Page 57 of Down and Dirty

“Listen, we’ll talk in the morning, okay? I’m beat.” Danny reached over and gave him a hug. “Yeech, that is taking brotherly love a step too far. Hugging a naked guy.”

Zach just realized then that he was still naked. He would have blushed if he were a blushing kind of guy.

“By the way, nice war wounds!”

“Huh?” As Zach reentered his bedroom and looked in the full-length mirror on the closet door, he saw a bite mark on his chin. A hickey on his neck. Scratch marks on his shoulders. A bruised elbow where Britta had clocked him in the shower. And his cock looked as if it had been through a battle.

War wounds, for sure.

Hoo-yah!

He wanted her to spend all day doing WHAT?…

Britta had dawdled long enough. Time to go down to Zachary’s great hall and face the object of her humiliation.

She had pretended to be asleep when he rose soon after dawn, even when he came back from bathing and dressed in his bedchamber. To say she was having morning-after regrets for her wanton behavior would be a monumental understatement.

Oh, ’twas not that she had not enjoyed herself. Far from it. Not even the things Zachary had taught her. Not even the fact that his brother had seen her nude body. Nay, what embarrassed her most was the wicked things she had initiated herself. Ne’er would she have guessed there were so many ways to tup. Ne’er would she have guessed that she would have such enthusiasm for the bedsport.

If Zachary dared laugh at her, she was going to clobber him over the head with the nearest heavy object.

She combed her still damp hair off her face and plaited it into one single braid. Her long hair was a hindrance in the military exercises of WEALS, and she was seriously considering having it all chopped off.

Then she pulled on pant-hees and the breast harness. After that the black braies, red shert, and red shoes, which were ridiculously open-toed and open-heeled. Mayhap there was a shortage of leather at the cobbler’s when these were made.

She heard voices as she went down the steps and headed toward the scullery. Delicious smells permeated the air, and she realized how hungry she was. They had left Madrene’s afore the meal was served last night, following Sammy’s near mishap.

Everyone stopped talking and turned to her when she entered the scullery… Zachary, his brother, and Sammy.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Zachary said, rising from his chair and offering it to her. When she sat, he kissed her shoulder.

She made a hissing sound to indicate his behavior was inappropriate in front of others. And besides, all he had to do was touch her, and the sap began to rise in her traitorous body.

He just ignored her hiss and pulled out an empty chair for himself.

“This is my brother, Danny.” Zachary waved a hand to the grinning rogue across the table.

“We’ve met,” Danny said, winking at her.

Danny was as different from Zachary as night from day. He had brown hair and brown eyes, compared to Zachary’s blond hair and blue eyes. And whilst of the same height and build, Danny could not be described as pretty by anyone’s definition.

Zachary shot his brother a warning glower for the wink, which daunted him not a whit.

“And you already know Sammy.”

“Are you gonna tell me ’nother Viking story?”

She nodded. “Later.” Good gods, I hope I am gone by then. “Take me back to the base,” she told Zachary. “Now that your brother is here, there is no excuse—”

He patted her thigh. “Now, now. Eat some breakfast first.” He was piling food on a plate in front of her: ham, sausage, eggs, some kind of round cake with syrup on it, and buttered bread that had been toasted. Then he poured an orange substance into a clear glass and the black, bitter beverage known as coffee into a cup.

“Who cooked all this?” she asked, already having taken three mouthfuls of the delicious food.

“Danny started it, and I helped when I came down,” Zachary said.

“Me, too,” Sammy interjected.

“Sammy, too,” Zachary agreed, rumpling his son’s hair, which caused his son to frown fiercely at his father.