Blood and Loyalty Page 20

  Then she’d pulled off the dress. Disa, gloriously naked in the moonlight, her hands on him, desperate and sharp, Disa begging him to keep going, to not stop, please don’t stop—

  Finn coughed and hacked at something else in their path with excessive vigor. He hadn’t slept at all. He’d watched her, taken her when she asked, and stayed awake long after she’d drifted. He was done for. He knew it. And with the sun came the shame. He’d betrayed his brother and potentially spoiled an alliance her people would need now more than ever since Roe had—

  FUCK.

  Finn stopped suddenly and Disa ran into him with a muffled cry. “What is it?” she whispered, her voice laced with panic.

  “Nothing. It’s nothing. I thought I heard something.” He grabbed Disa’s hand and pulled her along again.

  Roe was probably dead. He was a fucking bastard. A low, terrible waste of human flesh. Gods take him now. Her brother was probably dead. His brother told him he’d been killed and then he’d kept it from her, thinking it a kindness. And then he’d slept with her. He hadn’t thought of anything, just what he wanted, what he needed. Coward.

  He had to tell her. He would tell her. Tonight. He would make camp far from the small army whose confused tracks they’d been tiptoeing along all day, far enough away from anyone else so she could rage at him until her throat was raw.

  “Let’s go up the ridge.”

  Disa blocked the sun from her eyes and looked dubiously at his proposed path. “Why?” She was doing her best not to flinch, but Finn could hear the derision her voice.

  “It’ll be faster, we’ll be able to see them better, we’ll be safer, we don’t have to be so cautious. Take your pick.”

  She sighed. “You don’t think it’s a little high?”

  “We won’t scale any cliffs unless necessary.” She shot him a menacing glare and he couldn’t help but smile. “We won’t scale any cliffs at all.”

  “Ok,” she relented. “It does feel like men are going to come thundering off the path any second.”

  “Ok.” It wasn’t a lie. Finn really didn’t like the crisscrossing trails. They reminded him too much of the scene from yesterday, and if the men were pursuing someone like they had Disa, there’s no telling where they could be at any given moment. Going over the ridge instead of around it would be faster, maybe even put them ahead of the Brother’s men.

  But mostly it was so he could buy time to think.

  Two hours later and Finn had to admit it was a bad plan. The climb was hard and steep. He made Disa go first so he could catch her if she fell and now he was the one in danger of falling. She looped her dress into her belt to make it shorter and to give her more freedom to move, which meant Finn had a spectacular view of creamy legs and if she bent just right, the dark apex where they met. He wanted to believe she’d done it on purpose but the truth was he was easily distracted where Disa was involved.

  They managed to make the peak unharmed and Finn insisted on a rest. He was hot in more ways than one and climbing was doing nothing to ease the agitation of not doing a different sort of physical act.

  Disa laid on the ground and groaned, arching her back. “I can barely lay flat after being bent over for so long,” she yawned.

  Finn regretted this decision. She was temptation - even as a sprawled and sweaty mass on the ground. He plopped down a practical distance from Disa and glared at her.

  She sat up on her elbows and cocked her head. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You’re too pretty,” he complained.

  Disa threw head back and laughed, her breasts shaking in an unknowing seduction, the sun revealing a light bruise on her throat he very much remembered giving her. His frown deepened and she stopped laughing. He was quite serious. “I’m too pretty?”

  “Ay.”

  She snorted. It made her impossibly cuter. He couldn’t tell her now, not when they had so much distance yet to cover. He’d tell her before they reached the camp. He’d warn her that Roe might not be among the captives. He still couldn’t say ‘dead.’ Not yet. Not until they had proof. He continued to watch her, continued to frown down at her. She continued to be far too beautiful.

  “You’re just hungry. It’s making you delusional,” she teased when she noticed his gaze.

  She’d gotten the part about hunger right, anyway, though it wasn’t quite how she imagined it. She’d closed her eyes and turned her face toward the sun, her hair sticking to her skin as the wind pushed it gently across her chest.

  He couldn’t stand it. She may not believe in her own power now, but she would when it was over.

  Finn crawled to her, Disa’s eyes snapping open in surprise as he hooked his hands behind her knees and tugged, her legs spread on either side of him, her skirt gathering around her just below her ass. He leaned over her, his mouth inches from hers.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  Finn grinned. He didn’t require much encouragement. He kissed her, quickly deepening it, their tongues clashing as he wound her loose hair around his hand, tugging her head back to expose her throat. This wasn’t the first time they’d had sex; hell, it wasn’t even the second or third time, but something about the sun made them both seem more exposed, made it more exciting than it had any right to be. He pressed his mouth to her pulse and felt it bouncing wildly in agreement. He shoved his guilt away, determined to be selfish just a little more.

  He made his way down her chest, nipping at her collarbone, his tongue flicking into every hollow it encountered, and reveled in the taste of her salty skin as he drew quiet notes of appreciation from her throat. He’d thought to take her quick, her breasts spilling out over her dress, the hem somewhere around her belly, but as he tugged at her neckline and saw the difference between her tanned skin and the white flesh beneath, he felt his pants get impossibly tighter. He had to see her. All of her. Now.

  He licked his tongue across the coarse fabric, his thumb coaxing her nipples to harden even further as Disa arched into his touch and moaned. Finn nearly lost it right then. “You might want to take your dress off now before I rip it off later,” he mused as he tugged off his own shirt in one swift movement.

  She laughed and obeyed, Finn watching in strained fascination at all the details he’d missed in the dark and the moonlight. Her arms were well defined, testament to a life lived outdoors, and she had a scattering of freckles near her belly button, a mole even lower, all in need of his mouth if he had anything to say about it. He brushed his own hand over his hardening length as he watched her and tried not to moan aloud as a blush spread across her perfect breasts.

  She was half sitting up before him, her elbows supporting her, her knees bent and spread, and Finn couldn’t believe his luck. She was beautiful, perfect in every way, and she was waiting for him clad in nothing but her boots. It felt right. It had felt right last night, too, but this was different. She felt like his.

  Finn dropped to her belly, Disa gasping as he quickly kissed his way across her freckles to the lowest one, his new favorite one, and then lower still. He tasted her with enthusiasm, his tongue running up and down her slit before settling against the center of her pleasure with his lips and teeth, sucking, nipping, and flicking while she writhed under the assault. She was crying out with every breath, impossibly wet against his mouth, his hands bracing her thighs wider as she found herself so close to the edge. Disa screamed his name, her hands twisting in his hair as she bucked beneath him until his tongue and its hard, fast circles forced her to climax quick and hard.

  She laid on the ground, her legs trembling slightly and her hands on her breasts. Finn laid his chin on her abdomen and tried to master his own self-control. He’d nearly come at the sound of his name in her rough voice.

  “See?” he said at last, enjoying his view. “Far too pretty.”

  Disa looked down at him, her eyes slowly focusing once again. “Take those off now before I rip them off later.”

  “If the lady insists,” he grinned, shov
ing his trousers down with one hand while the other strayed involuntarily to tweak her nipple. She groaned, her eyes rolling back in her head, and Finn thought seriously about ripping his clothes the rest of the way off. His fingers slid inside her first, checking to make sure she was as ready as she’d seemed. She was. He ran his hand over her sensitive flesh one last time before sliding into her in one long stroke, both of them moaning in unison.

  He moved quickly at first, losing himself in the warm, rich feel of her before slowing down. He wasn’t going to last if they kept up that pace. Disa wouldn’t stop wiggling under him though, her body demanding what he didn’t have the strength to give her. She groaned in frustration and pushed him off of her and onto his back.

  Gods save me.

  Disa mounted him, her first few movements slow and awkward as she found her rhythm. Soon she was grinding back and forth, her breasts bouncing enticingly. Finn ached to have them in his mouth but settled for having them in his hands instead. Her movements got faster and faster, her breathing labored, and by the time she reached her hand down to stroke herself, Finn thought he was going to die. He grabbed her hips to slow her and she obeyed, but her hips were too close to her backside and soon Finn was gripping it and driving her onward.

  He watched as her fingers moved more frantically; he knew she was close, but she wasn’t as close as he was. Manly pride took root and Finn pressed her back to the ground so he could have a semblance of control once again. He took her most sensitive flesh between his fingers, squeezing lightly as he lavished attention on her nipples, his strokes slower but harder, pounding into her with every increase of pressure.

  “Yes,” she breathed. “Yes. Faster.”

  Finn was powerless against her demands. He moved faster and faster, his body alight with sensation, until she cried out once again, unraveling around him, and Finn followed quickly, the sounds of her pleasure driving him over the edge at once.

  Finn stayed on top of her, his head in the valley of her breasts, and hoped he wasn’t crushing her. He couldn’t move, even if he’d wanted to. A few minutes later, after he’d regained his breath, he began to pull away, conscious that the heat from the sun and his body must be suffocating. He tried to pull out but Disa whimpered and held him still. “Not yet,” she whispered.

  “Not ever,” he promised.

  Much like earlier, Finn’s sense returned later than it should have. He’d wanted to rest, to talk, but their break hadn’t been much of a break. Being with Disa was like breathing: simple, necessary, and he couldn’t bear to stop, not just yet. He sighed and watched as she climbed carefully over a rotting trunk. Finn felt just as tired but in a much more pleasant way, and following her along the ridge was much more enjoyable with recent memories to accompany him.

  Disa turned and looked at him, her eyebrows raised, and Finn entertained a moment of panic that he’d said something aloud or actually reached out and touched her when he’d only meant to imagine it. “Hmm?” he intoned lamely.

  “I said, do you think that’s them?” Disa gestured to a point in the distance where multiple columns of smoke were rising into the midday sky.

  “Has to be. I count twelve fires, at least. Must be a camp”

  “A village, maybe?”

  “This far from the shore?”

  “Could be near a smaller fjord?”

  “No. I’ve lived on the big island my entire life. No fjords reach this far inland and no man in his right mind would settle so far from his ships.”

  “Perhaps they don’t sail.” Finn pinned her with an absurd look that made her laugh out loud, her legs planted firmly, her hands on her belly, and it made Finn smile, too. “It’s not so crazy a thought,” she continued. “Your brother admits he cannot sail. Not all Jarls prize the sea, it would seem, your own included.”

  Finn’s good mood ebbed away quickly. “That’s different. He doesn’t need to sail, he has me.”

  “True,” she conceded, plopping down on a rock. “Shall we rest while they do?” Finn nodded and handed her the water skin, determined to actually break this time. He watched as she sipped slowly, and she had that look. She was thinking something again. “Why are you not Jarl?”

  There it was. “Because my brother was elected.”

  “Did none of the men ask you?” Finn took a bite of the dried mutton, the chewy meat letting him keep quiet. “I don’t mean to dishonor your brother. He seems well liked. But you’re the fighter. In the north, a talker would never rule over a fighter, no matter how pretty his speech.”

  Finn felt a dishonorable sort of pride at her words. “Ay, there were men who asked it of me.”

  “But you declined?” she queried when he didn’t continue.

  “Ay. The south is a bit different from what you’re used to. There are many rich traders who make use of the waters and silver matters, probably more than it should. It’s why men such as the brothers are tolerated.” Finn spat on the ground in derision. “My brother has always been good at clasping arms and I’ve always been good at cutting them off. I dare say he does a better job of it than I could.”

  Disa snorted. “You’re right. The south is different from what I’m used to.”

  “I wonder if we’ll return to find it changed after what the brothers have done.”

  “Your people will want vengeance?”

  Finn laughed, short and harsh. “To put it kindly, yes. They’ll want vengeance. I’ll be setting fire to fleets until next winter.”

  “Perhaps we’re not so different after all,” Disa grinned wickedly.

  Finn took a long pull of water. “What about your people?”

  “What about them?”

  “I only stayed for a few days. What’s it like?”

  Disa’s look turned dreamy. “Much like Holmland. But smaller.”

  Finn shook his head. “I don’t know how you grew up in a place like that. I raised enough hell as a child and there was always something happening.”

  “It wasn’t so bad. It was simple, but I don’t ever remember being bored.”

  “Never bored enough to steal a ship?” he asked innocently.

  “That was wine. And an adventurous spirit.”

  “Ha!” he laughed. “I’d say.”

  “Or as Grim says. He’s never doing something rash or misguided; he’s just being adventurous.”

  Finn felt the familiar sense of jealousy rise up at the mention of the man. They were close like siblings, but they weren’t. In fact, Finn had always wondered why his brother hadn’t favored a match between Grim and Disa. Finn had told himself it was just concern for his brother’s bride, but now that he’d had her, now that he wanted to keep her, he could admit it was something more. “You’ve known Grim for some time?” he ventured.

  “Long enough,” she offered, the reply just vague enough to drive him crazy.

  “What’s long enough?”

  Disa bit her lip and looked up as she thought. “Oh, I don’t know...ten years at least. He washed up on shore with three long boats full of thralls and set up camp down the shore from us. My brother was the only one brave enough to venture out and meet them. This was a few days after he’d burned down our Jarl’s house, actually. I think the Jarl secretly hoped that the wild slaves would kill my brother on sight,” she laughed. “That way he could be rid of my brother and have an excuse to destroy the thralls he clearly wanted gone. Instead, Roe befriended Grim.”

  “Your poor Jarl,” he added sarcastically.

  Disa waved his judgment. “He meant well. My brother really was a pest, and he feared that many missing thralls would draw unwanted attention to our small village. It worked out, though. Grim and his men are nomadic at best, but they’ve always returned to us when we needed them. They’re some of our strongest allies.”

  They’d had some refreshment and decided to move on without saying anything, instead both rising and beginning the long trek to the top of the ridge. “I’m surprised your brother didn’t arrange a union between you and Gr
im.”

  “Me too.”

  Finn frowned in annoyance at her ready agreement, his displeasure only growing when it became clear she wasn’t going to speak more on the matter. They’d hiked almost as high as they could, the path narrow but the view brilliant and expansive. Finn saw little of it. “Well...?” he asked at last.

  “Well, what?” Her voice, breathy from exertion, affected him more than it should considering she barely spared him a glance as she picked through a patch of dense brambles.

  “Why were you marrying a southern stranger instead of your greatest ally?”

  She turned to him then, smirking, but Finn wasn’t sure if it was because he’d put a little too much sarcasm into ‘greatest ally’ or the way he’d so casually slipped in ‘were.’ She was going to marry his brother.

  Perhaps not anymore?

  Perhaps he was letting his imagination run away with him.

  “Are you jealous?”

  Or perhaps that. Finn snorted at the absurdity of such a suggestion, but Disa saw through it, her smirk breaking into a fully formed smile too beautiful to make him feel embarrassed. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, the gesture so fast he didn’t have time to catch her before she moved along.

  “I’d always assumed my brother would want me with his best friend, but he’s not just my brother, he’s my Jarl, too. We have Grim’s love and loyalty forever, but we don’t have the resources and men like your brother wields. If the war across the seas spills into our harbors, we’ll need someone like Rurik. He made a practical choice. He always does what’s best for his people.”

  She was a little too quiet then, leaning her hip on a boulder and looking down on the men in the distance swarming up the main road. “And if he’s dead?” he said into the silence. Disa flinched but didn’t comment, and Finn pushed where he wished he didn’t have to. “When my brother bid me protect you, he said men tried to kill your brother.” Disa jerked her gaze back to his, too many emotions skittering across her face. “If they were successful, what then?”