Highland Legend (Scots and Swords #3) - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,5

but she wasn’t stupid. In fact, her dark eyes were glittering with surprising lucidity. He snorted.

“Very well, Mary MacMerry,” he said. “What did ye have in mind?”

“Money first. Then I’ll tell ye.”

Magnus stood up, going to the table with the wine on it, and collected one of the coin-filled hose. He weighed a couple of them and, selecting the lighter one, handed it over to Mary. She snatched it, feeling the weight, before tucking it into the purse on her belt.

“Follow me,” she said.

Up she came from the couch, moving with surprising agility considering the wine she’d ingested. There was a sleeping area in a sectioned-off corner of the apartment, back behind a massive screen with a scene depicting ancient Rome painted upon it. Mary headed straight to the bed.

It was a big piece of furniture, with a carved wooden frame, and she braced her hands on the end of the bed. She silently gestured, making quick motions as if to shove the bed right into the wall, but she was doing it in a rhythmic motion. Magnus quickly understood what she meant, and with a grin, he put his hands on one of the four end posts.

If his friends thought they’d pulled a joke on him, they were about to learn differently.

He was about to turn the tables on them.

Magnus and Mary started ramming the bed into the wall with a regular rhythm, as a man would when making love to a woman. The banging bed was accompanied by loud grunts on his part, as if he were genuinely bedding the woman and having a good time doing it. His grunts were peppered with high-pitched gasps from Mary, mimicking cries of pleasure.

They went on for an hour.

A solid hour of the bed bumping, of his loud growls of pleasure, and of her female shrieks. It was the performance of a lifetime. They only stopped because Magnus was becoming weary, especially after having fought three bouts that night, so he ended the spectacle with rapid thumps against the wall and then a high-pitched scream from Mary.

After that, there was dead silence.

At least, silence to anyone listening in from the outside, but by then, he and Mary were nearly doubled over with laughter. Magnus could just see the shocked faces of Lor and Bane and Galan as they realized their arrogant friend had not only taken the bait but had used it. By the sounds emitting from the apartment, he’d had a good time of it, too.

After he and Mary rested a few minutes, they went on to bed bump for another half hour that would certainly impress his friends. They were going to know that their trick on him had failed spectacularly. But soon, Magnus’s exhaustion got the better of him and they ended their brilliant performance for the night.

It had been glorious.

In the quiet of pseudo afterglow that followed, Magnus went to bathe as Mary ate the food that had been brought up earlier. Magnus joined her once he was clean, taking the time to eat and chat with the clever old woman he was genuinely coming to like. They passed the hours until it neared dawn and the Ludus Caledonia was shutting down for the night. Patrons were leaving on horseback or in fine carriages, and warriors were retreating to their cottages, so Magnus finished his food and stood up from the table.

“Time tae leave, m’dear,” he said. “‘Ye’ve been a grand companion this night, but ’tis time for ye tae go home.”

Mary was groggy. She had been sitting at the table for the last hour, her eyes half-lidded from wine, food, and exhaustion. She stood up, weaving dangerously, as Magnus draped her with the shawl that was tossed over a chair. She smoothed at her white hair, but he ruffled it, making it a wild mass of silver. Mary looked as if she’d spent all night being pleasured by a virile warrior, and when she realized why he’d done it, she cast him a reproachful look.

Naughty lad.

He simply smiled.

Magnus wanted to make sure her disheveled appearance matched the screaming she’d done earlier, and once he was satisfied that she appeared properly pleasured, he directed her toward the entry that led out into the common areas of the Ludus Caledonia.

“Ye have a carriage, I assume?” he asked as he escorted her to the door.

Mary nodded. “Aye.”

“Good,” he said. Then he lowered his voice and leaned down to her. “If ye dunna look as if I’ve taken advantage of