Steinn Read online

  “No. I don’t want any of that.” She flung back her head, hoping to catch his face with her crown.

  She was in luck and felt a satisfying throb race over her skull as it connected.

  He yelped. “Woman. Stop that.”

  “No, I want…”

  “That hit my nose.”

  “Good.” She tried to push up but could go nowhere. He’d folded his arm over her back, a pincer-like grip squashing her onto the table.

  “I know what you want, and you’ll get it,” he said, a little breathlessly and with excitement and determination lacing his tone.

  He dragged at her gown. The hateful old thing she’d worn for her miserable wedding ceremony. She’d hoped Steinn would see her in it, hate it, and decide she wasn’t the wife for him.

  No such luck.

  “Don’t you dare pull up my gown,” she snarled. Air washed over her bare lower legs. “I demand—”

  “I demand you shut up, Gladys.”

  “No, I…” Her words were cut short by a rag being shoved between her teeth.

  As if bending her over, raising her skirts, and about to…do what he intended on doing wasn’t bad enough, he’d filled her mouth up to stop her protests.

  I’ll kill him for this.

  He was yanking at her gown again, pulling the heavy material up, up higher, jamming it into the hollow of her back until her bare buttocks were exposed.

  His naked body was hot against hers, like sitting beside a fire, the Devil’s fire.

  Using his foot, he kicked her legs apart, and her pussy was exposed. She was open, vulnerable, a plaything for him.

  And she knew damn well he was going to play his hideous game.

  “You have a great arse, wife.” He smoothed his palm over first her right buttock, then the left, the work-worn ridges on his skin catching on her soft flesh. “Better than I dared hope when I saw you first.”

  Gladys whimpered and stared out of the open window to the green fields beyond. She was relieved no villagers were there to witness her held hostage for the pleasure of an ugly barbarian.

  “And skin so pale,” he went on, still caressing her. “Which I’m sure will pink nicely if you require a spank. Oh…now I think of it, that hit on my nose…”

  A hard thwack landed on her arse The sting of heat raced over her flesh.

  She spat the rag from her mouth and jerked forward. “Stop that, you brute.”

  Another slap, then another. He landed four on each buttock while he held her down. All hard and fast and making her burn with humiliation and anger.

  Angus had never spanked her. Had never had need to. They’d worked out any differences like adults, not animals.

  “Ja,” Stein said, caressing her arse again. “You do pink up nicely.”

  “How dare you spank me?”

  “I do not require bravery to spank my wife,” he said, leaning forward and speaking into her ear. “For you are mine. Can’t you tell?”

  “I don’t…mmmph.” He’d rammed the rag back into place. More securely this time.

  She had to concentrate for a moment to stop it going too near the back of her tongue and gagging. Her eyes watered.

  “That’s it, you keep still and quiet and think about why you deserved that spank. Though it was not harsh, for this is us getting to know each other, as husband and wife.”

  She shouted around the rag. Told him in no uncertain terms she’d never view him as her husband. But comprehensible words didn’t come out.

  He made a strange growling sound and slipped his fingers down the cleft of her buttocks, over her rear hole and to her pussy.

  She tensed. Being touched there was alien after so long abstaining from sex.

  “Are you wet for me?” he asked, pushing two fingers into her. “Ah, you are…a little. Good, we can work with that.”

  She screwed up her eyes and gritted her teeth on the rag so hard her jaw ached. Her pussy tightened around his invasion, and she curled her toes in her boots.

  “You have never been fucked by a Viking.”

  She wriggled and tried to escape him. He’d pushed in deeper, his knuckles shoving up against her pussy lips.

  “I know that,” he said, “because your cunny is tight, it grips me. Had you taken a big Viking cock, that would not be the case.” He laughed. “Men from your lands have worm cocks.”

  Gladys threw her head back again, wishing it had made contact with his. It didn’t; he was standing upright. She raged onto the material in her mouth. Tried to draw her legs together but was prevented by his foot and leg.

  Suddenly he stilled. “Sorry, was that insensitive? I’m sure your Angus was…” His words tailed off. “Never mind.”

  She hated to hear her real husband’s name on this ogre’s lips.

  “Keep still,” he said, withdrawing his fingers from her. “It is time to consummate.”

  His cockhead nudged her entrance. Impossibly wide and hard, he pushed forward, parting her delicate flesh.

  She thrashed and bucked, putting all her energy and muscle into escaping.

  “I can tell you enjoy a good hard mating,” he said. “You are excited for it. You want to feel me, all of me.”

  “Mmmph!” She yelled through the rag. Every curse word she could think of rattled around her brain.

  “I am also excited, wife.”

  In one wild plundering lunge, he thrust to full depth.

  The cramming in of his cock was raw, intense, and filled Gladys until she was sure she’d burst. Her eyes watered, her breath caught in her chest—a great big bubble of shock—and her pussy struggled to take his huge shaft.

  “Ah yeah, thanks be to the gods because you make me think of Valhalla.”

  His balls pressed up against her, his lower abdomen a solid wall on her tingling buttocks.

  She arched her back and tried to dislodge him. It was to no avail.

  “Wife, you can see now how well we fit together.” He gripped her hair, catching it in a rough ponytail, and dragged her head back. At the same time, he half withdrew then shunted into her again.

  The breath huffed from her lungs, billowing into the rag and snorting down her nostrils.

  He repeated the action, his flesh slapping onto hers.

  “Aw wife…we are…going to…have so much…fun together.” He punctuated his words with thrusts. “People will be…jealous of…our love and…devotion. Wish they had…sex fun…like we do.”

  Gladys was sure not one single person would think that, and if they did she’d put them straight. Steinn was a big brutish bully and not the sharpest dagger she’d ever come across either.

  “You love it,” he said, “your pussy is hugging me.”

  She continued to moan her complaints as he shunted into her. She was well and truly trapped and being well and truly screwed.

  The pounding went on and on, her nub rubbing on the table. Her breasts now lifted off it because of the arch in her back—it was that or lose her hair by the roots he was holding it so tight.

  Much to her annoyance, her nub swelled and then throbbed. A pressure was building, a pressure she remembered from her time with Angus.

  Please, no. Not with this monster. Not that.

  More tears welled. Her body was betraying her.

  There was no doubt about it, this was starting to feel nice, more than nice. His cock was rubbing a place inside her she hadn’t even known existed. Her pussy was really wet now, soft noises filling the air as well as her scent.

  “Find your pleasure,” he said gruffly. “I won’t release until you have my love…that is how it will be for us…now and always. I am not a selfish lover.”

  She gripped the edge of the table so hard her knuckles hurt. She was dancing on her toes, her body taken so totally by his.

  Trying to fight her rising climax was hopeless, but she had a go. She thought of Angus and how, if he were here, he’d kill Steinn for doing this. She thought of cleaning the chicken coop and how the smell made her gag. But n
othing could distract her from the huge ball of need welling inside her.

  It was growing with each wild and deep penetration.

  It’s not because I want to…not with him.

  The pressure built on and on. It grew so big, so wild, that she couldn’t contain it any longer. She had to let it free.

  Holding her breath, and with her pulse raging in her ears, she spiralled into a crashing wave of spasms. Her pussy contracted around his dense shaft, and wetness squirted from her with each thudding squeeze.

  “Ah, my wife, you are magnificent,” He released her hair, gripped her hips, and increased his already near violent thrusting. “More…like that, with your…cunny.”

  She managed to spit the rag from her mouth. Words of anger were on her tongue, but they stayed where they were. Instead, a ghoulish cry left her throat. It didn’t sound like her voice; it was high-pitched yet guttural, as if a slice of her soul was leaving with the gush of air.

  “I am filling you…with seed, ah, ah, ah…” He dragged her onto his cock.

  She reached behind herself and pushed at his hands which were gripping her hips. Desperate to get him off and away. She didn’t want his seed. Her efforts made no difference as she’d suspected they wouldn’t. He had her where he wanted her, and until he’d finished, she had to take him.

  A sob bubbled up from her chest, but she caught it. She was strong, always had been. It wasn’t her fault her treacherous body had reacted to the first cock that had entered her in a very long time. She hadn’t even known she missed sex. Would never have thought it. But here she was, gasping for breath after a toe-curling, dizzying climax beneath a Viking.

  He slowed and then stilled, relaxing the grip on her hips.

  Her chest was tight, and sweat dampened her brow and underarms. Her pussy fluttered around his cock.

  “I like that you enjoy it wild and hard,” he said with a chuckle. “Another way we are compatible.”

  “I don’t like it wild…and hard. I don’t like it at all, at least not with you.” She tugged from him, and to her surprise he released her and slipped from her body.

  Her pussy was hot and wet, and when she stood, moisture slicked onto her thighs. She was glad when her gown dropped around her ankles, covering her from his view.

  “Wife?” he said, his hands falling to his sides and a frown creasing his brow. “What are you saying?”

  “That I don’t want to have sex with you, that I don’t like you, I never will. I will pray every night of our marriage that you will burn or drown, get hunted by bears, injured in battle, or fall sick with the fever and—”

  “Don’t say it.” He shot out his arm and snapped her close. “Some things can’t be taken back.”

  “I will pray that you—”

  Again he cut off her words, but this time with his mouth. He sealed his lips over hers, shot in his tongue, and held her flush against his sweaty, naked body.

  3

  “In the name of the Lord, get off me,” Gladys said when Steinn finally stopped kissing her.

  He smoothed his hand over her hair. His dark-blue eyes flashed as he studied her face, and a smile tipped his lips.

  It was then she noticed with satisfaction a small drop of ruby-red blood beneath his left nostril. That was her doing. She’d been on target with that head butt. Shame it hadn’t knocked him to the floor unconscious, or better still, cold and dead.

  “You have a sharp tongue,” he said. “Did your mother ever tell you that?”

  “What would you know about my mother?”

  “Nothing? That is why I asked the question.” His smile slipped.

  “No, she didn’t, because I was never sharp with her.” Gladys tugged from his embrace. She staggered, her legs watery, to a chair and sat. “I’m only sharp with people I despise.”

  “Despise?”

  “Aye.”

  “How can you despise me? We hardly know each other.” He followed her, ran his hand down her cheek and cupped her chin as if savouring the softness of her skin and the contours of her features.

  “Clearly we’re acquainted enough for you to think it’s all right to bend me over, hoist up my gown, and shove your…your…”

  “Cock in you?” He grinned suddenly. “That is husband and wife acquaint…er…acquint…”

  “Acquaintance.”

  “Ja, that word. Forgive me, sometimes your language trips me over.” Suddenly he released her and stepped away. He stooped and picked up his trousers. “And it was good mating. We will do it again later, when night falls and the moon lights the sky.”

  She turned her attention from him and clenched her fists. “Over my dead body.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You did. I heard you—”

  His words were interrupted with the clanging of a bell. The sound rattled through the house, echoing around the small space before being absorbed by the thick walls and low roof.

  “Ah, it is time for the feast.” He pulled on his trousers. “And that is good. My stomach believes my throat has been slit and no food will ever land in it again.” He laughed. “Sex with you uses up all my energy. It’s not easy holding you down.”

  She stood, heat prickling over her cheeks as her annoyance surged again. “You shouldn’t have held me down.”

  “But you enjoyed it.” He fastened the button on his trousers, securing the waistband around his lean, strong abdomen. “I heard you enjoying it and…” He gave a particularly smug smile. “I felt you enjoying it, around my cock.” He cupped his groin. “How you squeezed me with your wet cunny when you came.”

  Gladys wanted to stamp her feet, rage at him. Did he not see the disgust in her eyes when she looked at him? How could he not know she hadn’t wanted him to consummate their marriage—a marriage she hadn’t wanted?

  “But, my lovely wife, next time we will take it slow and express our new love to each other. I can fuck you in lots of different ways which you will soon learn.” He tipped his head. “But ja, later in our bed here, I will take my time to enjoy every bit of your body and allow you to enjoy mine.”

  She shuddered and glanced at the bed.

  “Haps you want that now?” He raised his eyebrows.

  Before she could answer, he held up his palm and went on.

  “But I must deny you for a few hours. We have a ceremony to attend, one organised by Jarl Brandr, so get yourself prepared.” He reached for his belt and nodded at her. “Your hair is resembling a bird’s nest.”

  “A bird’s nest!” She pushed at the wild strands hanging around her face. “And whose fault is that?”

  “It is a nice reminder of our fun, Gladys, but I instruct you to brush it so you are more presentable on our wedding day in front of old and new friends.”

  “Instruct me?”

  “Ja. That is what I said.” He attached his belt. “Hurry, do as I bid.”

  Now she did stomp her foot, then she strode to the windowsill and snatched up her brush. She dragged it through her long, knotty strands, not caring that it tore at her scalp. Who the hell did he think he was?

  Instructing her.

  Within minutes he was ushering her out of the house, his hand against the small of her back.

  She sidestepped, removing it and removing him. The sooner she got rid of this Viking, the better.

  But how could she do that permanently?

  “First I must go to the longboat,” he said, not seeming to notice the distance growing between them. “I have treasures from my travels I wish to show you.”

  “I don’t care to see them.”

  “Ahh, but you will.” He tapped the side of his nose. “They are very interesting and beautiful, and I have one particular piece of jewellery in mind for you. A gift for my honourable and pleasing wife.”

  “Maybe I don’t want a gift from you.”

  “You will.” He laughed. “When you see it. No woman could resist.”

  He turned and marched in the
direction of the beach. His sword swung at his side, and his wide shoulders and long body created a thick shadow on the tufty grass. He’d put on a tunic now, with linked iron over the shoulders and the image of a raven stitched into the back.

  “Of all the…” She spun the iron wedding ring Angus had given her many years ago. She’d never taken it off. There’d never been a reason to. And if Steinn, the dumb Norseman that he was, thought he’d be her reason to, he was more stupid than she thought.

  “Gladys,” Eithne, the new wife of Brandr called. “Over here.”

  Gladys frowned at her friend of many years who was sat perched on the edge of a bench, Feidelm at her side. Why did she appear so happy and radiant? She had to lay with the big brute who’d taken over their village. Likely he was swift with his hands and demanding with his cock, too.

  “Come on,” Eithne said, standing and pouring mead into a tankard. “Let’s sup together.”

  Gladys wandered over, her irritation with Eithne growing. “Why are you so happy?”

  She had a curious pink glow to her cheeks, and her eyes were alight.

  “Because I am happy, Gladys,” Eithne said.

  “Why? How can you be?”

  “Tell her,” Feidelm said.

  “About the?” Eithne’s eyes widened, and she shifted a little farther forward on the bench.

  “No, not that.” Feidelm nodded in the direction of Brandr. “About what your new husband has planned.”

  “Ah, that.” Eithne smiled. “We are to be a family, Gladys. My dreams will come true.”

  “A family with him at the head is your idea of dreams coming true?” Gladys scoffed then reached for a tankard. “I pity you.”

  Eithne scowled. “I don’t want your pity, and actually I don’t expect you to understand.”

  “You know I think this was a foolhardy idea and will be the ruin of us all. These men will not make worthy husbands. They are monsters with no brains.”

  “I believe they have brains that work perfectly well,” Feidelm said.