Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 59320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“Strip naked, and I will show you. Just remember, it is unwise for a duchess to refuse the commands of the duke. If you still wish to have that role, that is.”
He was testing me. Though that sly smile was twitching on his mouth, his eyes were hard, as if daring me to disobey. A sick part of me was tempted, just to see what he’d do, but I quickly buried that feeling. As loving and sincere as Rolf was in this moment, I could never be truly fooled by his nature. I saw the signs of the beast lurking deep within his bulk.
“As you wish,” I said as easily as I could muster. I fumbled with my dress until it loosened and stepped out of it. I was Rolf’s now, and while I’d expected us both to be unclothed at some point, it didn’t mean it wasn’t scaring me to death.
He let his eyes soak me up. His grin stretched.
“I will be a lucky duke,” he commented lustily, “won’t I?”
“You will,” I said with a shaking voice, twitching from the early winter chill.
“Prove it to me,” he said. He pointed to the ground. “Down you go, on all fours. This time, you are not a cat in heat, but a horse I will ride.”
Mindful of his nickname, the Walker, because he broke so many horses’ backs, I froze, unable to move.
Rolf chuckled. “Not literally. You'll see. Now, down you go.”
Before he could come over and push me down, I quickly dropped my naked body to the ground, balancing on hands and knees. I waited in trepidation as the cold seeped in from the dirt.
“Beautiful,” he murmured. He slipped the rope over my head, in front of my face, and placed his fingers at my mouth, teasing my lips. “Open up.”
I gingerly opened my mouth, and the rope was passed through it, tasting like earth and wood.
“You can bite down,” he said. “You may want to.”
Before I had a chance to react, he shoved a wet finger inside me, the cold and shock causing me to jump. He yanked the rope back, now acting as reins. My head came up, and I panted, the rope pulling at the tender sides of my mouth.
“Still yourself,” he warned. I heard him remove his clothes and saw his tunic fly to the side. He inserted two more fingers, stretching me from the inside out. I bit down through the pain, trying to will my body to relax and accept him. But he was rough and insistent, and it took a while of him sliding his fingers in and out of me before I was lubricated enough. My heart rate slowed, and I accepted my somewhat degrading position.
“Now comes the real ride,” he whispered. With one hand at the small of my back, pulling me into him, he plowed his iron-hard cock into me, filling me immediately. I groaned, more from pain than anything else, my body still raw from his pounding the night before. But Rolf didn’t seem to mind. He kept thrusting forward, his grunts growing louder and louder until they filled the forest.
All the while, he kept tugging hard at the reins, yanking my head back like I was a wild and unruly filly that needed to be tamed. The occasional smack of his giant palm hit my cold and bare ass, and I knew it was beet red and tender like the rest of me.
After several minutes—too long, in my opinion—Rolf finished with a hearty cry, and I could practically feel him spilling out from inside me.
He almost collapsed on top of me, and I fell to the ground from his weight, the cold dirt rubbing uncomfortably against my nipples.
“Well done,” he said between breaths. His voice was hoarse. “You passed the test. A duchess you can ride like a stubborn mare is the duchess who belongs to a Viking.”
He pulled out of me and then walked off to the trees to urinate. I was left with a face full of dirt, wondering if I had agreed to the right life after all.
Chapter 17
Erik
“The good news is that the men have stopped poking fun at you,” Knut said glibly, but Erik barely heard him. They were both sitting at breakfast, staring at Cherine and Rolf as they walked past the dining hall and toward whatever adventures the two of them had planned for that day. It had been three weeks since that fateful night between Erik and Cherine in her chambers, three weeks since he’d been able to say one word to her, three weeks of her being at Rolf’s side for everything.
Not that he knew what to say to her if he could. Every glance he stole of her, he couldn’t decide if she looked happy or not. Oh, she smiled at Rolf, a beaming, beautiful smile that made him feel sick to his stomach. But when Rolf wasn’t looking—and when Erik was—she looked alone and lost in her own head. He had no real idea how Rolf was treating her, and though her face remained pure and unscathed, he occasionally spied bruise marks on her arms. He knew Rolf liked to play rough in the bedroom; he just hoped, for her sake, it wasn’t too rough. Cherine was a lot more vulnerable than she looked.