Maggie Mine (30 page)

“You will.”

Brodie put an arm around her shoulders and turned her from him. They left the room and Nicholas let them go. He wanted desperately to stop her from leaving him, but knew it would be a mistake. He had to give her time. And he had to let her try and help her brother regain his memory. But, God, he hated to see her go.

*
*
*

Maggie barely heard the steady crunch of leaves being trampled under the feet of the horses. She barely noted the towering pines of the forest they were passing through. They
ha
d been riding for two days and with each new day her heart grew heavier. She was torn between the two men she loved. Brodie, still so troubled by all he couldn’t remember, needed her help. Nicholas, her husband who
ha
d suffered even worse nightmares than she had, needed her as well. And she
ha
d treated him so badly.

She shifted in the saddle and thought about the proud man she
ha
d been forced to marry. He’d done his duty to his king both in Tunis and by taking a wife he hadn’t wanted. Yet he
ha
d been tender with her in their bed, wild at times, too. It was those wilder times that made her woman’s place ache with longing. She was a passionate woman by nature. Nicholas brought out those passions even more. And he
ha
d tried to bring them out again after she
ha
d consented to return to his bed. But she
ha
d held herself back, not let her desire fire enough to love him back. She
ha
d held a grudge about him having doubted her. But the circumstances would have made anyone in his position doubt her, she knew that now.

Brodie rode up beside her and glanced over in concern. “Are ye all right?”

“He let me go,” she said in half sadness, half disgust.

“Ye wanted to go.”

She shrugged. “Fer ye, aye.”

“Do ye love him, Maggie?”

“Aye.” She didn’t even question her feelings any longer. She loved the big English lord and wondered if they could ever make things right between them again.

“He loves ye, too, ye ken.”

“He let me go,” she repeated, but studied her brother. He didn’t seem as hard today, more at peace. Maybe all her chattering away about their youth together had helped in some way. She felt good, hopeful, about that, but she longed to be with Nicholas.

“Aye, he let you go, but he dinna want to do so. He loved ye enough to let ye go.”

She frowned at him. “Why are ye men so impossible? If he truly loved me, he should have insisted I stay.”

Brodie rolled his eyes and laughed, something she imagined he hadn’t done in a long time. “Even no’ remembering all aboot ye, I ken ye would have shown a bit of temper if he’d insisted.”

“Mayhap.” She smiled. “Aye, I’d have been most upset with him.” And now she was upset because he’d let her go.
“He should have spanked me to make me see reason.” Her face heated at the admission, hoping her brother hadn’t heard it.

Brodie grinned. “Aye,
now
I’m thinking
he should have
.”

Maggie huf
fed and refused to look at him.

“I’ll send a dozen men with ye,” Brodie said, sounding serious once more.

She blinked in confusion. “With me?”

“Ye need
—
want
—
to go back to Middleham.” He met her gaze and held it. “Make up with yer husband. I’ll be fine.”

“But
—”

“Ye belong with Nicholas.”

She did. Feeling anxious, hopeful, she reined in her horse. She memorized her beloved brother’s face and vowed to convince Nicholas to go with her to Urquhart in the next month or so. But for now, she wanted to show him that she’d forgiven him for doubting her, that she truly loved him.

“I love ye, ye ken.”

Brodie gave her a sad smile. “I ken.”

*
*
*

Nicholas wiped the sweat from his brow and bit back a groan from the aches he felt after having trained so hard these last four days. Gerald and Richard had tried to tell him it was too soon, to let his wounds completely heal. But it wasn’t really his shoulder that pained him or drove him to do this. He couldn’t sleep in his bedchamber without inhaling the scent of Maggie, so he slept in the great hall with the other men. He couldn’t work in the solar without seeing the sad look in Maggie’s eyes before she’d walked out of the solar with Brodie. No, the wound that wouldn’t heal was the ache of his heart from having let Maggie walk away from him.

“You could go after her,” Gerald said, stopping beside him to rest a moment. “I can get some men ready to leave even this day.”

He’d thought about it every second of every day since she’d left Middleham. He could, he should, but he held to his promise to let her go with her brother. Yet he knew he couldn’t let her stay at Urquhart forever. “Nay, I’ll give her a fortnight.”

Deciding he needed to burn off more frustration, he stepped back toward the other men still training with wooden swords.
 
He’d just moved into position to train with Gerald when a guard yelled down from the parapet, “Riders,
M
y
L
ord!”

Nicholas looked up, his stomach knotting with a foolish hope.
 
Before he could question the guard, the man called down once more. “’Tis Lady Middleham and six of the Scots.”

Maggie!
His whole body tightened in anticipation. She
ha
d come back to him. God’s teeth, she
ha
d come back to him.

He waited, hardly breathing, with the three dozen men who had stopped to wait as well. It seemed like hours but was really only minutes until she rode over the drawbridge with her accompanying guards. She didn’t even seem to notice the bailey full of men watching. She rode straight to him. Her eyes were solely focused on him. And, oddly, she looked more annoyed as she grew closer.

She slid from the saddle before he could lift her down. Shoving the reins at Gerald, she marched right up to him, frowning. “Ye let me go. Ye dinna come after me.”

“’Tis what you wanted, wife.” He wanted to grab her and hold her, but he also wanted to know what she intended now.

She stepped toe-to-toe with him, jabbed his chest with a finger. “Do ye love me? Honestly love me?”

Their audience was listening intently, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was that she’d come back to him. “Aye, Maggie, I love you.”

She bobbed her head, appearing somewhat satisfied with his answer. “Well, I love ye, too.”

Then she took his hand and started dragging him with her toward the keep. He trailed along more than willing. But she stopped on the steps and grinned back at the men. “Yer lord will
no’
be training the rest of the day.”

Nicholas found himself smiling. “I won’t?” He had absolutely no more interest in anything beyond taking her up to their bedchamber and ridding her of her clothes as fast as possible.

“Nay, you
will no’
.” She pulled him with her into the keep. After a second’s hesitation to adjust to the dimly lit interior, she hurried him across the great hall. Again, he didn’t resist.

As they started up the stone stairs, he said, “Just what have you in mind, wife?”

He watched the sway of her bottom as she led the way up the stairs. His cock was so hard he could hardly walk without hurting. He prayed he had the stamina to keep up with his determined wife.

She glanced back at him with a look he couldn’t quite read, but he saw the heat in her eyes.
 
A heat which grew hotter as she gazed down at the ridge pushing against his braies. “Much the same as ye, husband. After.”

“After what?” he asked, hurrying behind her when she raced down the hallway and into their room.

When he moved past her into the chamber, she firmly closed the door behind them. She motioned him impatiently toward the bed. “There’s something that needs doing first.”

He gave her a curious look, but she nudged him the rest of the way to the bed and then shoved him until he was forced to sit on the side of the mattress. When he would have reached for her to pull her into a hug, she shook her head.

“Nay hugs yet.” Then she yanked up her skirt and chemise while he watched in confusion.

“Let me take them off
—”

Again, she shook her head. An instant later, she stretched herself over his lap, holding the skirts so that he was left to stare down at her creamy bare bottom.

“What
—”

“I’m in desperate need of yer attention, husband,” she stated, wriggling into a better position.

He pressed his hardened shaft against her side. “And I’m willing to give you a lot of attention, wife.
 
But why
—”

“Aye, I want a lot of
that kind
of attention, too.” She craned her head to look at him, holding her hair away from her face. Determination etched her beautiful face. “But first ye must properly spank me.”

“You
want
me to spank you?” he asked incredulously.

Annoyance added to the determination in her gaze. “More like
need
ye to spank me. I’ve been thinking aboot my behavior toward ye and I am verra unhappy with it.”

He could only gape at her.

“Hand to my bottom, husband. Repeatedly.” She blew out a breath of frustration. “Until…
.
”

Nicholas smoothed a hand over her cool flesh, his cock hardening even more. “Until what? Until I forgive you? It was I who failed you. I who need forgiveness.”

She huffed. “I’ve forgiven ye fer being a foolish m
o
n. But I canna fergive myself fer being a foolish woman.” She lowered her head. “Ye must spank me until I can.”

He wasn’t sure about this, but he raised his hand and sent it down lightly to her bottom.

“What was that? A love pat?” Now she sounded angry. “’Tisn’ what I need.”

“I don’t really want to spank you.” He smoothed his hand over her bottom again. All he wanted to do was toss her on the bed and drive his rod deep into her.

“’Tisn’ aboot
yer
wants. ‘Tis aboot
my
need,” she insisted.

Oddly, he was starting to understand. Guilt of some kind was weighing heavily on her. Maybe he could do this.

She broke into his musings. “I’ll be making yer life crazy fer years. Challenging ye. Being stubborn and doing as I please.” She wriggled her bottom. “If ye canna do this, then I’ll no’ let ye between me legs. No’ let ye drive into me. I’ll put on chainmail and go down to train with yer men.”

He swatted her bottom, hard enough that he left a handprint. “You will
not
train with my men.”

She pressed, “I’ll ride back to join Brodie.”

Before he realized what he was doing, he spanked her soundly a quick dozen times. “Nay. You’re not leaving me again.”

She sucked in a breath. “I will if ye canna prove how much ye love me. Show me that ye can warm m
y
bottom when I need it, when I want it.”

Finally he freed some of the hard feeling
s he’d been holding inside. She ha
d hurt him by not letting him love her and win her back. She
ha
d nearly gotten herself killed by Mary in a foolish attempt to protect him.

Suddenly he was spanking her in earnest. There wasn’t a spot of her wriggling bottom that he didn’t turn red. She hissed and kicked, but took the spanking. He didn’t stop until she finally cried out, “Enough! ‘Tis enough!”

He gave a final sizzling swat and then looked down at her dark red bottom, felt the heat rising from it. “I’m sorry, my love.”

She scrambled off his lap, winced as the fabric of her clothes brushed over her tender flesh. Her eyes were filled with tears, but she gave him a tender smile. “Thank ye, husband.”

He pulled her between his legs and gently thumbed the tears sliding down her face. “I was coming after you in a fortnight, mayhap less than that. I find I cannot live without you.”

She beamed and then moved back to say, “Remove my clothes. I have a fierce need of ye.”

Chuckling, he stood and reached to pull off her bodice. “You’re sure a bossy wench.”

“But ye love me anyway.” She rubbed his hard length behind the fabric of his braies.

“Aye, I do.” He tugged off her skirt
and then her chemise
,
pulled her closer, reached around to cover her hot bottom. “I’m so glad you came back,
wife
.”