Page 81 of Ironling
A distinctly canine huff and groan echoed from the other side of the door, followed by the sound of a big hairy body trudging back down the steps.
Aislinn grinned in amusement, but she couldn’t hold it for long. Drawn further into his room, her pulse fluttered in her throat with anticipation.
The bed was neatly made and laden with blankets, pillows, and furs. For all that he worked with fire and hammer, it seemed he enjoyed soft things, too. She dared to reach out and run a hand over one of the furs at the foot of the bed. Had he brought it all the way from Kaldebrak?
He came up behind her, warmth radiating from his bare chest and raising the hairs at the back of her neck. A big hand slid around her waist to pull her into the rigid line of his body.
Tipping up her chin with a knuckle, he captured her gaze with his serious expression.
“This goes however you want it to,vinya. I’m yours, tonight and all nights hereafter. But if you come to my bed, it’s as Aislinn. Just Aislinn. And I am just Hakon.”
Fingers trembling ever so slightly, she reached up to cup his face. When he leaned into her touch and turned his face to kiss her palm, she couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s all I want,” she assured him.
Just her, just him. Nothing could be better.
His own smile spread across his face, revealing that dimple in his cheek, and desire curled low in her belly to see it. He was entirely too handsome looking at her like that, the longer hair at the crown of his head falling to his brow, those sooty lashes drawn low over his hungry eyes.
“For now,” he said. When she frowned in confusion, he lowered his mouth to hers but didn’t quite kiss her. Instead, he ensured she not only heard but felt and tasted his next words, too. “Soon, you will understand you can ask more, much more of me. Anything at all,vinya,and you shall have it.”
His promise sank inside her with a terrifying joy. She didn’t think she truly understood or grasped his promise, not yet, butto have it at all fed the vulnerable, doubting parts of her. Under his piercing gaze, none of her was able to hide; he saw all and didn’t look away.
“I want you,” she murmured against his lips. When he would have kissed her, though, she gave him a gentle push backward. “And I want to see you.”
Hakon straightened, looking down at her with such desire she thought she might combust. Nodding once, he positioned himself in the center of the room, his bare feet spread, and hands held loosely at his sides.
Swallowing her fears, Aislinn followed him, pulling the bath sheet from his neck and hanging it on a spare peg to dry. Bare and still slightly damp from the baths, his skin almost glowed in the soft lantern light. Two flat nipples were a darker green than the rest of his skin, and shadows danced along the heavy slabs of muscle that formed his chest.
A smattering of hair trailed down the center of him, following the valley between his pectorals and bisecting his abdomen. It disappeared under the waistband of his loose braies, which hung low on his hips and left little to the imagination.
Catching her bottom lip between her teeth, Aislinn touched her fingertips to that glorious chest. She watched in delight as gooseflesh followed in her wake as she traced over his thick waist, and his pulse visibly drummed at his throat. He hadn’t the lean, defined abdomen she’d seen in some men like Sir Alaisdair. Hakon was instead wide and heavily built, slabs of muscle on his sides from wielding hammers and iron.
He held perfectly still for her, save for his eyes, which tracked her as she skated her fingers across every bit of flesh she could reach.
It never ceased to amaze her what a joy he was to touch. Softer than she expected, and smoother, it was almost like touching the finest leather, and yet better. The way his fleshshivered or jumped under her fingers was more than flattering, and by the time she’d circled around to his back, her blush was deep and her grin of pleasure wide.
It was Aislinn’s turn to shiver with gooseflesh at the sight of his broad, strong back. He was nothing but muscle, two winging shoulder blades making great swooping shadows. She followed the line of his spine, in a valley between the thick clusters of muscles spread across his ribs and hips.
Her fingers strayed into the dimples winking at her from just above his buttocks, and she couldn’t help slipping one below the waistband of his braies. It took little effort to slide the damp linen over the rounded swells of his backside, and within one breathless moment, the braies pooled at his ankles on the floor and he was absolutely, gloriously naked.
Pulse beating a cacophony in her ear, Aislinn slid her fingers over the firmness of one buttock before trailing them over his flank and hip and finally rounded his other side to—
Oh, bless his parents and every ancestor.
His large cock stood proud against his lower belly. The thick shaft sprung from a thatch of hair, with heavy bollocks tucked between his thighs. Green, with a large vein snaking up the underside, his cock looked like a handful even for him, the cockhead flared and almost angry looking, already leaking pearlescent spend. He was familiarly shaped but certainly unfamiliarly sized.
A dash of trepidation only sweetened her curiosity and hunger as she let her fingers trail down, down, down—
She gasped to feel the heat of him on her hand, but it was drowned out by his hiss.
One big hand grasped hers, stopping her exploration.
Aislinn couldn’t help pouting up at him, more than a little frustrated in all the best ways. She’d seen her prize, and she wanted it now.
Hakon adored the sassy little pout she lobbed at him when he stopped her questing hand. In truth, he didn’t want to stop her, but it was imperative that he do this correctly. Already dribbling spend, he wouldn’t survive her hands if she grasped him right now.
“Can’t I touch you?”
