Viking Passion (38 page)

A servant was busily putting away the first
of Maura’s new gowns, which had arrived from the seamstress that
afternoon. After the woman finished and left the room, Lenora spoke
more freely.

“Basil must be growing fond of you if he
gives you a chamber as rich as this.”

“He is so kind. You know how frightened I
have been, Lenora, but here with Basil I feel safe. Basil says that
is right and proper, that women shouldn’t flaunt themselves in
public, that it is good I want to stay inside the house. He says he
will always protect me.”

“Will you marry him?”

Maura blushed a deep red.

“I don’t know. Perhaps, if he asks me. When I
came here I wanted nothing more to do with men, not after Snorri
and Sven treated me so badly. But Basil is different.” Maura
blushed again.

“He kissed me last night,” she confessed,
“and I liked it. Yes, I may marry him in time.”

The amazing thing, Lenora thought, was not
that Maura had so quickly learned to care for Basil, but that
Eirena seemed to have no idea what was going on between her brother
and Maura. Eirena was only interested in Erik and in her own plans.
She complained briefly at dinner about Maura having her own room,
made a sarcastic comment about Maura’s new blue-and-gold brocade
gown, and then dropped the entire subject. Lenora, catching Erik’s
glance across the table, imagined she saw a thoughtful twinkle in
his green eyes.

Late that night, as Lenora lay alone in the
bed she had previously shared with Maura, there was a light knock
at her door and Erik slipped inside.

She sat up in surprise and would have gotten
out of bed.

“Hush,” he warned, a finger over his
lips.

In an instant he was beside her, his mouth
stopping her exclamation of joy at his presence. He pushed her down
onto the silken sheets, pressing his hard, passionately erect body
over hers. She responded to his touch with a sudden, fiery desire
that would not wait. She clutched at him, pulling aside the short
tunic he wore.

“Hurry,” she moaned, now tearing at her own
sheer linen nightgown with her free hand, pulling him toward her
with the other. “Oh, please, my darling, hurry.”

He answered with a triumphant laugh just
before his mouth seared hers with a passion that answered her own.
She felt him enter her and move once, twice, and then she was
plunged into a blinding white heat of sensual delirium that
exploded with such force, it threatened to destroy her. Her nails
raked at his back as she pushed upward against him, consumed by
urgent need.

It was over too quickly.

“I never get enough of you,” she whispered,
nuzzling at his neck, satisfied but still longing for something
else. She did not know what it was, yet a strange wanting gnawed at
her.

“You will get more than enough of me
tonight.” He laughed. “How glad I am that Basil gave Maura her own
room.”

It was only now, with the passion between
them in momentary abeyance, that he finally removed his clothing
and slipped Lenora’s crumpled nightgown over her head, letting his
hands slide along the soft, curving length of her body as he did
so.

He stretched out beside her, playing idly
with one of her full, rounded breasts, rubbing it gently until the
nipple stood up proud and hard. He leaned over, teasing it with his
tongue, then sucking boldly, drawing more and more of the tender
flesh into his mouth. She moaned, gritting her teeth. He raised his
head.

“Shall I stop?” he asked.

For answer, she pulled his head back, to the
other breast this time, and he served it as he had the first. Her
breath came more quickly as her volatile emotions were
rekindled.

As he bent over her, she ran her flattened
palms along the firm muscles of his shoulders and upper arms, then
briefly tangled her fingers in the silky black hair on his chest
before her hands slid around to cup his smooth, tight buttocks.

He moved lower to concentrate on her softly
rounded belly, stroking and caressing. Her warming flesh seemed to
rise to meet his hands and lips.

Then his hands slipped down over hips and
thighs, lingering on their silky smoothness. He kissed and gently
teased at the backs of her knees before moving upward again, this
time along her inner thighs, separating her legs as he went, until
he reached the red-brown hair of the soft-curving mound between
them. And there he lingered, exploring with slow, gentle, but
determined probing, tracing concentric circles with one finger,
round and round, moving ever closer to the pulsating, painfully
sensitive spot now aching for his touch.

She felt his mouth on her and she cried out
at the hot, moist pressure of his tongue. At first she tried to
wriggle away, but, as he continued, she caught his head and held it
there, reveling in the exquisite new sensations that spread,
pulsing deliriously, throughout her body. With hands and lips and
tongue he drove her to near-frenzy. When finally he pulled away
from her she cried out and tried to draw him back. She saw his
manhood, hard and throbbing with barely contained eagerness, and
the sight nearly drove her mad with longing to hold him within
her.

Now he was covering her breasts and throat
and face with hurried, burning kisses, while that place between her
thighs where lately he had lingered tormented her with an
unbearable need.

At last, at long, long last, when she was
nearly screaming in an agony of frantic, clamoring erotic hunger,
he took pity on her. Slowly, deliberately, he moved deeply into her
eager, welcoming warmth.

A long sigh of pleasure escaped her parted
lips as she wrapped her arms about him, her eyes half-closed in
ecstasy. When he moved deeper still, a warm sweetness overpowered
her, spreading outward in waves from the taut center of her body to
her fingers and toes and to the very hair on her head. She was
intensely aware of the full length of his body against hers, from
his hard, demanding mouth covering her own and his tongue thrusting
against hers in a sensual rhythm to his hair-covered chest bruising
her tender, sensitive breasts to his firm-muscled thighs, scratchy
with hair, that rubbed against her own smoother flesh. At the
center of his being was the part of his body that now gave her such
intense, exquisite pleasure, surging into her and withdrawing, then
returning again, generating unbearable heat with each movement,
sucking her into a whirlpool, holding her captive, leaving her
empty and yearning for more, then filling her with joy and lifting
her up into the heavens.

On and on it went, unending, hot, honey-sweet
and head-spinning as the strongest mead, until he gathered her even
more closely into his arms, and blindly she clutched at him to pull
him even farther into her. At the same instant they both whirled
into another plane of existence where together they became one
whole and complete being in a passionate culmination that united
them with a life-generating force that shook them to their very
souls.

When at last Lenora came back to herself Erik
was kissing her reverently. He began with her forehead and her eyes
and continued until he had kissed every inch of her body. He
lingered on her lips, and at that place where their bodies had
joined, and ended at the tips of her toes. Then he stared at her
face as though she were something more than human, something
miraculous, until she pulled him down into her arms again, and
their lips met in a deep kiss of infinite tenderness.

Finally he slept, and Lenora lay beneath his
protective arm in a contented daze, still too sensitively alert to
his presence to be able to sleep. In the deep fulfillment she now
felt, Lenora had found the elusive something for which she had been
longing. She knew, although how she could not have said, that from
the sublime act of love just completed she and Erik had conceived a
child.

“It will be a son,” she told herself, “and he
will have black hair and sea-green eyes.”

Lenora was brushing her hair in a peaceful,
deeply satisfied mood when Eirena swept into her room without
knocking.

“You disgusting creature,” Eirena hissed. “I
gave you shelter and food and clothing – my own beautiful clothes –
and how have you repaid me?”

Lenora put down the hairbrush and faced her
visitor. Her movements were slow and languorous, in contrast to
Eirena’s rapid, nervous pacing as she prowled about the room.

“What are you talking about, Eirena? I have
done nothing to harm you.”

“Nothing?” Eirena stared at her from
hate-filled eyes. “Nothing? My serving woman tells me Erik spent
last night in this room. How dare you say you have done nothing to
me?”

Lenora realized there was no point in denying
what was undoubtedly household gossip by now. She tried to speak
calmly. “Erik came to me because he wanted me. You know perfectly
well that we have lived together.”

“You vile, filthy woman!” Vainly Eirena
struggled to regain her self-control. “You will not see Erik again.
He has gone out, and you will be taken from this house today,
before he returns. I know just the place for you, and it is far
enough away to keep you from ever returning to Constantinople.
There is a strict convent outside Alexandroupolis. Once you are
locked inside, out of his sight, Erik will soon forget all about
you.”

Lenora felt a chill settle about her heart.
For the first time she was really afraid of Eirena. She knew the
jealous, violently angry woman before her would find the means to
do what she threatened, and to keep Erik from learning what had
happened until it was too late. If she were taken from Basil’s
house and Erik could not find her, what would happen to her? And
what would happen to the babe that, illogical though the idea was,
she felt certain sheltered even now within her womb?

Eirena continued her tirade, scarcely pausing
for breath.

“Erik and I will be married soon,” Eirena
said. “I have waited for his return for five years. He belongs to
me, not you. My guard will remain outside your door. You will see
no one, nor will you leave this room until I have completed the
arrangements for you.” With this, Eirena tried to leave the
bedchamber. She found Maura blocking her exit.

“Get out of my way,” Eirena screeched, losing
her self-control for a second time. “You stupid nonentity, let me
pass.”

“Certainly.” Maura moved aside. As Eirena
whisked past her, nose in the air, Maura spoke again. “If you send
Lenora to the convent of which you were just speaking, I will go
with her.”

“That is perfectly agreeable to me,” Eirena
commented acidly. She would have continued on her way, but Maura’s
next words stopped her.

“I don’t think you are aware of it, Eirena,
but Basil has become extremely fond of me. I think, were I to enter
a convent, he would miss me terribly. Unlike Erik, who is a
stranger in this country, Basil would have the means to quickly
discover where I had gone. He might even follow me to inquire why I
had done such an odd thing. I would naturally feel obligated to
tell him the truth, how I would not leave my friend Lenora, who was
being forcibly detained at your order. I don’t think Basil would
care much for that news, do you?”

“You – !” Eirena raised a small, heavily
be-ringed hand as if to strike Maura.

“Do be careful,” Maura said calmly. “I have
such fair skin that any injury leaves a clear imprint for all to
see. I would hate to have to explain a bruise in the shape of your
hand to Basil.”

Lenora thought Eirena would fling herself
upon Maura and tear her to pieces. She could almost feel the
strength of will Eirena was exerting to control herself.

“There will be another time,” Eirena said at
last, between clenched teeth, “and I will not forget you, Maura.”
With a last, baleful glare, Eirena left the room.

The two friends fell into each others’ arms
in relief.

“Thank you,” Lenora said, half laughing, half
crying. “I thought you claimed once or twice in the past to have no
courage.”

“It is Basil’s doing,” Maura replied. “He
gives me strength. I will tell him what Eirena threatened. He’ll
see to it that she doesn’t harm you. Now, I have something much
nicer than Eirena to talk about. Basil has agreed you shall have a
new dress, too. Come to my room; the seamstress is waiting.”

In the manner Lenora had learned was
characteristic of this peculiar household that Eirena ruled, no
further mention was made of the morning’s threats. It was as if the
confrontation between Eirena and Lenora, and the shorter
altercation between Eirena and Maura, had never occurred. Eirena
showed no trace of dislike or anger when they met the men for the
evening meal. She was perfectly polite and apparently eager to
attend to her guests’ needs and slightest desires. Lenora, knowing
Eirena’s kindness was false, felt certain she was plotting
something new.

“Erik and I have some final arrangements to
make with his friend Harald the merchant,” Basil said over honey
tarts and dried fruits. “We will go to our villa on the Bosporus
and meet with him there.”

“How long will you be gone?” asked Eirena
with sudden intense interest.

“Only a few days. Why do you ask?”

“I have an idea,” Erik said, speaking into
the silence while Eirena fumbled for an answer. “Why don’t we all
go? I have talked about your lovely house so much, I’m sure Lenora
would like to see it, especially the gardens.”

“No, no,” said Eirena, too quickly. “In
mid-autumn? It is much too chilly at this time of year. We women
will all stay here, where it is warm and comfortable.”

“I would love to see the gardens.” Lenora was
suddenly anxious not to spend time in Basil’s house with the men
gone. “I don’t mind the cold. Wouldn’t you like to go, Maura? I
have a feeling you will miss Basil if he goes away for even a short
time.”