A Storm of Pleasure (5 page)

Hours passed and her stomach rumbled, reminding her of missed meals and other needs. She’d never been one to skip any meals happily, enjoying both the food and the company. Now, she had neither.

At times like this, she mourned deeply all that she’d lost. But just as tears threatened, the noises in her stomach interrupted, reminding her that she had no time or strength for grief or feeling sorry for herself.

The household quieted around her and still she waited.

Just as she began drifting off to sleep, she heard footsteps approaching down the corridor. Heavy, male footsteps that paused at the door of her prison. She pushed herself to her feet, wanting to meet whoever came at her standing. Katla shoved her hair away from her face and over her shoulders and straightened up to her full height.

Would it be Harald who opened the door? Mayhap her uncle, seeking to clean up one more loose end left by her father? If Katla was not alive to try to prove Kali’s innocence, there would be no one left to challenge Olaf’s right to his brother’s holding.

Clenching her fists at her sides, she took several deep breaths. She listened as the bar was lifted and tossed aside, the sound echoing through the tiny room. Then the door opened and a man’s form filled the doorway.

“How does the Truthsayer know you, Katla?”

H
e led her out of the small room and down the corridor to his chambers without saying another word, but anger rolled off him in palpable waves as they walked. A few turns and he opened another door, then waited for her to enter ahead of him. When he’d closed the door, Harald crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her. Katla searched for the right words to say, but Harald did not wait.

“How does the Truthsayer know you?”

Katla hesitated, certain that Harald would never approve of her attempts to get the Truthsayer’s help. Or her sharing her body with him.

“I sought his aid, Harald. You gave me a month to find a way to help Kali.”

“He uses women for one purpose only. Did he use you, Katla?” Strange how men never considered their own actions when judging another’s.

“And you, Harald? Did you not use me in the same way?”

“Before I even touched you, I offered you a place in my household. I do not use women and toss them aside. Is that treatment fit for the daughter of Sven Rognvaldson?”

“Sven the Traitor?” she asked, the words bitter in her mouth. “How will I live if my brother is executed and my uncle claims all that should be Kali’s?” She turned and walked away from him, trying to control the anger now building within her.

“As your concubine? Warming your bed when you have a need for me? How is that different from the Truthsayer’s plans for me?” She faced him then. “Worry not, Harald. He will not keep me for long. He never keeps any woman for more than a day or two. Once he tires of me, I will be yours once more.”

She’d not realized how angry she was at the idea of being passed from man to man as though only a thing to be used. Her heart raced as she gave vent to the feelings for the first time since watching her father die.

“Did you order your man to kill my father so you could have me, Harald? Was it part of the earl’s plan? Your plan mayhap?”

He raised his hand and Katla expected to feel the blow. She didn’t realize she’d close her eyes until she peeked from beneath her lids to see if he’d come closer. Harald stood only an arm’s length from her, his arm raised to strike. His face was flushed with anger, but his eyes revealed an emotion he’d never shown her before. He dropped his arm and let out a long, exasperated breath.

“I have wanted you for years, Katla. I admit it freely. But I did not kill your father to get you. I bargained with him as any man does.”

The words did not make sense for several seconds, but when their meaning became clear, Katla gasped. “He would never have done so!” she cried out. “I was to be wed to Einar’s son Bjarni next spring.”

“You were to be given to me after the harvest. If I agreed to help him kill Earl Magnus so your father could take his place.”

Katla staggered back and landed hard against the wall. It could not be true! She shook her head violently, as though the action would negate the accusations made. Sven had always been loyal to the earl, fighting his battles, enjoying his rewards, and living a full life on Gairsay. Why would he have even considered such a path?

But in that same moment, she knew the answer to her own question. More wealth. More power. More lands.

More.

Her stomach rolled as she thought of all the implications of this new knowledge for her and her brother.

Her father was a traitor.

Before she understood what was happening, Harald wrapped his arm around her waist and dragged her to the pot kept beneath the stool in the corner. Her stomach emptied on its own as shock, disappointment, and fear coursed through her. Finally, when she was able to sit back on her own, Harald walked to the other side of the room, poured a cup of water, and brought it to her. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, hoping her stomach’s rebellion was done. As she rinsed her mouth, Harald strode across the room and then just watched her.

“He spoke to you directly about his…plan?” she asked. Katla needed to know more about this plot, because deep within, she did not believe Kali was part of it.

Harald nodded. His blue eyes stared intently at her, as though searching for something. “Aye. Several times. Each time his words seemed more enticing and more interesting. You were the final bargaining piece offered to me.”

She swallowed several times but could not get out the myriad of questions that his comment caused.

“He’d noticed my interest in you, Katla. Sven knew that several of Magnus’s men hungered for you. He decided I was the most worthwhile to approach with his offer.”

And she’d never noticed his interest. Katla had known Harald only as the earl’s man. She’d never thought his attempts at conversation or the greetings he spoke to her were anything more than the respect of a man for the kin of an ally. Worse, she’d thought her father would approach Bjarni’s father as he’d promised. She’d thought…

Many things that were false.

“You refused him?” Katla pushed her hair from her face, twisting the length of it in her hands and then tying it into a knot behind her head. “But now you have me anyway.”

“I wanted you in an honorable bargain for an honorable place in my household. You would be respected as my second wife, not a prize for breaking my bond to the earl. And not to be used and tossed aside like the scraps from a half-eaten meal.”
As the Truthsayer will do
was left unsaid.

From the first, she’d sensed Harald’s honor. She’d used it to save Kali that morning, and now she understood more about the man before her. She might be mistaken or naïve, but Katla thought she heard some bit of softness in his words and in his tone. Harald wanted her only for personal reasons, not to advance himself or to profit from her. His gruff manner and awkward behavior hid feelings he could not readily speak of.

But his feelings and desires aside, there was one question she feared and needed to ask.

“Was Kali involved, Harald? Tell me the truth, I beg you.”

Katla prepared herself for the worst, fearing that she would hear more terrible truths about the family she thought she knew. Her hands trembled, so she entwined her fingers and held them tight. Taking a deep breath, she met his gaze and waited.

Harald returned to where she sat on the floor and crouched before her, bringing himself down to her level. His gaze softened, and the urge to cry overwhelmed her. She shook her head, not wanting to hear the truth he would speak. It would be better not to hear her brother called traitor by the man with whom she would spend her life. Now that she knew the truth about her father and his life, she realized his end was a kinder one than he probably deserved. But her brother? Not Kali.

Harald reached out and touched her cheek with a gentle caress. Then he lifted her face up so that he looked upon her. He rubbed the tear that spilled from the corner of her eye with his thumb, and then a sad smile touched his mouth.

“I do not know, Katla,” he whispered to her. “Your father did not speak of Kali during our talks.” Katla blinked away the tears. Kali was innocent! But Harald’s next words dashed her feeble hopes. “But others have laid accusations against him.”

Katla realized why Harald had spared her brother that morning—he had no problem with the killing of her father because he knew Sven was guilty of treason, but he had no such proof against her brother. “That is why you spared him?” she asked.

“Aye. Because I knew not whether the accusations were real or stemmed from the jealousy of others.”

“My uncle?”

“Aye. He stood to gain much if both Sven and his son were gone. I doubted his honor and decided to wait before executing Kali. To give Olaf a chance to prove himself.”

“And to give me a chance to prove Kali innocent?”

He dropped his hand and stood in front of her, helping her to her feet.

“I am only a man, Katla. A man who wanted a woman and was given the chance to have her. Do not make this out to be more than that.”

His voice roughened, making her suspect he tried to make less of the reasons behind his actions. Harald wanted her. But would he still want her knowing she’d already given herself to the Truthsayer and would again if he turned her over in three days as ordered?

“And now, Harald Erlendson? Do you still want me, knowing I have shamed you by lying with another man?”

His eyes hardened with what Katla thought was jealousy.

“He has some power over women that steals their will and makes them bend to his desires. I have seen it happen before. I do not hold you responsible for falling under his spell. Nor will others.”

Was that what had happened? Katla recalled her feelings when she’d found the Truthsayer nearly unconscious in his cave. She had felt strangely compelled by his touch and his voice, but never believed she could not have walked away or refused his attentions. Calling it some otherworldly compulsion took the responsibility off her shoulders. Looking at Harald now, she understood it would be easier between them if he accepted whatever happened between his concubine and another man as something that could not have been avoided.

Partly out of respect for this man who’d wanted her in spite of her father’s actions and partly because she simply did not have the strength to argue, she nodded and accepted his excuse for her behavior.

“Will you give me to him as he’s demanded then?”

Harald nodded and turned away from her, but not before she saw the way his hands gripped into fists and his jaw clenched. She knew his answer before he spoke the words.

“Aye, Katla. My wishes do not matter when the earl’s truthsayer wants what or who I have. I must do as he’s asked in order to fulfill my duty to the earl.”

He surprised her by striding over to her, pulling her into his arms, and kissing her with more desire than he’d ever done before. Like a man hungering for that which he needs, he plundered her mouth, his tongue stroking deep inside her mouth to find and touch and taste her own. He tangled his hand in her hair and held her face to his so that she could not move away and break the kiss.

Harald turned his face, angling his lips against hers. He took several steps, backing her up against the wall, and never lifting his mouth from hers. Caught between the wall and his body, Katla felt his hardness against her belly.

Would he take her? Now, before the Truthsayer laid claim to her body?

When he finally lifted his mouth from hers, he kissed and nipped at the skin of her neck as she dragged in a breath. Harald rubbed himself against her and the passion in this embrace, in this kiss, surprised her. His attentions to her had always been calm and almost impersonal. This, this spoke of a crushing need and overwhelming desire.

He released her hair and slid his hands to the neckline of her gown, pulling it free and tugging it until her breasts were bared to his gaze. He was out of breath, too, but he only paused for a moment before drawing one of them into his mouth, playing with its tip until it tightened. Then he moved to the other and suckled it until it hardened. Unable to breathe at such pleasure, she watched as he placed his mouth on the sensitive skin near the nipple and suckled on it. The bite of his teeth there caused her to gasp, but he soothed the small dash of pain with his tongue and lips. Her head fell back against the wall and she moaned, for it was a pleasurable sensation and it caused wetness to gather between her legs.

He’d never done such a thing before and that place deep inside ached from it. Her hips rocked against his cock on their own, and waves of pleasure pulsed there—just from Harald’s mouth on her breast.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it ended. Harald released her and stepped back, drawing his fingers through his beard and rubbing his face with his hands. He turned from her and her body screamed out a protest, throbbing and wanting release.

“Harald?” she asked, breathless with need and desire. “Will you not have me?”

He reached down and adjusted his trews before shaking his head in reply. “Nay. He swived you and will again and I would know if you carry his child before taking you back into my bed.”

Shame doused her desire quickly. Though she understood his actions, they hurt anyway. She began to gather the edge of her gown together when he nodded at her.

“And I have marked you there so that he knows you belong to someone else.”

Katla glanced down and saw the mark, the darkening bruise on her breast where Harald had sucked and bitten with his teeth. Indeed, with her pale skin, the mark would be visible for days to anyone who saw that place on her body.

As the Truthsayer would, if Harald was correct about his intentions.

She reached up and touched the skin there, causing her nipple to pucker against the cloth of her gown. She shivered then, her body readied for a passion that was not to be.

Harald walked to the door and opened it. He spoke in a low voice to someone in the corridor before turning back to her.

“You will stay here until I come for you. Do not leave,” he said in a harsh voice. “Where is Godrod?”

“In the village.” She went to Harald and laid her hand on his arm. “I still need to prove my brother’s innocence. Mayhap the Truthsayer will…”

“Use his power for your brother’s sake? Nay, Katla, do not even wish for it.”

“I will ask him to do so. Surely…”

Harald shook his head and snorted. “Women serve one purpose to him, Katla. Do not mistake your place or importance. Besides, the earl would not permit it.”

“If the earl seeks justice, he will,” she stated in a tone far bolder than she felt as she watched Harald’s expression.

“The Truthsayer is given the power but once a month during the full moon. He only hears the truth of one person, one person chosen by the earl. Magnus has a surfeit of crucial matters to use that power on.”

“But my brother?” Katla argued. “His life is important.”

Harald closed the door and shook his head.

“The earl believes your brother to be a traitor just like his father was. He will not
waste
the power of the Truthsayer to prove what he believes he already knows.”

“But…” she interrupted. He waved off her protest.

“With tonight’s declaration, everything that was your father’s is now Olaf’s, so Magnus has no pressing reason to search for proof. Olaf is an experienced warrior with men who will follow him into battle and do his bidding. Your brother is an unknown youth, unproven in battle or in manhood or in honor. Why would he be of significance to the earl?”