As I opened my eyes, I saw that he was drawing up his trousers.
He took my hand, and Faline’s in the other, and led us past the jeering, cheering, cavorting crowd. His men, spurred on by Eirik’s performance, had begun their sport anew, grasping the serving girls about the hips, raising skirts, bending them to receive what was coming to them.
I tried to tug my hand away but his grasp was strong.I’m not your trollop, I thought.I’m not here for your pleasure.
With each step, my heart beat faster.
8
Outside, the moon was high, illuminating dark clouds. There was the unmistakable roll of thunder approaching; in the distance, small flashes of light.
From one of the other huts, there was a baby’s wail. Its mother, I supposed, was providing service to the Northmen. Some other’s arms would give comfort: those of a woman too old to be of interest to men’s lust.
My room was as it ever was, the bed piled comfortably with furs, some scattered on the floor. Eirik closed the door behind us and bolted it down.
The embers of the fire had dipped low. I bent to rekindle them, blowing gently beneath, coaxing with twigs and straw.
My hands trembled as I worked, knowing what surely awaited me. I knew that I should wish for it to be over quickly, that I should think only of enduring, but a flame was licking inside me as surely as those growing in the hearth.
Although we could hear the Northmen’s revelry, the room seemed quiet, but for the crack of the fire.
We stood, Faline and I, and he looked at us, dark and fair, as he began to shed his clothes: furred jerkin, and woven leather vest, his shirt.
I saw the power of his body. His head almost touching the cross beam of the ceiling, his shoulders double the width of most men. His abdomen was hard, muscled. Most striking of all, his upper body was thick with dark blue-green patterns, interlocking, covering all his arms, as if he wore sleeves upon his skin. Designs stretched across his upper chest, and continued up his neck.
I’d never seen such a thing, such a man.
He smiled to see me look, and his cock gave a small leap. When he laughed, it was not as before, to command the approval of a crowd, but because the amusement was his.
Faline wasted no time. With a toss of her head, she stripped herself and climbed into my bed, pulling the soft furs to her neck. There was malice and mischief in her defiance.
Outside, the thunder rolled closer and, when Eirik spoke, it was as if his voice were a continuance of its resonance.
“Here.”
I was drawn to the strength of him, to the force of his body and the power that I knew was his.
Once close enough, his fingers pulled at the laces of my costume, dexterous, despite their size. One by one, the garments dropped, or were pulled over my head.
I shivered in my nakedness, feeling the touch of his eyes upon me, their roaming of my skin, and the nearness of his body.
My husband had been a perfunctory lover, interested only in his own satisfaction, and as likely as not to give me a clout about the head as he entered me. Moreover, his bedding was a quick matter, over almost as soon as it had begun.
My grandmother had told me that I must be patient. Love would grow with time and, with it, pleasure, but it had not.
I’d loved a dog we kept from a puppy, and the lambs I’d raised one spring, when their mother had abandoned them. I’d felt more for those animals than I had for any man.
I’d heard the girls talk of the boys they liked best: the urgency of their kisses, of their own responding desire. I’d felt nothing similar for a man: not for my husband most certainly.
As for this Northman, his arrogance was insufferable. Yet, I burned for him.
He knelt, pressing his mouth first to one breast and then the other, taking not only my nipple but the whole orb into his mouth. His warm tongue worked with his teeth, to pull and tease, sending a spasm through my cunt. His hands grasped my buttocks and I felt a rush of desire. His warriors had raped and killed and stolen, and yet I could think only of my need to feel him inside me.
And then he was lifting me in his arms, to lay me upon the bed, pushing my legs apart. His cock loomed above, and his balls, large and heavy. The muscles of my sex contracted in anticipation.
I’d quite forgotten about Faline, but felt now her hands upon my shoulders, pulling me further up the bed. I struggled, indignant, but she pinned me at the upper arms, placing her weight upon me.
Faline’s legs were open behind my head, so that I smelt the fish-sourness of her.
