A Storm of Pleasure (10 page)

G
avin wondered if that was the answer he should have given. He’d believed her tied to his fate in some unexplainable way, but telling her that was not the best idea. Not until he’d been able to learn what she knew of him and his power and, more important, his origins or his end.

One of the men called, removing him from her side for a short time. When he glanced back, she was organizing their supplies and clothing. Then he helped the men during their arrival at the cave, and it felt good. For too long he’d been a prisoner of the noise in his thoughts, forced away from others because of the pain. Now here he was, with silence in his mind because of her.

Once they landed near the cave’s entrance, the supplies were carried down the path and inside to be stored, under Haakon’s direction. Afterward, the men boarded the boat to sail back to Durness village, a few miles west on the coast. They would stay there overnight, enjoying the hospitality the people offered. Some would visit family there before returning north. In a short time, Haakon excused himself, climbing to the small croft that he’d built on the ground above the cave.

By the time night fell, Gavin was alone with Katla.

She stood by the entrance to the cave, on the small beach there, staring up at the sky. Thousands of stars lit the clear night above them, and the sound of the sea lapping against the shore soothed him. ’Twas one of the reasons he’d sought refuge here. Now, he heard it with silence in the background of his thoughts and enjoyed it even more. Gavin walked up behind her and waited for her to notice him there, not wanting to invade her private thoughts. When she glanced back, he spoke.

“It is beautiful at night, is it not? The sides of the cliffs seem to draw the starlight between them.”

“Aye,” she said, turning to face him. “Is that what brought you here?”

“Nay. I only noticed it after I moved here.” He smiled.

How could he explain to her the soothing effect of the rushing water from the river and the sea crashing on the beach? Would she decide that he was mad as others claimed?

“Did you see the whole cave when you were here?” he asked. He’d been drugged and remembered very little about her first visit, except the pleasure of the dreamlike experience.

“Nay,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought you were asleep and did not want to be discovered spying on you,” she explained, a soft pink blush creeping up her cheeks as she spoke of that time. He would ask her more about that later; for now he would play the gracious host.

“Come,” he said, holding out his hand to her. “Let me show you the rest.”

He took her hand and they walked along the edge of the river that led deeper into the cave. Crossing over a small bridge he’d had built, they entered the main area that lay open to the sea. Gavin took her into one of the side caves that led to the private area he used as a bedchamber. Sheltered deeper within the cave’s inner recesses, it was not as damp or cold as the outer chamber where she’d first found him.

He observed as she entered and looked around. The earl’s men and wealth had turned it into a comfortable place—for a sea cave. The bed stood high off the floor, which lay covered in thick rugs. Furs were piled high on the bed, making it warm even during the colder nights. A metal brazier sat in one corner, where he could burn wood or peat to heat the room. The smoke followed the ceiling of the chamber and the corridor out. His trunks of clothing, a set of shelves with some books and supplies, a table and two chairs completed the furnishings—simple but comfortable.

“Is this the only chamber?” she asked.

“Aye. Haakon prefers to sleep above the ground in the croft there.” She nodded, clearly knowing the existence and location of it. “But there is more to the cave.”

Katla followed him as he retraced their path back to the main chamber, where he took a torch down from the wall and led her down a different corridor. This one narrowed as it moved along the river that drained through the cave into the sea. They walked in the light of the torch for a few minutes and then he stopped.

“Can you hear it?” he asked. They were very close to the waterfall, though they could not see it in the darkness.

She closed her eyes for a short time and then nodded. “Aye, the waterfall.” When she opened her eyes, she laughed at him. “I did not simply enter your cave without first searching the area for an easier entrance.”

“Did you not use the path in front? The way we entered?”

“Nay,” she said. “I did not want to chance being seen on the open path, so I climbed down the cliff.”

He choked back a gasp. She could have been killed by the fall from the cliffs. “Remind me to stay out of your path when you are determined to do something, Katla Svensdottir!” he said. Then he asked the question that had plagued him. “Why did you come here and leave without a word?”

She did not answer him right away, apparently picking and choosing her words before speaking. Then she sighed and told him.

“My task that day was to search your cave to learn more about you. I wanted to find out something I could use to convince you to help me…” Her words drifted off.

“Save your brother’s life,” he finished.

“Aye.”

He offered his hand to her and led her back into the main chamber, then into his bedchamber before asking her more questions.

“Why are you the only one seeking to change his fate? Do you believe he is innocent just because he is your brother?”

From what Haakon had told him of Sven Rognvaldson and his son, it seemed that both were deeply involved in plotting against the earl, possibly with the Scots king. Now that there was a treaty between King Magnus and King Edgar, neither sovereign wanted to upset the tenuous peace between the two nations. Sven Rognvaldson had clearly had other plans and sought a way to garner more power and more importance to both kings.

“He
is
innocent!” she said sharply. It did not take a truthsayer to tell she was also trying to convince herself of her words. He could see how upset she was, so he took her in his arms and held her close.

“Hush now,” he whispered. “I did not mean to upset you so.”

They stood like that for several minutes before he asked another question.

“Why did Harald not help you?”

“He cannot go against the earl without proof,” she explained. “Or appear to be disobeying the earl’s orders in this matter. My father had many enemies, and they would rather see no one left alive to claim his properties and wealth. Harald gave me leave to find proof that he could use to raise questions to the earl.”

Even as strong as she was, Katla’s heart was the soft one of a woman. A woman who could not or would not see the failings in those she loved. But a woman who would hate someone who showed her those failings and forced her to see them. Harald clearly knew that, allowing her to seek the truth on her own so he would not be the one to prove her brother’s involvement.

Especially not after being the one to accuse her father.

The earl had not believed Harald’s claims of treason against the powerful chieftain, so he’d called on Gavin to determine the truth of the accusation.

As he had, though he remembered nothing of the words spoken by Harald during the ritual. Gavin never did. Many times he did not even know whose truth he heard. Though the earl’s swift actions after the ritual told him everything he needed to know. Sven was guilty and Harald had spoken the truth. Magnus had carefully made his plans and set them in motion to rid himself of a traitor…and his son.

“So you believe him innocent then?”

She stepped back, out of his embrace, and he saw the tracks of tears on her cheeks. “Aye. I do.” She nodded her head. “He is young, not yet fully a man,” she explained. “He would never act with such dishonor.”

Though Gavin could give her many examples of how her words were not accurate, including several children Kali Svenson had already fathered and other accusations made against him, he did not. He needed to understand her more fully, and her words revealed much about her character. Loyalty and love ran deep in her.

“This has been a long day. Do you need something to eat?” he asked. He walked over to the covered tray on the table, lifting the cover and showing her the food beneath it. “Haakon left us a meal if you are hungry.”

She shook her head, an expression of wariness now filling her gaze.

“There is also ale or even wine, in these jugs here.” He pointed to the containers on a shelf. “You are welcome to it.”

He walked around the room, pointing out both the necessities and the luxuries, so that she would not feel ill at ease asking for this or that. Then when he’d completed the instructions, he found he was nervous. Anticipation of the night ahead rippled through him.

But the desperation to have her, to have any woman, was gone. Every month, once he recovered from the ritual and regained his hearing, he was struck by an overwhelming hunger for women. He coupled several times each day in that first week after the full moon, no more able to refuse a woman than he could refuse to breathe. Yet now, he felt only the expectation of enjoying a night of pleasure with Katla, not a life-threatening need to couple with as many women as possible.

Another change caused by her? Had she some power of her own, one given by the same source as his, that restored balance and control to his life? Gavin finally realized that he was hesitating to take a beautiful woman to his bed, and he laughed aloud.

“This is not something I do,” he tried to explain.

“That is not what I have heard,” she said.

He laughed again. “I meant bringing a woman here and not tearing her clothes off and having my way with her.”

She did not smile politely in reply or look away; she trembled, her body shivering in arousal, not fear, and he felt desire course through him. This time though, it was desire the way he used to experience it before his power went awry. An increasing urge, not an out-of-control hunger. A pleasurable awareness of her body, not mind-emptying lust. A building desire to be with her, not an unavoidable one.

Like a man should feel.

But there were other needs pulling at him, and the strongest one was for sleep. Astonished, he realized that his body still craved that which had eluded him for so long. Undisturbed sleep. And with the comfort of his bed so close at hand, he found it difficult not to seek.

“Would you mind if…?”

How could he ask her to sleep with him when she expected something else? Would she laugh at him?

“But for one or two nights, I have not slept soundly in months,” he blurted out.

“Sleep then, if that is what you need,” she answered.

For all his days, he would remember the look of disbelief on her face when he declared his need for sleep. Truly, he did not believe he’d said it either, but knowing that she would be there, in his bed, in his arms, removed the unnatural urgency that usually pulsed through him. As did the entire, sleepless night they’d spent together.

“Would you give me leave to unpack my things or should I join you now?”

He laughed again at her practicality and his own behavior. “Do as you wish. Consider this your home.”

Gavin turned then, torn between watching her and getting into bed. He decided he could do both, so he undressed and climbed under the bedcovers. She moved quietly around the room, first folding his clothes and then her own. It was soothing in a way. She went from task to task, efficiently, silently, until her belongings were put neatly away.

Katla could feel his gaze follow her as she sorted through the clothing and possessions she’d brought with her, doing as he’d suggested and making this place her home. For the next month, it would be. The cave was not so bad as one might expect. The earl had provided every comfort possible and made this a place fit for his counselor to live. She ignored the growing heat within her and finished her task before facing him.

The Truthsayer was not what she’d expected at all. After the night they’d shared, she’d imagined carnal pleasures with little preamble or conversation at all. But now that seemed less important to him. When she’d expected another scandalous request or command, like his demand that she pleasure herself, instead he asked for sleep.

Haakon had placed something else on the table, something that Gavin had not mentioned—a small bottle filled with a dark-colored liquid. She’d seen this one before and knew it contained some healer’s brew. Katla lifted it and held it up before the light of the lamp. He’d dosed himself with it several times while she observed from above

When he saw her looking at the bottle, he offered, “I do not sleep easily or enough.”

“Your pardon,” she whispered, bowing her head in apology. “’Tis not my place to…” Every word she thought of sounded wrong.

“Snoop?” he finished.

She felt her cheeks burn.

“Aye,” she admitted, placing the bottle back on the shelf. “My curiosity is unseemly.” She wiped her sweaty, nervous palms against her tunic, drying them before facing him. “My father and his wife ever complained of it.”

“You should know where that potion is,” he said, nodding to it. “If I need it…” He did not finish, but she understood, having seen him consume it several times.

She changed the topic to something more mundane, away from all the questions she wished to ask. They had a month—there would be time enough.

“Should I put out the lamps?”

Though she done shocking things in his presence, she was not yet comfortable with bedplay, and did not wish to undress before him. Katla suspected that the scent his body gave off during arousal eased those inhibitions and allowed her to do many things with ease. Now, though…

“Leave the one by the doorway burning, but you can put the others out.”

When she’d done so, she walked to the wooden chest in the corner and undressed quickly. Folding her tunic, gown, and linen shift, she placed the garments on top of the wooden trunk and then unlaced her shoes and stockings and removed them. Despite the heat given off by the brazier burning there, the chamber carried the chill of the rocks. She shivered as she turned toward the bed.