Sirens - The Gripping Beast Part 20

She made for the bed and prodded at the muscled arm that hung down the side. "Move it. You're hogging the bed, the pillows, and all the covers."

He rolled over without waking up, and Lorelei sprawled gratefully on the open s.p.a.ce he'd made. "Ahhh. A real bed. Heaven." She laid her head on a pillow and closed her eyes. "Erik, you'd better join me. Remember I was sick when you found me? Time travel causes the worst jetlag you can imagine. If you pa.s.s out, it should be where you can't hit your head on anything hard."

It was an effort to speak now, she realized. Everything was whirling around her. Oh, yes, and the headache was. .h.i.tting her. She'd forgotten the headache.

She felt Erik's weight settle beside her, felt his arms pulling her against his chest, tucking her securely into his body.

She imagined Dane's face when he woke up and saw them and wanted to giggle. He must have the armband, she thought fuzzily, since they would have been dumped in its vicinity. The pair were reunited. And dangerous. Have to throw them into the Sound or something, she thought. And then she didn't think anything for a long time.

It was the noise that woke her up.

She groaned and tried to pull a pillow over her head, but something was weighing it down. Lorelei opened her eyes and blinked hard, trying to bring the world into focus.

Ah. Dane and Erik had met. She'd better interrupt them.

"Dane. Stop trying to kill my husband. And find somebody to get some coffee up here. Lots of coffee. I want Starbucks. I want chocolate covered coffee beans." Just the thought of coffee made her mouth water.

"Husband?" Dane stared at her, shock personified. "Where'd you find him, a biker bar for creative anachronism?"

Lorelei giggled. "No. He's a Viking. Your great-great-something or other. The one who had the armbands originally."

Speaking of which... She sat up in alarm. "You're not wearing the one you gave me, are you? Take it off! We have to get rid of them!"

Dane eyed her and sn.i.g.g.e.red. "Nice outfit, babe."

She looked down at Erik's s.h.i.+rt, pants, her makes.h.i.+ft belt, and shrugged. "I was a little fas.h.i.+on-challenged on the trip. But I mean it about the armbands, Dane. Where's yours?"

"On the table. There." He gestured towards a small table that stood under the window. Lorelei saw the glint of gold and silver from across the room.

"Oh, good, you don't have it on. Do me a favor and don't ever wear it. In fact, you can take the pair of them for a little sail on Iduna and dump them into the ocean."

Iduna, lover in Old Norse, was the name of Dane's sailboat. He'd left it moored in Seattle, since that was the last stop on the Legends concert tour. And what a perfect way to get rid of a Viking-age problem, Lorelei decided.

Erik made a low sound in his throat, and she realized he'd only understood one word in the conversation. Lover. The rest had been in English. She giggled and turned to kiss him. "We're talking about his sailboat. I told him to take the pair of armbands out to sea and dump them where n.o.body else can find them." She tangled her fingers in his beard and wished they were alone, free to take the kiss further. But then again, they had a few problems to solve first.

"In fact, Dane, maybe you should take us both out for a sail for a little while. It might be a good idea to keep Erik out of sight while he learns English and we get some papers for him. He'll need an ident.i.ty package. And we have to get married again so it's legal here."

"Right. Because I have nothing better to do than be your errand boy." He rolled his eyes at her, but his relief at seeing her safe and sound was palpable.

"Hey, you sent me into the past. You created this time-travel mess, you can help fix it."

Dane looked at the two of them, indicating with a wave of his hand the way Erik's body curved protectively around hers, the way her fingers curled into his beard. "I don't think you came out of it too badly. Didn't I tell you you'd find the right guy? I think you should be thanking me."

"Thank you. Now let's sink those d.a.m.n things in the bottom of the ocean before they cause any more trouble."

"Good plan." Dane scooted to the far side of the bed, stood, and picked up his boots. He'd fallen asleep fully dressed otherwise. "By the way, Morris hushed up your vanis.h.i.+ng act and I talked him out of telling the authorities. I had a feeling about you and the armband's history. It seemed to make more sense than somebody kidnapping you when the security monitors didn't show anybody entering or leaving. You just vanished into thin air. You're a witchy woman. If anybody could take a trip through time, it'd be you. I figured if I was right you'd turn up pretty soon and wouldn't want any complications. The official explanation is your gall bladder. You were suddenly sick and had to have emergency surgery, concert cancelled."

"Oh, smart." Lorelei smiled with delight. "Good cover. And another good reason for us all to lay low for a little while. I can be recovering."

"I think you're right. I'll get everything set up. You two hide out here until I get back." Dane hesitated, then came close and offered his hand to Erik. Then he leaned down to brush a kiss on Lorelei's cheek. "I'm happy for you, babe. And so d.a.m.n relieved. I saw that armband laying there, and I was afraid you were in trouble. If anything had happened to you, it would have been my fault. I shouldn't have given it to you."

"Yes, you should have. Everything happened just the way it should. Don't be sorry, Dane, because I'm not."

He looked from her to the big Viking beside her. "No, I guess you're not." He smiled at Erik. "You're a lucky man. You take care of her."

The words might not have translated, but it seemed the meaning did because Erik nodded at Dane. Probably a guy thing, Lorelei mused. As Dane left, she called after him, 'Don't forget about the coffee!"

"What is this coffee?" Erik asked her.

"Ah. An item of trade. You'll like it." She smiled at him, and then used her fingers threaded through his beard to tug him down for another kiss, this time a more thorough and leisurely one. They had all the time in the world now.

One Year Later...

"Happy anniversary."

Lorelei smiled at the sound of her husband's husky voice against her ear. She stretched, feeling the hard, muscled length of his body against hers, the heat of him warming her back. Silk sheets slid under her bare skin. And the unmistakably hard length of his erection was pressed against her b.u.t.t. "Happy anniversary to you, too. What a nice way to wake up. And is that a sword between your legs, or are you happy to see me?"

"I am very happy to see you."

The sensual intent in Erik's voice made her smile wider. "Ohh, good."

He slid one hand along her side, down her thigh, then between her legs. She s.h.i.+fted obligingly to allow him better access and sighed her delight as he cupped the pad of her mons, then found and stroked her c.l.i.toris. "I wonder if my wife would like to play a game this morning?"

A happy giggle escaped her. "What kind of game did you have in mind?"

"The Viking and his love slave."

"Sounds fun. What are the rules?"

"One rule. You belong to me. And I take you." As he spoke, he thrust two fingers into her. Hard.

Liquid heat drenched the fingers invading her and spread through her body, bringing with it a la.s.situde that turned her bones weak and made her melt into him. Life in the twenty-first century hadn't changed him. He might have cut his hair, shaved off his beard and changed the way he dressed, but he still did business with shrewd ac.u.men and an eye to profit. And he still saw her as his in a raw, primal way that she'd never seen in another man of her century. His to cherish. To protect. And to take, often and inventively.

He'd made another fortune trading, as she'd predicted. He'd learned English quickly and then a variety of other languages, his multilingual past making it easy for him to pick up new languages readily. Buying an ident.i.ty for him and getting him legal status hadn't posed any problems. Their second and legal marriage had taken place as soon as they'd been able to arrange it. And they'd bought a house in the San Juan Islands with acreage around them, needing the quiet and the privacy. After the time spent in the past, Lorelei found the present incredibly loud and crowded and she knew it had to seem even worse to Erik. A remote and private home gave them both something like a place out of time to retreat to.

"You are mine." His fingers were thrusting in and out of her now, preparing her for another invasion. She moaned her pleasure and tried to turn towards him. He held her still. "No. I will take you like this, with your back to me."

He pulled his fingers out of her, hooked her thigh over his, and then slid his hard p.e.n.i.s between her legs until the head pressed against her opening. She was getting more ready by the moment, but still a little tight, not fully lubricated. He knew she liked it when he took her like that, when she wasn't wet enough for him to slide inside easily and he had to work his way in with a mixture of force and persuasion.

The head pressed inside her, penetrating her. He slid one hand up to cup the underside of her breast, another hand down to stroke the now throbbing bud of her c.l.i.t while he thrust into her, slowly, until he had her fully impaled.

He held still for a moment while her body adjusted to him. Then he took her ruthlessly, possessively, driving into her as hard and deep as he could. She felt the o.r.g.a.s.m building with each thrust, getting closer, until she couldn't prevent her inner muscles from spasming and clenching around his c.o.c.k as she found her release and he took his, pumping himself into her while her o.r.g.a.s.m milked him dry.

"My woman."

The satisfaction in his voice made her smile. "Yes. Always."

Erik held his woman closer, caressing her as she recovered. "I will have to be more careful in another month or two." He cupped her belly, only slightly rounded so early in pregnancy.

She made a faint noise of exasperation. "I'm fine. You know it doesn't hurt me or the baby."

"I know that you are mine and I will take care of you." He kissed her temple, then smoothed her hair back. The length of it flowed down them both. "Sleepy?"

"Umm."

The tired response made him smile. His woman was like a cat in pregnancy, napping often, and twining around him for warmth whenever she could. "Go back to sleep, then. You have no need to rise so early this morning. I woke you only because I could wait no longer."

Her breathing s.h.i.+fted into the deep, even rhythm that told him she slept within minutes. Holding her while she slept, wrapped around her and buried inside her, filled him with a deep contentment he had never known until the day he'd found and taken his little slave. She completed something in him. His heart had been hers from the moment he'd set eyes on her in Hedeby, so long ago and far away. She was his heart, his life. His for all time without end.

To think that he owed it to chance. Had he not purchased the armbands from the one-eyed craftsman on one of his trading voyages, he might never have found her. The craftsman had vowed they would bring him woman-luck. Erik smiled at the woman wrapped in his protective embrace. That had been a lucky day for him, indeed.

The End.

Charlene Teglia.

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