Viking Ecstasy (6 page)

Go ahead and look at me, you Viking bastard,
Tanaka thought savagely, keeping her hands at her sides, allowing Tabor an unhindered view.
Someday I'm going to escape and make it back to my own land, where I am the powerful Tanaka, High Priestess of Opar! I will have my pharaoh send a thousand men —ten thousand men —to these infernal, frigid Scandinavian waters, and they will vanquish all of you! You will be as insignificant as a single grain of sand in the Egyptian desert.'

The hunger in Tabor's eyes made Tanaka feel strong, confident in herself in a way that she never had before. She looked straight at Tabor and asked, "Did you want me to put that on now ... or afterwards?"

"You taunt me, witch-woman!"

She saw the fire in his blue eyes and knew that she was playing a very dangerous game. She knew, too, that if she should displease her Danish captor so thoroughly that he complained to Ingmar that she was an unacceptable gift, she would live to regret it.

I must please him,
Tanaka thought, her eyes burning with defiance and another emotion that even she was not entirely aware of.
Pleasing my captor, however distasteful that may be, is the lesser of evils!

When Tabor had kissed her before, his strength was suppressed and his kiss was soft and sweet against her mouth. This time, when he took Tanaka into his arms, all his desire seemed to bubble toward the surface, driving him on. He crushed Tanaka's curvaceous body against his own, pulling her in tightly, forcing her plump breasts to compress against the powerful muscles of his bare chest. He lifted her easily, his mouth never leaving hers, his fingers pressing deeply into the firm flesh at her hip.

Tanaka had not intended to touch Tabor. To be touched was perhaps necessary; to touch would be unacceptable. She would give to him whatever he wanted, but she would volunteer nothing, feel nothing, and certainly not permit herself any attraction to this virile Viking.

Her unaffected aloofness had been planned, and she might have been able to maintain it if Tabor had been shirted when he took her in his arms. Sensation shot through Tanaka when her breasts, nipples already taut, crushed against Tabor's chest. His warmth seared her senses, the blood raging—almost boiling—in her veins. She opened her mouth and, with a throaty moan, played her tongue against Tabor's.

Her hands simply could not remain passive at her sides. Tanaka flattened her palms against Tabor's mighty shoulders, trembling as she did so, feeling the steely strength of him. Her legs, responding to a will of their own, wrapped around Tabor's waist, and his arms held her easily.

"Witch-woman!" Tabor murmured when the burning kiss ended. "You'll destroy me in the end. Of this I am sure!"

No, I could never destroy you,
Tanaka thought. But with another kiss, she amended the thought to
I would never destroy you!

Never in her life had she felt so small as when she was held suspended in the air by Tabor. Her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, her ankles hooked together. She clutched his shoulders as she feasted on the openmouthed kisses that stripped away her inhibitions like candle wax melting beneath the flame.

In a corner of her mind still capable of coherent thought, Tanaka realized that she was moving, that Tabor was walking. Tabor knelt at the edge of his mat and pushed Tanaka backward until she was stretched out and he could recline beside her, half resting upon her, his lips nuzzling hers.

"No woman has ever made my blood burn so," Tabor whispered between kisses, shocked at the intensity of his own need. He cradled Tanaka's head in the crook of his left arm. When she began to roll toward him, he pushed her hips away so that she again lay flat on the mat. "I must explore you! I must know all your secrets!"

Tanaka was confused by Tabor's words, but asked no questions, not entirely certain she could make her mouth form the foreign words properly. Tabor's kisses had been harsh and demanding, and forcing her to respond. She could not remain cold and detached as she had with Ingmar.

Now, with Tabor, she found the act different. Erotic. When his tongue touched her lips, she opened her mouth willingly. The exquisite heat of his body ignited a flame within Tanaka that burned away hesitation and doubt. Now needy, she hungered for Tabor.

When she felt his hand at her hip, turning her and pushing her away, she was confused at first. Tabor's mouth had not left hers, but she felt his fingertips inching up from her hip, following the line of ribs upward to the steep valley of her breasts.

Tanaka trembled, anxious for Tabor's touch and shocked by her desire. With her savage captors to be touched had been to be defiled. And yet now, held by this giant of a man who "owned" her, Tanaka wanted that contact. She mewed when Tabor caught her lip between his teeth. She writhed when he pressed against her left nipple, forgetting for a moment that she was an Egyptian high priestess.

He kissed the corner of her mouth, her cheeks and ears, her chin and throat. He kissed her everywhere; and as he caressed her with his lips, his right hand played over her body with consummate skill, touching and caressing her breasts, stomach, thighs, even the backs of her knees. He touched her everywhere but at the place where she most craved him.

Tanaka could not find the courage to explore Tabor as he explored her. She kept her hands at his shoulders, going no further, despite a wanton curiosity about this singular man —and his body.

When he leaned away, Tanaka kept her eyes shut, though she could feel Tabor looking at her, perusing her nakedness with his eyes. His fingertips circled her navel, tickling her yet arousing passion.

Tense seconds passed, and the fear that was never

far from the surface of Tanaka's thoughts began to build'. Had she displeased Tabor? Did he not like the way she looked? Kissed? Should she have been bolder with her hands or had she been too bold already?

She also questioned her response to Tabor. Who was this stranger, this Tanaka who had suddenly sprung to life, taking delight in what she had once reviled?

"Witch-woman!" Tabor whispered again, and Tanaka could hear in his voice both adoration and anger, for he clearly was not entirely pleased with the desire he felt for her.

Then he took her breast between his lips, and Tanaka's questions vanished. Astonished by the intensity of her reaction, she pushed her fingers into Tabor's long blond hair. But rather than pushing his mouth from her breast, as she had intended, she hugged his face closer to her bosom. His lips, his tongue, even his teeth aroused her, and Tanaka trembled uncontrollably upon Tabor's mat.

She had thought nothing could feel better than Tabor kissing her breast until his hand pressed at the juncture of her thighs. Lightning bolts jolted through Tanaka. Spontaneously, she arched her back as his fingers probed then found a point of raw pleasure that caused Tanaka's mouth to open wide.

She felt him moving beside her, but a new sensual appetite dulled Tanaka's awareness. Tabor's tongue — slippery on her navel —made Tanaka flinch. Though she kept her eyes shut, she reached down to entwine the fingers of both hands into his mane and pushed him down, farther than she had intended. Between her thighs, she felt the erotic play of his mouth against her, his tongue probing, flicking, and circling. With serpentine ease, he stripped away her doubt, shame, and inhibition, and she no longer felt fear.

The pleasure too great, Tanaka struggled against Tabor. She could not breathe and so she pushed at him. But he held her wrists against the mat and did not stop his kisses.

Tanaka stared, unseeing, at the ceiling of the Viking hut.
What is happening to me?
she asked herself as the pressure built. Tanaka's hands were balled into futile fists pinned to the mat. Her body tightened inside, coiling, knotting painfully, until suddenly, the pleasure bordering on the brink of pain, she tumbled headlong into an abyss of white hot waves.

She screamed, a wordless scream that existed only in her mind. Her hips churned, jerking up and down as Tabor rode her with his mouth. She twisted from head to foot as the burning passion flowed in her.

And then, the tumult was over. Spent, Tanaka gulped in air greedily. Tabor's grip loosened on her wrists, and she raised an arm to her forehead, blinking to focus her vision.

"What was that?" she asked, the startled words out before she thought the question through.

Tabor's throaty chuckle drew her attention outside herself and back to him. With the return of logic, the sight of him was once again disturbing. She knew what he would want, and perhaps, with him, with the man who had taken her to such exulted heights, she might even have wanted it, too. But Tanaka had never been taken so high before; and, consequently, reason decreed, the crash to earth would be harder as well.

"There are many things I can teach you," Tabor said, getting to his feet. He removed his knee-high soft leather boots and cloth trousers. "Let me teach you how beautiful it can be."

Fully naked and fully aroused, the Viking frightened her. She had never intended for this to happen. Tanaka had wanted to please Tabor so that he would not be angry with her, but that was all. She had never thought he would please her; she had never even thought it was possible for a woman to experience pleasure. And now he wanted more —more than she was willing to or could give him. Her body tingled with a strange, gripping madness.

"Wait," she whispered. He looked down upon her as a wolf would upon his prey. "Please. . . . wait."

"Don't be afraid," Tabor said in that throaty whisper that was warm and sensual and made Tanaka want to trust him. "I can take you back there. I can make it happen again very soon."

But Tanaka did not trust his words. He was too big in too many ways, and she was convinced that to take him into herself would tear her apart.

He can give you back to Ingmar the Savage if you don't please him,
an insistent voice inside her head warned.

A shiver passed through Tanaka as she realized the truth of the warning. She closed her eyes, turned her face aside, and whispered, "Do whatever you will. Ill not try to stop you."

Tabor got down beside her again, hungry for the taste of her mouth, aching for the release of his own passion. But her eyes had turned cold and fearful. He had seen this before. Often, when he'd brought a woman to the summit of pleasure for the first time in her life, it frightened her. But he had always been able to allay the fears, and satisfy both himself and the woman.

When Tabor tried to kiss Tanaka, she turned her face away, but his desire was too intense for him to be easily dissuaded. He wedged against her, manhood meeting thigh, and the heat of her flesh urged him closer to her fire.

"Look at me," he coaxed. "I want to see your soul when I take you to that special place again."

Shamed by the pleasure she'd felt —pleasure at her own defilement, she spread her thighs apart with cold detachment. "Do what you must," she said. "I am your slave and can deny you nothing."

She could have cut him with a knife and not have injured him more deeply. Tabor was not a rapist. His jaws clenched tight in rage, and he bolted to his feet, pulling on his clothes with feverish haste.

"Cover yourself, wench!" he snapped at the woman in his bed. "My warriors will be coming in soon, and I don't want them driven mad by the sight of you."

Tanaka sat up, raising one knee to hide herself as she crossed her arms over her bosom. "Have I displeased you? I would have done whatever you commanded."

Tabor picked up the blanket by the corner and tossed it partially over Tanaka. "Displeased me?" he asked tersely. "I doubt you have the knowledge and skill to please me."

He left the hut abruptly, and Tanaka lay trembling, wondering what punishment would be hers when the Viking warrior returned.

T
anaka awoke into the disquieting reality of nearly a dozen broad-shouldered, heavily-armed Viking warriors. Adding to this confusion was the unsettling fact that she was nude, with nothing but a heavy, coarse-textured blanket to cover herself.

Sven noticed first that she had woken. He smiled. "Morning, miss," he said respectfully. "We didn't wake you, I trust. If so, let me apologize for myself and the others."

Tanaka shook her head, realizing how extraordinarily quiet Tabor's men really were. She knew that this was testimony to their discipline and training.

As she tried to form a question about Tabor, the leader strode into the hut. It was the first time she had seen him fully armed, and the sight was as pleasing as it was disturbing. He wore woolen trousers with soft, knee-length boots with leather strappings from ankle to knee, a dark blue shirt beneath a leather jerkin, and a vest of leather-plating for protection against swords and arrows. At his left hip was a long scabbard for a sword, the haft of which glittered with an enormous ruby embedded in its crown. At his right hip was the fighting axe that Tanaka had become all too familiar with. He wore no helmet, and his blond hair fell across his broad shoulders. His arms, bulging with muscles, were adorned with leather gauntlets at each wrist.

"She is awake," Sven said, then moved away, allowing Tabor some privacy.

Tabor knelt beside Tanaka, and her heart quickened. She pulled the blanket more tightly around her, tucking it in securely beneath her arms. These signs of apprehension brought a scowl to Tabor's lips.

"I have found clothes for you," he said, nodding to a pile of the neatly folded garments at the foot of the mat. "You will not have cold feet again. Hurry now, for I must meet with Ingmar, and then we will be off to Kaupang. I want to set sail within the hour."

Tabor stood, and with a flick of his hand, indicated he wanted the hut emptied. In less than a minute Tanaka was alone in the hut.

Tanaka was aware that she had witnessed a small display of Tabor's power. He had ordered strong, fierce Vikings to vacate the hut, and he had done it without uttering a single word. The men responded to his command without question or hesitation.

Nevertheless, she tossed the blanket aside and reached for the clothes that Tabor had provided, convinced that the men were waiting just outside the door, ready to burst in upon her in her unclothed state.

But if they were going to do that, why wouldn't they have simply taken the blanket from her while she slept? And why had Sven smiled at her and treated her so courteously if he was a vile Viking warrior bent on rape, murder, and senseless destruction?

Tanaka pushed the thoughts away. She couldn't allow herself to be confused about these Vikings. She knew what kind of men they really were.

When she picked up the underdress to put it on, the sight of the garment brought on a rush of memories. What had happened to her? What had caused her body to writhe and convulse in sweet ecstasy? Tabor called her a witch-woman, but surely he was the one practicing sorcery if he could create such a madness and fire within her.