Chapter Twenty-eight
Maddy leaned back against William’s chest, smiling at the rhythmic clip-clop of Rose’s hooves on the pavement as they exited the River Run parking lot and started down the moonlit street. “Did we just get married, Mr. Killkenny?” she asked, her smile widening when she heard him sigh.
“I’m afraid we did, lass.”
“So . . . do you feel like a husband?”
That got her a chuckle. “I’ll let ye know in the morning when I wake up and realize I no longer have to sneak out your bedroom window before your mother or daughter walk in on us.”
“Isn’t it funny,” she murmured, snuggling deeper into the warmth of his embrace, “how one minute it’s scandalous for two consenting adults to have sex, but after standing in front of a bunch of people and announcing their intention to sleep together, it’s suddenly okay?”
“’Tis obvious marriage was invented by a woman.”
Maddy canted her head back to grin up at him. “You missed that one by a mile, Willy. Marriage was invented by some poor, haggard father.” She faced forward again. “Is Mac really bringing Gabriella to this century, like he brought Fiona?”
William’s arms tightened around her. “It would appear that’s his intention.”
“But what did he mean when he said she wouldn’t come until she found her box of ribbons?” She looked up at him again. “Hiram told me you asked him to give your sister a message that had something to do with ribbons. Is Gabriella using them as an excuse to put off coming here for some reason?”
William kissed her forehead. “It’s more likely Gabby is planning a reunion that will involve my being the brunt of a devious stunt.” He both shuddered and chuckled. “God save us—the girl’s had a thousand years to plot her revenge.”
“Revenge for what? Did you steal her box of ribbons or something?”
“Oh, no, ye don’t,” he said, nudging her around to face forward. “I’m not about to tattle on myself—especially considering I’ll soon be the only male living in a house with three frightening females.”
Maddy pulled his hand down to her belly. “According to Mac, you won’t be the only male in seven and a half months.” She snorted. “Apparently you knocked me up, Mr. Killkenny, before you made an honest woman of me.” But then she sighed. “After the lecture I gave Sarah on the proper order of marriage and babies, now how in hell am I supposed to persuade her to do as I say, not as I do?”
“Do not worry yourself; I will make sure the girl is wedded and bedded in the proper order, even if it means locking her in our tower until she’s thirty.”
Maddy smiled into the night again. “Have I ever told you I love you?”
He squeezed her so tightly that she squeaked. “A hundred times a day, lass, in a hundred different ways.”
“Oh! Now that we’re finally alone, I have something to give you,” she said, sitting up to reach under the high collar of her mother’s wedding gown. She’d wanted to change into more comfortable clothes after the reception, but the women had all ganged up on her, complaining that she would positively ruin her fairy-tale wedding if she didn’t ride off into the sunset wearing her beautiful gown. “Damn,” she muttered. “Would you unbutton the collar of my dress?”
He gave a hearty chuckle. “An eager bride, are ye?” he whispered against her ear—which made her shudder sensuously. “I believe I was fourteen the last time I tried to go parking on a horse,” he continued as he attempted to undo the buttons. “But if ye can’t wait until we get home, then I’ll see if I can remember how it’s done.”
Maddy turned to blink at him. “You actually did it on horseback?” She eyed him suspiciously, even as her hormones—the same ones that had gotten her pregnant before her wedding—started doing their infamous little happy dance. “How?”
William suddenly draped her over one of his arms, lifted one of her legs across his chest, and spun her around before she could even squeak in surprise. And damn if her hormones didn’t go into full riot when she found herself clutching his shoulders, facing him, intimately straddling his thighs.
“Well, now,” he whispered, his hands gathering up the hem of her long dress, “I believe it involves one of us having a nimble body, the other good balance, and an obliging horse.”
Maddy glanced over her shoulder, wondering who was driving Rose. “Um . . . William,” she said, although it came out as a squeak when his wandering hands stopped on her hips.
Which were naked, since she wasn’t wearing panties.
Well, she was an eager bride, and having planned to pounce on her groom the moment they reached Dragon Cove, she wasn’t risking another lovemaking debacle like the first time she’d attacked him.
“Wait. No. Stop!” she squealed when he pulled her even more intimately against him—revealing exactly how eager he was.
Her petition was answered by a groan. “Ye can’t let me know you’re not wearing underpants and then ask me to stop.” He rested his forehead against hers. “Even if someone should see us, your dress will shield the fact that I married a wanton woman. You’re already with child, and we announced our intentions in front of a priest, so there’s no reason for us to stop. And ye needn’t worry about Rose, either; she’s not one to carry tales back to her stall mates. Now, do ye have any other concerns?” he growled, pulling her against him again.
She cupped his handsome face between her hands but stopped short of kissing him, because she really, really wanted to give him her gift before they made love the first time as husband and wife. “Don’t worry; Mr. Killkenny,” she whispered, her lips brushing provocatively against his—making him shudder. “I have every intention of going parking on this horse, if for no other reason than to see if it really is possible. But I want to give you my wedding present first.”
“I believe I’ve been trying to let you give it to me for the last five minutes.”
That made her laugh, and she reached up to undo the buttons at the nape of her neck. “No, I have something else I want to give you first.”
Only he lifted his hands to catch her when she started to lose her balance.
Which also lifted her dress.
Which in turn exposed her naked bottom to the cool night air.
Maddy threw herself forward with a gasp, trying to push her dress back down.
They might have been okay if Rose hadn’t suddenly stopped walking.
Maddy grabbed William’s shoulders to right herself just as he lunged forward in an attempt to catch her. “Christ almighty, will ye quit your squirming.”
“William, we’re falling!”
Stating the obvious did not keep it from happening, however. William wrapped his arms around her as they went tumbling off Rose, twisting so that he took the brunt of their fall as they landed on the library lawn.
Hearing his grunt come out as a whoosh, Maddy scrambled off him, only to hear him grunt again, this time several decibels louder and quite a few octaves higher.
“Omigod, William!” she cried, reaching for him. “I’m sorry!”
Apparently thinking that she was attacking him again when her feet got tangled up in the train of her dress, William caught hold of her shoulders to guide her fall, spun her around, and pinned her to the ground. “Maddy, darling,” he growled. “Let’s say we just lie here for a while and enjoy the evening air.”
“I’m sorry, William,” she whispered. “Are you in much pain?”
He lifted his head. “I don’t suppose they taught you what to do for such injuries in nursing school, did they?”
She grinned up at him. “Actually, they did.” She cupped his cheeks. “First, we’re supposed to give the patient mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and then, once we’re confident that he’s breathing heavily and his heart is racing, we’re supposed to . . . um . . . examine the wound and decide if further action is necessary.”
“And if it is? What sort of action would ye take?”
She traced his perfectly groomed goatee with her thumb. “If I remember correctly, the textbook said we should surround the injury with lots and lots of heat.”
“And just how would ye go about doing that?”
“Well, the prescribed method would be to get the patient into bed, but in this case, I believe a horse would work equally well. Then the textbook said we should use our own body to surround the injury and apply just the right amount of pressure, and then slowly—very, very slowly, it said—start moving up and down the injury until we feel the patient is recovered enough to take over from there.”
William lifted his head and looked up and down the lawn.
“What are you looking for?”
He smiled, even as he continued looking around. “A nurse.”
She gave his shoulder a shove, pushing him off her so she could sit up. “You are married to a nurse,” she sputtered in laughter, reaching up to undo her collar. “And I intend to administer intensive care just as soon as I give you my gift.”
But upon getting the collar open and not finding the chain that should be hanging around her neck, Maddy scrambled to her feet. “Oh, no, I can’t find it!” She contorted her arms and unzipped the back of her dress, pulling it down off her shoulders. “The chain must have broken,” she muttered, sliding her arms out of the sleeves so she could pull her slip away from her bra.
A car drove down Main Street, and its windows suddenly lowered, and several teenagers—male and female—stuck their heads out, their whistles and catcalls lost in the sound of the car’s honking horn.
“Madeline, you are undressing in the town square,” William growled, slipping out of his jacket and tossing it over her shoulders.
“I don’t care!” she cried when she didn’t find the chain inside her bra. She shoved her slip down over her hips along with her gown, stepped out of them, and got down on her knees to start searching through the material. “I have to find it, William.” She stopped only long enough to lift pleading eyes to his. “I broke three grinders and spent weeks making it for you.” She held up her hand to show him the bandages on her fingers. “I know I told you that I cut my fingers pruning my rose bushes, but I really cut them making your gift.”
She started searching again.
William took hold of her shoulders and lifted Maddy to her feet, tucked her arms into the sleeves of his jacket, then raised his finger to cover her lips when she started to protest. “Hush, lass. Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked soothingly, reaching into his pants pocket. He held his hand up between them and opened his fingers to let a thin chain drop out, his dragon claw dangling from it.
“How did you get it?” she asked with a gasp.
“When Mac shook my hand before he disappeared, he pressed it into my palm.”
“But it was around my neck then, so how did Mac get hold of it?”
William arched a brow. “Only one of two ways that I know of; the first being that he reached down your dress and dug it out of your bosom.”
“He did not!”
William flipped his hand to toss the chain into his palm. “Then I guess he must have gotten it by magic.”
“But why?” Maddy whispered, lifting her gaze to his, a lump rising in her throat. “I . . . I was supposed to give it to you, William. It was my wedding present to you.”
He looked down at what was left of his old dragon claw. “You’re returning my gift?” he asked, not looking at her.
“No. No!” she cried, clutching his hand that was holding the claw. “I’m never giving it back. I only intended to show you what I did with it, so you would understand how I see you.” She let go of him and held out her hand, palm up. “I intend to wear it forever and ever, William, as . . .” She felt her cheeks heat up and looked down at her gift to him through suddenly blurry eyes. “As a token of your love,” she finished on a whisper.
He lifted her chin with his finger. “Ye spent the last few weeks filing my claw into the shape of a heart,” he asked softly, “to show me how you see me?”
All she could do was nod.
“And now you’re wondering why Mac ruined your surprise by taking it from you and giving it back to me?”
Maddy threw herself at William and wrapped her arms around him so tightly she made him grunt. “I don’t care if you don’t ever say you love me,” she said, nearly sobbing. “And I don’t need some stupid old token to remind me, either. Mac’s wrong, William; you do have a heart, and it belongs to me.” She leaned back to glare up at him. “You were only a bogeyman, you big sap,” she said softly, breaking into a smile. “And not a very good one, seeing how you couldn’t even scare me away. Real monsters enjoy scaring the bejeezus out of people, and I happen to know that you didn’t enjoy one minute of your life as a dragon.”
“I enjoyed flying.”
She went back to glaring at him. “Oh, William, just let me love you, will you?” she whispered, dropping her forehead to his chest.
He nudged her upright in order to slip the chain over her head, and then leaned her away in order to settle his heart-shaped claw between her breasts. “Mac gave it to me so that I could give it to you again,” he said, running his fingers through her hair to hold her as she looked at him. “After he made one small alteration to it. You may have shaped the claw into a heart, but you forgot to include the symbol of a strong arm.”
“But that’s the symbol on your medal. Why would I need it on mine?”
“Because men need a strong arm sometimes, too, and I believe Mac wished to point out to both of us that you are mine.”
“I’m a strong arm?”
“You rescued me, didn’t you? And gave me back my heart so I can love you.”
Maddy sighed, even as she smiled. “You never lost your heart, William.”
He sighed right back at her, but he didn’t smile. “Did I just acquire a wife who intends to spend the next fifty years contradicting her husband?”
She reached up to toy with the heart-shaped claw hanging around her neck. “And if you did, just what is my big, bad bogeyman husband going to do about it?”
Still holding her face in his hands, he finally smiled, and it was tender and sweet and held only a hint of mischief. “I imagine that just before I dig out my knife and cut off yet another one of those offending bras ye insist on wearing, I will likely tell you that I love you a thousand times more than a hundred times a day, in many more ways than I can count.”
Maddy’s heart started thumping so hard it actually hurt.
He brushed his thumbs across her cheeks. “Please don’t cry, Madeline. I promise I’m not just saying the words, I’m meaning them. I love you more than life itself, wife, and am giving you my heart to hold in your strong arms forever and ever, as I vow to hold yours in mine.”
He had to prop her up in order to kiss her then, as she’d gone quite weak in the knees, and Maddy didn’t think she’d ever breathe properly again.
The romantic sap.
Who knew that when a scary-looking, buck-naked caveman had walked out of the library and kissed her in front of half the town in the pouring rain, they’d be standing in the very same spot as husband and wife not three months later?
When he finally let her come up for air, Maddy slowly looked around to make sure they didn’t have an audience. Then she smiled at his expectant look as she placed her hands on his chest, surreptitiously moved her foot just beside his as she leaned against him, and shoved him into the small grove of young junipers not three feet away.
His yelp of surprise was lost in her laughter as she straddled his hips and held his hands down on either side of his head.
“William,” she said very, very softly.
“Yes, Madeline?”
“Boo.”