Viking Ecstasy Read Online Free PDF

woman's beauty, not even when he was a very young man and the pleasures of sexuality were new and mysterious to him.
    He dried her thighs and calves, and Tanaka raised her feet one at a time to allow him to dry them as well.
    "Turn around," Tabor said, still kneeling behind the standing woman. "I'll dry your front."
    Tanaka half-turned. This, she sensed, was a moment where she might have the ability to recover some of the power over her own life and actions that she had lost in the months since her capture.
    "No," she said quietly, with some authority in her tone without being commanding. "I'm quite capable of doing that myself." She extended her hand for the cloth, her brown gaze locked with Tabor's icy blue one as she looked over her shoulder.
    For several heavy seconds, they just looked at each other in a silent duel of wills. Then, Tabor's gaze swept slowly down the length of Tanaka's naked body. He met Tanaka's gaze; his grin broadened, and he handed her the cloth.
    "Aye, my lady," Tabor said, the mischievous expression on his ruggedly handsome face much too enticing for Tanaka's peace of mind. "Your wish is my pleasure to grant."
    I wish you weren't the strongest, tallest, most blatantly virile man I've ever seen , Tanaka thought, holding the cloth in front of herself modestly.
    She dried herself quickly; and, though her skin still tingled from the icy waters of the sea, Tanaka knew in her heart that she tingled from something else —Tabor's touch. It didn't matter to her that he actually hadn't touched her, only the towel he had held had. And, infuriatingly, it didn't matter to her body that she had been given as a gift to Tabor as though she were a commodity to be bought and sold without regard for her own wishes and desires. When he graced her with his rare smiles, Tanaka could understand, at least vaguely, why a woman would want to be with a man. Her entire experience in such matters began and ended with Ingmar the Savage, which had colored how she saw men in every aspect of life.
    Lastly, as suggested, Tanaka rubbed her wavy, ebony black hair vigorously with the cloth to dry it. When she was at last satisfied, she held an open hand behind her. "Please?"
    She felt the coarse linen shirt against her palm and clenched her fingers around it. But when she started pulling it toward herself, she heard the deep chuckle. Tabor held the opposite sleeve and was refusing to release it.
    "Please?" Tanaka asked again, irritated that she should have to ask repeatedly for something that she should be given without hesitation. She tugged again on the shirt, and managed to pull it from Tabor's grasp. One look at his forearms, bulging with muscles, crisscrossed with veins pumping his life's blood, and she knew that he had allowed her to take the shirt from him.
    The shirt was heavy, made from the fine wool produced near Hedeby and Kaupang. The tight neckline was made to prevent drafts, and the bottom hem cut a horizontal line across the middle of Tanaka's shapely thighs.
    Only when her nakedness was at last covered did she turn to face Tabor. "Thank you," she said quietly, averting her gaze. She was afraid of what she might see in his icy blue eyes. She was also a little surprised that Tabor had allowed her to put the shirt on and that he hadn't yet forced himself upon her. In fact, though he had teased her some, he had behaved astonishingly well.
    Or was that deceptively well?
    "Come," Tabor said with sudden and surprising brusqueness. "I have a brush at the shelter. You can use that on your hair."
    He rose quickly; and, though he made no threatening move toward Tanaka, she took a step away from him. His size alone was threatening, and whenever he moved quickly, her heart seemed to skip a beat.
    Tabor took a lock of wet, wavy hair and twisted it around one long finger. "Your hair is so thick, I doubt you will even be able to pull the brush through it."
    Tanaka could not tell if that was meant to be a compliment or not. The only