Sirens - The Gripping Beast Part 12

Her stomach growled audibly just then.

"Little one, you will cease your stubbornness," he informed her.

"Thank you, but I'm not nearly hungry enough to eat a helping of crow."

"Again you speak of birds. Enough. You will eat."

"I'm not apologizing. I didn't do anything to apologize for. I'm not sorry, and I'm not going to say I am, either," Lorelei snapped in response.

Erik nodded in acknowledgement. "This I believe."

She gave him a suspicious look. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were making a heavy-handed attempt at being funny."

"My hands are as they always are. You are trying to change the subject. I have had enough of your stubbornness. You will eat, and I will hear no argument."

"Well, I'm still not-"

Erik cut her off in the middle of her indignant response by placing one of the hands she accused of heaviness over her mouth. Then he gave her a gentle shake. "No more," he said softly. "I will find some other way to teach you what you must learn. You will eat because I cannot watch you suffer any longer, and you may speak and move freely if you will stay in my sight."

She blinked in surprise. "Really?"

A slight smile touched his mouth. "Do you find it so surprising that your unhappiness displeases me?"

She gave him an arch look. "Don't try to convince me that you have a heart. You just want my body."

In answer, he slid his hands along her waist, up her ribcage to cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "This I admit," he growled. "Your body pleases me." His fingers stroked, kneaded and rubbed in a way that communicated that truth very clearly. "I want your body, yes." Then he released her and slid reluctant hands back down to her waist. "But not when you are fainting. Eat. Walk about. Tell Harold some of your wondrous lies. And if you feel unwell, you will get out of the sun and rest."

She looked confused.

Erik cupped her cheek and frowned again at the flush of heat. "Do your people not have sun? You look unused to it. The sun is stronger on the water, Lorelei. In the south countries the sun does not last all day in the summer. You must be from far away. Take care to grow accustomed to it gradually."

She smiled at him. "You know something? You can be kind of sweet, in a macho, barbarian kind of way."

He knew he should chide her for speaking disrespectfully.

But instead he smiled back. Then he kissed her. "You, also, are sweet," he breathed against the incredible sweetness of her mouth. He drew back as if to let her go, then claimed her lips again hungrily. When he released her, he told her, "I have missed your sweetness."

Her eyes were wide and filled with a sparkle instead of sparks. "Wow," she murmured. "Maybe abstinence makes the heart grow fonder." Then she burst into laughter.

For once, he could not bring himself to object that she made sport of him. It pleased him too much to hear her laugh.

She handed the armband back, and he took it wordlessly.

"Erik, have you ever noticed the links on that design seeming to move?"

In the process of sliding it back into place, Erik paused and gave her a cautious look. She was not serious, was she? Had he not determined that she was as sound of mind as he was himself? Her gaze was focused on the entwined figure decorating his armband and her smooth brows drew together in a slight frown of concentration. She did indeed appear serious.

She had spoken of his armband from the very first, now that he considered it. She had claimed that Harold had given it to her, only then she had decided that it was not Harold after all, nor his armband. She had also seemed truly surprised when she took it and nothing had happened.

An uneasy thought stirred. Could there be some truth to her wild tales? Could she in fact be a traveler from the distant future? But if so, what possible importance did a piece of jewelry hold?

None, he decided firmly. She was merely telling her tales again and attempting to throw him off of the subject of how she intended to escape him. Not that she would succeed. He hid a smile with difficulty at the thought. She was proving a continual challenge, and he looked forward to thwarting whatever plot she concocted.

Oddly enough, he found her pleasing in spite of her defiance and stubbornness. He had envisioned a less contentious relations.h.i.+p. One that would provide him with a peaceful area of calm in the storm of life, much as eddies of calm could be found beside a rus.h.i.+ng current. Instead, he had found an undertow.

She did not care if she angered him. She made no effort to exert her wiles to sway him. She did have some caution, but no fear of him, and that amazed him. Did she not realize the power he held over her life? He could keep her for himself, or order her to service every man on board his longboat and she would have no choice in the matter. He could give her away or sell her and she would have to go. He could beat or otherwise abuse her. Not that he would do so. But she belonged to him and his owners.h.i.+p was absolute. Why did she seem unconcerned?

Or was she unconcerned? He frowned slightly. She had spoken wildly of losing herself to him. Of being overpowered and taken until nothing remained. He had thought at the time that her fear was a physical one, that his size and strength alarmed her. Physical injury was a reasonable concern. If he failed to control himself or acted without thought for her, she could be badly hurt without his intending it. Then he had found her untouched and believed her fear to be a mixture of ignorance and womanly feeling.

She had wanted to wash away the evidence of his touch. He had hurt her feelings. He was still not entirely certain why, but he had no wish to do so again. Yet he could not put her wishes or her feelings above his duty.

She had said that she did not mind his touch. That she had no objection to sharing his bed. But she had also spoken of ugliness and being kicked out of paradise, which he took to mean a place like Valhalla and perhaps the same one the Christians spoke of.

Erik sighed inwardly. The woman was a ma.s.s of confusion and there was no understanding her. No wonder he had thought her mad. He would become mad himself if he tried to understand the tangled workings of her mind.

"Lorelei," he said calmly, "the figure is made of metal. It is not alive. It is made from-"

"Silver and gold, right, I know," she interrupted. "Still, there's something funny about it." She traced the outline again, then continued, "When I put it on, not just now, but the first time, I could swear that it started moving."

She fell silent for a moment. "Maybe it was just a trick of the light," she muttered.

Erik took her hand and placed it against his chest. "Enough of your tales. You have delayed for too long. I find I have had too much of abstinence."

Lorelei gave him a lazy smile. "Oh? What did you have in mind?"

He gave a low growl in answer. Then he pulled her slight form on top of himself and claimed her mouth in a deep, drugging kiss. He tugged her hips over his and pushed her knees to the outside of his thighs, forcing her to straddle him and mold him with her womanly cradle.

She melted against him with a soft sound of approval and encouragement, arching the small of her back slightly so that her hardened nipples teased his chest through the fabric of his s.h.i.+rt.

He slid his hands below the hem and pushed it up to her hips. His hands stroked the tempting curve of her b.u.t.tocks, then came around and moved higher to cup and lift the soft peaks that tempted him. His thumbs grazed her hardened, pebbled nipples and he was rewarded with a moan of pleasure at the caress.

"So you like that?" Erik asked huskily against her lips.

"Oh, yes. Are you kidding? You're wonderful," she informed him. He could feel her b.r.e.a.s.t.s swelling and tightening in his hands and her responsiveness sent a rush of urgent heat through him.

No longer content with the soft feminine weight filling his hands, Erik released the twin globes and moved lower. One palm lifted her belly slightly. The other moved between her thighs to seek out her feminine core.

The slickness that he found made him want to spill his seed then and there. She was wet and welcoming. He was unable to resist testing her readiness, but the sensation of her slick heat closed tightly around his finger drove him to a fever pitch of need. He withdrew, raised her long enough to free himself, and then he was burying his shaft in her. She took him inside herself, and he groaned again at the pleasure of filling her tight channel.

He felt her clenching and rippling around him and the knowledge that she had found her pleasure when he had barely entered her sent him over the edge himself. He ended it with one hard thrust that seated him fully inside her. Then he spilled himself endlessly into her, his bruising grip on her hips holding her in place as she writhed in spasm after spasm of ecstasy.

Afterwards, he slowly relaxed his hold and wrapped his arms around her. She slipped her hands beneath his neck and cuddled willingly. "Erik," she whispered. "G.o.d."

He smiled, although she could not see it with her face buried against his chest. "Erik is enough. Master if you insist on a t.i.tle."

She sank her teeth into the nearest muscle in response. "Funny. Very funny."

He laughed at her irritation.

She leaned up to frown at him.

Then she smiled and kissed him instead. "Oh, go ahead and laugh. I just had a multiple o.r.g.a.s.m. Or at least I think that's what it was. Whatever you want to call it, it felt terrific. I'm too happy to fight with you." Lorelei settled back into his arms and spread kisses along the column of his throat. "Erik, that was amazing. Can we do it again?"

Her eagerness made him laugh again. "Woman, I have just spent myself.

You milked me of all my seed. I may not have the strength to lay you again this evening."

"Oh." She tightened around him experimentally, since he was still inside her. "Are you sure?"

"I am sure. I am sure you are going to drive me to madness," he informed her. "But I will promise you this, if you have need and I have not recovered, I will see to you."

She raised her head again, her eyes filled with silent curiosity.

"Like this," he explained. He s.h.i.+fted her so that they lay side by side. His hand moved over her plundered mound, stroking the length of her. He settled his thumb below her nub and lazily circled it while his fingertips stroked in and out of her opening. She made a low sound of surprise. Erik smiled at her, liking the way desire made her face flush and her green eyes darken like the sea before a storm.

"And this," he breathed. He widened her and slid two fingers inside. She gasped. He increased the pressure with his thumb and teased her sensitized opening with a third finger, slipping in and out rapidly.

She shuddered and spasmed around his finger in a liquid rush.

Incredibly, her desire and her response to him had him rock hard again when he would have sworn it was impossible. Watching her face while he brought her to pleasure made him want her again with aching intensity.

He rolled her to her back, stripped away the s.h.i.+rt to bare her fully against him and drove inside her in one swift movement.

"Erik," she gasped. He felt her shuddering in his arms and felt the powerful, purely male satisfaction of conquest.

"Rub your b.r.e.a.s.t.s against me," he commanded in a low growl.

She did, arching into him in a motion that opened her hips even more and brought him more fully inside. She made a sharp sound of surprise.

He rode her with ruthless strength, driving deeply into her again and again. She was soft and wet enough, ready enough not to feel any hurt. He could take her with brutal force, she was so ready. He took her with driving fury, making her keen with pleasure as he buried himself full length in her. Then he shuddered in a violent spending and knew he planted his seed deep within her virgin womb.

She was asleep when he recovered. Erik levered himself above her and watched her face for some time. A slight smile curved her lips, and her lashes fanned against the delicate skin beneath her eyes. It looked faintly bruised and he touched it gently. She had not slept well of late, it seemed. It pleased him that she slept deeply now after serving his need so well.

He palmed one breast in a purely possessive hold, liking the silky feel of her skin and the freedom to touch and take as he would. Even in sleep she responded to him. She turned towards his touch and made a soft sound of sleepy satisfaction when he gathered her against his side. He held her until he knew she would not wake when he left her. He tucked the lynx skin around her and kissed the rosy crest of one breast for no other reason than that it pleased him to do so before he dressed and went to check the course once more.

Chapter Ten.

There was a campfire in a forest clearing. Lorelei could see a man sitting by the fire with two large dogs, one on each side of him. She walked towards the trio and when she got closer, she realized the animals weren't dogs at all. They were wolves. The man turned his head towards her. Firelight showed a patch covering one eye.

A man with one eye and two wolves could only be..."Odin."

He smiled. "That name will do."

Lorelei waved her hands in the air, too exasperated to be still. Even her d.a.m.n dreams were full of riddles. Was it too much to hope for an escape when she closed her eyes?

"What next? Armbands that come alive when you don't expect them to and don't when you do expect it, Vikings, a Norse G.o.d and guardian wolves. Could this get any weirder?"

"That's possible. You should be careful what you wish for."

She stared at him. "What I wish for? What do you mean?"

He didn't answer her. Instead, he asked another question. "What do you know of the Rhinegold?"

"Like in the story? Well, for starters, the ring made nine more of itself every..." Lorelei trailed off as an idea came to her that was completely outrageous. But then, not any more outrageous than having a fire lit conversation with an embodied myth. "You're not telling me that some of the replicas got loose and you lost track of them?"

"I keep my eye on them."

He was serious. Lorelei stared at him in disbelief, but there was no hint of humor in his face. "The designs in Erik's armbands were made from a piece of the Rhinegold?"

Well, that made as much sense as anything else in this crazy dream. As much sense as anything else in her current waking life, actually. "And if they are, why aren't weird things happening to him?" Why hadn't anything happened to her when she'd taken one and put it on earlier, for that matter?

"By themselves they are inert. The wearer must have the key."

"I don't have any key!" Lorelei burst out. As she'd proven in her failed attempt to get back home.

"Don't you?" Odin stood up and turned to face her fully. He rested one hand on each of the wolves' heads as he spoke. "Be careful what you wish for."

Then the trio and the fire all vanished, leaving her alone in the dark forest clearing under a starless sky.

Lorelei woke to a feeling of delicious la.s.situde that lasted until she stretched. Immediately, abused muscles protested and various aches and minor discomforts made themselves known. That brought her firmly into the present moment and cleared away the remnants of her dream. She'd heard rumors that people on s.h.i.+ps had bizarre dreams and apparently that was true because she' d had some doozies lately.

She grimaced at both the memory of the dream and her aching body. The s.e.x had been amazing. So there was a price to pay for all that skyrocketing pa.s.sion. She might have known. She felt raw, sore and bruised. Still, a silly smile stole over her face at the memory of the afternoon spent kissing and making up with Erik.

He was wonderful. He made her hot and eager for his touch, when every other man she'd known had left her cold at the first hint of a s.e.xual overture. The smile widened as she pictured the tabloid headline, "A Viking Took My Virginity". A sub-heading would read, "Siren rocker no longer frigid". She laughed out loud at the image, then groaned when she moved.

"You sound pleased, yet I think we may have overdone it."

She started at Erik's voice and then turned her head to find him by the door. "h.e.l.lo, lover. Come and kiss me. Then help me get up, I don't think I can stand after what you did to me. Not that I'm complaining," she added hastily, with a lopsided grin. "And maybe it just seems like overdoing it because I'm such a novice. I might just need more practice."

He laughed at her enthusiastic suggestion and came to lift her easily to her feet.

"I think you will wait for further practice," he informed her. He smoothed her hair back and frowned at the reddened, abraded skin on her face and neck from his beard. "How badly do you hurt?"

"It only hurts when I laugh." Her eyes sparkled with remembered delight. "And when I move. Erik, you've crippled me." She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned against him in trusting abandon. "It was the most wonderful experience in my life. I take it back. I like your time." Happiness bubbled in her sultry voice.

He hugged her and swung her up in his arms. "I hope you have no urgent need to wash away my touch this time, but a bath may help the soreness."

She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Hm. Nice thought. Except I'm not sure about the idea of putting salt.w.a.ter on my wounds."

He gave her a thoughtful look. "Then I must say this a less tactful way. Woman, you stink."

"I probably do," she agreed cheerfully.