“You risked displeasing the gods with that decision too.”

“I had Raud’s support. We intended to marry here before traveling home. By then it would be too late for my father’s wish.”

“Your father will not be a happy man when you go home?”

“If, if I go home.” Oh, but as she’d said it she couldn’t imagine never seeing her beloved father again. Even if she couldn’t understand his actions, she still loved him.

“That is true.” He released his belt buckle, then popped open the buttons on his dark pants.

“What are you doing?” Ingrid asked.

“I wish to bathe, the same as you did.”

“Oh.”

He toed off his soft leather boots then dropped his pants. He wore naught beneath them.

Ingrid’s breath hitched at the sight of his long cock hanging from his pale pubic hair.

“Are you going to watch me?” He raised his eyebrows and a smile curled his mouth.

“No. Why would I?”

He shrugged and stepped to the water’s edge. “Just wondered.” With none of Ingrid’s hesitation he waded into the chill, moving water.

His ass was high and tight, and indented on either side of his buttocks. His back long and lean, a few freckles were sprinkled across his shoulders.

There was no doubt about it. Tali was a fine-looking man, with a body gods would be envious of.

A shot of warmth went through Ingrid. In all the time she’d known Tali she’d enjoyed his company, thought him a fine man of morals and a hard worker on the journey over the Northern Sea. Now she was able to appreciate him as a woman would, and not as a boy lowly in the pecking order on the longboat.

She licked her lips, turned, and walked to the tree line. On hearing a splash she glanced over her shoulder and saw he’d submerged completely.

When she reached the shadows she found herself pausing and slipping behind a wide trunk. She set her hand on the damp, scratchy bark and peeked around it.

What is he doing?

Tali was facing away from her, head ducked and his shoulder shifting. The water ran around his thighs and his ass cheeks were clenched.

He appeared to be fondling his cock, fast.

She sucked in a breath, a new wave of excitement going through her body. She knew men pleasured themselves, the way women did. Her girlfriends had spoken of it. But she’d never seen it for herself.

I shouldn’t watch.

She knew that in a very deep down part of her. It was wrong, he was having a private moment and she’d told him she wouldn’t be watching him bathe. He thought he was alone.

But he wasn’t. Here she was, unable to tear herself away. The tension in his back, the action of his arm, the flexing of his muscles was fascinating.

And then he turned, his side to her, giving her a view of exactly how he was working his cock.

With his eyes closed he tipped his head to the sky and canted his hips forward. A long, low, masculine groan rumbled from the water, up the grassy bank and into the woods.

Ingrid pressed her legs together, the thrum of her pulse tugging at her pussy and sending a delicious shiver through her clit. She bit down on her lip to hold in a moan of her own.

Had she ever seen such a glorious sight? His cock was peeking from his fist with each of his push-pull movements. His abs were rock solid, his chest rising and dropping with his deep breaths.

Oh, to be underneath him, to have all that energy working into me, making me release pleasure too.