isn’t a time to grow lax.”
Strian glared at Leif as he insinuated Strian shirked his duties.
“Have you already been to Tyra and Bjorn’s door? Are they in the fields?”
Leif’s brow furrowed.
“Of course not. They’re newlyweds.”
“And just what do you think we feel like? It was our first real night together as husband and wife. It’s been ten years since I’ve had my wife in my home.” Strian growled. “Go tell your sister and all the other busybodies, that we will emerge when we’re ready and not before. If that’s in a day or a week, that’s no one’s business but ours.”
Leif opened his mouth to say something, but Strian was faster.
“I may have let you think I’ve been with other women, but I haven’t touched a woman since the last time I made love to Gressa. It was easier to let you think I moved on than hear you nagging that I should. Leave, Leif, before I throw my best friend out of my home.”
Leif nodded.
“We suspected as much, but as you said it, was easier to think you moved on.” He turned towards the door but paused before opening it. “Be sure to let the poor woman come up for air long enough to have a proper meal. She’s thinner than I remember.”
Strian grunted, but he knew he had gained his friend’s approval, and his off-hand remark was the closest thing to a kind sentiment that they would share.
Gressa scurried to duck back under the covers when she heard the front door shut. She had crept out of bed when she heard Leif’s voice because she could not hear what they said until she stood close to the door. She managed to arrange the covers and close her eyes just before Strian opened the chamber door.
Strian took in the sight of Gressa’s hair strewn across his pillow, and her shoulder peeking out from under the blanket. He slipped into bed and pulled her against his chest.
“You don’t need to pretend. I’m sure you were listening at the door.” His fingers found her nipples as he talked. He toyed with them until Gressa pressed her hips back against his still hard length.
“How did you know?”
“Because as much as we have changed, we are both still the same. You’ve always been too curious, especially if you think it concerns you.”
“And it did.”
“Yes, in part.”
Strian rubbed his finger over the beaded nipple before pinching. He was unprepared for Gressa’s lusty response. She rolled towards him, pushing him against the mattress before straddling him. She guided his length and moaned as her body swallowed his cock.
“If you’re going to claim we’re like newlyweds, then we should act the part.”
Strian could not remember what he had been about to say as he watched Gressa’s breasts sway as her hips undulated above him. He sat up and once more pulled Gressa’s body against his, wanting them to fuse together. Gressa tightened her embrace as they moved as one. She let her head fall back as Strian nudged, making room for his scorching lips to trail kisses up to her ear.
“I want to make love to you until neither of us can see straight, until starvation forces us to stop. But the only hunger I feel now is for your body against mine. The only place I want to be is inside you.”
Gressa listened to Strian’s words and felt the ache in belly grower stronger and somehow deeper. She wanted what he did, and she wanted to hear more.
“Does it feel good?”
“Gods, do you even have to ask?”
“I’d like to know,” her tone hesitant, proving she needed some reassurance after their years of separation.
Strian dug his fingers into her backside as he pressed her harder against his length. As much as he liked the intimacy of their position, he wanted, no needed, to show her the intensity of his desire. He twisted until Gressa laid on the bed. His thrusts increased in speed and force.
“I want to be deep inside of you until you scream my name. I want to watch your nipples tighten as you climax with me so deep I feel like I can touch your heart. I want to show you how much I love you as much as I lust for the feel of you squeezing my cock until I can’t stop my need for release. I want to make love to you, and I want to fuck you. I want everything.”
Gressa’s arousal blocked out everything but Strian’s words and the feel of him. He said everything she needed to hear, and she trusted him enough to know his words were sincere. These were not the words of a man who merely sought pleasure. They were the words of a man who loved her more deeply than she might have understood if she did not feel the same for him.
“I want to see your face as you come apart in me, a look no one can share. It’s mine, and mine alone, knowing I did that to you. I want to hold you deep inside me until your need consumes you. A need that we create with only each other. Strian, we’ve made love all night. Now I want you to fuck me.”
Strian needed no further prompting. His thrusts were deep, hard, and fast. He might have worried that he would hurt her if he did not remember how much she liked this. She had always met his lust pound for pound, inch for inch. She was the only one who ever had, but then, she was the only one who had ever aroused him to such measures. She lifted her hips in time with his movements, and she begged for more with her moans and the strength of her grip on his buttocks. He was only too happy to comply.
Gressa’s body responded to Strian’s urgency with an ache that bordered on pain. The mixture of pleasure and pain had her begging for more. She watched as Strian’s control slipped further and further until there was none left. She had lost hers the moment he rolled them over. She knew her fingers would leave marks on Strian, and she wanted to. She had hidden her possessiveness and jealousy when they were younger, but she had always enjoyed seeing the small bruises, not because she enjoyed hurting him, but rather knowing she put them there, knowing no other woman had. Strian had understood without ever remarking on them.
“Are you claiming me once more?” Strian smiled despite the exertion. “I wish to do the same.”
Strian pushed up on his forearms and squeezed her breast mercilessly, garnering yet another moan of pleasure. He suckled as her nails raked down his back. He pulled back and kissed the puckered and red flesh before pressing his lips to her just above her nipple. He sucked until he was sure he would leave a mark. He repeated the love bites several times before switching to the other breast. As he covered her skin with small bruises, Gressa could no longer hold back. The physical and emotional pleasure was more than her body could withstand, and she cli
maxed with a loud scream that finished in a moan.
“Strian!”
Strian no longer needed to wait, his release overtaking him as he listened to his name being called from her lips, his own lips filled once more with her breast.
They collapsed breathless, Strian rolling to his side to keep from crushing her. He pulled her hip, urging her to face him.
“You’re mine, Gressa. I won’t ever let you go again. I will follow until we meet again at Odin’s feasting hall.”
“You promise?”
“With my life.”
“And I will find the strength and the way to always come back to you. I don’t know that I could survive another separation. I need you.”
“Do you know how much I have longed to hear you say that ever since I found you? Do you know how I’ve ached to know you feel the same as I do?”
Strian brushed hair away from her damp temple as tears slipped from Gressa’s eyes.
“My love,” she choked out. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for turning you away the weeks we traveled. I’m sorry for pushing you away since we have been home. I never imagined you would leave this tribe.”
Gressa held her breath, waiting to hear Strian say he had changed his mind. Her watery eyes looked at him before she continued.
“I don’t know if you’ll be happy in Wales, but I know you won’t be shunned.”
“My home will always be where I can fall asleep with you in my arms.”
The tears fell faster as Gressa’s heart expanded to absorb Strian’s pledge, but they also fell faster for the secret she could not share. As full as her heart was, it shattered with the misery of not being able to tell Strian everything from the past ten years. So instead of letting her mind linger, she infused her love into their kiss. It was long after that, that they fell asleep once more, exhausted but fulfilled.
Ten
Strian and Gressa remained secluded in their love den for three more days. During that time, they shared how their lives had evolved since the battle that left Gressa behind. She told him she had seen and heard him calling for her, but that she had been too weak for him to hear. She told him more about her friendship with Princess Enfys, or at least what she thought had been a friendship.
“Enfys listened when I spoke of you. She comforted me often during the years when I thought I couldn’t go on and that the heartache would break me. I spoke of our childhood together and our courtship. She knew things about us that no one but you would know. I believed I would never see you again, so I divulged those secrets believing they would never go further than her ears. The more I think about how I came to be with Grímr, the more I realize her betrayal. She must have shared those private conversations with Dafydd because there is no other way Grímr could have known what you mean to me. He never would have known that threats to your life would be the only thing that could manipulate me and force me to, to---” Gressa could not continue, the shame of having put her mouth on any part of Grímr, let alone his manhood, made her nauseous.
“Gressa, I don’t consider what you did infidelity. Not anymore now that I understand. You thought you were protecting me. I understand because I would’ve done anything if I’d been in your place. Please don’t feel ashamed. I don’t enjoy thinking of it, but I can’t explain how loved I feel knowing you still put me first.” Strian caressed her back as they sat facing one another, Gressa’s legs resting near his hips. He lifted her until she could take his sword into her sheath. They sat, joined, for a long moment just enjoying the connection.
“I still regret it. I regret ever trusting Enfys and Dafydd. I believed she had forgiven me for Dafydd’s pursuit those first weeks I was there. I thought Dafydd had moved on to find other women while Enfys bore him four more children. One, if not both of them, deceived me.”
“That is the truth but sending you to Grímr is what made us find one another. I can’t overlook that blessing.”
“But I--” Gressa sucked in her lips, making her mouth a taut line.
“I know. I know you never intended to let me find you.”
Gressa shut her eyes, unable to look at Strian as he spoke the truth. He kissed her neck before smattering kisses on each cheek, her forehead, then her nose before reaching her lips. His thumb pressed to release her bottom lip from her teeth. The kiss was slow, building the fire in their bellies once again urging them to rock against one another.
“Gressa, I know there is something you are still holding back, even after these days alone talking of the past. I won’t force you to share your secret, but I wish you would trust me.”
Gressa’s eyes flew open.
“I do trust you. It’s why I never tried to escape ever since you found me. I still believe I’ll be safer once we’re in Wales, but I trust you.”
Strian lifted and lowered Gressa as her inner muscles clung to his cock. His body cried out for him to stop talking and make love to her, but his mind was not at rest.
“There’s still a secret though. I’m a patient man, and I won’t break from whatever you’re hiding. I won’t deny that it hurts, but it seems it’s your secret to keep.”
“You can overlook it? Or at least live with it?”
“Yes. I suspect you are trying to protect me just as you always have.”
“I am, Strian. I’ll never stop trying to protect you.”
Fire fueled their kiss, and the time for talking had ended. Their motionless joining had been a fusion of their souls as much as their movements now were a fusion of their hearts.
They finally left their longhouse, Gressa having agreed it was once more her home, and ventured out to the training field. Strian had returned Gressa’s bow and arrows before they set sail from Scotland and then her sword while they remained secluded. Tyra had found the sword on the field after the battle and given it to Strian. He had kept it tucked away in his parents’ chamber, knowing it was a place he did not have to see it. He could not bear parting with it, but the sight of it had caused more pain.
As they approached the others, Strian squeezed the hand he held. Gressa continued to look straight ahead but returned the squeeze.
Tyra and Bjorn had returned to the fields just that morning after celebrating their own union for the past three days. Freya scowled at Gressa but said nothing instead turning to whisper to her husband Erik. Leif stood silently, but his gaze caught and followed his wife Sigrid as she left a storage building and returned to the jarl’s longhouse.
“It’s good to see you out here,” Tyra smiled warmly. “I’ve missed training with you.”
Tyra’s comments garnered a grunt from Freya, but Freya turned back to Gressa. She studied Gressa, and when Gressa did not flinch, Freya nodded.
“I would have a word with you, Gressa,” Freya said.
“Very well.” Gressa agreed without breaking her eye contact with her former friend.
The two women stepped away as Erik and Strian tensed, watching their wives walk away together.
“Freya won’t do anything to harm Gressa,” Tyra reassured. “She only wanted to protect you, and you frightened her when you said you wanted to remain in Scotland.”
Strian looked over his shoulder at Tyra and knew she was right. The argument that ensued when Strian said he wanted to remain in Scotland after finding Gressa had been a bitter one, and it was the only time in any of their lives that Freya used her rank as the jarl’s daughter and leader of their expedition. Strian could only imagine Freya’s, and everyone else’s reaction, when he told them he and Gressa would leave for a new home in Wales. He turned back to watch his wife and his friend speak. There were no raised voices or punches thrown, so he considered that a win.
“Gressa, I know I owe you an apology for what I said and how I acted at the Ross keep, but I won’t apologize for wanting to protect Strian. I can’t imagine what you endured being injured and stolen away, but I do remember what happened to Strian. He barely spoke the first six months we were back. He trained harder than I had ever seen, thinking
we would return to Scotland soon and that he could search for you. We didn’t for several years, and resentment began to fester within Strian. He was short tempered and drank too much, rarely leaving your home. The one-year anniversary of your disappearance frightened all of us. He disappeared, too. He was gone for two moons. He’d gone into the mountains and built a hut where he hunted and grieved. The second year was as bad as the first, but he was willing to join us for meals in my parents’ home. By the third year, we thought he had resigned himself to you never returning. We went raiding in Scotland that year. Everywhere we went he asked about you, hoping someone might have a hint to where you were. No one ever knew, not on any of the raids after that when he interrogated anyone we captured. Each time we returned home, he would lock himself in your home for a moon. So, maybe now you can understand why I wanted to protect him. I truly don’t believe he would survive losing you again. I fear he would let go of everything, believing he has no more reason to live. Searching for you gave him purpose even if it tore him apart.”
Gressa listened to everything Freya said without interruption. She found herself holding her breath as the story progressed. These were things Strian never admitted in their many conversations over the past three days. She understood why he had not, but now knowing the truth convinced her even more that keeping her secret was worth it.
“Thank you for telling me, Freya,” Gressa’s voice cracked as she spoke. “He didn’t tell me any of this, as I’m sure you guessed since we’re speaking now.”
Gressa looked over at Strian, knowing he worried about her. She smiled before turning back to Freya.
“When I saw his father, Ivar, Leif, and Bjorn carry him away, I was sure there would be no reason to go on. I accepted that I would die where I lay. Needless to say, it was a shock when I awoke on the deck of a boat, having stitched me to prepare me for being sold as a slave. The man and woman, who I suppose saved me, saw Strian jump from the boat and try to swim back to me. I knew then that I had to fight to stay alive. I wanted to find some way, anyway, to get back to him. I was fevered and bedridden for two moons once I arrived in Wales and was too indisposed to travel for several months after. I listened to those around me who said they would never sail to a land filled with Norsemen. I listened to those who told me I would die trying to cross Britain and Scotland as a Norse woman alone. I listened and grew more defeated each time someone told me it was impossible. I would have tried running away, but I was bound to Wales whether or not I liked it.” Gressa was in danger of letting her secret slip, but if she would ever tell it, Strian had to be the first to know. “I also knew I was safer in Wales because no one knew what it meant to be half Sami. They accepted me because I was a trained warrior and a better archer than even their most well-known. There was not a day that went by that I didn’t think of Strian. Something always brought forth a memory, and it was agony those first years as the memories tried to consume me. I finally learned to live with them, but I never moved on from Strian. Never.”
Strian (Viking Glory Book 4) Page 7
