Page 5 of Shameless

“I vowed I’d make him proud. Be just like him. He never showed fear, never the slightest weakness, even when he was about to die at Balam’s hand.”

He shook his head. “Thereis a man. You know what Sigrun said when he thought it was the end? ‘Better to die with honor than to live in shame.’”

She drew back and gave him a searching look. “And that’s why you threw yourself in front of the spear meant for him.”

Haldor nodded. “I had to do it. To show him he’d raised a man with drengr, a true Viking warrior. To make him proud of me.”

“I know he’s proud of you. I’ve seen it in his eyes, when you walk into a room or speak out at the council meetings. You mean as much to him as Kylar. He loves you like a son.” She kissed him. “And I love you too.”

He returned the kiss. Soft. Gentle. His lips barely touching hers. She took his hand, guided it to her breast. Wanting to drive away the sadness in his eyes. Wanting to bring him a few moments of sheer bliss.

He deepened the kiss. His hand cupped the weight of her breast, thumb rubbing the nipple through the heavy fabric of her dress. It hardened and puckered under his touch, and she shifted slightly to stroke the bulge between his thighs.

It grew under her hand, straining the thick cloth of his trousers. Selena slid to her knees as she had that morning. This time willingly. Eagerly. Untying the fastenings, she freed his cock. It sprang up, already hot and hard. She bent her head, flicked her tongue over the tip.

With a low growl, he stood up and yanked his shirt off. He tossed it across the room then shoved his trousers down and stepped out of them.

Selena stayed on her knees, looking up at him all the while. She reached up to fondle his balls while her tongue explored the length of his shaft.

His body still took her breath away. He was built like one of the gods of Valhalla she’d seen in the murals on Sigrun’s palace walls. Shadows played over his square jaw, over the chiseled planes of his face. His body gleamed in the firelight, raw power sheathed by smooth skin that still held a hint of bronze from the summer sun. Broad shoulders narrowed to slim hips.

She ran one hand over the double row of sculpted ridges from his stomach to his abdomen. Past the ragged scar he hadn’t allowed her to remove. Trailed her way down to circle his cock jutting out, stiff and proud.

He stood unmoving, allowing her to arouse him for once. She felt a heady rush of pure feminine power when his muscles tightened, quivering with the effort it took to stay still as his cock grew even thicker and harder in her palm.

But when she opened her mouth to take him in, he stopped her, reached for her hand and raised her to her feet. “I’m a fair man. You said so this morning. Now it’s my turn.”

Reaching behind her head, he unfastened the laces holding her dress together at the neck. Then he swept her hair aside and planted kisses on the spot just below her earlobe.

Selena shivered. He drew the dress down over her shoulders, followed its path with his mouth. When he uncovered her breasts, he ran his hot tongue around each nipple before drawing it into his mouth to suck.

She brought her hands up, sank her fingers into his hair, but he drew back, shaking his head wordlessly. Pulling her dress down farther, he trapped her arms at her sides. Licking and sucking, grazing her nipples with his teeth, biting just hard enough to send a jolt of electricity straight to her clit.

She thrilled at his mastery. It was still so new, so wickedly erotic. Before Haldor, she’d never been kissed or fondled. Never even been touched by a man.

Earthers had all but done away with sex, claiming those uncontrollable, animalistic urges had been the cause of disease and warfare – not to mention the exploding population that had nearly destroyed the planet. For the past five hundred years, once they reached puberty humans received regulated doses of synthetic hormones to suppress the body’s natural production of estrogen and testosterone. Without their effects, life on Earth was calm and well-ordered.

Procreation occurred in sterile lab conditions, where egg and sperm were joined to produce perfect fetuses, free of any genetic defects. After being raised in federation-run nurseries for two years, where they received proper amounts of exercise and nutrition to maintain healthy growth, children were presented to their biological parents, already tiny functioning citizens.

Back home, Selena had had a holographic partner who came complete with a mechanical probe. She’d maintained her required schedule of gratification sessions, once every three weeks, to take care of her occasional physical needs. Until Haldor.

He’d arrived in her clinic unconscious, drenched in blood. Sent to Earth alone through the star portal in a desperate attempt to save his life. A handwritten note clutched in his hand read:

This is Haldor, Viking warrior from Gadolinium. The planet has been attacked by the Tabun. We’ve managed to repel the invaders, but this man was mortally wounded saving the life of King Sigrun. We don’t have the technology here to heal him, so I’m sending him to Earth.

I’ll file a full report soon. Right now, there are other wounded to tend to.

Ambassador Talia Anderson, Interstellar Federation

The ambassador had added a hastily scrawled line at the bottom.

I vouch for him. He’s a good man. A hero. Save his life. I know you can do it.

The moment the portal guards carried Haldor in, Selena put him in a state of suspended animation while she assessed the extent of his injuries.

She’d never treated a patient with such severe trauma. Only once had she seen anything remotely like it, in a rare industrial accident. But that man had been brought to the clinic within minutes. Haldor had suffered massive blood loss over a period of hours. He’d sustained a near-fatal stab wound with major damage to his internal organs. The trip through the star portal added even more stress to his broken body.

His recovery had taken months. She’d used groundbreaking new technology she’d been in the process of creating to grow new organs to replace the damaged ones, performed procedures to erase the scars from previous battles, and replaced badly healed broken bones from old injuries with strong new ones.

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