Duncan and Murdoc looked at each other warily, but then to their surprise, and after only the briefest hesitation, Adair sat down in the laird’s lap.
“Good,” Conal Bruce purred. “You are becoming more obedient.”
Adair bit back a pithy reply. The sooner he believed himself in charge, the sooner she could get about her tasks for the day.
“Now you will kiss me,” the laird ordered her.
She gave him a quick peck on the lips.
“ ’Twas not well-done,” he told her. “Again, my honey love.”
The look she shot him would have destroyed another man, but then she kissed him hard on his mouth, lingering just long enough to elicit a whistle of approval from Duncan.
“ ’Tis better,” the laird allowed, “but not yet good enough. Again, Adair.”
Adair slipped her arms about his neck now, and pressed herself against him. Her lips met his in a slow, sweet kiss. “Ummmm,” she murmured against his mouth as she rubbed herself suggestively against him, and she kissed him again, her tongue pushing into his mouth to tease his. She sighed a deep sigh, and kissed him a third time in leisurely fashion. Finally drawing away from him, she asked softly, “Is that better, my lord?”
“Aye,” he drawled, nodding at her.
“Then,” Adair said, jumping from his lap, “I shall return to my sewing.” She curtsied. “Good hunting, my lord.” And, turning, she was quickly gone.
Duncan Armstrong and Murdoc Bruce had stared
openmouthed and not without some envy at Adair’s wicked performance. Their brother sat silent, his need bulging in his breeks for them to see. Briefly Conal Bruce was without words. It was Duncan who finally broke the strain of the situation.
“What a lass!” he said admiringly.
“Maggie doesn’t kiss me like that,” Murdoccomplained.
“No one that I know kisses like that,” Duncan responded.
“I will probably end up killing her,” Conal Bruce said, finding his voice once more. “We all know that women are good for cooking, cleaning, birthing bairns, and fucking, but little else. Adair has bewitched me. I can’t seem to get enough of her, and I am half-ashamed to admit it. No woman has ever affected me this way. And she takes as much pleasure in our coupling as I do. Yet each time I have her, I want more of her almost immediately. ’Tis madness, brothers. Right now I want to drag her from the kitchens and take her back to bed for the day. But I know she’s right. The damned cold larder needs to be completely filled before the winter comes.
When we were out yesterday I saw the bens to the north already white with new snow.” His member, which had ached painfully, did not ache as much now. He stood up, wincing just slightly. “Let’s go hunting, lads.” The laird of Cleit strode from his hall.
“Something is happening,” Duncan said. “Something I never thought to see.”
“What?” Murdoc wanted to know.
“Not yet, youngling,” his elder told him, putting an arm about his youngest brother as they walked from the hall in Conal’s wake. “And who is Maggie?”
Grizel slipped from the shadows where she had beenlistening. She hurried down the stone stairs into the kitchens. “They’ve finally gone,” she announced.
Adair looked up relieved from the table, where she was cutting shirts from some fine linen she had found in the laird’s deceased mother’s chamber. “Good,” she said. “With luck I can have a new shirt for each of them when they return tonight.”
“I’ll help you sew when I’ve finished my chores,”Flora volunteered.
When the hunters returned shortly after sunset that evening with two roe deer and a string of geese, they found three shirts carefully folded, with one set at each of their places at the high board. Surprised, they took the shirts, unfolding them and holding them out, and then against their own frames.
“There’s one for each of us!” Murdoc said excitedly.
“Let’s try them on!”
“Not yet,” they heard Adair’s voice say as she rose from a chair by the fire. “You have not yet had your baths, Master Murdoc and Master Duncan. You cannot wear clean shirts on a stinking body. The tub awaits you in the kitchens.”
The laird roared with his laughter at the looks on their faces.
“Oh, you as well, my lord,” Adair said sweetly, and his laughter died.
