"You are very direct, Jarl, yet still I find myself uncertain. What do you mean?"
He chuckled again, the sound warm and rich and very knowing. "I shall show you what I mean, but first I require you to hook your legs over each of mine and allow me to spread your thighs wide. Will you do that or must I insist on having access to explore what is mine?"
Why, when he spoke to her thus, when he half-threatened her, when she should be terrified and cringing in fear, did his soft, sensual command cause her stomach to clench and heat to flare between her legs? Why did everything he suggested to her sound so... enticing?
"Mairead? What are you waiting for?"
What indeed?
"I am sorry, master." She lifted each leg in turn and draped them across his thighs, the position already opening her to his questing fingers. He kept his left arm across her chest just above her breasts, but he reached down with his right to tease thereddish-golden curls at the apex of her thighs. Mairead stiffened, but did not move.
"Good, you please me very much. So soft, so pretty." He tugged at the curls then proceeded lower still. Mairead expected him to reach down far enough to plunge his fingers inside her since this was the usual prelude to a man's fulfilment. It would be quick, she knew that, and not overly unpleasant.
But Gunnar halted just below the downy curls. His fingers stroked, explored, caressed, as though he sought something else. He widened his own legs, and in so doing pulled her thighs further apart. He bent his knees too which had the effect of raising her up out of the water, exposing her to his gaze.
She opened her mouth to protest, but swallowed her words as a peculiar sensation overwhelmed her. Something deep and piercing, warm, intense and delicious unfurled right where he touched her. Mairead let out a startled gasp and tried to close her legs.
"No, remain still. I wish to pleasure you."
"How? I do not understand..."
"Like this." He stroked that sensitive spot again, his movements precise and knowing as she writhed in his arms. "Am I hurting you?"
"No." She shook her head. "But it is strange, I do not believe I like it."
"No? And this?" He altered the angle of his hand to apply pressure to that quivering little button, then he took it between his finger and thumb and she thought that perhaps he squeezed.
"Oh. Oh!" Her inner muscles were clenching, convulsing in a manner quite beyond her control or comprehension. "What are you doing?"
"I told you, I am pleasuring you. I intend to do this often, in preparation for you taking my cock when you are fully healed and quite ready. Will that be long, do you think?"
"I... I am not sure." Oh sweet Jesus she hoped not. His busy, clever fingers were teasing her, awakening something she had only half-understood, a dim and elusive awareness suddenly coming into sharp focus as he stroked and tormented her. As she writhed against his thighs he applied more pressure, increasing the intensity until she felt she might burst, or shatter, or simply expire from wanting.
"Do not fight this. Allow it to happen. I have you." His words were murmured against her ear, his breath warm on her neck. His lips were on her sensitive skin, kissing, licking, nipping.
"Have me? What...? Why...? Oh, oh dear Lord."
"Now, Mairead. Let it happen now."
She required no further urging, nor explanation. The sensation he had built so quickly seemed to spiral and surge within her until she could bear no more. She thrust her hips forward and her head back and let out a squeal of pure delight as waves of ecstasy washed through her. The tingling which bathed her body on the outside was within her also, coursing right out to her fingers and toes, to the very ends of her hair. She was weak, powerless to resist yet invigorated by the sensual feast he laid before her and which she now savoured.
The storm of sensation soon passed. Mairead's trembling body relaxed. She lay within the Viking's arms, limp and sated in a manner she could not even start to describe. He had satisfied a hunger she had not even known she possessed, but having tasted this joy once she would never wish to be without it again.
Something had been missing before. Some mysterious secret had remained hidden, but no longer. Gunnar had shared the revelation with her and now she knew what she needed.
Whoshe needed.
"Are you ready to return now?"
Mairead opened her eyes. Gunnar dropped a soft kiss on her forehead as he held her in his arms. They were still in the water, though now she was cradled in his arms like a baby. His cock, solid and thick, nudged her punished bottom and she wondered if she were to turn just so, perhaps...
"We are three hours ride from home. Tyra will be hungry by the time we arrive."
"What? Oh?"
"You have been asleep and I was sorry to wake you, but?—"
"My baby. I need to get back."
