A Dangerous Love (47 page)

“The Highlands will rally,” Conal Bruce agreed, “but will they stay the course and fight? That, brothers, is the question that needs answering, and so we will not know until the day of that future battle in which we shall either live or die.”

“Good night,” said Duncan, deciding he was not of a mind to debate the issue tonight. Conal did not often think deeply, but recent events had brought him to a more thoughtful state of mind. Duncan strolled from his brother’s hall with Murdoc by his side. An evening tumbling Agnes Carr was a more pleasant subject to dwell upon than the future, their possible deaths, and the fate of Scotland.

When they had gone the laird made the last rounds about the keep, making certain the fires were banked, the candles and lamps snuffed out, the door barred.

Then he climbed the stairs to the bedchamber he shared with his wife. As he entered the room he smelled flowers. No, lavender. And there before the fire was a great
tall tub such as he had never seen. Steam was rising from the large vessel. He could just make out the top of Adair’s head below the rim of the tub.

Hearing him, she called out in the most dulcet tones,

“Come and join me, my lord. You will need a bath after your long trip and before you get into my bed. Take off your clothes. You will find the steps to the tub on the side.”

“Where the hell did this great thing come from?” he demanded to know as he eagerly pulled his garments off, impatient to join her.

“Grizel told me that there was a cooper in the village over the hill. I sent for him, explained to him what I wanted, and behold! We now have a tub large enough for us both. Won’t it be nice to be able to bathe together, Conal?”

He practically fell over his big feet as he reached the steps to the tub. Climbing up them, he lowered himself into the water, groaning with pleasure as the heat seeped into his aching muscles. “Jesu, woman, you are bringing civilization to our house.” Reaching out, he pulled her into his arms, and their lips met.

She nibbled at his mouth teasingly. “I think you are going to like getting clean from now on,” she teased him. “Did you miss me, my lord?”

He didn’t know what had brought about this change in her, but he had to admit that he liked it very much.

He began to fondle a plump breast. “I missed you,” he admitted, and was rewarded for his admission with another kiss. “Did you miss me?”

“I did,” she allowed, and began to tickle his balls with her fingertips.

Conal Bruce swallowed hard. “Wife, you are going to get fucked,” he growled in her ear. “I don’t know if it can be done in a tub, but I will surely try.”

“Ohh, I hope so,” Adair purred against his lips, looking up at him, a naughty smile upon her face. Sliding her arms about his neck, she let him back her against the
wall of the tub. She could feel his manhood had grown hard, and was ready to sport with her.

His hand cupped the twin mounds of her buttocks and lifted her up so that she could wrap her legs about him as he slid his lance between her nether lips to im-pale her. He sighed loudly as he did so. She was tight, hot, and soft all at the same time. It took every bit of discipline that he had to refrain from pouring his seed into her in that moment. Her plump breasts against his chest felt wonderful.

Her nipples were being irritated by his furred chest.

She wiggled her bottom against his hands, and tightened her legs about his torso. It was an unspoken signal between them. Conal began to move within her. Slowly, slowly, slowly, with long strokes of his manhood, until the stars behind her closed eyes began to explode, and Adair began to whimper with the pleasure he was giving her. And from the sounds coming from deep in his throat she knew he was being pleasured too.

He could not help himself. His juices erupted and filled her. She collapsed weakly against him, arms still about his neck. When he was able to speak he murmured against her dark hair, “You seduced me, you witch. You deliberately seduced me.”

“Did you like it?” Adair asked softly.

“Aye,” he drawled.

“I want to do it again,” she told him. “But first I will bathe you.” Reaching out, she picked up the cloth on the lip of the tub and, dipping it into her jar of liquid soap, she began to wash him thoroughly.

“You are gentler than the first time you did this,” he said low, kissing the top of her head. “Then you practically took the skin off of my hide.”

“I had two years of dirt to get off of you then,” she reminded him. “Now I just have a few days’.”

He stood quietly under her ministrations as she bathed him, and then washed his black hair. He did not complain that he smelled like a flower. He actually en
joyed the pungent fragrance of the lavender. Finally, on her instruction, he climbed carefully from the big tub and began to towel himself dry. She followed, taking the second drying cloth for herself. Unpinning her hair, she handed him the hairbrush he had purchased for her almost a year ago at the midsummer fair, seating herself on the edge of their bed.

He could scarcely take his eyes from her naked body as he ran the brush down her long tresses. Was he imagining it, or was that body lusher than it had been a year ago? The laird forced himself to concentrate upon the task at hand. Even her long sable hair seemed more lux-uriant than it had been.

“Ummm, that feels good,” she murmured. “I’m glad you like to brush my hair.”

“You’re attempting to seduce me again, madam, and I am onto your game now,” he told her, laughing.

She turned her head to meet his glance. “You said you liked it when I seduced you, my lord. I will stop if you have had a change of heart,” Adair said.

“If you cease, my honey love, I shall be forced to beat you,” he replied. “The priest who made the prince your guardian before we wed suggested I beat you frequently, so you would always remember who was the master of the keep.”

“The priest was a fool then,” Adair said. “You don’t really want to beat me. You want to put me on my back again,” she told him with a small smile.

“And do you want me to put you on your back?” he asked, entering into the spirit of their game. He laid the brush aside and wrapped the silken length of her hair about his hand. “Tell me you want to be fucked, Adair,”

he said against her mouth.
“Tell me!”

She replied by standing, pushing his legs apart, and then kneeling before him to entertain his burgeoning manhood in her mouth. She suckled upon its length. She licked around the folded skin at its tip. Finally she stood and climbed into his lap to swallow that manhood
within her hot, wet sheath. And when he was fully caged by her burning flesh, Adair looked directly into his gray eyes.

“Does that answer your question,
husband
?” she purred at him as she began to ride him. Then, closing her eyes, she allowed the sensations of coupling with him to sweep over her. Soon she was soaring to the heights that being one with him created. Leaning back, she felt his big hands on her breasts. His mouth suckled upon her nipples, and then he blew upon them, sending shivers of pleasure down her spine. His teeth nipped sharply at that same flesh, at her neck and her shoulder.

She whimpered her acknowledgment of his actions. Her crisis came, and she cried out as it swept over her, falling forward into his enveloping embrace.

But Conal Bruce had not had enough at that point.

He held her tightly, allowing her to recover just enough.

Then he stood, cradling her in his arms, and, turning, laid her back upon the bed, his manhood still buried within her. He began to pump her, thinking briefly of his little brother, who was probably now fucking Agnes Carr, and would do so for some time. While Conal Bruce did not believe he could keep up such a pace, he did know that when he had finished both he and Adair would be well pleasured.

“Jesu!”
she moaned in his ear. “You are making it happen again! Oh, God, do not stop, I beg you, Conal!”

“I won’t,” he promised her, and continued to piston her until they were both practically unconscious with the delight the joining of their bodies was bringing them. And suddenly in a single moment they both touched that blissful oblivion that lovers find. He flew, and he knew she flew by his side as wave after wave of joy pulsed over them.

Afterward they lay together in their bed, fingers entwined in fingers, toes playing with toes, sated and content. For a long while neither of them spoke, and then Conal Bruce said, “You know that I love you, Adair.”

“Aye, I know,” she replied as incredible happiness overwhelmed her heart.

“Good,” he responded. “Then it need not be said again.”

“Only if you want to say it,” she answered.

“You do believe me, don’t you?” He sounded
worried.

“I believe you,” Adair told him. “I love you too.” If he indeed never said it again she would be content, because he had said it. But something told her he would say those three little words again in spite of himself. “Go to sleep now, my lord,” she advised him. “I am through seducing you for this night.” And, cuddling into his arms, her head upon his shoulder, Adair soon fell asleep.

He lay awake for a little while longer. He had told her that he loved her, and it was the truth. She had admitted her love for him, and this time it was not in anger or sorrow. He wondered now why he had been so reticent to say those three small words. It didn’t matter any longer.

The matter was settled between them, and healthy children were bound to come of their love for each other.

They had a long summer ahead of them, and for the next few weeks they lived in a daze of happiness.

But then, on a night in early June, the signal fires sprang up across the border hills, and a Hepburn clansman rode into Cleit to tell the laird that the king had broken the promises made just a few weeks prior. The prince and his forces were massing. The Highlands were mustering in defense of King James. This time there would be a battle fought, and when it was over and done with there would be one king of Scotland.

Adair fed the Hepburn clansman, and he remained the night, departing at first light back for Hailes. She gave him several oatcakes and dried beef for his day-long journey. He thanked her, and then spoke with the laird.

“My master asks that you come to Hailes with all due
haste, for we will march north in two days’ time, my lord.”

“We will be there,” Conal Bruce said. “And my half brother, the laird of Duffdour, Ian Armstrong, will be with us.”

Then the messenger was gone from Cleit, and before the sun was even up Duncan Armstrong was riding for Duffdour. Preparations were being made for the laird and his men to depart the following morning. There were thirty men besides Conal Bruce and his brothers residing at the keep. Twenty-five of them would march out with their clan lord, but Conal worried that leaving only five fighting men at Cleit could put Adair and the other women in danger.

She calmed his concerns with her common sense.

“Cleit is not an important keep, and only those coming here deliberately and with a purpose are apt to know about it. We will keep the gates locked both day and night; nor will we admit any stranger. The hill upon which we sit gives us a great advantage over the countryside, for we can see if anyone is approaching. The keep is virtually impregnable when the gates are closed.

Besides, there is nothing here to steal,” she said with a mischievous smile.

“You are not as fearful this time,” he noted, taking her hand in his.

“That is because I know you will return to me,” Adair said with certainty.

Duncan Armstrong returned late that afternoon to tell Conal that their brother, the laird of Duffdour, would join them at Melville Cross with twenty of his clansmen on the following day. Then together they would meet up with the Hepburn at Hailes.

That night Elsbeth and the women outdid them
selves, serving a great feast for the laird and his men.

There was salmon broiled in white wine and served upon a bed of fresh watercress, though where enough fish for the hall had come from was not a question any
one asked. Salmon streams were owned only by the mighty, and Cleit did not have one. There was venison stew with carrots and leeks, and rabbit pies with rich brown gravy oozing in steamy runnels from their flaky crusts. There was a side of beef that had been roasted packed in rock salt to preserve its juices. There were capons served with a sauce made from the last of the winter lemons and a bit of precious gingerroot. There was a small boar that had foolishly come too near the keep seeking an easy meal, only to be slain and roasted for his misjudgment. There were mounds of fresh bread, butter, and cheeses. And the ale and wine flowed. The men would ride off their heads on the morrow. Tonight was for feasting, and singing songs of past battles in the keep’s hall.

And when finally the men had all gone to their rest, Adair slowly made her rounds, seeing that all was secure for the night. Then she joined Conal in their bed.

He was naked and eager for her, but she cooled his ardor gently, for she did not choose to rush this night of all nights. He watched with a burning gaze as she slowly disrobed, placing her garments neatly aside for the morning. Then she bathed herself in a basin, and he grew more lustful as he looked upon her high, full breasts and the curve of her hip.

“Will you brush my hair?” she asked him and, without waiting for an answer, handed him the little pear-wood brush as she sat down on the edge of their bed.

Wordlessly he took up the brush and smoothed it down her sable tresses. After some minutes had passed he set the brush aside and, reaching around her, cupped her breasts within his big hands. His lips placed a burning kiss on her shoulder.

“Ummm,” Adair murmured, leaning back against

him and watching as his fingers played with her nipples.

“I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered into her ear, and his tongue licked at the delicate curl of flesh.

“I don’t want you to go, but you have your duty, Conal.

I know you will never be a great lord, but I love you as you are. Your clan is an honorable one, and it would dis-honor the Bruce name should you refuse to support the prince. He will prevail in this matter. I sense it.” She turned in his arms and pushed him back onto their bed.