Ægir's Wife Ch. 04

There was so much he wanted to tell her, but only one word would come out, "Takk." It was totally inadequate and as right as the woman staring up at him as he caressed her cheek and slowly drew his half hard cock from between her lips.

***

Bjorn held his wife in his arms as he relished the final tremors and aftershocks of her powerful orgasm. Her cunt still periodically spasmed around his cock as Mikael withdrew from her mouth and caressed her cheek. 'Takk,' the word seemed so fucking inadequate for what had happened this night, but he could not think of a better one. Not in any of the almost dozen languages that he knew.

And even if he could, he was not certain that he could force it past the tight lump in his throat as he watched his oldest brother bury his head between her shoulders. He realized what Sven was doing...hiding from the intense emotions that she seemed destined to stir in all of them. For once, he could empathize with the man.

He lifted his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead for a long moment as he held her tightly. No, words were completely inadequate for this moment. But he used the only ones he could think of, "I love you, princess."

Even though her eyes never opened and she said nothing, he could see the secretive smile that curled on her lips as she squeezed him just a bit tighter. Not even her weight or the partial weight of his older brother registered as he gloried in this moment.

But even in the perfection of that moment, his mind would not rest for long. The conflict and darkness that he hid from everyone, even her most of time, began to assail him. He wanted to wish them away then. Just hold and protect her alone as his jealousies began to assault his senses.

Over the last few weeks, he had barely managed to control them with Mikael, the man who had been not just his big brother, but his protector and almost surrogate parent as a child. A man, who after that rough couple of weeks in the beginning, clearly loved and adored their wife with the same ferociousness that he did.

But Sven? Having him here was a totally different matter. Despite Mikael's words, it had been an intense battle with his demons not to beat the shit out of his oldest brother. As far as he was concerned, Sven had no right to be here at all. Nothing had changed. He had not proven himself, the way Mikael had over time.

And especially not that. When he had realized Sven intent, he had almost lost complete control as he had only once before. He knew the blind rage that had sent two older boys to the hospital when he was barely six. He knew what his strength was capable of doing when fuelled by that kind of hatred. But this was not distant cousins cornering him in an alley way, it was his brother. More importantly, it was in front of her.

She had invited Sven. That was the only thing that had stopped him in the end. Kirsty. The look on her face. Her breathy words, pleading with his brother. Those had held him back, kept his anger in check long enough for Mikael's words to register. Her choice. He hated that too. But Mikael was right, this had to be her choice.

And he had to respect it. Even as much as he wanted to take control from her. Make the decision for them all. In the name of protecting her. Protecting and caring for her was the strongest instinct he had ever had...stronger even than the blind rage and darkness dwelling inside of him. Tonight proved that.

Still something inside of him fought it. His. He had chosen her, it screamed.

But the tightness in his chest and his intellect belied that point. He may have chosen her, but it was Sven, the man who was more stranger than brother that had made the final decision. That had chosen to bring her abroad this ship. Had taken her.

Hell, even Mikael had claimed her before he had. Mikael, who could give her what he could not bring himself to...the pain she not just craved but needed. He sighed...and Mikael, who in the end had carried the mantle he had tossed aside in his own selfish need to possess their wife. Mikael, who had fought alongside her to bring them all together. To make their family whole, the way that he had once dreamt they could be.

He felt petty and small then. He had let her down. He had come close to failing them all...out of his own insecurities and selfishness.

But he could do something about that now as he watched Sven recover enough to slip from her tight ass. Bjorn winced and gritted his teeth as he actually felt his brother's movement, making just a bit more room in her tight cunt. He frowned as Sven bent and kissed the side of her neck. He strained to hear as he whispered, "Thank you, Kristen," in their wife's ear. The fact that his brother chose to use English told him as much as the words themselves ever could.

She rose up off his chest enough to open her eyes, "My pleasure," she replied with a snarky grin that earned her a slap on her ass from Sven. A slap that made him growl as it drove her further down on his cock that was still nestled inside her.

This was always the awkward part. Even worse than the beginning. Even when it was just him and Mikael, once the 'main event' was over, well, it just was not the same as when they were alone with her. After glow and cuddles were not group activities. Somehow it just felt more intimate than the act itself.

Usually that meant Mikael making an excuse to check on Monica and slipping from her bedroom, just as he saw his brother reaching for his jeans on the floor next to him now. But this time that did not feel right. It was Mikael, who had kept his anger in check. Mikael, who had joked, kidded and goaded them through every awkward moment. Mikael, who in the end had never given up on the idea of them being united as a real family. No, he had to face the truth...it was his brother, who deserved to hold their wife, care for and commiserate with her.

He reached out his hand and grabbed Mikael's wrist as his brother picked his jeans up off the floor. "No, you stay."

Mikael's face scrunched into a frown, "No, it is fine. I should check on Monica anyway." But Bjorn heard the longing in his voice, knew the truth. Hell, only Sven would want to run and hide now, then again his oldest brother always did when emotions were involved. But Bjorn knew Mikael wanted very much to be the one this time to hold her in his arms as she fell asleep.

And he was not taking 'no' for an answer this time as he brushed a kiss on her cheek as she started to lay her head back on his chest as usual. "Don't get comfortable just yet, princess," he whispered as he forced himself to lift her lethargic body off him. He groaned a bit as his cock slipped from her welcoming warmth, but he persisted and rolled her onto her side.

She roused then enough to question him, "What? Where are you going?"

"Back to my room tonight, sweetheart. I think it's Mikael's turn to share your bed," he saw by her soft smile that their wife would not argue the point with him as she pressed a soft kiss to his lips and whispered her good nights.

He sat up on the edge of the bed and looked for the towel until he remembered that Sven had used it earlier to clean up when her orgasm exploded all over the floor. 'Never mind,' his room was not that far as he stood. "I don't need to tell you, take good care of her, big brother."

Mikael smiled and ruffled his hair in the same irritating way he had when they were kids, though admittedly it was less troublesome now somehow. "No, you don't, kiddo. And thanks."

Bjorn shrugged, "You deserve it." As he headed towards the door, he saw Mikael take his place in the bed and scope her into his arms. He watched as his brother forced their wife to take a drink of the water he had brought up earlier. He smiled at the concerned way his brother fused over her, as badly as he did his daughter.

"She'll be fine," Sven said as he held open the door, clad now in his jeans.

Bjorn nodded and walked through it first, but he turned to face his oldest brother as Sven pulled it closed behind them. He squared his shoulders and rose up to his full height, which gave him a couple of inches advantage over him. Other men might have been intimidated facing down an opponent naked, but he was not as he stared directly into his brother's icy cold blue eyes, "Do NOT ever hurt her again."

That was all he said. He did not wait for a reply, because honestly at this point there was none that Sven could give, which he would believe. Instead he turned his back and simply walked to his room. Butt naked and proud. He opened the door and stepped inside his sanctuary before closing the door behind him and collapsing against it. His head banged on the hard wood as if to knock some sense into him.

Damn it! This night, this whole fucking day, had been a total mind fuck. His body was exhausted, but his mind was running at the speed of light trying to process it all, make sense of even some of it, and figure out where he stood now. He forced his feet to cover the short distance to his bed. The bed he would sleep in alone this night. Fuck, he should not have been so damned noble. This would be so much easier if he were holding her in his arms right now.

But he was not. That would have to wait...for another time. He laid down and stared at the ceiling for hours, seeking answers that only Fate would provide.

***

Kirsty smiled as she snuggled closer into Mikael's arms. Her body ached in the most delicious of ways. Every single tiny movement was a reminder of the gloriously intense experience that she had shared with all of them the night before. She had no idea exactly what time it was since her room had no windows, but her mind told her it was later than usual. Her body told her it was rested. And ready for...more.

Her hand slipped beneath the quilt as she caressed the firm muscles of his abdomen, moving lower and lower so slowly that it was torture to her as much as him. Her fingers were a hair's breadth from the soft steel that was her ultimate goal when his hand covered them and stopped her progress.

His silky smooth voice caressed her mind as he pressed a tender kiss to the top of her head, "Behave, lilla gumman."

She looked up into those silvery depths that glistened with mirth, "Where is the fun in that, Sir?"

He laughed and it tinkled like Christmas bells in her mind, "Do I need to use the tawse on that bare cunt?"

She shook her head as her fingers stretched just enough to brush the very tip of her goal and make her husband tremble as he released a long sigh, "Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of some of your vanilla lovemaking, Sir."

"What sacrilege, woman," he teased as he rolled her beneath him. His hands slowly began to caress and cup her breasts. His thumbs brushed across her nipples and she sucked in a deep breath, "Still sensitive from the clovers, elskling."

She nodded, "A bit, but you know I loved them."

He bent his head and licked them tenderly as flames licked upwards consuming her mind and sending tendrils of heat branching lower across her stomach and wrapping about her core until she arched upwards brushing against his thigh. She moaned when she did not find the relief she sought.

"Impatient again, væsla?" he teased as he continued the gentle torture as she whimpered and moaned. Her hands gripped his shoulders until her nails buried themselves in his skin. He nipped at the end of her nipple, holding it tenderly between his teeth as he shook his head, "Twenty-five with the tawse for that...but not this morning."

He released her sensitive flesh and raised his head, staring into her eyes as he shifted his hips and gave her the relief she needed, sliding deep inside of her as she whimpered in need. "Someone said they wanted vanilla lovemaking, didn't she?" he chuckled.

"Fuck, Mikael, please! Please, Sir?" she bit her bottom lip as she fought back the orgasm that loomed like a thunder cloud over the horizon.

He stilled inside of her, fully seated deep in her depths but unmoving even the least little bit. Other than the pounding of the blood through his hard cock, which she swore she could feel in the quiet of the morning. "No, Kirsty. Not this time. No commands. No control. Just lovers. A man showing his wife how much he loves her."

He began to move so slowly that at first she was not even sure he was at all. She clutched his shoulders even tighter as he made to withdraw. She felt the muscles in her pussy tighten about his shaft too, protesting his betrayal. She ground her hips against him and cried out as her clit brushed against the base sending her over the edge.

He buried his face in her neck as he plunged deeper inside of her, "Fuck, yeah, Kirsty! Just like that. Damn, you feel so fucking good," he groaned as he took up a rhythm that had them both moaning and crying out in pleasure.

If there had been in doubt if her body could still respond to a lover without the conditioning, without their commands, they laid it to rest then as Mikael took her over the peak time and time again. Loving her thoroughly and so completely that both collapsed back into a peaceful slumber with his body still half entwined with hers and his cock still buried inside her fertile pussy.

***

Kirsty paced her room. She knew that she could not put this off any longer. It was time. Past time. But still it was not easy to let get of the career she had once loved. It was not fair though to keep Roz and the whole department in limbo. Truth was she had a new life here and she did not want to go back to the old one. So why was it so hard to hit the send button on the resignation letter that she had written months ago?

Especially now. The past few days had been perfection. After than morning, Mikael had insisted that she not 'waste' her nights calling him. Bjorn needed her reassurance and comfort in a way that he did not.

And Sven? Well, he insisted that his big brother needed her too. So he had selflessly taken a back seat to their needs. Not that they had not found time to steal moments away from work and Monica. That damned fort was definitely getting re-built in the spring. She was determined on that one.

Her hand drifted to her stomach with a deep frown. It was the only thing that kept her world from being perfect. A baby. She wanted that more now than she ever had. She had even gotten over her early fears about what 'people' would think. The only 'people' that mattered to her were the ones right here on the Holding.

Although she did agree with her mother-in-law, a few things around here needed to change. Top among them, primogeniture. Sven could shove his need for 'sons.' She did not give a fuck if she birthed nothing but half a dozen girls. Yes, she knew the seas were rough. Yes, she had spent enough nights massaging and soothing away aches and pains in all of them to know how tough their jobs were. But that did not mean women could not do them too.

The other thing that they could shove was 'claiming' her children. She and Petrine had talked long and hard about that one over the months. She was the first of the brides that actually had the power to end that silly tradition. A painless swab would settle the paternity of any child once and for all, something that had never before been possible with such a high degree of accuracy when it came to brothers. The question was...did she want that? Did she really want one of them walking around pounding his chest with bragging rights every time she gave birth?

She fingered the buttons on her phone once more. No, those were minor enough things that could be ironed out in time. The truth was this was her home now. The only real home she had ever had honestly. She loved her husbands. All of them. Exactly the same and completely differently. She was even coming to accept that they loved her too.

Though of course her Atlas, Mister Cool would not bend enough to admit his feelings. But she and Petrine had discussed that one too over tea in the greenhouse that stood as statement to those struggles. It was the coldest day of the year, the wind howled and snow whipped about them as icicles sometimes close to a meter long hung from bare tree branches. She had commented on how toasty warm it was inside the greenhouse.

The tears had begun to flow once more down Rachel's face. It was funny but even she was beginning to recognize the difference between the strong, intelligent woman that was the mask her mother-in-law had crafted to face the tough realities of her life...and the vulnerable woman-child that still existed deep beneath its shroud. She both admired and pitied her...them both, she supposed.

With those tears had flowed the story of the love she had shared with the man, who built this place. The man, with the golden boy looks that his son had inherited and the cold aloofness of the one he had adopted.

It was a combination that Kirsty knew she could have never broken through. Even as tender and open as Bjorn was, there were still moments when they were lying in bed talking and she looked up at him and thought...'what could a man like this possibly see in someone like me?' Had those drop dead gorgeous face and body been combined with Sven's cool reserve she would have never for a single moment been able to handle the doubts that would destroy any chance of happiness in the end.

But the one thing that had helped her to understand both Stig and Sven better was when Petrine expounded upon the different cultures. Evidently the words 'jeg elsker deg' bore far more significance than their simple translation of 'I love you.'

While Petrine spoke of the ease with which the word 'love' had been used on the commune as she grew up, Kirsty had tried to remember even a single time that she had ever heard those words...before Bjorn anyway. She could not. But these Nordic descendants of those mighty Viking conquers seemed even more stingy with those words.

So it was no surprise that Stig had such trouble with words. It was more surprising that Olaf, his son and Bjorn did not. Those words held far more weight, were far more precious, than in either the US or her own British cultures. They were sacred even, not to be tossed about lightly. Even if the sentiment behind them was genuine.

It had been easier for the man to put hundreds or thousands of hours into building his wife an impregnable fortress and filling it with the sweet smell of exotic lilies, roses and her favorite wild flowers than it had been to say three simple words.

Kirsty had sipped her tea and pondered it. Could she truly be happy if Sven never used those words? She certainly heard them often enough from Bjorn...in close to a dozen different languages. Mikael too, though her sadist tended to use his humor to deflect and lighten the impact a bit. Perhaps even he was not as comfortable expressing his emotions as it appeared.

She mulled that question over as she stared at the keypad on her phone. Yeah. Yes, she could be happy here with them. With him. Even if she never heard those words. The past few days had proven that. As she hit the call button and waited for Roz to pick up. Yes, it was past time that this was settled. It was time she moved forward and quit looking back at a place she had never truly belonged in anyway.

"Hello, Roz. Yes, yes, I know. I promise you by the end of the week. You will have my reply about the job by then."

***

Sven fingered the beautifully delicate necklace. The damned thing was as much a piece of art as her collar. The chain that was shorter and thicker than most necklaces would wrap tightly about her neck.

He had made sure of that when he measured it, sort of anyway. He had actually used the rope that they had played with the other night as a guide, marking it as he measured off the anchor that fit perfectly about her neck so that the knot rested just on top of the spot where her collar bones came together. That way she would have no idea what he was up to.