Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (62 page)

             
To hell with it
, she thought and smiled as she smoothed her kirtle across her lean hips.  She looked at Herger, who seemed puzzled, then walked over to him, slowly, sinuously.  She was a novice at seduction, before it had always been the man who had initiated the sexual encounter.  She would have to play this very carefully indeed.  Standing in front of him she slowly untied her headrail, threw it to the floor and then pulled the pins from her hair and shook her head.  “What are you doing, Alodie” asked Herger evenly, crooking his eyebrows.

             
“I think it is perfectly obvious to the meanest intelligence what I’m doing Viking, I am attempting to seduce you”

             
“I swore an oath never to take your body again in love woman” he said, his voice cracking.

             
Alodie smiled, put her hands behind her back and untied the tapes which fastened her dress at the neck.  She had chosen wisely, this dress fastened with tapes in three places instead of the more complicated laces.  She leaned toward Herger and her kirtle fell forward, then putting her hands up to her front to arrest its fall she looked up at him.  He had not moved a muscle but his hands were gripping the arms of the seat and his eyes were beginning to glaze.

             
She shook her head again, sending her golden mane tumbling down around her shoulders.  Then, dropping her dress to the floor she stepped out of it, now clad only in the semi-transparent lawn shift which was still slightly damp from her wash.  “Odin, Alodie, you make it very hard for me” muttered Herger.

             
Alodie smiled again and glanced down at the rapidly swelling bulge in his braeis.  “That is obvious my lord” she breathed, and leaning over him she kissed his forehead and the tip of his nose, followed by his lips, then taking his head in her hands she kissed him as hard as she could, plunging her tongue into his mouth.  She felt him stiffen in his seat, obviously struggling with himself. 
Right mister
she thought
fight this!

             
She clambered up onto the seat, straddling him, and, taking his hands in hers, she placed them, unprotesting, on her breasts.

             
Herger groaned and, despite himself, began to move beneath her.  Alodie lifted her head.  “There has not been a day, my lord, when I have not dreamed of doing this, to feel your body next to mine”

             
“So, why did you leave me?” he moaned.

             
“Pride mainly, and the fact that the serving girl your men were holding hostage for my good behaviour was my dearest friend, Aehlswith of Wessex.  What I should have done was get her aboard the boat and come back to you”

             
“The queen of
Wessex
!  I had the queen of
Wessex
hostage and you got her away?”

             
Alodie kissed him again.  “Hush my lord” she whispered, running her hands gently across the thick hairs of his chest, then, unlacing his shirt and pulling it apart, she leaned down and kissed first his right nipple then his left, running her tongue around each one.

             
“Loki’s balls, wench, I am trying to be angry with you.  Do you want to destroy me completely?” he muttered.

             
Alodie looked up.  “You are my soul mate, Herger, I know it and you know it.  I have travelled vast distances to be with you, we are together when neither of us ever thought we would be again.  I want you and you want me, don’t make the mistake I made and let pride come between us”

             
With that she slid off his knee, lowered her head once more and continued to lick his nipples before moving her head lower and lower until stopped by the ornate belt at the top of his braeis.

             
She glanced up at him, his head was thrown back and his eyes were closed.  With a grin she began to unfasten the belt, with aching slowness, then pulling it off she hooked her hands in his waistband and pulled.  Herger lifted himself to assist her and soon the green braeis were round his knees, stopped in their descent by the cross gartering on his shoes.

             
She glance up,  his rigid manhood, freed from the confines of the cloth, was rearing above her, huge and virile.

             
Getting to her knees she bent over and taking the end in her mouth began to run her tongue over and across it, then glanced up at him.  Emerald green eyes bored into her, taking her soul and tearing her apart.  He was right, she belonged to him totally.

             
She lifted her head and stood up, then putting her hands under her hair she tossed her head.  “Alodie, for Odin’s sake, why did you stop?” he gasped.

             
“I am finished making love to a statue my lord.  I am just sorry to have wasted your morning, it is obvious that nothing I say will persuade you that I am not a whoring Saxon spy.”

             
Herger raised his eyes to her.  “You are sadly mistaken, my lady” he said slowly.

             
Alodie reached for her dress.  “In what? In thinking that nothing I say or do will persuade you of my innocence, I am glad to hear it”

             
“No, in thinking you are going to finish our little encounter now”

             
Alodie stepped back into her dress.  “It will break my heart to leave Tom and Nerissa but I know you will care for them and I have no home, I will dress and leave”

             
Herger leaned down and unfastened the cross gartering on his shoes, then shook them off and removed his braeis.

             
Getting to his feet he walked over to her.  He was immense, he towered over her and she was not a small woman.  “Drop your gown, Alodie” he commanded.

             
She began to put her arms in the sleeves.  “I think not, my lord.  However much I love a man, I will not stop with him if he thinks of me as a lying whoring spy”

             
Herger’s reply was to take the neckline of her dress in his hands and pull sharply downwards.  The material ripped like gossamer.  She took a pace back.  “You great ape!  My frock!”

             
He pulled again and the dress cascaded to the floor in a shimmering heap, then leaning forward he took her arms in his hands and pulled her toward him.  For a second she tried to resist, it was not only futile it was a waste of energy, the strength of the man was unbelievable.  He pulled her into his arms and, sweeping her from her feet he carried her to the bed.  “Have you heard a word I’ve been saying?” she asked.

             
“No”

             
“Why?”

             
He kissed her deeply then looked up.  “Because you are not saying anything I need to hear”

             
Alodie smiled and reaching behind his head she untied the leather thong securing his dark wavy hair then, as she had dreamed of doing for months, ran her fingers through the springing mass.  With a moan he ripped the flimsy shift from her body and lowering his head teased first one nipple then the other with his tongue.  Alodie arched her body towards him, running her fingers lightly over the immense musculature of his back.

             
His tongue traced a warm wet line down the valley between her breasts, across the flat plane of her belly to the blonde triangle which nestled below.  “Jesus, Herger” Alodie groaned hoarsely.

             
He glanced up at her.  “Your milk and water God has nothing to do with lovemaking such as ours, Alodie, it was a Norse god, Frey, who invented this!”

             
She raised herself on her elbows and looked slantingly across at Herger. “I don’t give a damn who invented it, Viking, just do it!”

             
With a chuckle Herger lowered his head and began to explore her warm wet folds with his tongue, licking her into a crescendo of ecstasy. 

             
She bucked and moaned, kneading the muscles in his back and emitting little whimpers.  Finally, after what seemed like hours, he pushed himself into her, slowly at first, savouring the contact with this flesh he loved and desired above all others.  He could not understand the feelings she aroused in him, it was more than just desire, he just could not envision the future without her and when he had seen her, through the window, laughing with Edric he had, for a second, wanted to kill her.  Then when, by some miracle, he found himself transported here and he knew she was with him, he had determined to harden his heart to her.  All those thoughts were driven from his mind the moment he saw her again, asleep.  Whether she was a demon or angel he neither knew nor cared, all he knew now was that she was with him, by her choice, and Hel’s pit would freeze over before she would leave him now.

             
Alodie gripped his shoulders and wrapped her legs round his back, and as he plunged into her she arched toward him, scoring his back with her nails as she reached her climax.  As he felt her quiver he too felt the throbbing spurt as his seed was released deep inside her and, sweat pouring from his brow, he collapsed, sated.

             
For a while neither of them spoke, then Herger looked up at her.  “Are you  quite full now?” he asked, archly.  Alodie laughed.

             
“For the present, my lord, yes”

             
“Right, I have a thousand questions and this time, my little love, you are not going to wriggle away without answering them.  First,  what happened after I was speared in the back by that hell hound Aelfric of Lamporth and second,  how did you get me here?”

             
Alodie took a deep breath.  “It is a very long story, one you may find difficult to believe”.

             
Herger took a strand of her hair and ran it along the side of his face, delighting in its silky smoothness, a bird landed on the windowsill and began to trill its song.  Propping herself up on her elbows Alodie smiled.  “Isn’t that beautiful my lord?  The birdsong?”

             
“Wench, if you try to distract me again I will tan your arse, how do we come to be here instead of providing food for the
Wessex
maggots?”

             
She jumped off the bed and pouring a cup of milk from the pitcher, took a drink, then came back and climbing over him, lay down again.  “Right” she began “they threw me in a cart, as I told you.  They also, believing you were dead,  threw you in another cart, they were going to parade us naked round
Winchester
on Alfred’s return, me tied to your dead body.”

             
Herger wrinkled up his nose.  “I salute Alfred, that was very imaginative of him”

             
“It was preferable to their first idea. They were going to throw me to the men, yours and Guthrum’s that is, as, to quote one of my captors, I was ‘so fond of Norse meat’”

             
Herger whistled soundlessly.  “You could have pleaded a headache
min helt
, my men would never touch a woman with a headache!”

             
Alodie batted him with a pillow.  “Listen, will you Viking.  I was thrown in a cart, stripped and raped by three of the guards....” Herger sat up, his face a mask of horror, she held up her hand “I was expecting this and have put it behind me, I was raped and beaten - believe me, the only way to live through an experience like that
is
to put it behind you, I class it as no worse than the beating” Herger pulled her to him, holding her to his chest.

             
“What if you are with child?” he said quietly.

             
“That was my fear too, but I had my period - er moon time whilst I was in the filthy cell they threw me in when we got to
Winchester
.  Forget it - I have”

             
He stroked her face.  “You are a very brave and singular woman Alodie” he said “continue your tale”

             
“Well, I am not sure how long I was in the cell but I became really ill, I remember having a terrible fever. There was no bed, just straw on the stone floor.  Eventually Margaret...” she looked up at him, “do you remember the little girl whose father I set up as a cooper that day....” her eyes went dreamy “that day in the glade?”

             
“Aye, I do”

             
“Well, Aehlswith had contacted Wat, Margaret’s father, and arranged for me to be ‘rescued’.  They took me to a little house in the forest and after a few days Aehlswith came to visit me.  She brought me the bracelets which had been taken from me, clean clothes and food and, most importantly, news that you were not dead but almost so, hovering in and out of consciousness and that you were to be executed in two days.  She also told me that Godgyth had contacted her and had told her that you had come for the children. I begged her, for the sake of our friendship, to help me get you away and after a lot of cajoling and wheedling on my part she agreed to furnish me with a horse and wagon, then, after paying the gaoler to turn a blind eye, we got you loaded into the wagon and away”