Naughty Temptations

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

He led her to a building that was some distance from the main settlement, near the shores of a swift-moving river. The structure had no windows and just one door. Smoke rose from an opening in the center of the roof. When they went inside, they were in a small anteroom that held a couple of benches and a series of pegs on the walls. Another door led to the main part of the building.

“I had this prepared for us,” Henrik said. “You undress here before you go in.” He drew his leather vest off and began to unlace his shirt. Fianna took off the borrowed clothes and hung them on pegs. She left her boots under a bench.

She hesitated, shy for a moment, before turning around to face him. In the dim light of the room, she could only just make out his shape, but he was beautiful. She wanted him so badly, it was a knife stabbing at her heart. He came toward her, took her hand, and led her to the door to the other room.

A blazing fire roared in a pit in the center of the small room, making it bright and very warm. Two rings of large stones circled the fire. Benches lined three walls. A row of buckets, filled to the brim with water, waited along the fourth wall. A stack of wood for the fire and a pile of cloths rested beside them. Henrik picked up a bucket and poured the water over the rocks, careful to keep it from flowing onto the fire. After two more, the room became so steamy Fianna felt droplets of moisture gathering on her skin. He led her to one of the benches.

“Sit for a minute and let it penetrate. You will feel relaxed.”

“’Tis very warm.” She wasn’t sure how much of the heat came from her surroundings and how much was roused by her companion.

“So it should be,” he said. “Warm is relaxing and inspiring.”

“Warm is making me hot and…tense.”

“It is? I’m disappointed.”

She turned to stare at him. “How so?”

His grin was so full of mischief and wicked suggestion, it made her heart flutter and her pulse rate speed up. “I thought I made you hot and tense.” He leaned over and kissed her, hard, deeply, dazzlingly.

“You set me on fire,” she whispered against his lips. She put a hand on his chest, purely for the pleasure of feeling his slick, sleek skin.

After a minute or two, he drew away enough to let him pull her to him, lifted and turned her so that she ended up kneeling on the bench, straddling his lap, the hard length of his c**k between them, pushing against her quim.

Watching his face as the contact worked its magic in arousing him delighted her. She still wondered at the amazing affect she could have on this tall, strong warrior, who preferred s*x fierce and bold. In its way it was as astonishing to her as the times when she managed to know what ailed someone without having any idea how she knew. Both were mysteries that seemed to reveal something of the universe in their depths.

Henrik bent to lick her n*****s, then began suckling them and scraping with his teeth. Need exploded within her, driving her into a frenzy of desire. Sensation washed through her as the mix of pleasure-pain from her breasts fired her blood. She moaned and gasped, then squealed even louder when he reached down between them and parted the folds of flesh pressed against his c**k. His fingers invaded the cleft and began tickling the bud until she couldn’t bear the need.

“Henrik!” She all but screamed his name. “’Tis…I need you. Please, please!”

He lifted her again, sliding her down over his c**k, impaling her on its hard length. The feel of it within her was exquisite. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she began to pump herself up and down on it. Meanwhile he continued to tweak a n****e with one hand, while he stroked her quim with the other.

The tension built fast and hard with so much sensation flowing from various points on her body. She moaned and even cried in the frenzy of need as she bounced wildly on him, trying to milk every tingle. Every time she lowered herself it drove him deep into her body and pushed some magic point that throbbed with pleasure beyond bearing.

She heard him moaning as well and encouraging her. “Oh, gods, that’s so good,” he groaned in her ear. “Faster. I’m going to explode. Ahhhh.”

They climaxed together, her release squeezing him and milking his seed in long, potent spasms. For long minutes, she was frozen on him, as the jolts of climax rolled through her over and over. She collapsed against him, still jumping with the aftershocks, holding tight to his neck as the glorious conclusion wound down.

When she was able to speak again, after she’d kissed him, and combed her fingers through his hair, she asked, “Is this a common part of a steam bath? No wonder ’tis so popular.”

“Not usually,” he said. “It was a special treat I arranged for you.”

“And I’m very grateful. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to bathe again without thinking of this.”

He pushed her away from his shoulder so he could see her face. “’Tis not over yet. We have time to ourselves and many more things to explore. We have sated the sharpest of the need. We can be slower and more relaxed next time. I don’t think you’ll be truly clean, in any case, until I’ve licked over every inch of you.”

“Every inch?”

“Perhaps not every inch. All the most important inches,” he answered. He lifted her from his lap and eased her back on the bench until she lay face-down, stretched out along it. He stood. “A rub on your back, though will help you get in the right mood. I will not be rushed this time.”

He threw more wood on the fire and splashed more water on the rocks. She looked up at him and said, “Before we start, I want a bargain. Whatever you do to me, I must be able to do the same to you.”

His eyebrows lifted. “You would demand this from me?”

She drew a deep breath. “Aye.”

He smiled. “So be it. This will be interesting.”

“I certainly hope so.”

He knelt beside the bench and began running his hands up and down her back, pushing and pressing in places. Initially she was surprised by the pressure he put on various muscles, the force he used in kneading some spots, but quickly realized how good it felt and how it helped relieve tightness in those areas. She sighed and reveled in the attention. His fingers seemed to know all the right places to touch and squeeze.

Eventually he moved down from her back along her buttocks. It changed the way she felt about what was happening, from being relaxed, to the beginnings of a new arousal. She liked the way his big hands worked her bottom, rubbing, tapping, patting. He stroked along her legs, tracing down to her feet and then back up. Her breath caught when his fingers ran up the insides of her thighs. Runnels of sensation tingled their way right up to her loins. The heaviness began to press again, and moisture that might not be sweat gathered between her legs.

He rolled her over. Fianna lay on the bench staring up at him. The dampness in the air darkened his blond hair and stood in small beads in his close-clipped beard. The heat made his skin pinker than usual, which contrasted nicely with the light blue-gray of his eyes. He was magnificent. She felt a heart-stopping thrill looking at him and wanted to wrap herself around him, hold him to her, and never let go.

He dipped his head. She thought he meant to kiss her, but instead he was fulfilling his promise from earlier to lick all over. His tongue circled her lips to start with, ran up along her temple, forehead, and down the other side, explored her cheeks and ears, then went down along her throat. She shivered in the heat as the touch sent ripples of pleasure along her nerves.

The most important inches came in for a great deal of attention. On each breast, he began at the outside of the mound, circled around it, then spiraled inward, making a slow, lazy, unbearably thrilling trip to the n*****s. His tongue just skirted around the deep pink rims once or twice before he moved inward to lave the tips with concentrated attention. She was shuddering from the need and desire he’d roused by the time he finished with them.

Once her breasts had been treated thoroughly, his tongue glided downward again. Raspy and moist, it trailed a line of heat on her skin. He stopped at her navel to lick around the indent and probe into it with the tip. Then he continued down her abdomen to the crease of her legs. When he got there, he planted a kiss, but moved over to run his tongue along the front of one thigh.

She groaned as the tingles followed along the path his tongue traveled down her leg to her foot. When he lifted the foot and drew each toe individually into his mouth, she squealed and writhed. Who could have guessed that toes could feel so much? He set down the one foot and started on the other, sucking each toe into his mouth, and then when he’d attended each one, beginning a slow, nearly unbearable ascent to her hips. He reached the crease and planted another kiss there.

When he tried to nudge her legs apart to gain access to the most important inches of all, though, she had a wild, wicked idea, and resisted, refusing to let him move her.

“Part your legs,” he demanded. The tone of his voice suggested he sensed her resistance presaged something else, and he would indulge her.

She shook her head no.

“You refuse?” he asked. “You know what will happen?”

She looked up at him, loving the way he understood what she wanted, and the fact that he so clearly wanted it as well. “I know.”

He nodded and lifted her from the bench, flipped her over, and set her back down gently on her belly. “Do not move. I’ll be back.”

He was gone for a few minutes. When he returned he carried four or five slender branches, all three to four feet long, cut from a tree. She sucked in a sharp breath and wondered if she’d been so wise after all. She didn’t believe he’d really hurt her, though.

She still cringed a bit when he stood over her holding one of those branches and brought it down on her bottom. The stroke was little more than a tap, however, that created a tiny sting. Five or six lashes later, the stinging was beginning to spread out along her entire bottom. It wasn’t terribly painful, in truth—more of a pleasant burn that was doing its part to feed the heavy, throbbing need building in her loins.

After a few more, he stopped and asked, “Are you ready to obey me now?”

Fianna didn’t have to think about it long. “Not yet.”

His only answer was to swing the switch down on her bottom a little harder. Caught by surprise, she yelped at the harsher sting. Not unbearable, by any means, though. He paused and waited for her to object or ask to stop it.

When she didn’t, he swung again. He followed that one with a long series of smacks starting at the top of her bottom, moving down to cover the surface, and then onto the backs of her thighs, delivering each stroke harder as he went. By the time he moved back up her thighs and was lashing her bottom again, it was beginning to burn in a way that bordered on unpleasant. But it still fed the growing fire in her.

Two more harsh strokes carved bright ribbons of pain across her rear. It was enough.

“Please,” she said, “No more. I’ll obey.”

He nodded and dropped the branch. Fianna reached back and rubbed the flesh to dissipate the burning. Amazingly, though, the sting was working its way down in her loins and changing into…need. Her quim felt hot, moist, and heavy, throbbing in time with the beating of her heart. She wanted to drag him down on top of her right then.

“Roll over now,” he ordered. “And part your legs for me.”

She did as he directed. Parting her legs meant letting them drop off the sides of the bench onto the floor. He shifted her toward the end of the bench, then he knelt on the floor at that end. For a minute all he did was stare at the feminine secrets she revealed to him in that open position.

Then he leaned over, put his hands beneath her bottom to lift it, and brought his mouth down on her slit. The touch of his hands on the hot flesh sent fresh curls of fire swirling through her. She couldn’t contain a small scream when his tongue brushed over her bud. It sent shockwaves of near unbearable pleasure careening through her system.

“Heavens, oh, heavens,” she murmured. “’Tis taking me…”

She clutched the edges of the bench, her fingers almost digging into the wood as his tongue ran over her slit again and again. The pressure built quickly, the fire growing hotter. Her head rolled from side to side and her body arched under his attention. She screamed again when his lips closed over the bud and drew it into his mouth. His greedy tongue probed at it. The sensations were wicked, wild, pleasure beyond reason, extravagant… He scraped his teeth over the bud then worked it faster with his tongue until she exploded with a release that had her bucking and jolting over and over.

It surged through her, carried her on clouds of pleasure to a sublime state of joy. Her body kept tensing and releasing, jerking repeatedly with the shocks. He continued to lick the bud and that brought more spasms. She held the bench and floated on the pleasure for as long as she could. Finally, though, she could take no more and pushed away from his clever mouth.

She lay back on the bench, completely spent, totally relaxed, beyond any movement or even thought for the moment. Henrik came around and sat on the bench beside her, then lifted her until her head was against his chest. “Never have I met a woman who enjoyed exploring different sorts of pleasure as you do,” he murmured to her. “Nor have I met one who exploded with her release as do you. Nor one as kind and willing to give her every effort to heal a sick man.”

“The first two are testament to your skill as a lover who provokes such passion in me,” she answered. “The third is merely the way I am and not true virtue.”

“Why so?”

“Virtue is something one must work at. Giving all to heal someone is simply in my nature and so requires no great effort.” She thought, though, of the decision she’d had to make between what she wanted and what her skill required of her. He would never know about that.

Henrik sighed and held her close. His heart beat strong and steady beneath her ear. “I call it virtue, nonetheless.”

She didn’t answer. There was too much joy in just cuddling against him, sated and happy, for the moment. But then she felt his rampant c**k jutting against her and recalled he hadn’t had a second release, which brought to mind the bargain they’d made earlier. “Earlier, you promised anything you did to me, so I could do to you as well,” she reminded him.

He looked surprised and disconcerted for an instant, then nodded. “So I did.”

A spurt of enthusiasm over the idea brought her up off the bench to stand in front of him and say, “Lie down on the bench, face down.”