Medieval 01 - Untamed

stiffened.
    â€œYou have no reason to hint at anything improper,” she said angrily.
    Dominic lifted a skeptical black eyebrow.
    â€œThere is naught between Duncan and me,” Meg said. “For the love of God, husband, I came to your bed a virgin!”
    â€œBut you can’t do that every time, can you? A man can be certain only once of a woman’s fidelity.”
    Meg’s eyes widened. “You can’t mean that!”
    â€œI can. I do. Once again, I regret not killing that Scots bastard.”
    Stillness came over Meg like night flowing over the face of day.
    â€œWhat have I done to earn your distrust?” she asked in a remote voice.
    Meg’s tone was like adding straw to the fire of Dominic’s temper, which was already ablaze with the last, dying echoes of a battle he had come very close to losing.
    â€œYou were alone with a half-naked knight who is reputed to be the owner of your heart, if not your body,” Dominic retorted. “Were it Marie standing between Duncan’s thighs, I would applaud. But it wasn’t Marie who was simpering over Duncan’s wounds. It was my wife!”
    â€œI have never simpered over any man’s wounds. I am a healer, not a prostitute.”
    Dominic grunted. “At times, ’tis hard to know the difference.”
    â€œDuncan has no such difficulty. He knows me for what I am, healer not whore. Would that mine ownhusband knew me half as well!”
    â€œI’m trying, wife. I’m trying. But I keep tripping over that Scots bastard at every turn. Tell me—for whom did you cheer while we fought?”
    â€œHow can you even ask that question?” she whispered.
    Turning away, Meg began gathering her medicines with hands that shook from anger and something more, the chill fear that increased each time she understood how little of her husband’s respect she had.
    And of his trust, she had none.
    â€œI’ll send Simon to your bath,” Meg said.
    â€œNay.”
    The command was as flat and cold as a sword.
    â€œAs you wish, lord,” Meg said, stalking past her fierce husband. “Though I would think a man who trusted me so little would be fearful of a dagger in his back.”
    With a hissed phrase in Turkish, Dominic followed. He knew his temper was abrupt and his tongue was as slashing as the edge of his sword, but there was little he could do about the matter at the moment. His usual irritability after battle had turned to fury at the sight of Meg and the half-naked Scotsman.
    Dominic stepped into the bathing room and yanked the drape across the doorway into place.
    â€œDo you love that Scots bastard?” Dominic asked abruptly.
    â€œAs a cousin, a friend, the brother I never had, aye.”
    With quick, curt motions, Dominic began undoing his battle gear.
    â€œDid you once love Duncan as a woman loves a man?” he demanded.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œBut he loved you.”
    Meg made a sound that was too sad and angry to be called laughter.
    â€œNay, lord. For me, Duncan felt some affection. For Blackthorne Keep, he had great love. Like you, Duncan saw me as a means of becoming a great lord. Unlike you, he was not the man the king commanded me to marry.”
    â€œIt is a noble woman’s duty to increase her family’s security through marriage.”
    â€œYes. I have done my duty.”
    Dominic couldn’t argue with Meg’s quiet statement, yet he wanted to. He wanted her to say that it was more than noble duty that brought her to his bed, more than duty that made her soften at his touch, more than duty that called forth her sultry, passionate rain.
    In a stiff silence Meg assisted Dominic out of his battle gear. When he peeled off the last of his clothing, his heavy arousal made her breath catch in her throat. Abruptly she began to understand why he might have been so angry at finding her with Duncan. The passion of battle had been transformed into another kind of passion altogether.
    Meg could understand that, for she had felt the same. The terrible fear she had known while Duncan’s charger bore down on her husband had been transformed in the space of a breath to intense desire.
    Dominic was alive. She wanted to celebrate his survival in the most elemental of all ways.
    â€œWhat? No sweet smiles and tender touches for your husband?” Dominic asked harshly as he stepped into the bath. “Aren’t you going to stroke me and heal my battle