Dreams of a Dark Warrior

SEVENTEEN

Aidan hastens through battles just to get back to his woman.”

His men’s words rang out behind him, but Aidan paid them no mind. They would hurry back too if they had what he enjoyed.

A golden goddess born from the heat of lightning.

A few of his men teased him that he’d put Reginleit up on a pedestal. As if she belonged anywhere else?

Back at the camp, he dunked himself in the bathhouse springs, scrubbing the vampire blood and gore from his skin. Then he carelessly knotted a filched blanket around his waist as he stormed toward their longhouse.

He found Reginleit sitting by the fire pit inside, lost in thought and staring into the flames. Contemplating her new life with me?

But as soon as she spotted him, she stood, her face glowing brighter. “Aidan, you’re back!”

As he crossed to her, he was struck anew at how beautiful she’d grown, her body a heaven of curves and softness he longed to lose himself inside. ’Twas as if she’d been created for him—a warrioress with a fierce heart, a sharp mind, and a fiery passion to match his own.

But he had to grin at her silken hair. The crazed braids she’d worn as a girl remained, yet now they were oddly provocative, looking as if he’d just tumbled her.

She leaned up to press her mouth to his, parting her lush lips for him.

With just one taste of her, he groaned, “Your lips, female … sweetness itself.”

Like a drug …

Before he got lost in the mind-numbing pleasure of her kiss, he forced himself to break away. “I’ve a gift for you, brightling.” He swooped her up in his arms, carrying her to their bed.

In a breathy voice, she said, “And ’tis one I’ve been awaiting all day.”

Gods, her mere voice set his blood afire. And when she boldly cupped him …

He had to force her hand from him, flattered by her disappointed pout. “Nay, ’tis a true gift.” He stood to retrieve his offering from a leather pack.

“I like surprises!”

“You like presents. And the mere owning of things.” He handed her a bundle swathed in cloth. “I am well aware that I’ve got an acquisitive Valkyrie for my mate.”

Yes, Valkyrie were acquisitive, and he wanted to spoil her, but he had an ulterior motive. He feared for her. Until she turned fully immortal, she was nearly as vulnerable as a human. Vampires were overrunning the earth and would seek to hurt her in retaliation for his decades-long war with them.

She unwrapped the cloth, revealing a pair of short swords sheathed in leather. He perceived her excitement as she withdrew one of them, holding it up to the firelight. “’Tis so beautiful, Aidan!”

He’d commissioned the pair to be forged from the strongest metals known in the Lore. The blades were perfectly balanced, engraved with glyphs of lightning, and polished to a sheen that reflected her glow.

She stood, swirling both the swords with her Valkyrie’s grace, her wrists fluid, the movements so natural that she looked like she’d been born with them in hand. His heart swelled to see her like this. She would become a legendary swordswoman.

“Aidan, I’ve never been given anything so fine.” Her irises shimmered with emotion. Just as they did whenever he brought her release.

After only two weeks with her, the sight of her silver eyes like this had his shaft rising for her.

“I will become skilled with these.” She gazed up at him as if he were a hero of the ages.

Looks like that could go to a man’s head. Already he stood taller when his woman was near. “I will see to it.” Just as I will see to it that you come to love me. But he knew it would take time. She was still hesitant about remaining with him for longer than their agreed-upon three months.

Ah, but Reginleit had begun to light up—literally—every time he came into view. And with each battle, he moved closer to the time he would claim her completely. He couldn’t fight them fast enough, at times wondering how much longer he could resist the fated pull to her.

When her gaze dipped to his erection tenting the blanket, she murmured, “Perhaps our training can begin in the morn?” She was already trembling, her claws curling for her man. She clearly had been awaiting his return.

He took the swords from her and sheathed them in a rush. “In the morn, then. For now, I am going to kiss you as I’ve craved all day.” He swept her up in his arms, carrying her to the furs and laying her atop them. After ridding himself of the blanket, he followed her down.

He made short work of her kirtle, baring her body to his greedy gaze. Where to kiss her first? Her taut nipples strained for attention. He’d see to them.

When his lips closed over one, her back bowed and lightning struck outside.

As he suckled her, she clutched him close, kneading the muscles in his back with growing fervor. He released the damp tip once it was nice and stiff, blowing on it.

“Aidan!”

As she arched for more, he turned to her other one, twirling his tongue around it. She was so damned responsive to him. Her breasts were exquisitely sensitive, her ears as well. And her sex … He savored that secret part of her, could lick her for hours. With that aim in mind, he relinquished her breasts and eased downward, settling her thighs over his shoulders.

With his first lick of her flesh, pleasure overwhelmed him. Little wonder that he grew ravenous to taste her, grew irritable in battle when denied his hours of kissing her sweet sex. Yes, he did kill quicker just to get back to this honey sooner.

His tongue snaked over that sensitive bud, but she was already about to peak. He grinned against her flesh. His little goddess was lusty.

“Your fingers, Aidan,” she moaned. She loved to be penetrated, even when he licked her. She would come hard around his fingers when he sank them deep inside her.

His Reginleit was so ready to be claimed completely. Merely awaiting him. “You’ll come too quick, love.”

She made a sound of frustration, but he wanted to keep her on edge. So he drew back, lying down and lifting her to straddle his head. Like this, he could watch her writhe above him, her skin glowing hotly.

He clamped his arms over the tops of her thighs, fixing her tight to his mouth. As he lapped at her core again and again, his shaft stood rigid as a pole.

She moaned low. “Please, Aidan, now … now.”

Unable to deny her, he plunged his stiffened tongue, once, twice, his hips thrusting in time—

She threw her head back as she came atop him. “Ah, gods, yes!” She undulated over his mouth, rocking on his tongue. Lightning streaked outside, and thunder rumbled across the land as he licked her orgasm, groaning in bliss. …

Once he’d wrung every last moan from her, they both collapsed on the furs, catching their breath.

Yet then she began to kiss down his neck, continuing a sensuous path to his chest and lower.

Gods, if she could be just as hungry for him as he was for her. He hadn’t pushed for this pleasure from her. She was still young, and he wanted to ease her into it. He knew his actions in the beginning could help determine whether she loved the act or hated it—for eternity.

“Reginleit, what are you doing?”

“I want to kiss you. As you keep kissing me.”

He coughed into his fist, striving for an offhand tone. “Oh, then, and what do you know of suckling a man?”

She gazed up at him, her ears twitching. “I know from the timbre of your voice ’tis very important to you.”

“Perceptive, Valkyrie,” he said with pride. And every day I love her more than the last.

“Teach me how.”

With an audible swallow, he guided her head down, loving the feel of her hair gliding over his chest, his nipples. “Press your lips here, Reginleit”—he pointed to the swollen crown—“and give it a lick.”

She darted her tongue along the slit, and he uncontrollably gave up a bead of semen. “You do not have to …” He trailed off when she eagerly lapped at him, as if she sought more.

“I like this taste. Your taste.”

She was a prize to be treasured! He cradled her face with shaking hands. “I’ve much more to give you. Will you take it from me?”

“Is that what your other women have done?” Of her own accord, she nuzzled his testicles, her wicked tongue flicking them as well.

“Ah!” He fought to keep his hips still. “I do not recall others before you,” he said honestly. “You’ve bewitched me.”

“I will take from you.”

“Then suck the head hard while pumping your fist beneath your mouth. And you will have a willing slave.” His clever Reginleit stroked him so perfectly as she suckled. And all the while, her heavy-lidded gaze remained on his, her eyes silvery with desire.

He palmed the back of her head, his legs falling open. “Touch yourself, love,” he rasped. “I want you to come … with my shaft deep in your mouth.”

She moaned around his flesh as she began masturbating her sex, rubbing it with nimble fingers. Outside, her lightning lit up the night once more.

“Valkyrie, you madden me.” The pressure built as her mouth and hand effortlessly worked his length, the base swelling as his semen rose for her. Desperate to release it, he just stopped himself from bucking. “Reginleit, my seed! I’m about to spill on your tongue if you do not draw away—”

She robbed him of words as she sucked even harder, demanding his manhood’s offering.

He was helpless not to give it. …

A wild ocean storm pounded the island, mirroring Declan’s turbulent thoughts as he ran headlong into the gale.

Earlier in the night, he’d had the most realistic dream he’d ever experienced—one about the Valkyrie and her berserker. One that had made Declan awaken in a rush, on the very verge of coming, with his hips rocking and his cockhead wetting the sheet.

He’d sworn he could still feel her tongue against him, could still hear her moans.

Declan swiped a hand over his face. God help me, I was still licking my lips for more of her taste.

Mingled with that aching need had been … a lingering tenderness for her. And maybe even a thread of guilt for threatening her swords.

Which disgusted him. Had the dream been an entrancement, or something new?

He pushed himself over precarious forest trails, ripping off his shirt, leaving only his fatigue pants and boots.

He ignored the tree limbs that raked his bared chest, ignored his burning lungs as he covered mile after mile. Lightning struck all around and the winds howled, but he savored the wildness of the night, the bite of rain driving against his scarred skin.

Anything but succumb to that dream of the Valkyrie.

Somehow she’d made him experience that scene. A day of firsts, she’d told him. Her first time to suck off a man. And he’d imagined it, as if on cue, his mind supplying details to build on her story. Just as she’d intended.

Declan had even dreamed of pleasuring her—a detrus—with his mouth. Which just made him even more suspicious. Because his own predilections didn’t match his dream.

Unlike Aidan, Declan had never gone down on a woman, had never had that kind of time to spare during sex. Not before he would grow sick.

In truth, he’d never much seen to a woman’s pleasure at all. And though he was certain he’d received oral sex in the hazy days before his body had been maimed, he couldn’t quite recall it.

This isn’t me. I don’t want her for these things …

Perhaps the Valkyrie had some power he wasn’t aware of. Maybe a dreamcasting ability, like the dream demons possessed. Which meant an element of mind control.

He was a man who needed constant control over every aspect of his life, a man who worshipped strength and will. The last time I had them taken from me …

The Valkyrie would pay for toying with him.

He pushed himself until his lungs were heaving and his muscles quaked. Mud splashed up, all over his shuddering body, and still he ran.

Running as if something pursued him.