Page 71 of The Outlaw Viking

Selik gasped then, and before she had time to take advantage of the opportunity to escape, he released her hands and shrugged out of his leather tunic and wool hauberk. In the blink of an eye, Selik’s hands were back on top of hers, pinning them to the pallet, and he was bare chested, wearing only his tight black braies and short leather boots.

Right to left, back and forth, he rubbed his chest across hers, barely skimming the surface, just enough to tease and tantalize and make her want more.

“Oh.”

“You say ‘oh’ now, but what will you say when I am done with you, foolish wench?”

“What do you mean?”

Selik chuckled. “Do you not want to know what your punishment will be?”

Rain nodded hesitantly.

“Remember that first time we talked, and you prattled on foolishly, as is your usual custom?”

Rain stiffened, not happy with his unflattering description.

“You told me that the best kind of loveplay—the best fantasy for a woman—was to be kissed for hours and hours and hours without any actual—”

Rain groaned. “Do you have to repeat back to me every single word I ever say?”

He smiled and continued. “Mayhap that’s what I should do—kiss you in hundreds of different ways ’til you can stand no more, then start all over again and—”

“That’s enough,” Rain interrupted, feeling a hot blush move up her neck to her cheeks. “You don’t have to go any further. I know what you’re referring to.”

“What, sweetling?” Selik asked, a wicked smile turning up his lips, as he drew out his words sensuously. “Methinks ’twould be a fitting punishment to fulfill your fantasy. And prove you wrong. Because I know for fact ’tis not the best fantasy. Mine is.”

Rain gasped.

“Yea, best you take a deep breath, angel. You will need it afore this night is through.”

Chapter Eleven

“You think kissing me will be a punishment?” Rain asked incredulously, then laughed. “You haven’t been listening to me very well. I told you I lo—”

Selik clamped a hand over her mouth, his other hand neatly shifting so that it held both her hands in his clasp above her head. He refused to let her finish her declaration. How foolish of him to think that he could deny her love if he never heard the words!

“Yea, that is all I have been doing the last few sennights—listening to your tongue rattle on about this, that, and every other bloody damn thing.”

“Mrmpfh! Glumk! Argst!” You think I talk too much, do you? Let me go a minute, and I’ll tell you a thing or two.

“Holy Thor! Ne’er was there another woman on the face of the earth who thought she knew so much about everything. And did not mind telling one and all what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and where. For the love of all the saints! ’Tis time to put an end to it. You need to be taught a lesson well and good.”

Still holding his right hand over her mouth, he leaned down and brushed his lips across her forehead. “That is the way, sweet shrew. Calm thyself and smooth out those frown lines.”

She immediately glowered even harder, and he chuckled appreciatively at her defiance. “Go ahead, then. Wear yourself out in the beginning with these little fights. Every good warrior knows to save his energy for the big battle.”

“Damift!” Dammit. Let me up.

“What was that, dearling? Didst thou ask for more? Ah, well, ne’er wouldst I be the one to deny a lover her due rights.”

His lips swept over her eyelids, across her cheekbones, along the edge of her jaw; Rain’s lips parted involuntarily under Selik’s palm. How could lips that looked so firm feel so soft? She tried to think of something else to stop herself from arching up for more—ice cubes…tonsillectomies…trees…vasectomies. But she could not get past the delicious sensation of wet, warm lips grazing her cool flesh. Or was it cool lips grazing her warm flesh? She could not distinguish one from the other in the frenzy of tingling sensations he ignited wherever his lips touched.

“If I release my hand from your mouth, do you promise not to speak?” Selik whispered, his breath teasing the wisps of hair on her neck that had come loose from her braid.

“Yecklmqcipekmnfklt!” Areyououtofyoureverlovinmind!

“Nay? Ah, well, I will have to direct my kisses elsewhere then.”