“Come. Sit and have some bread and wine.” He placed the food on the table and as she sat, he handed her a cup of wine. She took it and delicately sniffed the contents. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when she took a tentative sip. Bridei sat down across from her, watching as she battled with herself over whether to eat, but in the end hunger won out. She drank more of the wine to wash the dry bread down and he suppressed a smile. It wouldn’t be long now. Meara’s potions were nothing if not potent.
“Why did you come here?” he asked, leaning his elbows on the table.
Her eyes stayed on the table in front of her. “I told you.”
“Youtoldme you fell through a hill. That makes no sense.”
“Iknowthat. It makes no sense to me either.”
“So you fell through a hill on your way to be married? Where was this hill?”
She looked down into her cup and frowned. “I think this wine is stronger than what I’m used to.”
“We do like strong wine here at Tallorc. We make the best for hundreds of miles. It’s the way the fruits grow, so close to the sea that makes it so good.”
She swayed a little in her chair, and Bridei rejoiced. Meara had come through for him yet again. It wouldn’t be long now until her knew this woman’s story, and he realized that he wanted to know it badly. The anticipation was actually making his stomach churn. He found himself hoping that she really was just a lass on her way to be married, despite what his instinct told him. She was far too beautiful to be wasted on an early death, and he imagined that his cock might still be hard for her even as he was forced to slit her throat; a thought he didn’t relish at all.
She ran her hands through her hair then cupped her head. “I feel so…strange.”
When she looked up at him again, her pupils were large and dark, her eyes glassy like the surface of a lake. If they had drawn him in before, now they nearly hypnotized him. But he was not here to admire her, he reminded himself.
“Nessa…”
“Aye?”
“I want you to tell me the truth now.”
“Aye.” She leaned forward across the narrow table, until they were only inches apart. He could feel her soft breath on his lips. His whole body tensed as a wave of desire rippled through him. It was powerful. Insistent. Like a river flooded by the spring rains. If he leaned just a little farther, his mouth would nearly be on hers. The thought had him hardening to an almost painful degree. He gritted his teeth. This was unacceptable. He had to focus on the task at hand.
He leaned back, drawing a breath and letting it out. “What did you come here for?”
Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment, then opened again, wide and doe-like. “I want you to kiss me.”
For a second he couldn’t breathe. He wanted that too…so much. He shook himself. “No, the truth lass. I asked you for the truth.”
“But Idowant you to kiss me. I want to be kissed. Ineedto be kissed.”
She reached a hand toward him, but he caught it, placing it firmly onto the table in front of her. If she touched him right now, he wasn’t sure he would be able to maintain his focus any longer. His skin was hot and tingling, a shivering sensation raced through his body, and he was finding it more and more difficult to draw air.
Her gaze slid over his body. His chest was covered only by the strip of leather over one shoulder that held his sword, and she seemed to become fascinated by the tattoos covering his skin. She reached out and traced one of them with a finger before he could stop her.
“I like your tattoos. I think they’re sexy. So beautiful.”
Bridei held his breath. He wasn’t entirely sure he could stop her from touching him. It felt good.Toogood. He could imagine her hands on every inch of his bare skin. He knew it would be ecstasy.
“Kiss me. I want to be kissed.” She was almost begging now, but her words were slightly slurred with the effects of the potion. He doubted she even knew what she was saying, but still her hands moved to his arms as she tried to pull him closer.
“Please…I need you…”
He didn’t kiss the women he had sex with as a rule, and he had never really had the desire to; and so he was utterly unprepared for the sudden, inexplicable need he felt to press his lips to Nessa’s and taste her mouth. He nearly groaned with the agony of holding himself back. His body was alive with some powerful force he had never felt before, and it would be so easy to lean in and kiss her as she wanted him to. She might not even remember, come the morning. Gods, this was torture.
He sighed in frustration, forcing himself to push his chair back, away from her. Meara hadn’t told him the potion was also an aphrodisiac, or he wouldn’t have given it to the lass, especially since it somehow seemed to be affecting him as well, though he hadn’t even drunk any wine. The problem was, the potion was making the lass shamelessly wanton, but not drawing the truth from her. This whole evening was a waste of time; he was no closer to knowing anything useful about his uninvited guest.
The drugged wine seemed to be taking a stronger and stronger hold, and the lass now stood and began pacing the room. She spoke the whole while, as if to herself, but the words made no sense to him. It was gibberish to his ears. Perhaps he had put too much of the drug into her cup. He thought for a moment about sending someone to fetch Meara, but then he suddenly realized something: it wasn’t that the lass made no sense, but that she was speaking a different language. And though the sound of the words as she spoke reminded him of Saxon, he could not understand them. She must have been speaking her native tongue, whatever that may be.Ah, the mystery deepens, little lamb.
He watched and listened for any further clue, but it wasn’t long before her words began to slow, and her eyelids began to look heavy. When it seemed she would collapse at any moment, Bridei led her to the bed and helped her to lie down. He even pulled a blanket over her, not knowing why he cared whether she was chilled. Though she was barely awake, she reached for him, finally speaking in Pictish again. “Come to me Bridei. You werealwaysmine. The books…my books…”
She was delirious, he knew; and a few moments later she had fallen into a deep sleep, her arms now limp and heavy across her chest. But still, those few words tugged at him with a meaning he knew they didn’t have; couldn’t have.Always mine. They echoed in his mind as if trying to find a place to land, but he couldn’t concentrate. His body burned with unspent lust that had again risen seemingly out of nowhere, and his cock still strained painfully against the fabric of his pants. His hand moved to press against it as if that alone could ease the ache, but in his mind he imagined so much more.Wantwas beginning to feel very much likeneed, and he was starting to become more than a little angry with himself over his own lack of control.
