Chapter 10 #2
Brother! That isn’t Britta. He jackknifed to a sitting position, shoved Britta behind him, and had his weapon aimed at the doorway in a split second.
It was his brother Danny, who had the good sense to duck outside the open doorway where he had been leaning.
“Son of a bitch!” Zach muttered. “You should know better than to sneak up on a military man. Especially one who has a fatwa out on him. I coulda killed you.”
“Is it safe to come back in?” Danny inquired, peeping around the doorway. The idiot was grinning, not having the sense to realize that he could have been stepping into a land mine of his own making.
Britta was sputtering groggily behind him, a combination of outrage over his having shoved her behind him and confusion over his motive.
When she noticed the man standing there getting a grinning eyeful of her naked body, she squealed and tried to hide her large body behind his body, which was large but not large enough.
He laughed and tossed her a sheet, even as he stood and walked toward the door.
“It’s just my dickhead brother who doesn’t have the sense God gave a. ..dick.”
“Does he not knock?”
“Hardly ever,” Danny answered for him, peeking over Zach’s shoulder. “A guy misses a lot of good stuff if he announces himself. Right, bro?” Danny chuckled, then murmured, “Whoa! That is one hot mama. Wanna share?”
“Get out of here, bonehead.” He shoved Danny out in the hallway. Before he closed the door after himself, he told Britta, “Go back to sleep, honey. It’s not even dawn yet.”
Then he put both hands on his hips and glared at his brother. Danny was still in uniform...he was an Air Force pilot...and his duffel bag sat on the floor at his feet.
“How’d you get in?”
“I have a key. Had to practically wrestle some goon outside, though. Is that one of the guards Dad hired for you?”
“Yeah.”
“Probably some stunt man Dad knows on one of his sets.”
“Nope, this is a top-notch security firm. Great reputation. Expensive as hell.”
“The old man can afford it. Is he still boffing that Lolita that plays his daughter on the soap?”
Zach shrugged. “What the hell are you doing here, Danny?”
“Tsk-tsk-tsk! I’m just gonna crash here for a night or two. I’ve got a one-week pass. Thought you could use some help with the kid, but...” he jerked his head toward the closed bedroom door, “...maybe you’ve got all the help you need.”
“I can always use help, and Britta will be going back to the base.”
Danny raised his eyebrows at him.
“She’s in that new WEALS program—”
“A military babe? Since when do you go for ball-busters? Man, oh, man, you attract all types, don’t you?”
“—which I am assisting Commander MacLean with. WEALS, I mean.”
His brother hooted with laughter. “Your punishment for various and sundry crimes, I assume.”
“You got that right.”
“Anyhow, bro,” Danny motioned his head toward the closed bedroom door, “you hit the jackpot this time.”
“Yeah, I did,” Zach agreed with a grin.
“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 re-entered 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 which 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, ruffling his son’s hair which caused his son to frown fiercely at his father.
“What’s that mark on yer shoulder?” Sammy asked Britta around a mouthful of food.
“Don’t speak with food in your mouth,” Zachary advised.
Sammy stuck out his tongue, covered with half-chewed food.
“It’s look like ya got bit by a bear,” Sammy observed, back to the mark on her shoulder.
Britta glanced sideways to her shoulder, saw Danny look, too, then turn to his brother Zachary, and pump one arm in the air.
“Yep, a big bad ol’ bear,” Danny told Sammy.
The conversation veered then toward a discussion of WEALS, Sammy’s tutor lessons which would start on Thors-day, Zachary’s father having hired guards, and the lovely sunny weather outside.
The whole time Danny was watching her and Zachary closely, as if trying to puzzle something out. “I’m taking Sammy for the day,” he announced of a sudden. “An uncle’s prerogative,” he added, seeing that Zachary was about to protest. “You need a day to yourself, bro.” He patted Zachary on the arm.
“That’s nice of you to offer, but—”
“We’re going to Disneyland,” Sammy announced. Then, addressing Britta, he said, “Wanna come with us?”
“Oh, nay, I do not think I could go to Dizzy Land today. I—”
“Your dad and Britta are gonna spend the day together,” Danny explained to Sammy.
“The whole day? What’re they gonna do for a whole day?”
She looked at Zachary, saw the hot regard in his eyes, realized he was not about to return her to the base any time soon, then turned back to the others.
“I would love to go to Dizzy Land.”