Secured Mail (17 page)

“My lady?”

She allowed Woden to accompany her back to her suite. It was completely dark in the palace now, the night air slicing through wide halls turned cold and unwelcoming.

Thea drew in a breath.

“How do you stand it?”

“What, my lady?”

“Not being allowed to make love after all that stimulation.”

Woden helped her out of her cloak and tucked her into bed. He brought her a silver cup filled with fragrant apple-scented wine and sat beside her.

“For us, I suppose it is better than the alternative of having no female to touch at all.

Also by learning to please a woman we gains skills that hopefully in time will help us be chosen as true mates.”

Thea clutched at the wine cup. “But don’t you think it’s cruel?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Why is it cruel? If I want to come, I can take care of it myself. If I’m lucky, the woman I pleasure will take care of me too.”

“God, it is so hard for me to understand.”

Woden took the cup from her and kissed the top of her head. “It is just different.

The men on your planet are different.” He chuckled as he kissed her again. “By Thor, sometimes I wish I lived on your planet and could have all the women I wanted.”

Thea touched his cheek. “But then you’d end up just like them, so used to having sex that it wouldn’t mean anything to you anymore.”

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Woden looked thoughtful. “I hadn’t thought of that. Perhaps our way is better after all.” He pulled back the covers and slid into bed beside Thea. “And now I have to pleasure you as the king commanded.”

Thea shivered as he stroked her breasts, her thoughts in an uproar. If Sven were from Earth, maybe she would be justified in accusing him of two-timing her. But he was a Valhallan. A man acting as his culture demanded. To her private, selfish satisfaction, he hadn’t seemed to be enjoying himself much with the queen either. Harlan and Bron had done most of the pleasuring. Did his feelings for her affect his feelings for the queen?

Woden groaned as he suckled at her breast, his hand cupping her pussy. “Relax, my lady. Let me bring you joy.”

Was she wrong to judge Sven by her standards? In many ways the Valhallan men were far better than their counterparts on Earth. They adored women and truly believed their purpose in life was to give a female pleasure. Okay, so they did this because they wanted heirs, but still, Sven had tried to be honest with her—up to a point.

Thea gave up the struggle to think as Woden’s long fingers slid inside her and allowed herself to slip away into warm, sleepy sexual fulfillment.

95

Kate Pearce

Sven glanced around the queen’s bedroom, his expression grim. Despite the fact that everything looked normal, something was in the air and he wasn’t in the mood to accept excuses. His irate gaze settled on the queen.

“My lady, what exactly is going on?”

Douglass grinned at him. She sat on the end of her bed, feeding baby Thor. Her long dark hair was braided and hung over one shoulder. Thor held onto it with one small hand as he suckled.

“I’ve arranged a surprise for Ms. Cooper and I thought you might like to be the one who tells her about it.”

“What kind of surprise?”

“Well, it’s kind of two-pronged,” the queen winked, “if you get my meaning.”

Sven folded his arms across his chest. “Nay, I don’t.”

Douglass sighed. “Sven, don’t be an asshole. You’ll like it, I promise you.”

He took a deliberate step forward. “My Queen, I can still take you over my knee and spank you.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Ooh, I’m really scared. You know how much I like a good spanking.”

Sven ground his teeth so loudly that Harlan winced. “My lady, are you going to tell me what is going on or not?”

“Oh, my plan. The king has arranged for the Super Bowl to be aired here on Valhalla, isn’t that amazing?”

“The Earth football game?”

“Yeah and I know Ms. Cooper is a big fan, so here’s what we’re going to do. The king and I will invite her and Woden to watch it with all of us. During the game, we, that is me and Marcus will disappear, and leave you lot to pleasure Ms. Cooper.”

“Are you mad? Ms. Cooper will never agree to that.”

“I think she will. According to the king she got very turned on watching us last night.”

Sven’s hands fisted by his sides.

“She watched me
pleasure
you? And you think she’ll ever want to see me again?”

“Apparently, she didn’t want to watch you at all. The king made her.”

Sven struggled to breathe. “My Queen, what have you done?”

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Douglass looked right back at him. “Shown the woman you love exactly what being my server implied.”

“She already knew that. It didn’t make any difference to her dumping me.”

“No, she didn’t.”

Sven frowned at the queen. “I told her.”

“You obviously weren’t very specific. She didn’t know that only the king gets to fully mate with me.”

“But I told her I had only ever mated with one female.”

Bron cleared his throat. “Forgive me for asking this—but you told Ms. Cooper about your wife?”

“Nay, I…” Sven stopped speaking and simply stared at the queen and the two other men. “I said that a Valhallan only fully mates with one woman.”

“But you didn’t mention you’d ever taken a woman to wife.”

“Those memories are painful for me. I do not share them lightly.”

“So it’s highly likely that Ms. Cooper got confused and thought the only woman you were having was me.”

Sven sat down heavily on the side of the bed. “She couldn’t have been so misguided, could she?”

“Maybe you’d better ask her yourself.”

Sven groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “How can I do that? After what she saw last night, she is probably packing her bags.”

“No, she isn’t.”

“How do you know that?”

The queen cleared her throat. “Um, because she’s standing right in front of you?”

Sven slowly raised his head and saw Thea. He got unsteadily to his feet and bowed.

My lady?”

Thea turned to the queen. “Can I borrow him for a minute?”

“You can borrow him for as long as you like, just make sure you return him in the condition you found him.”

“Like a library book?”

The queen laughed. “Oh my god, finally, someone who gets my jokes.”

Sven glowered at them both. “I still don’t find you amusing, My Queen.”

She waved a hand at him. “Go away, Sven. Talk to Thea.”

Sven led Thea out of the queen’s suite and down to the fountain garden where they had met the night before. This time, he remained by the exit, his arms folded over his chest. Thea walked away from him and circled the fountain, her fingers trailing in the water.

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“Can I ask you something, Sven?”

He nodded, his gaze fixed on the intricately colored tiles in front of him.

“When you said you had only mated with one woman, what exactly did you mean?”

“What I said.”

Thea took a deep calming breath.

“And when you say ‘mate’ you mean have full sexual intercourse with.”

“I mean mate.”

“So have you mated with the queen?”

He still wouldn’t look at her, his attention fixed on his big bare feet.

“It depends what you mean.”

“Sven, you just said mating only meant one thing!”

He shrugged but didn’t look up. Thea circled the fountain again, her thoughts in turmoil.

“Let me put it another way. Have you ever come inside the queen’s body?”

“Aye.”

A wave of misery shot through her. Perhaps she wasn’t as ready to be as understanding as she’d hoped.

“So the king was wrong and he has been cuckolded.”

“I would never do that.” This time he did look at her, his dark gaze direct and uncompromising. She held up her hands in a pleading gesture.

“Sven, help me out here. The king said he is the only male who gives the queen his seed, so how come you’re saying something different?”

He scowled at her as if she was deliberately playing dumb. “The king is her
mate
, I am only her server.”

“But you’ve had sex with her.”

“I’ve helped arouse her so that the king can fertilize her more easily, if that is what you mean.”

Thea stared at him as all the conversations she’d had with the Valhallan men coalesced in her mind. “Excuse me if this sounds way too personal, but a female has enough, um, ‘places’ to take three cocks.”

“Aye.”

“But only depositing your seed in one of them will result in her becoming pregnant.”

“Aye.”

Thea walked up to Sven who was watching her intently. “So you’re saying that you’ve had the queen in all ways but one.”

“Aye.”

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She punched him so hard on the chest that she hurt her hand. “So why didn’t you just say so?”

He frowned. “I am the queen’s server, not her mate. It’s obvious.”

Despite the throb of her knuckles, she punched him again. “Not to me!”

For a moment, she allowed her forehead to rest against his broad chest.

“Then who did you mate with?”

Silence greeted her question. She straightened until she could see his face.

“Sven?”

He let out his breath. “My wife.”

“You’re married?”

“It was a long time ago. She died a year after our wedding.”

“That’s awful.” She touched his cheek and he stepped away from her, presenting his broad back. Her hand dropped to her side.

“She was a small woman and my son was too big for her to birth.”

Thea kept quiet. How long had it been since Sven had spoken of his wife?

“I should not have married her.”

She stroked his back, felt him quiver and then tense as if he couldn’t bear the intimate contact with her. She withdrew her hand, torn between offering him comfort and giving him space to regain control.

“Thank you for answering my questions. At least I feel I know where I stand now. I have a lot to think about.”

“Aye.”

“Perhaps I’ll see you later?”

“Aye.”

Thea pasted on a smile, even though he wasn’t looking at her.

“Okay, then, I’ll go. I’ll tell the queen you’ll be along later, all right?”

Without waiting for his reply, which was unlikely to be more than ‘aye’ anyway, she turned and went back the way she’d come. She wasn’t kidding. She really did need time to think things through. Was she prepared to accept that Sven meant what he said about his relationship with her being special, or was the whole idea of Valhallan male sexuality and the way they interacted with females just too much for her to take?

She paused in the hallway and looked down into one of the courtyards below her where the king and Harlan were practicing their ax play. The king didn’t seem to pleasure any other woman but the queen. Once a Valhallan man was married did he only get to sleep with his wife? She’d have to find a polite way of finding the answer to that very intriguing question after her lunch.

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Thea knocked nervously on the door of the queen’s suite. It was already evening and she hadn’t seen Sven all day. Instead of worrying herself half to death about what she was going to do, she’d taken the opportunity to go out with the king and investigate the palace security more closely. The complex nature of the Valhallan systems and the upgrades she had suggested had certainly occupied her mind for most of the afternoon.

She hadn’t found a way to ask the king about his sexual behavior since his marriage, somehow it hadn’t seemed appropriate.

The invitation to join the king and the queen in the royal suite for a special event that night had made her slightly nervous. Last time she’d been invited into the royal suite, she’d seen a rather too intimate view of the couple and way too much of the king so she wasn’t keen to repeat the experience. Sometimes the Valhallans open attitude to sex still surprised her. She straightened as Bron opened the door, a beaming smile on his face.

“Ms. Cooper, I’m so glad you have come.” He stepped aside and bowed, the lamplight glinting off his blond hair and the armbands he wore around his finely sculptured biceps. He wasn’t as big as the other bodyguards, but he had a lean, elegant strength that reminded Thea of a jaguar or a leopard.

“Thanks, Bron. I’m not quite sure
why
I’m here, though.”

A roar of noise drowned out the rest of her words. Bron sighed. “They are already taking sides and drinking too much mead. Perhaps your presence will encourage them to sit down and behave themselves.”

Thea kept walking, her gaze drawn to the huge screen at one end of the massive room. The rest of the Valhallan bodyguards and the queen sat on silken cushions on the floor watching intently. Harlan held baby Thor up against one shoulder and Sven was talking animatedly with the king. Thea pressed a hand to her chest.

“Oh my god, it’s the Super Bowl.”

The queen stood up, her eyes shining. “Yeah, isn’t it great? I asked Marcus if he could set it up for us and he liaised with Matt Logan and he did it! It’s not often my team gets to play in the Super Bowl.”

Thea frowned. “You’re a Raiders fan aren’t you?”

Douglass smoothed down her black and silver tunic. “You noticed.”

“I support the 49ers.”

“Really?” The queen’s eyes narrowed and she stuck out her hand. “Well, may the best team win.”

Thea shook it hard. “They will.”

“I know they will.”

For a moment they locked gazes and then both laughed. Douglass took Thea’s arm and led her toward the king.

“Come and sit down. I’ll make sure Marcus keeps us apart if we get too rowdy.”

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Thea settled herself awkwardly into one of the huge silk pillows between the king and Sven. She couldn’t believe she was actually getting to watch the Super Bowl way out here. She’d been devastated when she’d realized she would miss the first clash between the Bay area’s local teams for over a hundred years.