Holding her eyes, Thork began to undo the shoulder clasps of her outer gown. Ruby wanted to ask if he would marry her again or if he’d accepted the fact that she might have to leave, but, instead, she decided to follow Aud’s advice for patience.
Ruby licked her lips nervously. She had to have made love with this man a thousand times in the past twenty years, but it seemed all new now. He was her husband and yet a stranger at the same time.
“Do you still insist we share a past?” he asked hoarsely.
Ruby scrutinized Thork closely, trying to see the differences, not the similarities, between him and Jack. It was hard. I think you and I may very well make our own history tonight,” she evaded.
Thork traced her jaw with a forefinger questioningly. “What is it about you, sweetling, that draws me so? Truly, in another time we could have been heartmates.”
Ruby’s heart melted at his softly spoken words of love. Yes, love, because this was probably as close to a declaration of love she could ever expect from this man.
“Thork, I love you,” Ruby whispered.
“Shush,” he said, putting his fingers over her mouth. “No lies. No promises betwixt us. Just let us enjoy what we can give each other now and let it be enough.”
Still holding Ruby with her legs wrapped around his waist, Thork undid the brooches of Ruby’s gown and pulled the tunic and the underchemise off her shoulders and arms until they bunched at her waistline.
Thork studied her wispy, black lace bra and smiled appreciatively. Leaning down, he flicked the tip of his tongue across the peaks of each scantily covered breast, creating the hardened peaks he wanted. Then he took one lacy peak in his mouth and suckled.
A swift, hot rush of blood lodged in the center of Ruby’s femininity. She moaned and heard Thork chuckle in satisfaction while continuing his sweet torture.
“Ah, Ruby, ’tis as sweet as I remembered. Their taste has lingered in my mouth for days. Truly, you bewitch me.”
Ruby could not speak as Thork leaned back, not waiting for an answer, and looked at the breast he’d been working on, admiring it through the wet transparency of the fabric, visible even in the flickering candlelight. Then he moved to her other breast. At the first sharp tug of his lips, Ruby jolted and bucked against him.
“Thork, wait. Let me down,” Ruby begged. She didn’t like the helplessness of her position. She wanted to participate, not be served in this manner.
“Nay. Not yet,” he rasped out, trying to figure out how to undo the back clasp of her bra. Without his hands holding her upright, Ruby was forced to hold on to him tighter with her arm and thigh muscles. Finally the flimsy undergarment loosened in his hand, and he pulled it off her arms.
“Put me down,” Ruby pleaded again, watching while he examined her sensitized breasts with his eyes and fingertips. His beautiful eyes glazed over with passion, and Ruby yearned to show her love for this man—whoever he was.
“Nay, I will not release you. This night I have a plan. Nay, a master plan.” He grinned mischievously.
Master plan? Ruby would kill Ella. The gossip addict must have told someone about her plan to trap Thork.
“Wouldst thou like to hear my master plan?” He jiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Ruby nodded hesitantly, pleased with this playful side of Thork.
“Tonight you will have many… many… of those orgasms you spoke of so eloquently to Brynhil and her women.”
Ruby gulped.
“The first will come here in my arms. I will not let you down until it happens,” he promised seductively.
Ruby’s thighs spasmed at his words and she felt a gush of dampness at the apex of her legs. Thork’s lips turned up at the corners and he looked down as if sensing what had happened, surely having felt the tremors in her legs at his waist.
Still holding her with legs wrapped around his waist, Thork adjusted their bodies so that he could undo her belt. Reaching to her ankles, he raised first her gown, then her underchemise all the way up and over her head. She now wore only Brynhil’s emerald, her panties and a pair of soft leather shoes. Leaning back, Thork positioned her so that her shoulders were still braced against the wall and her arms extended to his shoulders. With his large left hand holding her buttocks for balance, he put the back of his right middle finger against the dampness of her silk panties, then looked up in pleased astonishment.