Page 54 of My Fair Viking

And so she closed her eyes, and he closed his (she checked), and the kiss was so much better, just as he had said.

His prior kisses were still imbedded in her mind, and she called on those memories. She moved her mouth against his. She licked his lips. She bit him lightly. She plunged her tongue inside his mouth and almost swooned at the intensity of her pleasure. He must be nigh swooning too if his groans were any indication. At some point, she could not say when, Adam joined in the kissing. Not taking charge exactly. But giving and taking. Fair play. She liked that. In fact, she was beginning to like too much about the man.

So dazed was she by this incredible exercise of kissing that she scarce noticed when he loosened the ribbon lacing of her gown, which wrapped around her body from abdomen to hips. When she felt the air on her bare breasts, it was already too late.

How could any woman resist the hungry look of a handsome man gazing at her body?

"Don't move," he ordered as he tugged the neckline and sleeves of her gown downward to her waist and wrists respectively. In truth, she could not have moved even if she had wanted to; she was trapped by the confines of her gown.

He touched her breasts then. Lightly. With his fingertips he traced the rounded globes, then the rose-colored areolas, then the hardened tips. "So beautiful. So beautiful," he whispered.

The pleasure was more than she could bear. Arching her neck, she instinctively pressed her breasts forward for more of his attentions. He gave them, and more than she had ever bargained for. Cupping her right breast from underneath, he lifted it, then leaned down and took the turgid nipple in his mouth and sucked deeply.

With a whimper, she sank down to the straw. He went with her, never taking his mouth from her breast. Over and over and over, he suckled at her breast with a rhythm that was delicious agony, alternating his sucking action with an occasional nip of his teeth or flick of his tongue.

Then he lifted his face and gave equal punishing attention to her left breast.

Tyra felt as if she were floating, floating, floating toward Valhalla… or some unknown heaven of sorts.

But in the midst of her arousal, she realized that what had started out as a kissing game on her part had turned into something altogether different. She was the one gaining all the pleasure, whereas Adam reaped no rewards.

Taking a deep breath to still her roiling arousal, she grabbed his head by handfuls of hair on each side and lifted him off her body so that she could see his face.

His eyes were glazed with passion, his mouth wet and panting. "What?" he inquired huskily. "Do you not like what I am doing to you?"

Her instinct was to deny her feelings, but she was basically honest, and she admitted, "I love what you do to me, but… but… well, it is all one-sided."

His eyes went wide with surprise, then filled with understanding. "Ah, sweetling, did you not know? A woman's passion is a man's greatest pleasure."

"Really?"

He nodded and began to sit up. "I'm glad you stopped me, though. I lost control."

She sat up, too, and began to adjust her gown. Disappointment rang through her like a funeral bell. He did not want her after all. "Losing control is a bad thing?"

He turned his gaze on her and smiled softly. "Nay, losing control is a good thing… in the right situation. But I do not intend to take you for the first time on the floor of a stable."

Take? Tyra did not like the sound of that. "What makes you think that you would take me? Mayhap I would take you."

He tossed his hands in the air. "That works equally well for me."

They both stood then and helped each other stand and whisk the wrinkles out of their garments and pick off pieces of straw.

"Do you want to bring your pet back to the castle with you?" Adam asked.

"What pet?"

"The kitten."

"Adam," she said with a long sigh, "why do I have to keep reminding you? I am a soldier. I must exhibit warlike ways. Having a kitten trailing about after me would not be warlike."

He just smiled at her, not believing a word she said.

"Besides, Vana does not allow animals indoors."

He still smiled.

As they were walking back toward the great hall, Tyra ventured a thought that had been nagging at her. " 'Tis odd, this attraction betwixt us, do you not think? I mean, I do not even like you, really."