Page 54 of Viking in Love

“Wha…what do you mean?” Oh, the brute is going to bleed my humiliation for every drop.

He tugged her back into an alcove. “If we are going to be intimate, surely a kiss would not go amiss now. A pledge, so to speak.”

I knew it. Well, two can play this game. “Hmmmm. I suppose one little kiss would not hurt.” She tried to free her hand and found herself against the wall. He released her hand, but his body was aligning itself with hers in a way-too-familiar manner.

“There is no such thing as a little kiss amongst lovers.”

Lovers? Me? Us? “Get it over with then.” She closed her eyes and prepared for the distasteful exercise.

She heard him chuckle, but he did nothing.

With her eyes still scrunched tight, she asked, “What are you waiting for?”

“Open your lips, Breanne.”

Her eyes shot open. “What?”

“Just like that, dearling.” He settled his lips over hers then, and, oh, it felt so good.

Reflexively, she curved her body into his and put her hands on his shoulders.

He moaned.

Oddly, it gave her a thrill that she could make this big man moan.

“You have the most delicious mouth, lips made for kissing,” he murmured, putting a hand on her chin to hold her in place. The other arm went around her waist and yanked her closer. Her suddenly aching breasts, under the aspics, were crushed against his chest, and he had somehow managed to step between her legs and press his manpart to her female part.

She almost swooned at the intensity of tortuous pleasure.

He was tongue-kissing her now, and she opened wider, wanting more of the delicious friction. Tentatively, she put the tip of her tongue in his mouth and was rewarded with another moan of pleasure.

They were both panting for breath when he leaned back to look at her. “Why is your bodice all wet?”

At first she could not speak, so aroused was she. Finally, she managed to tell him, “You must have squished me. My aspics are melting.”

His dark eyes went incredulous. Then he burst out laughing, hugging her to him before bracing his arms over her on either side of her head. Her mouth seemed to fascinate him, especially when he traced the slickness left from their kiss with a forefinger. Holding her gaze, he put the moist fingertip to his mouth and sucked.

She felt a reciprocal spasm low in her belly.

“Ah, Breanne,” he said, forehead to forehead, “we are going to be so good together.”

That was what she was afraid of. Suddenly, she realized that there was a strong possibility he had been serious, that this was no game he was playing to embarrass her. Ten nights with a knight!

To her mortification, she realized that she could not wait.

Wake-up calls can be brutal…

Caedmon was awakened at first light by his children, all ten of them.

Through sleep-bleary eyes, he watched as Piers sat his little rump down on his lower belly and began to bounce, not the best thing to do to a man first thing in the morning. He took him by the waist and moved him higher up on his body.

Beth had climbed up on the bed to snuggle at his one side, and Mina on the other. The twins, Alfred and Aidan, along with Angus, his usual glower in place, stood at the foot of the bedstead, just staring at him. Oslac, Kendrick, and Joanna, the three Welsh bratlings, were standing in the corner in front of Hugh, who had a hand on two of their shoulders. It appeared as if he had dragged them here against their wills.

“What is amiss?” Caedmon said, trying to ignore Piers, who was doing a job on his belly, calling out, “Ha-see, ha-see!” over and over. Caedmon assumed he meant horsey. And he was drooling on his chest. A new tooth coming in, he supposed.

“Yer holdin’ the shire court here next month,” Kendrick pointed out. “We would like ta hold a family court first.”

“Whaaat? I have ne’er heard of such. Why?”