Page 69 of Haakon's Fate
“Why were you cutting the wood?” she asked, trying to peer behind him to where the branch was. She was stalling, betraying the same nervousness as he felt.
“I can’t tell you that.” Not yet. But she would find out in time.
“So secretive…”
“Yes.”
“Well, if you’re not going to tell me anything about this branch, at least show me your wound.”
“It’s nothing,” he said, lifting his hand up to prove it. The cut had already stopped bleeding.
But instead of agreeing it was just a scratch, Gytha took hold of the hand and lifted it to her lips. Then, to his utter shock,she slipped his injured finger into her mouth. Haakon watched, eyes ablaze, as she sucked to soothe the cut. His insides instantly dissolved and his cock started pulsing in his braies. Did she have any idea what she was doing to him? Of how evocative her actions were?
He was brought back to that first day in the forest, when he had startled her, causing her to prick herself. She had sucked her own finger then. She was now sucking his. They had gone full circle. It seemed significant somehow.
“Gytha, why are you here?” he growled. He was afraid of scaring her with his urgency, but he needed to know right now, before he lost his mind.
She let go of his finger, making him regret asking a question, and lifted enormous eyes to him. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because I’m about to tumble you into bed and I need to be sure this is why you came. Or at least, that you agree to have me.”
Gytha went hot to the tip of her ears when Haakon’s nostrils flared and his eyes flashed. Saying that he wanted her was one thing, but these involuntary proofs of desire had caused everything within her to leap.
Provoking his lust wasn’t why she had come, exactly, but it was a start. And now that he was in front of her, all brooding and intense, she wanted nothing more than to let him do what he wanted with her. If they slept together and he found satisfaction in her arms, it might make him more amenable to hearing her subsequent revelations. It would also give her time to build up the courage to talk—and give her untold pleasure, always a good thing.
“Being tumbled into bed is part of the reason why I came,” she admitted in a breath. “I thought?—”
He drew her into his arms before she could finish the sentence.
“You’ll be the death of me, you know that?” he said in a rasp, keeping her tight against his hard body. “The day we met, I had decided not to have anything to do with Saxon women, as they had only ever brought me frustration and disappointment.”
“Oh.” This was awful to hear, and it did not bode well. He wanted to tumble her into bed because he was a hot-blooded male and she appealed to his senses but that was it. He didn’t want to have “anything to do with her”, as he’d said, who was a Saxon.
Before she could start to panic he took her hand in his and leaned in, wrapping her in his wonderful scent and warmth.
“But before that, I had spent my life obsessing about them. From the time I was old enough to take an interest in women, Saxons drew me like nothing else.” His voice was little more than a purr. Gytha’s eyes closed of their own accord. “I was determined to make one of them my wife.”
“Oh,” she said again, her tone completely different.
“Yes, oh. I think you can understand my dilemma.”
Was he really saying that he was struggling with what he felt for her because he had elected to stay away from Saxon women and yet couldn’t stay away from her? Could she really hope they had a future?
She had once told Eadhild she should let Halfdan propose, as men didn’t like not being the one in charge. But she was suddenly convinced that proposing to Haakon was the right thing to do. He had proved enough times that he was not like other men and would not take offense or feel robbed of his masculinity if a woman took the initiative with him.
“So if a Saxon woman had asked you to marry her, you would have said yes?”
A pause. Then a smile. “It depends. I wouldn’t have accepted just anyone. If I had been that desperate, I would be married to Edita right now.”
“Mm. Yes. But if it was a woman you liked? A woman who likes to sew in forests? A woman who had asked you to help with the piercing of her ears? A woman who’d lain under you in a shepherd’s hut so that you could give her pleasure?”
His eyes started to burn with a low fire, and he brought his face closer to her. “That kind of woman I would have found impossible to say no to. But there are not many who fit that rather specific description.”
“No.”
His face descended another inch. “There’s only one, as far as I can tell. And she also happens to have eyes of the most fascinating green color and a tongue as sharp as her blasted needles.”
“Yes.” Gytha could barely breathe.
