"Arghh!" Thork threw his arms up in the air. "You do it again. Why can you not be biddable like other women?"
"Like the gentle little Saxon-Viking girl with the big cow eyes? Isn't Linette enough for you? Are you robbing the cradle now, too?"
Thork blinked at Ruby's fast-changing train of thought, but before he could respond, Ruby continued, "I shouldn't have said what I did in front of all your guests. I apologize for that. I'm not used to drinking so much wine."
Thork rolled his eyes as if that were the understatement of the year.
"But I didn't lie. I never lie. You did shave my legs on our tenth wedding anniversary. See," she said, pulling her gown up to the edge of her panties, displaying the full length of her smooth legs. "You shaved them so they looked just like this."
Thork stared at Ruby's exposed limbs, then sucked in his breath sharply. He seemed unable to speak for several long moments.
Sensing an advantage, Ruby braced her left hand on the wall and raised her right leg boldly so the toe of her leather shoe rested on his belt brooch. "Touch the skin," she invited outrageously. "See for yourself what I mean."
Ruby saw Thork's reluctance and knew he feared that if he took this one step he might take others. But he touched her leg lightly, nonetheless, with the fingertips of his left hand, then ran the callused palm from her ankle to the satin sleekness of her thigh and back again.
He smiled widely.
"I see why women—and men—of your country might like this practice. The smoothness creates images in a man's mind of other... practices." He looked up questioningly. "This dehairing... 'tis done in the eastern countries, as well, I hear." A crafty light flickered in Thork's pale eyes.
Geez! First Ivar, then Athelstan, now the Orient. But before Ruby could complain, Thork yanked up on her wobbly left leg with lightning swiftness and caught the back of her waist with his other hand. Quickly she grabbed his shoulders for ballast. In that split second, Thork somehow maneuvered her so that he held her with legs wrapped around his waist, hands anchored at his neck. Then he backed her up against the wall.
Dazed by the quickness of Thork's movements and the carnal position she found herself in, Ruby could only blink at Thork questioningly. No longer angry with her, Thork held her eyes in a glittering, promising glance, more intimate than a caress. She could not look away.
"For a month and more you have teased and taunted me with promises of delights we have shared in the past. What say you now?" he asked in a tightly controlled, low voice.
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.
"For me, sweetling?" he asked in a raw, low voice.
Something moved in Ruby there and she felt her face flame. She could only nod mutely.
Thork smiled, well satisfied with her answer, and laid the back of his finger along her cleft. Up and down he rubbed in the groove he created. "Look down," he urged her huskily. "See how you swell for me, just as my manhood grows for you."
Ruby glanced down. He was right. Even through the cloth, she could see that her nether lips were engorged and that special bud of sensitivity rose slightly in waiting for his eventual touch. She closed her eyes in delicious anticipation of the pleasure to come.
"Nay, look at me. I want to watch your face when it happens," he whispered as his forefinger circled the nub, testing its shape and readiness. He flicked the tip of his finger up and down quickly, fascinated as it spasmed against him. Then, in earnest, he strummed it back and forth in ever-increasing rapidity until she groaned and arched her back away from him.
The spasms started small and short in duration. The faster he flicked her, moving the bud from side to side, the harder and longer they got.
"Look at me," he demanded softly.
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When she did, Thork pressed her cleft against his rigid manhood. He bucked against her, and Ruby's spasms became convulsions of pleasure that spiraled into tiny explosions, shaking her so intensely she cried out his name.
Through the misty glaze of her passion, Ruby watched Thork's face as he continued to thrust against her. Finally he held her against him tightly, with a hand on each of her buttocks, arched his head back over corded neck muscles and came against her on a drawn-out moan deep in his throat.
Weakly, Ruby lay her head against his chest, trying to get her breathing back to normal. She was too embarrassed to look up and see if her violent reaction amused him, but finally Thork put a finger under her chin and raised her face. She needn't have been self-conscious. Thork's flushed face and passion-hazy eyes proved he was just as out-of-control.
"And you say we have done this afore, sweetling? Nay, I do not believe I would ever forget such. Not even in another lifetime." He nibbled at her ear as he spoke.
"Perhaps not in quite the same way, but, yes, we made love so many times I couldn't count." She liked the feel of his hot, whispery kisses on her neck. "Can I get down now?"
"Yea, I would say you earned that boon and more."
He smiled tenderly. As he lowered her shaky legs to the rush-covered floor, Ruby raised flirting eyes to his. "Maybe by morning we will have awakened some of those memories." Ruby looked at Thork warmly, knowing without a doubt that she loved him, as completely as she'd ever loved Jack. The self-admission filled her, not with guilt, but an overwhelming feeling of incredible rightness. This was where she was meant to be.
Thork laughed warmly at her last words. " 'Tis more likely we will have created new memories to keep me awake during the long winter nights in Jomsborg."
Ruby's heart sank at his words. He still intended to leave her behind, even after they'd made love. Well, almost made love. She apparently had a lot more work to do in convincing him to take her with him. Ruby grinned with anticipation at that pleasurable task.
Thork undressed then, while Ruby watched. Something tightened inside Ruby at the sight of his naked body. Broad shoulders, slim waist and hips, and a marble-hard stomach outlined his warrior's six-foot-three frame. His smile mirrored Jack's right down to the slightly crooked incisor, but innumerable scars and bruises covered much of his finely honed skin. And his body frame was different from Jack's. To get this kind of muscular development in the twentieth century would require steroids or hours of daily, concentrated workouts.
Thork winked at her, pleased with her perusal. "Do you like what you see?"
"Sweetheart, you are drop-dead gorgeous."
"Drop-dead gorgeous? What kind of compliment is that?" he asked with mock indignation.
"Believe me, honey, drop-dead gorgeous is good."
He chuckled and held out his hand invitingly. Ruby stepped into his arms and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, arching her neck slightly to accommodate the height difference.
"Will you explain step two of your master plan how?" she asked sweetly, nuzzling the warm skin of his collarbone.
"Nay, I will show you, instead," he laughed. "Will you divulge the next step of your master plan, as well?"
"Never. The advantage is in your being surprised by my next move." Ruby jiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Hah! You have astonished me at every step since first we met. And what benefits have you reaped—exile by Sigtrygg, face slaps from Dar, threat of execution? In truth, you have fared poorly in our society, sweetling."
"Despite all those things, I am where I want to be at the moment, though I must admit I got here through no part of my master plan. My blurting out that stuff in the hall about you shaving my legs was totally unplanned."
A thoughtul smile played at the edges of his mouth. "Did your husband truly shave your legs?"
Ruby nodded her head, still having trouble reconciling the fact that Thork and Jack might not be the same person. She couldn't be doing these things with Thork if she didn't think he was, in some way, her husband. "What I didn't say was that by the time he was done I had lots of nicks on my upper thighs from his shaky hands."
Thork hooted with laughter and swung her around in his arms. "Since you've been so truthful with me, I will give you fair exchange. The next step of my master plan is to play the Kevin Costner for you—to kiss you till you are mindless with the wanting of me, till your toes curl, till you moan for me to stop, till you drip with nectar, till..."
And he did all those things and more.
Later, during a brief respite, Ruby lay on her side in his arms on the bed, his erection pressing against her leg. Ruby touched his kiss-swollen lips lovingly with her fingertips. He caressed her body gently with callused hands, waiting for her to regroup before his next assault. His heavy breathing told her it wouldn't be long.
"Are we on schedule with your master plan?" she teased, rubbing her breasts across the soft blond hair that covered his chest, then doing the same with a leg thrown over the curly blond hairs on his thighs.
"Yea, minx, that we are! By my accounts, you have come three times to my one thus far, and we have not yet really begun."
"Oh ho! Now you keep score. What is your final goal?"
"You know well and good what my final goal is," Thork whispered as he examined the interior channels of her ear with the tip of his tongue and placed a warm hand between her legs.
There was no more talking then, except for his sensuous whispers of what he liked, answered by her soft moans and writhing body.
"Enough!" she finally begged. "Please... now."
Thork slowly inserted a finger inside her to further test her readiness and groaned, "For the love of Freya! You are tighter than an untried virgin."
"Hardly that." But Ruby was glad she pleased him and could wait no more. She opened her legs wider and pulled Thork up and over her body.
"Now," she demanded, unable to stand the delicious assault any longer.
He bent her knees and placed himself at her portal. Then he raised himself on his elbows and arched his back, perspiration beading his forehead and upper lips at the control he exerted to hold back. With eyes locked with hers, Thork slowly began his sweet entry. Ruby felt herself relax and stretch to accommodate his size. Then he stopped.
He stopped.
Thork's eyes widened, then blinked unbelievingly, before he withdrew and rolled over on his side away from her, cursing her with coarse words.
"What? What is it? Did I do something wrong?" she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"Do not touch me!" Thork snarled and shrugged away from her, sitting on the edge of the bed. His shoulders trembled as he tried to bring his aroused body under control. Finally he walked stonily over to the water pitcher and dumped its entire contents on his engorged staff. He pulled on his pants angrily before walking to the edge of the bed.
Ruby sat up in the bed, confused. Thork grabbed her forearms with pincerlike fingers and pulled her roughly toward him. He shook her so hard she fell back on the bed.
"You lying, stinking bitch!"
"What? What did I do now?"
"You are a virgin," he spit out reproachfully. "All those stories you told of a husband and sons were lies. All lies! Who are you, and what do you here? Who sent you?"
"A virgin! Are you crazy? I've made love hundreds of times."
Thork leaned over her threateningly, pinioning her shoulders to the bed with the palms of his hands. "I know a maidenhead, madam, and you have one. The lies end here."
Tears streamed down Ruby's face, blurring her vision. There was nothing—nothing at all—she could tell him that would convince him of the truth.
Sweet Lord! A virgin! Ruby thought. Who would have ever thought it?
"You know you can work your wiles on me. You know how much I want the bedding of you, but know this, too—it will never happen now. Never! And if you lie about your virginity, what other duplicity do you practice? I would sooner bed with a snake tha
n a deceitful woman."
Ruby sobbed aloud, but Thork seemed immune to her pain. In truth, Ruby knew he was in as much pain himself.
"Stay away from me if you value your life. I get no joy in my strength over the weaker sex, but you push me too far. I cannot promise I will not hurt you if you approach me again." Then he got up and stormed out of the room, barefoot and bare-chested. The door slammed after him, shaking the wood door frame.
Ruby cried for hours, alternately sobbing, then racking her brain for answers to the dilemma she was in. When dawn light streamed through the window, Ruby still hadn't slept, and she knew she needed help. Would it be Dar or Aud? She decided to try Aud first.
Ruby opened the door and saw Vigi sleeping across the entryway, barring her exit. "I'd like to go to the pond to bathe. Will you accompany me?"
"Thor's blood, woman! 'Tis scarce daylight. Besides, you bathed yestermorn." He stood and rubbed sleepily at his eyes, then glared at her.
"I need to bathe," she asserted. "Shall we wake your master Dar to get his permission?"
"Nay," he muttered grumpily. "I am awake now."
Ruby went first to her tower room to get a change of clothes and noticed the gift she'd brought for Aud and forgotten to give to her. She put it on the pile of clothing, linen towels and soap she would carry with her. She awakened Ella to come with her to guard against Vigi's roving eyes when she bathed.
"Are those bruise marks on your arms?"
"Yes."
"Because you told that barmy tale in the hall yestereve about shaving legs?"
"No." Ruby didn't want to tell her the whole story. Besides, she had a bone to pick with Ella. "Did you tell someone about my master plan to get Thork to marry me?"
"Who sez I did?" Ella's querulous voice rose indignantly.
"Thork knows about it."
"Well, mayhap I might have mentioned it to Vigi."
"Vigi! He's as much a scandalmonger as you are."
"Well, I never!"
"I don't mean to argue with you," Ruby sighed. "I just have to be careful with you, Ella, if you're going to repeat everything I say."
"Well, you never said not to say anything."