Walpurgis Night (2 page)
Authors: Katherine Kingston
“I’ll put my clothes back on and go. But I’ll stay out of sight so those men will believe I’m with you still.”
She was stunned by that bit of proposed gallantry. But she hadn’t been clear about her question and tried to clarify.
“Nay.
I mean if I agree and then I don’t follow orders? How would you punish me?” she asked.
“Ah.” A gleam lit his eyes. “What do you suppose I should do?”
The heat rose in her cheeks, so she must be blushing. A vivid image had come into her mind, and she wasn’t sure whether it fascinated or terrified her. It depended on how much she trusted him. But—he had asked.
“I know not,” she said, hoping she wasn’t making a terrible mistake. “What were you thinking?”
He stared hard at her as though he tried to read her mind through her eyes. “Perhaps I’ll spank your bottom until it glows pink. Or possibly I’ll use my belt, doubled over. Which frightens you more?”
She sucked in a sharp breath, but she wasn’t sure whether the twisting feeling in her stomach was dismay or excitement. “The belt,” she whispered.
He nodded. “Do you agree, then?”
“But you didn’t—”
“And I will not. You know enough to make your decision.”
How could she be so thrilled and so terrified at the same time? But when she looked at him, stared into his eyes, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. And she knew she wanted this more than she’d ever wanted anything with a man before. Even so, she had a hard time making herself say it. “Aye,” she finally managed to choke out.
For the first time a real smile washed across his face. It transformed his features, turning him into a breathtakingly handsome man. Her heart hammered in her chest.
“Good,” he said.
“Very good.
Take off your dress.
Slowly.”
Fianna
drew a deep breath to calm herself before she pulled the ribbons that fastened her dress at the neck. She slipped it down off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. She wore nothing beneath it.
His breath caught in his throat. “You’re beautiful. Come to me.”
She walked toward him, all too aware of how her breasts bounced as she moved. Her woman’s parts between her legs felt swollen and heavy.
When she was close enough, he reached out with both hands, which he put on either side of her face, running the palms across her cheeks until he could bury his fingers in her hair. His hands were strong and callused, but their clasp was careful, his strength moderated to avoid hurting her.
Henrik
leaned over and fitted his mouth over hers. Shocking tingles sparked from the place where his lips touched hers. She’d never guessed it could feel like that. Then he ran his tongue over her lips and nudged them apart. When he invaded her mouth, it sent a jolt through her entire body that she felt right down to her toes. She moaned deep in her throat. Heat began to burn inside and spread through her.
He put a hand behind her head to steady her as he began to kiss his way across her cheek to her ear. His tongue caressed the tender skin around the ear and he blew gently into it. After retracing the path and kissing his way to the other ear and back, he began to move down along her jaw to her throat.
Her breath moved in and out on hard pants as the fire he roused in her grew.
His hands shifted their grip, sliding down from her head to rest on either side of her chest. His thumbs slid inward until they brushed the undersides of her breasts. She was jolted again by shards of sensation tearing through her from the contact. Nothing had ever made her feel this before, certainly not her few encounters with males of the town. His fingers left trails of heated skin wherever he touched.
Henrik
released her for a moment while he moved back to sit on the one chair in the room, a bare, straight-backed thing that groaned and creaked when he moved. He settled himself as comfortably as he could get on it then pulled her to him, lifted her onto his lap, straddling his legs, and slid her forward. In that position her legs were separated and her quim pressed hard against the fabric that barely contained his straining cock.
Fianna
felt it throbbing against her. He closed his eyes for a moment, and his breath came in loud, stretched pants until he adjusted to the contact.
It was almost obscenely delicious to be so intimately close to him. Feeling greatly daring, she reached up and brushed a hand against his face, running it down his cheek and along the neat, golden beard. With a finger, she traced the outline of his lips. He opened his mouth and sucked the tip of her finger inside. A thrill chased its way up and down her spine as the heat flowed through the finger and flooded her body.
His hands moved around her and cupped her breasts.
Henrik
squeezed them gently, pushed them together and up, testing their weight and firmness.
When he brushed fingers across her nipples, the sensation hit her like a lightning bolt. Tiny knife thrusts of pure pleasure lanced her repeatedly. For long moments he did naught but play with those sensitive tips, stroking and flicking them until she was near to sobbing with the pleasure. She’d had no idea her body had such capacity for delight.
Now the heat was gathering in her loins and a pressure started to mount. She knew not what it might be leading to, but there was a need there, a need only he could answer.
Fianna
looped her arms around his neck to hold
herself
upright. She’d thought his touches brought ecstasy, but then he dipped his head and ran his tongue over the tip of one breast. A small shriek tore from her. It felt as though a flaming brand had been set to her, and she was blazing, burning up with the unbearable heat of it.
Henrik
looked up at her with lazy, gleaming eyes, smiling in satisfaction as she moaned and writhed.
He drew the entire nipple into his mouth, tongue circling and flicking at it while his lips sucked. She bounced up and down and wriggled against him, the pleasure so great she couldn’t keep still. He repeated the action with the other breast then moved back and forth between them.
Fianna
heard herself sobbing out loud.
Henrik’s
teeth scraped over the nipple in his mouth, and then he bit down on it, lightly at first but gradually increasing the pressure until pain mingled with the pleasure. But it was a deliciously exciting sensation that mixed the various aches so thoroughly she couldn’t tell where the pleasure ended and the pain began, and it hardly mattered anyway. She groaned loudly and buried her hands in his soft, silky hair, holding on to hanks of it, pulling on them when he transferred his attention to the other breast, biting down on that nipple until he brought her to the brink of screaming with an agonizing excitement and ecstasy. She’d never have guessed pain could feel so sweet.
He released the nipple from the clutch of his teeth and soothed it with the tip of his tongue. Tears burned her eyes from the amazing combination of sensations. He stopped, watched her and flicked away a drop of moisture that slid down her cheek. He bent forward and kissed her mouth hungrily. She pressed her chest against his, loving the way the hairs rasped against her sensitized nipples. He felt so wonderfully hard and solid, but he held her so carefully and used just as much of his strength as needed.
She was shocked and felt bereft when he suddenly lifted her off his lap again and set her on her feet. Her legs felt so shaky she wondered they held her up at all.
“Take off my boots,” he ordered.
After a moment of surprise, she knelt in front of him, removed his fur-lined boots, and stroked his feet. He permitted it for a moment then stood up.
“Now remove my leggings,” he said. When she reached for the laces, he put a hand on her arm to stop her.
“Without using your hands.”
Fianna
looked up at him, taking in the gleam in his light eyes.
So…a challenge.
She let her eyes slide down his long body to his waist then lower. The laces on either hip and at his waist were
key
. Fortunately all were tied in bows at the top rather than knotted. If they were loosened, the leggings would slide down and off. She went to her knees again at his left side and grabbed the end of one lace in her teeth. A gentle tug undid the bow. She used her mouth again to loosen the top of the cross-hatched lacing. She slid around to his other side and repeated the process.
Which left just the laces in the center.
She knew what to do. But her mouth would be so close to him, an intimacy she could barely imagine with a man she barely knew. Still, this was also the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. She leaned forward and nuzzled her face into his belly until she could take the lace between her teeth. A deep breath of the leather of his leggings and his male scent made her pulse race again.
A quick tug on the lace released the bow. The leggings began to slide down his body, but the leather caught on the tip of his erect cock.
Fianna
took another deep breath and leaned forward again. This time she grasped the leather itself between her teeth and lifted it off the jutting flesh then let it drop to the floor.
She stared at him. It might be rude, it might not be wise, but she couldn’t help it.
Henrik
was, simply, the most extraordinary man she’d ever seen. His cock, longer than her hand, stood out from his body, thick and straight. The soft sac of his balls hung between legs that were long, strongly muscled and nicely shaped.
“Very good,” he said, complimenting her efforts to undress him. “Now kiss my cock.”
Her breath caught in her throat and a wave of dizziness passed quickly. She put a hand on the floor to steady herself. She couldn’t conceive of touching him that way. The idea paralyzed her.
“
Fianna
, I said to kiss my cock.” His words had a hard, dangerous edge.
She heard it but couldn’t make herself move.
“
Fianna
,” he repeated.
“I cannot,” she said. “I’ve never…I’ve never even touched a man there.”
“Are you refusing my order?” he asked.
“I don’t want to refuse, but I…”
He bent down, took her arm and drew her to her feet. “I warned you what would happen if you disobeyed an order, did I not?”
Chapter Two
She stared into his eyes, now the color of cold steel. She drew a harsh breath.
“Aye.”
“This can stop now, if you wish,” he said.
Her heart clenched and a lump formed in her throat that made it difficult to speak. “Nay, I don’t wish to stop.”
She was sure the look on his face was relief, but he said, “Then you need to be persuaded to do as I tell you?”
“Perhaps,” she admitted.
“Are you sure? You know what I’ll do.”
He asked more than one question with those words, and
Fianna
thought about all of them before she answered.
“Aye.”
He nodded. “Stand still,” he said, stepping back away from her. “Do not move.”
She didn’t move, but she watched him pick up the leather belt he’d removed earlier. She watched him double it over and hold one end. Then he was behind her and she couldn’t see it anymore.
She heard the swish of air as it swung and the crack when the leather smacked against the flesh of her bottom, printing a streak of pain across it. The shock of it as much as the sting made her cry out. He hadn’t really struck very hard, she realized, but the leather was heavy and it did burn.
She was more prepared for the next smack and was able to swallow her outcry. He spanked her five or six more times until her bottom stung fiercely and she could no longer stifle a moan.
But, like the sensation when he’d bitten her nipples, the sting washed through her system and transmuted into something just the opposite of pain. The burn went straight to her womb and settled hot and heavy between her legs. It was a deliciously agonizing feeling.
“Are you ready to obey me?” he asked.
“I…I think not,” she said. She looked at his face. His expression was
neither angry nor unhappy, but watchful, intent and even a bit joyful
. She had a sudden realization. This was a kind of a game.
Serious in its way, but not serious in the manner of things that really mattered—life and death, illness and injury.
She could stop it whenever she wished. He wouldn’t hurt her any more than she wanted to be hurt. But he hoped she could meet his enjoyment of this different way of giving and taking love and was pleased by her responses so far. She’d joined him in a strange and different sort of mating. She admitted to herself that so far she was enjoying it just as much as he was. “Nay, not yet,” she reaffirmed.
The leather spanked down a bit harder. The pain was bright, fierce, almost overwhelming, and she moaned softly. As it faded, though, it became a deeper burn that fed the pressure of need within her. Five more whacks each stoked the fire within and without until she was awash in sensation. The next one struck low down, at the crease between bottom and thighs, and it stung far worse than any of the others. She squealed and reached back to massage the blazing flesh.
“No more,” she said. “Please, no more. I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“Well enough, then.” He put the belt back with the sword sheath before he came back and stood in front of her. “On your knees now, and kiss my cock.”
She dropped to her knees, leaned forward, bracing herself by holding on to his hips, and pressed her lips to the hard shaft about midway along its length. He tasted a little salty and very male. After moving her mouth a bit over him, she hesitated, unsure what to do next.
“Put your tongue on it,” he directed. When she’d done so, he added, “Lick up and down, from the base to the tip and back.”
It felt strange and exhilarating to touch him so intimately, to hear his breath come faster and harder, to feel him getting tenser and harder. His cock was a thing of wonder to her. The skin was soft and smooth, though it felt very thin, over the hard length of it. The bulbous tip was even smoother with skin as soft as a baby’s. He groaned as her tongue reached the small opening in the tip and explored.