Page 72 of Hungry Like a Wolf
“I am glad not to see it.”
“Ah, but I’d wager you are glad to see that.” He pointed forward.
In the distance, against a strip of sand and sheltered by a tall, sheer rock was a small dwelling, a pit house. He’d made it many years ago with Haakon and Orm. They’d been young and keen to show they were capable of building a robust shelter.
“Oh…is that where we’re staying?”
“Ja. You will like it. The air is fresh and clear, the fish plentiful, and there are scallops, crayfish, and mussels, more than we could ever eat.”
“You make my stomach rumble.” She laughed.
“We will be happy there.” He kicked his horse on, keen to get there now that it was in sight.
The home was a quarter buried. They’d dug deep into the peat so that the door was several steps down. This had made it easy to construct half stone, half wooden walls, and a roof of two large, flat panels that reached a peak in the middle. The roof was covered in soil and grass and they’d decorated the highest point with replicas of Thor’s hammers. There were no windows, but a hole to let smoke out in the rear gave enough light inside. Mainly, it was a summer dwelling, used for sleeping and storage when hunting and foraging in the area. The circle of thick stones outside was used as a seating area and sat around another fire pit with supports for a cauldron. It had been two years since he’d visited, but he hoped it was still stocked with wood and the roped bed frame was still intact.
“Already, the wee beasties are dispersing.” Carmel smiled and pushed up the sleeves on her tunic. “What a relief.”
“There are none at the house,” he said. “You will be quite safe naked.”
She laughed. “Safe. Naked. With you around, husband? I think not.”
“Ah, ’haps you are right. You might be safe from biting insects, but not from a horny king who simply can’t get enough of you.”
She laughed.
Soon, they dismounted on a patch of bright-green grass that had a stream running at its edge and left their horses to graze.
Before long, they’d unpacked and Ravn had a fire going.
“We do not need to hunt or fish tonight,” Carmel said. “We have supplies.”
“That is good.” He stood and shucked off his tunic, the sun instantly warming his skin. “For I have the bed to attend to.”
“It could do fresh straw in the mattress.” She pinched her nose. “It smells as though a wanderer wintered here.”
“I will do that now.”
“And I will bathe, in the stream.”
He nodded and ducked inside, keen to get the bed to his wife’s liking. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be lying with him on it and he was counting on that.
It didn’t take long to burn the straw that was in it and fill it with fresh. He then strapped it down with blankets and furs and a feather pillow he’d brought and knew she liked. Quickly, he lit the fire in the pit house to rid it of any small creatures and bugs.
He went outside.
And stopped in his tracks.
If he thought the gods had blessed him with a perfect woman, now he knew they truly favored him. More than that, he’d been absolved from his previous crimes and corruptions. That had to be the case. Why else would they have sent this woman, this goddess to him?
She was naked in the stream beside a small fall of water over round, rusty-brown rocks. It bubbled and frothed around her upper thighs and right now, as he watched her, she had her headtipped to the sky, her long, wet hair flowing down her back and her pert breasts jutting upward.
His cock went from soft to hard in about three heartbeats.
“Freya, I will make offerings to you every day from now until my last for your generosity.”
He stepped forward, undoing his belt as he went. It fell to the ground behind him. He hopped on one foot, removed a boot, then the other. By the time he’d reached the shallow bank, he was naked and his blood ran on pure lust.
She turned and bent to reach the soap she’d left on a rock. Her ass stuck into the air now and her hair fell forward. He could just see the lips of her pussy, soft and inviting and all his.
