“You are so hot,” Eirik ground out as he leaned over her on straightened arms, his neck arching with his painful control. “Your womanheat is burning me alive. I want to kiss you and suckle your breasts and whisper sweet words to you, but I cannot wait… I cannot wai…”
He pummeled her body then with long strokes that grew increasingly shorter and harder. She braced her upraised palms against the headboard and tried to match his strokes. When the quivering flutters began again in her woman parts, she spread her legs wider and arched her hips up off the bed. The flutters became spasms, then full-blown convulsions, as Eadyth flailed her head from side to side, reaching, reaching, reaching… When she reached her “peak” and splintered into a thousand shards of pleasure, Eirik arched his neck back and slammed into her one last time, crying out with a raw, masculine groan of triumph.
Eirik fell heavily across her, his chest heaving from his efforts, his ragged breaths tickling her neck. Eadyth felt a wetness between her legs—his seed and her woman’s moisture. His limp man part still nestled inside her.
And a warmth like spring sunshine flowed through Eadyth. She brushed her fingertips lightly across his shoulders and down his back. In the aftermath of their fierce lovemaking, Eadyth felt peace and a sense of rightness.
“I love you, Eirik,” she whispered, stroking his hair.
Silence reigned for a few moments. Then he raised his head, grinning. “I do have a talent for the bed sport, do I not?”
“I said I love you, Eirik,” she said, shoving him affectionately. “I do not ask that you return the sentiment, but do not make light of my affections, either.”
“I would not do that. Ah, Eadyth, I do not know if I believe in love anymore. It takes more trust than I have for womankind. I have grown fond of you, and I am pleased that we are wed, but I cannot promise more than that. For now.”
Disappointment tugged at Eadyth’s senses, but he was being honest with her, and that counted for much. “Well, then, I will just have to teach you to trust me.” But what she really meant was love.
He smiled and kissed her mole. “Ever the managing woman, are you?” Then he slipped lower and blew against her breast. “What were you saying earlier about suckling?”
Eadyth could not “manage” a word right then.
Later, Eadyth asked Eirik if the feather game could be played with her wielding the “weapon,” and he said, “Oh, for a certainty. ‘Tis the best way.”
By morning, they had torn the mattress in several places. The stool had a broken leg. Rushes were scattered in clumps all over the room.
Eirik’s knees were brush-burned and his shoulders had teeth marks in them. Eadyth’s face and breasts smarted from Eirik’s whiskers.
She cracked one eye open to peer at Eirik where he stood drinking deeply from a goblet of mead. He winked at her and she saw an invitation there. Again!
“Nay, no more. I could not do it again. Not even if…” She yawned widely and closed her eyes sleepily.
“Ead-yth,” Eirik called out a short time later in an odd tone of voice. When she ignored him, he cajoled, “Ead-yth, look here what I have for you.”
She scrunched her eyes closed tighter. “I already know what you have for me and I have had enough.”
“I know, I know, not even if I stand on my head bare-arsed naked. But have pity on me. You will not believe this. Truly.”
And he was right.
Eadyth’s mouth dropped open when she unshuttered her eyes, which grew increasingly wider with disbelief.
Eirik was standing on his head. And he was bare-arsed naked.
After she stopped laughing and he had dropped back to his feet, she said, holding out her arms to him, “Well, mayhap I have changed my mind. A little manly exercise deserves its reward.”
Chapter Seventeen
They awakened later to a loud pounding on the door.
“Go away,” Eirik growled and pulled Eadyth more closely into the cradle of his arms. Her head lay on his chest and one leg was thrown wantonly over both of his. Eirik shook his head in wonder at the implausible picture… and his good fortune.