She blew out a breath, trembled, then dipped her shoulders beneath the chill. After blowing out another breath, she submerged completely.
The cold filled her ears, clasped her scalp, and tweaked her nipples to hard points. She treasured it, this moment; it was cleansing, rejuvenating, almost like being reborn.
When she stood, she kept her eyes closed, turned and smoothed her hair over her head. The sun was a welcome stroke of warmth, one she went months without in the winter.
“Ah, thanks be to Freya,” she said, breathing deep and enjoying the tickle of the breeze on her wet skin.
“Well, there is a welcome sight for any Viking warrior with blood running in his veins.”
She flicked her eyes open. “Wade!”
He stood not ten feet away from her. Not a vision, as she’d seen him when he’d first left and she’d dreamed of him every night, but real flesh and blood. Tall and handsome, with thick dark hair and black eyes that flashed with intelligence. His shoulders were broad and wide and the sun hit the side of his face, making the swirling tattoo that meandered from his scalp, over his ear, his temple and to his jawline appear all the darker.
“What are you doing here? I thought…” She frowned as anger mixed with relief that he was alive. “It’s been many months.”
“And for that I am sorry, my hunting didn’t go to plan.”
“I’d agree with that.” She paused, her heart doing a strange flip, the way it used to when Wade came calling to the farm—the way it did now when Tal visited.
“I sent word with a wanderer.” He grinned, his gaze slipping lazily down her naked body then slowly back up again. “Gave him three good coins too. He assured me you’d received my message.”
“What message?”
His grin faltered. “He assured me he’d seen you, told you I wasn’t coming back as soon as planned.”
“I never saw any wanderer. He lied to you. And took your coins.” She slammed her hands on her hips. The air licked over her naked body, tightening her nipples. A remembered sensation of Wade touching them, stroking them, licking them rushed into her mind.
He’s really here? He’s back. It’s what I asked the gods to give me, for so long I asked them until I gave up.
“I will find him and he will be sorry, this idiot wanderer.” Wade huffed then another grin spread on his face. “But as you can see I got lucky, and I’ve come back to feast with my woman.” He gestured to a huge pile of rabbits, a deer, and several big game birds lying by the rock, but he didn’t take his attention from her. “And now I’m thinking I’ll feast on you, my redheaded maiden.”
She scowled. “Is that right?”
“Aye.”
“After all this time you really think you can just walk back onto my farm and…”
“And take you. Aye, I do. You are mine.” He tossed aside the silky brown pelt strewn over his broad shoulders, then shucked out of his tunic to reveal his wide, hair-matted chest. “Come here…”
Iona didn’t move. She loved Tal. He was her man now. She’d thought Wade had gone forever, that he’d been killed or maimed or taken a wife in some other valley or kingdom.
“Come here now.” His voice was growling.
“No, I can’t, it’s not like it was, I—
“Now.”
“Or else?” Her mind was spinning.
“You’ll be over my knee.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Myriad new images flashed through her mind. This was the first time she’d ever been threatened with a spanking. The thought of Wade tipping her over his knee, Arne style, wasn’t completely abhorrent and it spread a tingle of anticipation and longing over her ass cheeks and down her legs. The sensation settled in her knees, weakening them. Maybe it was because she was angry and relieved, shocked and surprised and the emotions had combined into one big confusing broth.
“I’m warning you, little one.” Wade released the buttons on his trousers then pushed them down his legs. His erection sprang free, the tip glossy and the shaft dark and thick. “Do not deny Wade Gudlaug the Fourth.” He jabbed his thumb on his chest. “When I have returned to take you.”
The tremble attacking her found its way to her pussy, then her nipples. Her breaths were coming in short excited pants.
Wade kicked away his boots and stood on the shingle, naked and irresistible.
I have to resist.
“But Wade, you don’t understand, now I—”
“Are you going to make me come and get you?” he roared.
She pressed her fingers to her lips, holding back a gasp as his loud voice echoed around the rocks.
“You asked for it.” His eyebrows lowered and he stomped to the waterline, his feet sinking in the stones. He then splashed through the water toward her, apparently unaware of the cold.
“Wade, no!” She turned away.
She didn’t see it but he must have moved faster than the wind, because the next thing she knew his arms were around her waist and his body pressing up against her back. “Wench.” He held her tighter, his cock jutting into the hollow of her spine. “Trying to escape, are you?”
“Leave me alone, you big brute.” She didn’t really want him to let go. She’d longed for him to return and hold her.
But what about Tal…?
His mouth was against her ear. “You’ll never escape me, Iona. We’ll be together in this life and in Valhalla.”
Suddenly air was pushed from her lungs and the breeze hit her ass. A stinging slap landed over both buttocks. A real hard whack that sent a shockwave of heat over her skin.
“Ow!” she shrieked, scrabbling to clutch onto Wade’s torso. She kicked her legs, her heels banging upward.
“Stop that.”
Another resounding spank, this one she was sure would leave a handprint. Again she cried out and squirmed. “Let me go.”
“Keep still.” He made his way back to the shoreline, storming through the water.
“Wade!”
“I told you not to make me come and get you from the water.”
