Page 52 of To Tame a Viking Warlord

Nothing in his life had ever come close to this. He knew, with a certainty that went bone deep, that this was exactly where he was meant to be.

He gazed down at her with love as he took his fill, savoring every moment. He could not believe she was here at last, in his bed. His eyes dropped to her belly and he wondered if she might conceive this very night. He wanted it. He wanted his seed to take root deep inside her. He wanted the sons and daughters he had been promised with her. He wanted all of it. His hand slid down and caressed her belly, and he imagined a child growing there, nurtured within her. He cupped her breast and imagined their babe at it.

Torstein shook his head. Surely he was going mad with pleasure. Never once had he thought of making a child while in the act. Yet the thought only drove him harder.

His thrusts grew deeper and faster, his breath ragged. Samira's moans rose to meet them, and he could feel she was close again.

He reached down between them and stroked her swollen bud as he drove into her, then bent his head and drew her nipple into his mouth. That was all it took. His beautiful wife came apart a second time with an even louder cry, her body clenching around him so fiercely that a few thrusts later he followed her over the edge. He roared her name with abandon as he emptied himself deep inside her. She held him tight through every pulse of it, and he felt each shudder and contraction that racked her body until at last he withdrew and collapsed onto the bed beside her.

He was spent, sated, and satisfied as never before. He gathered her against his chest and kissed her gently, and she kissed him back.

After a time he rose and returned with a warm, wet cloth and a towel. He tenderly cleaned away the evidence of their coupling, exchanged the fur for a clean, dry one, and climbed back into bed beside her.

Samira was exhausted. Her eyes were drifting shut, but a small smile lingered at the corners of her mouth. They fell into a deep sleep, naked and entwined and warm beneath his furs.

With Samira in his arms, Torstein knew he was finally home.

***

Morning at Hrafnaklett

SAMIRA WOKE TO GRAY light falling through the smoke hole and the weight of Torstein's arm across her waist.

He was already awake. He was lying on his side, watching her.

"You are staring," she said in Arabic.

"Aye," he replied.

She reached up and touched the amber stone at his throat. It was warm from his skin. "You wear this always."

"My mother gave it to me after the fever." He caught her hand and held it against his chest. "I was twelve winters old and near dead. The Valkyries came for me. I saw them plain as I see you."

She waited.

"My mother sent for an old healer. Brynhild. My father hated the old ways, but he let her in. She sat by my bed and told me I could not die, because the other half of my soul was waiting for me. In a land of sand, beside the great waters. A lass born under different stars." He gave a short laugh. "I told myself for years it was the fever talking."

Samira had gone very still.

"Then last winter, in Glenorchy, a seer named Morag told me the same thing. She had never heard of Brynhild. She said I would know my wife by her eyes. Dark, and older than her years." He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone, then touched the rose ring on her finger. "The same seer who gave me these. She said we would have four sons and two daughters."

"Six children?"

"Six. But only if I was willing to endure what comes before."

"And what comes before?"

"She did not say." His mouth twisted. "Seers never do."

Samira was quiet for a long moment. Then she told him.

"I dreamed of you. For more than a year before you came to Fez. A man rising out of the dunes with eyes of the darkest blue. He spoke to me, but the wind always took his words." She looked at him. "There were ships. Fields of ice. And blood. A great deal of blood."

"Blood."

"I did not know if you were sent as a warning or a blessing. When I saw you in the alley, I said it is you before I could stop myself."

"I heard you." His voice had gone rough. "I did not know what you meant. I only knew I would follow you anywhere after it."