Chapter Twelve

“A girl who is much sought after should marry the man that she likes, and whom she thinks would be obedient to her, and capable of giving her pleasure.”
Kamasutra, Vatsyayana second century AD

Hannah’s lips fell open as Erik’s met hers. The coolness of the water and air was forgotten with the heat unleashed within her. The throbbing below bubbled up like a pot boiling over.

Using the buoyancy of the water to her advantage, Hannah lifted her legs and clamped them around Erik’s waist, bringing the crux against his abdomen as she kissed him back. The heat of her core rubbed against him underwater. Arms wrapped around his neck, she opened her mouth, her tongue tasting him, and she hoisted as if climbing him while their kiss continued unchecked and wild. She was desperate to hold on to him, desperate to save herself.

The rasping mews she made against his mouth seemed to urge him on, and he trailed his mouth down to her neck. Tingles shot along Hannah, under her skin, and she threw her head back, exposing her throat as if she didn’t mind if he bit into her. He supported her back as she arched, and he lowered his mouth over one taut nipple. The heat and the pressure of his swirling tongue made her moan and rub her open crux against him. He was all man, hot, thick, almost violent in his need, and it brought the Valkyrie out in her, her nails scoring down his back.

Darkness draped them in shadows as they moved together in the pond. Naked skin rubbed against naked skin, the sensations bringing out a wild side of Hannah she didn’t know existed. It should shock her, but it matched Erik’s own wild response. The water lapped around them as they made waves on the calm surface.

Her hand dropped down into the water, reaching under her arse to find him. He groaned, and she lowered her legs so she slid gently down between him and his straining erection. It slid hot along the cleft between her legs as if searching for her heat. Using the water, she rose to his ear.

“You are thick and long,” she whispered. “And I ache.” She ground her pelvis against him.

He growled, gathering her to him so that his jack once more lay against his taut abdomen. He ravished her wicked mouth and carried her step by step through the water to the shore. She’d brought a blanket but wouldn’t stop kissing him to tell him. He could find it by chance or take her in the wildflowers and grass for all she cared.

Arms wrapped completely around each other, Erik walked as if they were one being toward the shadow of the boulders. The blanket sunk into the grasses as he lowered Hannah to its softness. Erik grabbed one of his drying sheets, kneeled beside her, and wiped her limbs as she lay spread there in the darkness. Hannah raised her arms overhead, raking her fingers through her wet hair to make it disperse out around her like some shadowed sun. Her legs shifted and rubbed on the blanket, her legs spread, and her breasts sat perched, the nipples hard. One hand stroked her sensitive nub while the other cupped her breast. “Can you see me in the dark?”

“Aye. Utsøkt skjønnhet,” he said with reverence. She didn’t need to understand the words to know it was praise.

“I need your heat,” she said.

Erik scooped up the second, folded blanket and snapped it open. He threw it over his shoulders like a long cape and slowly lowered over her. Their body heat was caught between them, the cloth hiding them from everything but the feel of each other.

“Bloody hell, I want ye,” she said, her Scottish accent growing thicker. “Inside me.”

He growled low, holding himself half over her, his forearms flanking her shoulders. Dipping his face, he inhaled along the skin between her breasts and moved his face up her collarbone and throat, kissing and nibbling as he went. Hannah’s fingers shot through his hair as he reached her lips, holding his face to hers. She moved restlessly against him, her legs tangling with his.

For long moments, they explored with abandon, kissing and stroking each other. He cupped her breast, and she gasped when he teased her nipple, dipping his mouth to its hard peak. Sensation prickled like lightning, and she felt a deep, aching need as he stroked along her flared hip, grasping the bone for a moment as if he claimed it as his. And right then, it was.

His large hand slid down her loin inward to the mound between her parted legs. She groaned loudly as he touched her sensitive nub outside, rubbing it briskly until she panted, bending her knees. He dipped his finger between her legs like he had in the barn. Could he feel that she was intact? He’d already touched her there, so if he’d felt her maidenhead, there was no hiding she was a virgin.

He was a shadow above her. Even his outline was hidden by the blanket, but she could feel him staring down at her.

She reached for his jack, bringing the tip to her. “I want you inside me.”

“I will bring you pleasure first,” he said. His strong fingers dipped into her, and she moaned, riding against his hand.

She could feel her own wet heat. “But I ache.”

He covered her mouth with his, swallowing her moans and words with kisses as he rubbed her most sensitive spot outside as he moved fingers inside.

Leaving her mouth, he kissed a trail to her ear. “I want to do something to you, but I’m afraid you’ll wake the homestead with your cries.” His voice sounded hoarse as if he strained against his need to fill her.

She reached down his body to stroke his hard jack. “I’ll pretend I’m gagged.”

His lips moved back to her ear. “I want to taste you.”

She shivered at the wild promise in his tone. When he began to kiss a trail down her stomach, sliding under the blanket, the picture in the tupping book rolled through Hannah’s mind. She stifled a moan at the thought and squirmed, the sound of her breath shallow and fast.

Hannah’s knees fell wide. He looked up her naked body as he moved downward, the blanket dragging back with him. The moon had risen somewhat, casting a cool glow. She watched him with hooded eyes, her lips parted, and he lowered his mouth between her parted thighs.

“Bloody hell,” she murmured as he loved her there with his mouth and tongue. “Oh God.” His hair brushed her inner thighs. She curled her fists in the blanket under her at the building tension inside. Her breaths increased with the rhythm his talented mouth created, until she gave a small cry against the hand she’d thrown over her lips. Jerking against him, she reached her pleasure, and he continued as she rode the waves.

“Erik, please,” she whispered. She held her arms out to him as he stared down at her pale body, so open, so ready. Sliding his rock-hard, hot body along hers, he kissed her mouth as he propped himself over her. Her hands held his face, her thumb rubbing his damp lips. “One day I will do the same for you.”

“Aye. But now…” he murmured, moving the head of his jack against the flooded heat below.

She smiled in the darkness, spreading her legs in an angle that welcomed him. She pulled her face to his. “Yes, bloody hell, yes.” She wrapped her legs around his hips, thrusting herself higher to him.

Hannah had never been so wound with lust, even when she’d brought herself to pleasure.

He kissed her and moved to her ear. “Hold on, Hannah love,” he murmured. With a nudge against her heat, he thrust inside. She gasped, and he stilled, fully embedded inside her body. Could he tell she’d been a virgin? She’d felt no pain, perhaps the tiniest of stings.

She thrust upward against him. “Please, Erik,” she whispered, and he started moving. The feel of being completely impaled thrilled her. As he leaned in to kiss her, thrusting below, all her worry turned to ash. Now she could just enjoy.

Hannah clung to his shoulders, her body throbbing still with her first release, and words bubbled out of her, sliding wickedly from her tongue. “Oh yes,” came from her lips on narrow exhales. “So full of you. Oh God. Yes.”

Thrusting inside her, his body surrounded Hannah on all sides too. Muscular biceps propped from his elbows and forearms on both sides of her head, his undulating torso sliding in concert with hers. His hot breath tickled along her ear, his words rumbling from her ear straight to her core.

“Through the tightest of sheathes, I plunge through. Tell me, sweet Hannah, how you like my cod ramming deep inside you.”

His words struck like lightning straight through her. Sliding back out, he thrust in fully, and she gasped, meeting him.

“Tell me,” he whispered in her ear, grazing the skin along the rim with his strong teeth.

“Erik,” she breathed. “Such wild pleasure. Yes, oh yes. Plunge deep.” She struggled to keep the words to a whisper in the silent night air.

He groaned low with animalistic resonance, sending a chill teasing her fevered skin. This man was like a beast marking her as his, and she loved it. Reveled in the taking, in the full ravishing of her body and maybe her soul.

Her breathing matched their rhythm, increasing with her frantic moans. He reached between them to rub her outer nub as he continued to plunge into her hot core. She teetered on the brink of release. “Oh yes, Hannah, squeeze me tight with your pleasure.”

Hannah’s whole body felt like it was exploding and clenching at the same time, coming apart as the taut sensations shot through her. Back arching, she was about to call out when Erik’s palm landed over her mouth. Her deep moan was muffled, but still the waves flooded through her. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting it carry her away.

“Leif’s wife said Hannah was headed to the pond to bathe.” The voice cut through the darkness above them on the ridge.

“Erik!” a second voice called, cracking through the night like a hammer.

Hannah’s eyes flew open. In the light of the cloud-muted moon, she watched Erik’s tight features harden, his mouth open with a silent yell. Her pelvis remained braced high, and he thrust in once more as he lost himself, spilling within her open body. She felt the swell and heat of it, their movements still fast but shallow.

“Erik? Hannah Sinclair? Are you out here?”

Erik stilled into a statue of granite over her and in her, but inside she felt his throbbing heat. Filling me. Gifting me with a bairn? She smiled in the darkness despite the danger of being discovered. What did she care if others knew she was no virgin?

Footsteps came down the hill toward the pond. They clung together, joined and throbbing while their bodies wrung the last bits of pleasure from their mating.

“If she drowned—”

The other man cut him off with brisk words said in their Norwegian language. The first man was surely Nial, who seemed to prefer English much of the time. The second sounded like Sten.

Erik didn’t move off her but lifted slightly to allow her to breathe easier. There was no running away. Their only escape was to remain unnoticed in the deep shadows under the dark blanket she’d taken from the cottage. The two men continued to talk and call for them periodically as they tramped through the tall grass.

“Faen i helvete,” Erik murmured the curse he favored as if to himself.

Hannah held her breath, the sound of her heart thumping in her ears. She could only see Erik’s face before her as he hovered.

Stomp. Oomph! “Fy faen!” Sten yelled.

Hannah squeezed her eyes shut as Erik covered her completely with his body, protecting her from the flailing legs and arms as Sten tripped over them. The yelling warrior tumbled beside them in the tall grass.

Nial yelled too. “A body? By God! Where?”

“Here on the ground,” Sten answered. “I fell over it.”

Erik’s curt retort overrode both their continued questions. “Hva pokker! Get off us!”

“Erik?” Sten asked.

“Us?” Nial yelled, and Erik cursed again. He remained covering Hannah. Thank God, it was dark. “Is Hannah with you?”

Sten found his feet again. “What the hell are you two doing here hiding in the…?” His words trailed off. “Fy faen!” he yelled, easily putting together the obvious conclusion. “Fy faen!” He rattled off a string of punctuated Norwegian.

“Get off her,” Nial said, yanking back the top blanket. “By God, you’re naked.”

“Naked?” Sten said with a fair amount of despair. “Are you well, Lady Hannah?”

“What have you done?” Nial asked, dropping the cover. She wasn’t sure which one of them he was asking.

Hannah felt Erik tense, but he wouldn’t move away from her, covering her. She peeked out past Erik’s shoulder to see the dark form of Nial’s large head, the moon behind him. “I am quite well. I am wonderful, in fact.”

Sten choked, coughing into a fist. The two men stood on either side of her and Erik, staring down at them lumped together under a woolen blanket, the edge hovering under Hannah’s chin now since Erik kept lifting it higher on her.

“I can’t bloody believe this,” Nial said, anger punctuating his words. “Untouched, Erik. She’s to be untouched.”

“And you’re bloody well touching all of her right now,” Sten said, his voice rising. “Like…all of her!”

Hannah crossed her arms under the blanket at their rebuke. “I seduced him. He hadn’t a chance of escape.”

Sten choked, the noise somewhere between an angry grunt and laughter.

Erik slowly extricated himself, leaving her wrapped up. The sight of his taut arse and long, muscular legs in the moonlight sent tingles through her body. Lord, he made her wanton. Despite his nakedness, he stood proud before his men. “Go on back to the homestead. I’ll bring Hannah along in a bit.”

“I will stay,” Nial said, his arms crossed. Standing there in the moonlight fully dressed, he should look more imposing than a naked Erik. But the size and obvious sturdiness of Erik’s muscular form and strong stance made him still the leader.

“I said go,” Erik replied as if he were swathed in armor and fully armed.

Sten slapped Nial’s arm. “’Tis not like he could make her less untouched.” He pulled Nial’s arm to get him following him uphill, and they trudged away in silence that felt heavy like an incoming storm.

Hannah sighed and let her gaze roam over the beautiful figure of her lover. Broad back straight, his spine leading up to shoulders thick with muscle from wielding his sword. His hair reached just past his nape and moved about his face as he turned back toward her, walking briskly to crouch beside her.

“Do you have a rag?” she asked, and he stood again, retrieving one from the lump that was his discarded clothing.

“Thank you,” she said when he handed it to her. “I was warned about…the mess.”

He exhaled and sat beside her on the blanket. “Hannah…” He searched her face. “You said you were not a virgin, but I’m now certain you were.” His brows furrowed. “You lied.”

Hannah’s chest constricted, and she swallowed past the tightness in her throat. Was that guilt? Shame? Remorse for tricking him? “Think over the words I said. I never lied.”

“Not with words, but with…everything else.” He shook his head. “And I…released in you.”

Despite what they’d shared, she felt suddenly shy and…villainous. She had used him for more than simple pleasure. She sat straight, feeling the slight discomfort of her nether regions pressed to the hard ground. “I want a child, and I want to go home. Seducing you might answer both my prayers.”

“You tricked me,” he said, the warmth in his voice icing over so much that she shivered.

Hannah pulled the blanket around her form, suddenly feeling more exposed than when she’d spread herself out on the blanket before him. “I…” He abducted me. Took me from my clan and homeland. She tilted her chin up as she wrapped her arms around her knees. “I am a Valkyrie, a warrior woman who must do whatever she can to battle for her own life and happiness. Surely, you of all people understand.”

Erik stared at her mute. “Faen i helvete!” he yelled suddenly, making her jump. From her time with the Norwegians, she knew it was a terrible curse.

Hannah struggled to stand and wrapped the blanket around herself as she stared into his murderous features. “I am not the villain here, Erik Halverson. I am the victim, the one stolen away. I must do what I can to make myself less desired by your dowager-queen. If she wants a virgin, I am no use to her now. You might as well sail me home.”

“You used my own lust against me.” With a grunt, he turned away, striding to his clothes.

She followed after him. “I must use the weapons I have, Erik. Your attraction to me was the only one available.” And it wasn’t all about tricking him. The pleasure they’d shared had been completely real, but saying as much now… He wouldn’t believe her.

Blanket wrapped around her tightly, Hannah hobbled on her tiptoes to catch up. “Why does Sophie want me untouched? Does she have someone there who wants to marry me if I’m a virgin?”

He didn’t answer, throwing his tunic on instead.

“Erik?”

His head emerged through the hole. “A lady of pure reputation will be of better use to her,” he said.

“Better use? For what?” Hannah pushed out of the blankets and strode through the cool night to grab up her own clothes next to him. “To marry a Danish aristocrat perhaps?” He didn’t answer. “I don’t want a husband from Sophie,” she said, her words tart with anger. She let it well up inside her chest, filling the hollow that her guilt and embarrassment had chiseled away. “I want to return home, Erik, not be forced into marrying some stranger in a foreign land.”

He turned to look straight at her. “So you…spread…” He stopped as if catching his wickedly damning tongue. Hannah was glad for the darkness because her cheeks flamed red. “And now your maidenhead is broken.”

“I thought you’d been able to tell I was intact from our time in the barn at Girnigoe.”

He ran a hand over his face. “This was a trick. You are a bloody siren.”

She inhaled fully through her nose, walked up to him, and shoved her pointed finger into his chest with each word. “I remind you, Erik Halverson, that I had planned to…lie with you back at Girnigoe before I knew you to be a dishonorable abductor. I want a child. I wanted to experience the fiery pleasure between a man and a woman. And I wanted you. That is all.” She dropped her hand. “However, I also want to be free.”

After a moment of staring at each other, he looked down and yanked on his trousers. Hannah walked back to the boulders, stepping into her petticoats. She yanked them up with as much force and tied them over her smock, forgoing the stays, which she’d carry. Her hair was still damp and heavy, bringing a chill to her scalp.

“I cannot return you to your home,” he said, shoving one foot into a boot. “I must complete my mission.” His anger had dulled.

She found it easier to inhale and shoved her bare feet into her boots. “Your mission is no longer possible, since I am no longer the virgin bride.”

“Fy faen.” His hands raised to shoot his fingers through his tousled hair. He looked at her. “Even so, you must act the part of a virgin, Hannah. To Sophie at Kronborg.”

“I will not,” she snapped, hands propped on her hips.

“You must.”

She stepped up to him, ignoring the pull of his large, warm body, and stared hard up into his shadowed face. “Then you, Erik Halverson, are the bloody villain, not me.”

Erik looked heavenward. Was he praying for God to give Hannah back her virginity? Without lowering his gaze back to her, he drew in a large breath and spoke. “I have a sister named Iselin.”

“Liar.”

He dropped his gaze to her, his brows bent. “I do.”

She raised one hand toward the ridge where the men had traipsed. “Nial said all your kin died from a great illness that swept your village. That you fight now for your sovereign, doing your duty. ’Tis the most important thing to you now.” It was apparently more important than her.

The clouds moved, and the moon beat down on them like a cold sun. The silver glow made him look like a marble statue, strong yet sad. “’Tis true the illness wiped out my family, all of them, save one.” He leveled a look at her. “Iselin is twenty years old now, old enough to marry.” He swallowed, glancing away. “Two months ago, I was called home from the camps near the Sweden-Norway border where my Wolf Warriors patrol against those who continuously press into our territory. When I arrived at our cottage, I was told I must hasten to Denmark, to the court, that Iselin had been taken there.”

He inhaled, turning toward the pond. His tunic hung untucked, and he stood there with the moon reflected across the water and the stillness of the breeze in the small valley. Erik emanated sadness.

It squelched Hannah’s fury as thoroughly as water dumped over a candle. “Sophie has Iselin?” she asked, her words even, without emotion.

“Aye.”

She walked over to stand next to Erik, both of them looking out at the water that had enveloped them a mere hour ago. “Why? And was she taken against her will?” Hannah asked.

“Aye. Sophie’s soldiers abducted her. Took her to Denmark.” He turned his face to her. “Unless I accomplish my mission, she will be married off to Peter Kaas, the chancellor, something Iselin says will push her to…take her own life.”

Hannah’s heart sank, and she pressed her palm over it. “You are trading me for Iselin.” It wasn’t a question, but she waited to see if he’d deny it.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I was to confirm that you are indeed beloved by your brothers, so much so that they would heed the word of the dowager-queen of Denmark if she possessed you.”

“Why does Sophie want to control a Scottish clan? Her daughter is the Scottish queen.”

He looked at her again as if it were easier to talk about politics than his mission. “Sophie has heard from her daughter, Queen Anne, that the Four Horsemen are so strong they are likely to take over Scotia from her husband, King James. That she fears for her life, that of the king, and their kingdom. Sophie is convinced from her daughter’s information that the Sinclair Clan and their mass of allies will start a civil war in Scotia. Although the council that acts for our young King Christian does not care so much, the dowager-queen loves her daughter beyond reason and has ordered that the Horsemen be brought to heel.”

“She controls you through Iselin and plans to control my brothers through keeping me hostage in Denmark.” Although Hannah’s legs felt wobbly, she shook her head. “My brothers will not allow it.”

“If they try to take you from Denmark, they will be killed,” he said. “Either way, Sophie succeeds in bringing the Four Horsemen to heel.”

“Who can kill my four fierce brothers?” But she already knew the answer. Sophie meant for her Wolf Warriors to kill them. “You…” she whispered. “You’re supposed to kill my brothers if they refuse to abandon me.”

Erik tipped his face to the few stars that sparked brightly between the clouds. “Frode is betrothed to Iselin. He’ll do anything to get her back.”

As will you.

Hannah ran a hand down her cheek. Daingead. An innocent girl was imprisoned in Denmark. She was probably frantic with loneliness and fear, and prepared to take her own life, leaving Erik completely alone in the world.

Erik walked back to their blankets, gathering them while Hannah shrugged into her bodice. He waited until she tied her boots, and they climbed the hill to reach the ridge, both of them silent as if their fury had ebbed like a dissipated hurricane.

The ache between her legs reminded her of the delicious adventure they’d shared, but Nial’s and Sten’s anger had tainted her first experience with ultimate carnal pleasure. For the last three years, Hannah had been shaking off the shackles that had dragged her into a sad, lonely corner of life. And now she’d been forced into another type of prison. This time, however, she was determined to take her life and her deepest desires into her own hands.