The Pagan's Prize (27 page)

It felt so wonderful . . . she could not deny it, and
she soon found herself craving more. She heard him chuckle from deep in his
throat when she parted her lips beneath his, but to her amazement, she didn't
care. All she wanted was an answer to the yearning that was building in some
mysterious place inside her, and he gave it to her when his tongue delved into
her mouth, his kiss growing possessive and increasingly demanding as if he
could not get enough of the taste of her.

How long she was lost to the wet swirling wonder of his
kiss she could not say, but when Rurik lifted his mouth from hers, she felt
flushed all over and light-headed and grateful that she was lying down. Surely
if she had been standing her legs would have collapsed beneath her! She sighed,
awash in delicious chills as he first nibbled gently upon her bottom lip, then
laved it with his tongue.

"You see, Zora?" he teased in a half whisper,
not taunting or holding triumph but in a playful tone that secretly thrilled
her. "It's no terrible thing to surrender to desire. I promise that before
I take you tonight, you will want me a hundred, no, a thousand times more. You
will beg me to end your torment."

"And you, Rurik," Zora said softly when he
lifted his head to stare into her eyes, his gaze darkened with passion in the
golden lamplight. She did not understand why it was suddenly so important for
her to know but she felt that she must ask. "Is that what you are doing
tonight, surrendering at last to a desire that has caused you to send three
concubines untouched from your bed?"

The change in him was lightning swift.

"Who told you that I sent them away?" he
demanded, releasing her wrists to rest his weight on his forearms. "Semirah?"

Seeing the ire in Rurik's eyes, Zora sensed he had
wanted to hide this from her. But why? Could it really be as simple as what
Nellwyn had said . . . that Rurik thought only of her? Perhaps she meant
something to him after all. It could explain so much

"Answer me, Zora!"

"I . . . I chanced to overhear some slaves talking
about Semirah and two other concubines during my walk this afternoon," she
lied, not wanting to bring any trouble down upon Nellwyn's head. "But when
they saw me, they grew quiet and hastened away."

Rurik studied her face for what seemed the longest
moment before muttering more to himself than her, "It doesn't matter what
you heard." Then he rose from the bed and grabbing her by the forearms, he
pulled her up so roughly to stand in front of him that Zora gasped.

"If you believe that you hold some sway over me,
Princess, think again." His voice was harsh as he wrenched the cloak from
her shoulders and tossed it away. "Lust can blind a man for a time but
once it is satisfied,
everything
will
return to what it was before."

Zora was easily convinced of his words for next he
ripped the sleeping gown from her body with such force that it fell in gossamer
shreds to the floor. Before she could cover herself, he yanked her hard against
him, his hands almost cruel in their caress, but when he forced her chin up to
face him, she saw in his eyes the same haunting turmoil she had glimpsed there
only moments ago. Like a jolt it struck her that if anything, he was trying to
convince himself.

His mouth found hers before she could draw another breath,
his kiss savage and punishing as if he wanted to hurt her. His powerful arms
held her so tightly that she feared he might crush her ribs . . . until she
heard him groan raggedly and his embrace became not brutal but undeniably
possessive.

His kiss changed, too, his lips still hard upon hers
but no longer bruising, and soon she was completely lost in the wild passion of
it, her arms winding around his neck to hold him tight. Time no longer held meaning,
and when he tore his mouth from hers and knelt before her, she was so dazed she
scarcely knew that he had done so until she felt him bury his face between her
breasts, his breath a scorching flame over her heart.

"Woman . . . woman!" Rurik whispered fiercely,
his fury at his weakness over Zora, at her for taunting him, vanished in the
blazing heat of his desire.

Holding her like this, the woman he wanted above all
others in his arms, he could not fight the feelings crashing in upon him and he
wasn't going to try. Afterward, Odin help him, he would regain his resolve, but
for now, let him pretend that she hadn't been taunting him. That she might care
. . .

As Rurik groaned again and pulled her even closer, his
hands worshiping in their caress, Zora felt her skin growing warmer beneath his
wide, callused palms. Yet no sensation could have been sweeter or more exciting
than his mouth seizing upon a nipple. Inhaling brokenly, she clutched his
immense shoulders when he circled the swollen nub with his tongue.

"I told you I would make you want me," she
heard him say above her soft moans, his mouth first playing at one nipple, then
hungrily searching out the other.

Nor did he neglect the scented valley between her
breasts, his tongue tracing molten trails down one full curve and up another
until she was trembling. Her moans grew louder when he began to suckle in earnest,
his splayed hands gripping her bare bottom to hold her close, and she gasped in
pleasure when he nipped her lightly.

"You like that?" came his pleased whisper.

"Yes . . ." Zora entwined her fingers in his
hair as Rurik renewed his sensual onslaught, but this time he did so with a
heart-stopping difference. With each slow twirl of his tongue at her breast,
one of his hands slipped higher along the sensitive inside of her thigh . . .
higher . . . higher . . . until at last he found what he was seeking.

Her breath snagging, Zora thought her knees were going
to buckle as he slid his fingers gently inside her, and easily for the wetness
he found there. Then he withdrew them only to repeat the exquisite torture
again and again until she was shaking uncontrollably.

"I . . . I think I should lie down—"

Within an instant she was, for Rurik had pushed her
back upon the furs before her words were barely spoken. Yet he didn't join her
on the bed. Instead, he remained kneeling beside the mattress and after pulling
her hips toward him and spreading her legs, he lifted one of her feet and
kissed the delicately raised arch.

"Now, my beautiful wife, do you know what I'm
going to do?"

Shivering at the warm huskiness of his voice, Zora
could only shake her head. He was so beautiful himself, so broad-shouldered, so
bronzed, so handsome, so overwhelmingly masculine, that she could not stop
staring at him.

"Fulfill my promise."

With a roguish smile that set her heart to pounding,
Rurik slipped his hands beneath her bottom and lifting her to him, he blew
softly upon her woman's hair, a deliciously erotic sensation unlike anything
she had ever known. But it was nothing compared to when his mouth came down
upon her, his tongue slipping into her where his fingers had been only moments
before.

"Rurik . . . oh, no!"

She struggled at once, the sensation so intense that
she was certain that she had had enough before he really began. But he held her
tightly and if she had hoped to sway him by her outcry, she was mistaken for it
seemed only to spur him on. If she had trembled before, now she was quaking,
her body arching against him, against the hot wetness of his mouth and the sensual
weapon that his darting tongue had become even as she cried out for him to
stop.

"Please . . . Rurik, no more!"

Again his response was only to heighten his carnal
assault, his focus now upon one point so achingly sensitive that Zora no longer
thought to protest for the wondrous pressure that was mounting inside her.
Where it had come from she didn't know, but it took over her completely and she
found she had no voice left but to whimper.

"Rurik . . . oh, please . . ."

"Tell me, Zora," came Rurik's taunting
whisper. "Tell me what you want!"

"I want . . . I want . . . oh!"

The bright burst of ecstasy came upon her so suddenly
that Zora grew rigid, her head falling back and her hands clawing at the furs
as a pulse of red-hot fire shot through her, radiating to the ends of her toes
and the tips of her fingers. She could not say how long she was lost in that
searing flush of delirium, but when it had passed she collapsed onto the
mattress like a limp doll.

"Sometimes we get what we wish for," Rurik
said as from a great distance, lifting her although she could give him no help
at all. When she finally opened her eyes, her senses somewhat regained, she was
lying on top of him, his flesh, rock hard and insistent, pressing against that
still tingling place between her thighs.

"And sometimes, little one," he added, his
gaze burning like darkened coals into hers, "it comes to us twice."

Rurik pulled her to him and captured her lips before
she could reply, his mouth tasting of rose musk and her sex, his impassioned
kiss more possessive than any that had gone before. As his tongue swept into
her mouth, she felt him lift her hips and then settle her upon that thick,
silken part of him that stood rigid and ready, impaling her when he thrust
upward as if he could no longer contain himself.

Zora cried out, not in pain but in surprise, for he was
so huge that she could not believe she had accommodated the full-grown length
of him. Then he was moving within her, faster and deeper, and so fiercely that
she marveled at the fury of his passion. Soon she found herself bearing down
upon him to meet his powerful thrusts, and to her amazement, she felt that
pressure flaring up inside her like a wildfire sparked once again to flames.

"Rurik . . ." she moaned, their mouths
meeting and parting with each lunging motion of their bodies until he plunged
his fingers through her hair, fusing his lips with hers.

She didn't have to hear his groans to know that rapture
had suddenly found him, for his body throbbed like a thing alive inside her,
the hard, rhythmic pulsing keeping time with the waves of ecstasy spreading
through her.

For one blinding, eternal moment his panting breath was
hers, her ragged breath was his, their heartbeats clamoring together in unison.
Then she fell in utter exhaustion upon him as his arms came around to hug her
tightly.

It was Rurik who finally spoke moments later, his
labored breathing back to normal as if their lovemaking had scarcely taxed him.
That alone should have given Zora a clue that the night for them was not over.

"You cannot go to sleep yet, little one," he
whispered, sliding his hand along the side of her body until he found the soft
curve of a breast.

Zora shivered at the sensation of his fingernails
lightly grazing her flesh. "No?"

Her answer came when he rolled onto his side, taking
her with him. As he hitched her leg over his hip, she realized to her
astonishment that he had grown hard again inside her.

"Rurik . . . ! How—"

He silenced her with a finger to her lips, a rogue's
smile spreading over his face as he teased her with a slow, tantalizing thrust.
"Sometimes it comes to us twice. Remember?" He lowered his head and
barely touching his lips to hers, his whisper thrilled her. "And
sometimes, Princess, even that is not enough . . ."

Chapter 20

Muddled from sleep, Zora opened her eyes to bright
sunlight streaming through the high, narrow windows. How odd. The bedchamber in
her longhouse had only one window . . .

It only took her a quick look around the richly
furnished room to remember exactly where she was, and her head fell back upon
the pillow as a blush fired her cheeks.

She and Rurik had spent the night together in this huge
bed. Holy Mother Mary, she would never have imagined there were so many ways
for a man and a woman to—

"Isn't it enough that you've done all those things
without thinking about them, too?" she chided herself, trying without
success to force the passionate images from her mind. Glancing at the empty
space beside her, she wondered how long ago Rurik might have risen. She guessed
it was already well into the morning, perhaps even midday, but then they hadn't
gone to sleep until almost dawn . . .

"Stop," Zora muttered in exasperation,
besieged not only with rousing memories of their lovemaking but by words that
had passed between them. Words Rurik had hurled at her earlier in the night
that she could not forget . . .

"Lust can
blind a man for a time but once it is satisfied, everything will return to what
it was before."

Sighing, Zora rolled onto her side and folded her arm
beneath her head.

After last night, she wasn't so sure that Rurik merely
lusted for her. She had seen the torment in his eyes. Was it possible he might
have some feelings for her that went so much deeper, feelings he was fighting
because of the deceit he had suffered at another woman's hands'? Could he be
falling in love with her?

Oh, what did it
matter?
she fumed, becoming angered by a sudden rush of butterflies in her
stomach. If she hadn't asked Rurik about his spurning his concubines in the
first place, now she wouldn't be concerning herself with whether or not he
cared about her. And even if he did, it wouldn't change anything!

She and Rurik were enemies. All she wanted was to be
free of him and home in Chernigov with her father and Ivan, and where she could
repay her half sister for the misery she had suffered. It was as simple as
that.

Nothing's that
simple,
came a niggling inner voice but Zora stubbornly ignored it and
shifted onto her back in frustration.

What was she supposed to do now? she wondered, staring
at the timbered ceiling. Her last escape attempt had failed miserably and until
she managed to find some other way to leave, she was stuck here. She would have
to be married to a man whose estate was so remote that wild beasts lurked just
outside the gates!