“I do,” I whisper back. “How many bottles have ye been through, wife?”
“Oh…” she frowns, and it’s fecking adorable. “I’m pretty sure it’s only two.”
“Well, that’s good.” I kiss the top of her head lightly, loving the feel of the silk of her hair against my lips. “Tomorrow morning, well,laterthis morning will be lesson enough for ye.”
Her arm sweeps out widely toward my amused - and not at all repentant - cousins. “We had dinner!” The table is littered with the rubble of ten different meals, empty breadbaskets, half-eaten cakes… and one untouched plate of haggis.
“We were talking about your code,” she continues, “which seems like total overkill. I mean, I had to change into your pants and a sweater so they’d stop flinching away from me like I was infested with lice.”
Guiding her unsteady arse back to the couch, I shove Logan over and sit next to her. “It’s respect,Luaith Bheag.We MacTavishes are a possessive lot. We dinnae want anyone gawkin’ at our women.”
“Yeah, they showed me pictures of their wives,” she chuckles, leaning against me drunkenly. “Oh my god, Luna and Arabella? They’re bothgorgeous!Hell,I’dgawk at them.”
“It wasn’t always like that,” Logan says, helpinghimself to another glass of scotch. “Your husband, he got all crabbit one day when he found out I’d been grafting on a lass he’d been seeing.” He raises his hands in protest. “I dinnae know, I swear!”
“So, what happened?” Scarlett’s cheeks are flushed and that smile hasn’t left her face.
“They decided the logical thing would be to have a ‘friendly’ round in the ring,” Kai says, rolling his eyes.
“How’d that go?” she asks.
Logan chuckles into his glass. “Yer husband here. He whaled the feck out of me. He beat me, withme.I think he ripped off my arm at one point and pounded me over the head with it.”
Scarlett’s laughing so hard that I’m concerned she’s going to choke.
“Aye, ye onion-eyed flapdragon and ye deserved it!” I say, trying to hold back a laugh.
“Ye leather-faced piss jar, ye overreacted!” Logan cries.
“Ach, feck. Here we go.” Kai rubs his eyes.
“Ye gerbil-headed spunktrumpet, it’s a miracle no one whaled on ye before that,” I say.
Logan bristles. “Ye knuckled-brained fart lozenge!”
Scarlett’s howling now, holding her stomach.
“Such a cock juggling thundercunt, ye were just jealous because she fancied me,” I say haughtily.
“Stop!” Scarlett wheezes, “I’m cramping! I’m cramping!”
“Can I add that this was twelve years ago?” Kai says. “This shite keeps coming back up, though the quality of the insults has improved.”
“Please,” Scarlett’s face is nearly the color of her hair. “I think my spleen just exploded. You have to stop.”
She’s spared further potential internal injury by the arrival of two of my men, one carrying a tool kit.
“Hey, boss,” he says, eyeing the sad remains of the door frame. “This is looking like Logan’s handiwork, then?”
“I was inprotectionmode,” Logan insists, shrugging into his jacket.
“Thank you both for keeping me safe,” Scarlett says, trying to keep a straight face.
“You’re welcome,” Kai smiles at her kindly. “Welcome to the family.”
“Goodnight, Mrs. MacTavish,” Logan calls out as he heads down the stairs. “And goodnight to your husband, the degenerate corned beef facedsyrup wearing wankstain!”
Kai lets out the sigh of a man who has long suffered and my eejit cousins take their leave.
