I swore I'd claim my place in this torchlit hall with a blade, not my body.
Not by spreading my thighs for an heir under the unblinking eyes of drunken warriors chanting their victories.
Survival here demands defiance. An outsider like me can't afford weakness.
But him.
The hall's sworn defender, all coiled muscle and gravelly oaths, the one man whose gaze strips me bare before his hands even touch.
He was meant to be my shield, not the blade twisting in my gut.
One shadowed corner, sweat-slick skin pressed to smoke-reeking furs, and I shatter my own rules.
His mouth on my neck, promising seed where the whole hall could hear my gasps.
We clash like thunder over mead-soaked tables.
Tangled limbs on scarred oak, slick with spills and desperation, his hips driving deep while shadows of revelers flicker too close.
It's madness, this public unraveling - my reckless yield to breeding heat, his honor cracking under the weight of what he craves.
Every thrust a defiance of the oaths binding him, every moan mine a betrayal of the steel I forged myself from.
What if this fire consumes us both?
My foothold slips with every exposed rapture, the heir I burn for hanging on his release amid the chants.
His loyalty dangles by a thread, and mine - the outsider's fragile pride - teeters toward ruin.
Yet denying him feels like starving in a feast.
How long before the hall's merciless gaze turns our forbidden blaze into the pyre that claims us?
A full-length breeding Viking exhibitionism erotic romance featuring a defiant newcomer and an honor-bound warrior.
