Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

M oon tensed, instinct telling him this would be yet another of Eyja’s questions he found impossible or awkward to answer. “What is it?” he couldn’t help but ask when she stopped. If she thought it necessary to censure herself, this would be bad indeed. Nevertheless, he wanted to know.

“Farmon and Bragi both seemed interested by the idea of a woman, erm, sucking their...” She stopped and went bright red before she could repeat the rude word. “But what does it mean, exactly?”

All the blood in Moon’s body rushed to the place she hadn’t dared name. He imagined her on her knees in front of him, doing just that. Someone like her, wild, playful and always ready for a challenge would be perfect at giving a man such shocking pleasure. For a moment he allowed himself to get lost in the lewd image. And then fury overtook him when he remembered how Farmon had talked to her, how Bragi had grabbed her by the jaw.

“It means that they are pigs who have no idea of how to talk to or about women,” he snarled.

Her face fell, as if she had expected a different answer altogether. “Oh. So... It’s not something men like you would enjoy?”

Despite himself he let out a groan. Not enjoy? He would give a finger to feel the heat of a woman’s mouth around his shaft at least once in his life. For all his experience, no woman had ever dared offer him this delight. “Every man, as far as I can tell, would enjoy this. I... I think I would too.”

She blinked in surprise. “You mean that you’ve never tried? I thought you were rather experienced.”

“I am.” No point in pretending otherwise.

“So... why not?”

They had to stop this conversation right now. But he couldn’t seem to. He was fascinated, like a vole would be in front of an eagle about to dive on him. Although only danger awaited him, he was powerless to retreat to safety.

Moon dropped the stone he’d been holding and raised his chin. Eyja wanted to talk about this? Let’s see how far she was prepared to go.

“Because I’ve never met a woman who wanted to do it to me and it’s not something I could force anyone to do,” he said in a low voice. There. Not quite what he had intended to say, but honest at least.

“But the idea intrigues you?”

Oh, it did more than intrigue him, it aroused him like nothing else. He often imagined it when he gave himself pleasure at night. The answer must have shown in his eyes because she dropped her gaze to the front of his braies. Her mouth fell open when she saw how hard he was.

“I see.” The imp arched a brow when all the other women he knew would most likely have gone bright red. “It does intrigue you. Perhaps... Perhaps I could do it for you.”

He almost swallowed his tongue. Had she just said that? Of course, she had. She was nothing if not brazen. “Hell, Eyja, are you mad? It’s not something women just offer to do to men.”

She shrugged. “I don’t see why not. You gave me pleasure the other day. I could do the same. Like the sling for me, it’s something you’ve always wanted to experience. I could help you the way you helped me. Save you never knowing.”

With those shocking words she closed the gap between them and wrapped her fingers around his shaft. A bolt of lightning shot straight up his spine.

“This is...” The words dried on his lips when she gave a squeeze but he forced himself to finish. “This is not the same as showing someone how to use a weapon, and you know it.”

It was not even remotely the same. He should refuse.

And yet...

The offer was one he knew he might well not be able to turn down. Eyja was holding him captive with the glint in her eye and the grip of her hand around his pulsing shaft.

“You need not feel guilty, you’re not forcing me to do anything. I want to do it. I think... I think I would like it as well.”

Well, if she didn’t render him speechless.

She gave another squeeze. He groaned. Whether he accepted or refused her offer, one thing was guaranteed. It would be the death of him. The choice was clear, if not attractive. Either be consumed by regret or racked with guilt.

“You do know what happens when a man reaches his pleasure?” But he knew she did. Thorfinn, damn the man’s eyes, had shown her.

“Yes.” She didn’t seem to understand what he was getting at.

“If you take me in your mouth, then I will spill in your mouth.” It was as simple as that and he didn’t see why he should lie or even pretend that was not what he wanted. If she dared wrap her lips around him, he would hold her head in place and lose himself in the pleasure she was offering. The temptation would be impossible to resist. He would not be able to do the right thing and withdraw. He would enjoy this to the full. “I will not let you go until I’ve reached my release.”

And it would happen more quickly than he would wish. He was already weeping with need.

“So?” Eyja looked at him from under her long lashes. “Spill in my mouth. What’s wrong with that?”

So many things. “You might feel used. I don’t want that. It might be uncomfortable for you. It also means you will have to swallow my seed. Every drop of it, because I won’t release you until you have.” He wanted to shock her, make her see the reality of what she was offering. But the imp didn’t appear shocked, rather all the more fascinated. Damnation, why couldn’t she be like the other women for once! A virgin should be horrified by what he was explaining, not aroused! How was he supposed to do the honorable thing when she was practically licking her lips at the idea of sucking him to completion?

“Swallow a man’s seed. Is that what women do?” she asked in a throaty voice.

“I don’t know,” he panted. “I told you, I’ve never done that before. But it’s what I’d want you to do and I’m not sure you’d like that.”

“I’ll decide what I like and how best this is to be done, thank you very much. If we are to do it, we’ll do it properly,” she said sternly.

The minx! She was using his earlier words against him. But why had he expected any different? She was the most vexing woman he knew. Yes, and also the fiercest, most generous one. Wasn’t she offering to do something he had always fantasized about? He was quickly losing his grip on reason in front of her determination. Why was he even surprised? He should have guessed that if one woman was bold enough to introduce him to this sensual experience, it would be Eyja.

He tried to ward off temptation one last time. This was wrong, surely?

“Eyja—”

“Listen, you didn’t give me any choice the other day in the forest and I ended up loving it. I held your head in place, I used you until I reached my release and I don’t think you minded any of it.” Oh, he had not minded it, in fact, he had loved to see that he was making her lose all restraint. “Now it’s my turn to give you pleasure. It’s only fair.”

“That’s not the way it works,” he managed to rasp, feeling his thoughts scatter like twigs in a storm. His will had long since disappeared. His control was holding on by a thread.

“Since when have I done what was expected of me? You have complained about the fact often enough. Now it’s time you saw it can also have its advantages. You said I was yours to command, remember? Well, this is what I want.”

With those words she sank to her knees. It was no use. He would just have to surrender. And... Never had surrender been sweeter.

Slowly, she started to undo the laces at the front of his braies. He did nothing to stop her, merely watched, feeling both blessed and wretched.

“You’ll have to guide me, tell me what you like,” she whispered, placing her hand on his throbbing member. The feel of her fingers on his naked flesh was delicious torture.

“I-I don’t know. I told you, I?—”

She cut his fumbled explanations short. “Well, then, you’ll just have to tell me if you like what I do.”

In the end, Moon was unable to say anything. As soon as Eyja’s tongue slid along his shaft, he lost the ability to think. When she closed her lips over the tip, he groaned like a man in pain. And when she engulfed him in heat, he almost collapsed to the ground.

No! He could not falter now, he had to enjoy the gift she was offering. Leaning his back against the tree for support, he let her explore, find a rhythm that suited her.

Then she moaned, the sound acting like a whiplash on his fevered brain.

Of their own accord, his hands fastened to the back of her head. Her hair was still short but not so short that he could not weave his fingers through the silky strands to hold her in place while he pushed deeper into her mouth, just as he had warned he would do. It was impossible to act differently, he had dreamed of this moment for too long, and Eyja was just too damn perfect.

“Tell me you want this,” he rasped. Bloody hell, he was already too close to relief. He would have wanted this to last forever but he was going to erupt in no time. And he wanted to make the most of it while it lasted. “Tell me I can do this.”

With her mouth full she couldn’t answer, but the moan she gave was enough to reassure him.

Moon let go, his fingers digging into her scalp. He’d never been a shy lover but this was taking it to a new level. In a distant part of his mind, he kept listening to her moans, waiting for one that denoted protest instead of arousal, and heard nothing. Grateful beyond belief, he bucked his hips one final time.

“Fuck,” was all he said before he stilled and erupted with unprecedented force.

Eyja could not understand why she was feeling so aroused. By rights, Moon should be the one experiencing desire and pleasure, not her. And yet, her whole body was tingling. Every time he plunged inside her throat she felt the echo of the move between her legs.

He’d warned her he would use her. She hadn’t understood what he’d meant then. She did now, and she loved it. Except that she would not have called what he was doing “using her”. Rather, he was making the most of the opportunity she was offering him, and allowing himself a pleasure he had always dreamed of, safe in the knowledge that she enjoyed it as well. Because her moans made that clear, and she was certain he would remember this first time as well. He would think having a woman service him thus was just as pleasurable as he had hoped for.

As for her, she would remember it as pleasurable as well. The feel of his fingers holding her in place while he slid inside her again and again was deeply erotic, as was the knowledge that for him in that moment, nothing existed than her and the warmth of her mouth.

For once he was not annoyed, or disappointed or impatient with her.

For once she was just what he needed.

He would not consider this the biggest mistake he had ever made, that was certain.

She closed her eyes and savored the moment. Never when she had carved the moon in the oak bark would she have imagined she would come here with him one day, and she would be on her knees, giving him pleasure.

He pushed inside her one last time, then he swore, and stilled. Heat flooded her mouth and, just like he’d said, she had no choice but to swallow his seed. But, unlike what he’d feared, she didn’t dislike it. True, it was disconcerting at first, but the satisfaction she felt at having succeeded in making him lose his mind more than made up for it. Once he’d stopped throbbing she hummed, and to her surprise, felt him jerk one last time against her tongue. She would have smiled if she’d been able. He’d liked that then.

Slowly she released him and lifted her head up. Eyes half closed, Moon was looking at her as if she were a supernatural apparition, one he was in awe of.

“So tell me. Am I forgiven?”

“Forgiven?” he rasped.

“For breaking your sling.”

“What sling? What the hell are you talking about? The sling is intact.”

A pearly laugh escaped her throat. Yes, the sling they’d just used was intact, but she meant the one she had stolen years ago. She really had reduced his brain to mush, as well as his legs to gruel if he couldn’t remember their earlier conversation.

“I’ll take that for a yes. Well, was it as good as you’d hoped?” she asked, heart beating hard in her chest.

He growled, and pride swelled within her. Another yes. Apparently, she’d acquitted herself of the task to his satisfaction, even though it had been her first time.

He seemed to read her mind. “You have truly never done that before?”

The question made her smile. If he doubted it, it meant she had indeed performed well. “No.” With Thorfinn she had used her hand. She had not known there was an alternative and he had not asked. Which was good because she was not sure she would have liked it as much with someone else. It was a rather intimate act, she had to admit.

“I...” he started

“No. Please. Don’t say you’re sorry.”

“I’m not.” He wiped the corner of her lips with the pad of his thumb. “I know I should be but I’m not. That was?—”

“—the biggest snake I’d ever seen!”

She and Moon froze and exchanged a panicked glance when the voice burst between them. A child was coming into the clearing. And not just any child, but his very young, very innocent nephew, as they understood when the boy’s father’s answer reached them next.

“Yes, I believe you, Gunnar,” Elwyn was saying. “I only saw its tail, but it did look enormous.”

No! They could not be seen together in such a provocative position. Eyja shot back to her feet while Moon hastily tucked himself back in his braies. A moment later father and son irrupted into the clearing. They came to a stop when they saw them, then the little boy ran in their direction, arms outstretched.

“Uncle Moon! Eyja! Guess what, I just saw a snake and I didn’t even cry out. I was very brave!”

“Were you?”

Moon did a commendable job of sounding natural. At least to the little boy’s ears. Eyja could detect a certain hoarseness in his voice and Elwyn was looking at his brother strangely, as if wondering if something was amiss. Then his gaze fell on her. She felt herself go red all the way to the roots of her hair. Had he guessed what she had just been doing to his brother? Did it somehow show in her expression? Was her hair mussed? Was her bodice lowered? Were her lips swollen?

Not knowing what else to do, she made a great show of gathering the sling and remaining stones and shoving them into the bag she’d brought along for that purpose. The little boy came to help her. He was so sweet and innocent that she could not look him in the eye in case he got a glimpse of what depravity she was capable of. Not that he had the faintest notion of what adults did together, fortunately. Even if he’d seen her kneeling in front of his uncle, he would only have assumed she was tying the lace on her shoe. The wholesome image helped restore some of her composure.

“Have you ever found yourself face to face with an enormous snake, Eyja?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

An entirely inappropriate thought burst through her mind. Not quite a snake, but... She had once joked with Moon that he was too massive to be likened to a worm. She’d not been wrong.

“No.” Somehow she forced the word through her lips.

“Well, if you do, I hope you’ll be as brave as me.”

“Yes, I hope so.”

“What are you two doing here, so far from the village?” Moon asked Elwyn. She guessed from his tone that he too wanted to steer the conversation away from snakes because of the images it brought to his mind.

“Gunnar has been asking me to go climb the rocks on the side of the hill for months,” his brother explained, gesturing at the rope slung over his shoulder. “Finally we did, but we were about to head back. What about you two?”

Thankfully the question wasn’t aimed at her, for she could not have answered without stammering and blushing so much he would have known straight away something was not quite what it should be.

“Eyja wanted me to show her how to use a sling.”

Oh, yes, of course, that was why they had come. She had quite forgotten about that.

Elwyn laughed. “You know, with anyone else, I would think this a pitiful lie to cover up what really happened. But with Eyja, anything is possible.”

“Yes,” she heard Moon say softly. “Anything.”

Everything within her glowed. This was the best compliment she had ever received.

“So? Did she show any talent for it?”

Her heart skipped a beat because she knew Moon was not talking about the sling when he answered.

“Oh, yes. She’s a natural.”