Chapter Twelve

Playboy would be envious …

Ian was slam dunk in the middle of the ultimate sexual fantasy, and he wasn’t even dreaming.

A gorgeous woman straddled his stomach … a naked gorgeous woman. She had silver blond hair down to her sweet butt … her naked sweet butt. Her breasts were big, and firm, and uptilted … her naked breasts. They were not as big as he’d originally thought, but hot damn big enough; her slender body—narrow waist and hips—made them appear larger.

“Why are you grinning?” she asked.

“Because you are so hot and you’re sitting on my lap. Naked.” And because I am hoping for a repeat … or two.

“Is hot good?”

“Definitely.” Better hot than cold, sweetheart. And I’ve had a few of those.

“Then I think you are hot, too.”

That has got to be the first time a woman has called me hot. Not that he’d ever had trouble getting a girl. Being a SEAL made it easy. But hot? Uh-uh! He probably had a goofy grin on his face.

She raised her arms to push her hair behind her ears.

And his cock jackknifed from zero to ninety degrees in an instant. Well, okay, from forty-five to ninety—he’d already been half hard.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

He almost swallowed his tongue at that question. “Everything.”

“Be more specific. I’m new at this.”

Oh, sweetie, you do not want me to be specific. “You ever heard the song, ‘Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy’?”

She frowned with puzzlement. “What?”

“It would be like saying, ‘Save a Boat, Ride a SEAL.’”

He saw the minute she understood. “The seal being you?”

“Oh, yeah.” He smiled at her.

“You should smile more often. You have a beautiful smile.”

“Yeah?” Horse, seal, whatever. I’m all yours. He’d seen a bumper sticker yesterday on a pickup truck that read, Save a truck, ride a redneck. He smiled some more.

“It … your smile … makes me fluttery.” She put both hands over her stomach.

Well, holy shit, I can’t get a more direct invitation than that. He guided her down onto his cock. Sloooowly. So slowly he feared he might come before the big event.

When she was impaled on him, her eyes went wide and her lips parted with arousal. Then, of all things, she said, “We probably shouldn’t be doing this.”

No way, babe! You are not backing out now. “ Now you realize that?”

“We won’t be able to get that annul thing, will we?”

“Annulment. No, that won’t be possible, but we can still get a divorce.” If she changes her mind now, I might just cry … or beg.

“How is that different?”

“Takes more time.” I cannot believe I am discussing divorce with a naked woman sitting on me.

“How much more time?”

Enough already! He reached down between her legs and stroked her there. “Yeeek!” she squealed and spasmed around him a few times, which caused him to twitch. But then he answered her: “Months.”

“Good.”

He did a mental high-five. “Okay, baby, show me your moves.” He arched his hips up to get her going.

“I don’t have any moves. What are moves?”

Talk, talk, talk, talk. “Just do what feels good. That’s a move.”

Turned out Maddie had moves aplenty.

No regrets …

She was sound asleep when she felt a tickle on the bottom of her foot.

She kicked out, hoping to shoo the fly away. But it persisted. When she opened her eyes, she saw that the fly was in fact Ian standing at the foot of the bed. He was fully dressed, and she was splatted out on the bed, arms on the pillow, legs spread. Naked!

“Eek!” she said and grabbed for a bed linen to cover herself.

“A little late for that, sweet pea. There isn’t an inch of your body that I’m not up close and intimate with.”

“You don’t have to say it out loud.” She glanced at the window and saw that the sun was fully up. It had to be at least an hour past dawn. She hadn’t slept this late since she was a little girl.

As she slowly came awake, she recalled the events of the night before. Her body ached in unmentionable places. Her lips felt kiss-swollen. In effect, she felt sated … and wonderful.

Her blush prompted Ian to ask, “Are you having morning-after regrets?”

She thought about saying yes. After all, she did not want him to get too puffed up, but she could see that he awaited her answer nervously. “No regrets.” I might later, but not now.

He came around and sat on the edge of the bed near her. He reached over and pushed a strand of hair off her face. Then he kissed her gently on the mouth. “I’ll be gone all day, but Geek is here. He’ll stay with you till I get home this evening. Please … please don’t go be-bopping off to the mall or anywhere else.”

What in the name of Thor is be-bopping?

“Sly and Cage have outside duty, but you won’t see them.”

I have much to do. I must needs find a map in order to return to my country. The jewels have to be sold to raise funds for an army. So much planning to do. I cannot sit back and enjoy life, tempting as that might be. “How long will this go on?”

“Weeks, I would think. Starting today, there’ll be little snippets about you planted in newspapers and on television. After that, it will probably take Jamal’s cohorts several days to track you here. So you’re relatively safe for now. We have to be cautious anyhow.”

She nodded. So the danger won’t come for a few more days. Hmmm.

“Geek says you want to learn to read and write. I told him to bring some materials with him. And you should rest. You didn’t get much sleep last night.” His voice was thick with meaning at that last.

“Why are you being so nice?”

He laughed. “I’m always nice.”

“Hah! Not to me.” She looked at his face, and it was impossible to miss the lack of the tension that was usually there. And she knew why. “ ’Tis amazing what a little bedsport will do for a man’s disposition.”

He pinched her arm in a teasing manner. “You’re being more agreeable yourself.”

“I’m just tired.”

“Liar.”

She raised her eyebrows at him.

“It’s amazing what a good roll in the hay will do for a woman’s disposition.”

He ducked then when she would have clouted him upside the head, which caused the bed linen to drop, which caused his eyes to widen, which gave her the opportunity to punch him on the arm. He laughed at such a piddly effort. She heard him still laughing when he closed the front door after himself.

Madrene found herself laughing, too, with sheer joy. This euphoria she felt now was probably temporary. But for now, she was happy.

There was hope.

Every time men think they understand women … oops! …

Ian and those squad members not at his house joined the other team members, and a new SEAL training class, for a grueling day of physical and technical training.

They ran five miles. They went to the “Kill House” to practice breaking down doors and fighting pretend terrorists. They ran another five miles. They practiced gunmanship on the firing range. They … yep … ran another five miles. Then they went through all the obstacles on the O-course, including the climbing wall and the suicide jump. And that was before noon.

Throughout it all, he kept thinking about Maddie and the incredible night they had spent together. Crazy and irresponsible were words that came to mind to describe himself, but there were also lucky and happy . Toby Keith sang a song saying something to the effect that he wasn’t talking about forever, he was just talking about tonight. In other words, no promises. I don’t want just one night. He surprised himself with that thought. What did he want? Hell if I know. Just more. Lots more.

As they paraded over to the mess hall, muscles aching as usual after a workout, Pretty Boy looked at him and said, “You look different today.”

He didn’t answer, knowing what was going to come next.

“Yeah, he seems more … relaxed,” Omar said, fighting hard to keep a straight face.

“I think he’s blushing. Yep, I see a blush,” JAM concurred.

“Well, hell’s bells, it looks as if the good lieutenant got his ashes hauled,” the usually quiet Slick said.

They all turned and looked at Ian. At first with disbelief … which he considered insulting, then with mischief.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said and walked faster to avoid further conversation on that subject.

But they were not going to drop the subject. No way! He wouldn’t have, either.

“Let me guess. You brought some babe into your house while Maddie was asleep and did the deed on the couch.” They stood waiting in the food line, and Pretty Boy was having a great time tapping his chin in exaggerated contemplation. “No, that doesn’t seem right. It must be … could it be? … our boss nailed the decoy.”

Ian tried to punch Pretty Boy in the arm, but he ducked away. Luckily, Ian was spared any further discussion on the subject. His cell phone rang.

“Yo, Mac,” Cage said. He could hear the laughter in his voice.

Uh-oh!

“Guess what your wife is doing, bless her heart?”

Uh-oh! “Stop playing games. What the hell is up?”

“Well, me, I am pretty sure … but I better check with my binoculars again … yep, I’m pretty sure that’s your wife out there swimming in the surf.”

“I’ll kill her,” he muttered.

“Oh, did I forget to mention skinny dipping? Yep, your wife is N-U-D-E,” he spelled out.

“Fuck!”

“Seems to me you already did that, by the looks of her when she came outside. Mon Dieu! She had whisker burns up one side and down the other. And her lips—whooee, they—”

“Shut up!”

“A little testy today, are you, mon coeur? ”

“Don’t give me that ‘my friend’ crap. Where’s Geek? He’s supposed to be watching her.”

“He was in the head when she slipped out.”

Shit! Cage and Geek both looking at my wife’s nude body. Aaarrgh! She’s not really my wife. But I still don’t want other men ogling her. How long has she been out there?”

“About ten minutes.”

“You have been standing there watching her for ten minutes?” he asked in an icy voice.

“Yep!”

“I’ll be right home.”

“Do you want me to go in and get her?”

“ No! Is that clear?”

“How could it not be? You about melted the wax in my ears.”

He hung up then on Cage, who was laughing like a hyena.

Ian was so angry he was shaking. He didn’t care how good Maddie was in the sack, he was going to kill her. Well, he did care, but he was still going to kill her.

He slammed his cell phone shut and noticed everyone was looking at him. And every single one of them was smiling.

A far journey was obviously in her future …

Madrene was learning to read.

If she had known she would get such joy from the simple task of practicing letters on a piece of parchment, she would have taken time when she was a child to study along with her brothers and their monk teachers. She had started her lessons early this morning until she’d taken a break for a quick swim … something she had learned to do as a toddler in the cold waters of a Norseland fjord. Vikings, who were most comfortable in the seas riding their longships, considered swimming a necessary skill.

Geek said she was a quick learner and he gave her homework to do on the days when he was not there. Writing her letters over and over. And practicing simple words like cat and dog.

Now they had a book in front of them called See Jane Run, which was helping her to recognize simple words.

“I don’t think you need to learn everything,” Geek said. “People start learning to read when they’re four or five years old and continue studying the language in one way or another for twelve years or more.”

“You jest?” she asked with horror.

He patted her arm. “Don’t worry. We’re going to try to compress all that into a few weeks. Sort of a Reading for Dummies kind of approach.”

“You jest?” she repeated.

“Really. They use this method in English as a Second Language classes sometimes.”

She made a quick lunch for them … slices of white bread put together with ham and cheese and mustard, called a sand-which, of all things; there was no sand used. For a beverage, they drank that bubbly drink called Pepsi with ice in tall glasses. She, who had put together feasts for two hundred in the past, was inordinately pleased with herself that she was able to accomplish such a small feat.

While they ate, they talked. Geek told her about his family … a mother, father and five sisters who lived in a country called Poo-kip-see. Apparently, he had an extraordinary intellect and had many years of learning. “Why did you decide to become a warrior?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Seemed the best way to put my brain to good use in a just cause.” He grew quiet for a moment, and his jaw tensed with some strong emotion. “I hate terrorists. If my intelligence can eliminate a few of them, well … that’s why I joined the SEALs.” A grin teased his mouth and a blush bloomed on his freckled face. “Plus, I like the way SEALs push the limits on physical stamina. A buff body and girls. I can’t deny there’s an attraction in that.”

Madrene smiled, and then, at his urging, told him about her life, starting with the days when her entire large family lived on a Norse farmstead up till her meeting the seals in the Arab lands.

It was then that Geek explained what it meant when these men called themselves seals. They didn’t mean animals. The letters stood for SEa, Air and Land.

Then she continued talking about her life.

Geek laughed out loud at some times … when she described her method for deflating male parts, her futile attempts to learn scarf dancing in a sultan’s harem, milking a camel. At other times, he grew grim, squeezing her hand, especially when she talked about the deaths of one member of her family after another.

After they were done eating and talking and cleaning up the kitchen, Geek said, “Let’s go boot up Ian’s computer and see what we can find out about … what did you call it, Hordaland?”

She nodded, even though she did not understand half of what he said.

Soon she sat on a stool and Geek on a chair in front of a square box on a piece of furniture called a desk. The box was a come-pewter, and Geek claimed it held information about everything in the world.

In the next half hour, Geek had obtained so much information that it made her brain fuzzy. In truth, the more he told her, the more she wanted to know. And, actually, his brow was becoming as furrowed as hers.

“This just doesn’t make sense,” he told her as his finger tapped on little buttons set into a tray. “I can find a country called Hordaland, but it’s an archaic name. Hordaland does not exist today.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hordaland more or less became the country called Norway. Is that where you’re from? Norway?”

“Nay. Leastways, I never heard it called such. But I am Norse. So perhaps … I just don’t understand.”

“You’re not the only one,” he muttered.

Next he put the letters for Birka and Hedeby in. Then pronounced, “Same thing. Old names for places that no longer exist. Birka was in what is called Sweden today. Hedeby was in what is called Germany today.”

“Can this magic box show me a picture of where these places are … were? A map?”

“Sure.”

Within a few moments, she was studying several maps … something she’d had no need to learn in the past. Geek had to read the names printed on the map for the various countries and waterways. Finally she said, “It does look faintly familiar.” She looked up at him. “I must be from Norway, then. Leastways, a country known as Norway here but Hordaland to its inhabitants.”

He looked skeptical.

“Now can you show me how far it is from here to … Norway?”

“Sure.”

Seconds later, her shoulders slumped with dismay. It was so far away. Daunting to think she would have to raise an army and then transport them there. Mayhap she should raise the funds here, travel to Saxon lands and raise an army there to travel with her to Norstead. No matter what the obstacles, it was a mission she refused to consider impossible.

Just then, they heard the front door open. They both sat up, alert. Who could it be? Surely it was not one of the terrorists this soon. Geek reached for the weapon, called a piss-toll, which he carried with him at all times.

The mystery was soon solved.

From down the hall, possibly from the kitchen, they heard Ian shout at the top of his lungs, “ Mad-die! ”

Her magic fingers did what? …

Ian was in a foul mood.

He’d hope to calm his temper on the ride home. No such luck! Anger bubbled in him just below the surface. He needed to hit something or he would explode.

Truth be told, Ian was as hurt as he was angry.

How could she?

He’d stormed into the house, seen no one in the living room. In the kitchen he saw evidence of Maddie’s reading lessons. His eyebrows lifted at the book Geek was using. It was titled See Jane Run , but it was not like any primer he’d ever seen in school. On the cover was Jane, who looked a bit like Barbie. She wore spandex shorts and top and she was running, all right, with Ken hot on her tail.

He shook his head and hollered once again, “ Mad-die! ”

“You do not have to yell. I am right here,” she said. “Why are you here?”

She strolled into the kitchen big as you please. Geek had the good sense to disappear back into the office.

Ian tried hard not to notice her body in a tanktop and shorts; she was barefooted. He tried not to recall every bit of that body he’d explored last night. “Why are you here?” she had asked. The nerve! This is my house. “Didn’t you miss me?” he asked icily.

“No,” she answered with her usual bluntness. “You said you would not be back till eventide.”

He scowled at her. “What? Did you have plans for another foray outside? Naked foray, that is?”

She frowned for a second. “Oh, that is what this is all about.” She waved a hand dismissively. “I just went for a swim. It was such a beautiful day. The sun warm. And I …” Her words trailed off as she noticed his scowl.

“I ordered you to stay inside,” he said, pausing at each word. While he spoke he backed her up against the cabinets, fists on either side of her on the counter.

“I do not take orders from you or anyone else,” she said in the same slow manner, emphasizing each word. Ducking under his arm, she returned his glower, then remarked, “The vein in your forehead is throbbing.”

Aaarrgh! “You are under my protection. I have every right to tell you what to do. I order. You follow orders. That’s just the way it is.”

“That is your opinion.”

“I’ll shackle you to the bed.” Immediately he wished he hadn’t used that word, especially when her wrist and ankle and back scars were visible to him.

She looked wounded for a moment.

“Maddie,” he said more softly now, crowding her toward the laundry room. When he got her inside, he slammed the door shut with the back of his foot. “I thought after last night … well … you know?”

She cocked her head to the side, and her face turned pink. At first he thought it was from embarrassment, but, nope, it was anger. “You thought that because I spread my thighs for you that I would suddenly turn biddable outside the bedchamber?”

“No, but—”

She was the one crowding him now. With a finger jabbing at his chest, she said, “Understand me well. Seal or not seal. Warrior or not warrior. Husband or not husband. I am my own person. I have suffered too much to give my freedom over to any man. What have men done but leave me, set me aside, betray me, beat me, attempt to break my pride? I do not trust men, least of all you.”

That hurt. That really hurt. Anger seeped out of Ian and was replaced with regret that she lumped him in with all those tyrants. And it really hurt when he saw her wipe at a tear and proclaim, “I never cry. Do not dare to think I am crying.”

She lifted her chin, refusing to look at him, instead staring with great interest at a box of detergent. Once again, he had the sudden feeling that he had seen her before. He’d had a similar feeling back in Iraq. The skin on the back of his neck prickled. He had met her before, he just knew he had. His instincts never failed him on something like this. “Have we ever met before, Maddie? In the past. Like a few years ago?”

She still would not look at him. “Nay. If we had, I would have remembered such an ill-tempered son of a weasel as you.”

He almost grinned.

“It is not funny. You are an overbearing beast.”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“You should be.” She sniffled.

“I’m not used to people disobeying my orders.”

“Get used to it.”

“You were naked, for chrissake!”

She arched her eyebrows at the Tide. “And that signifies how? Didst expect me to get my new clothing wet?”

“You shouldn’t swim naked in public. Surely you didn’t do that where you come from.”

“Yea, I did. What fool swims fully clothed?” If anything, her chin went even higher.

“How old were you then?”

“Five. Not that it matters.”

He grinned. Five? And she honest-to-God thought she could convince him that what she did at five was okay at her age? She was … something else. “Let’s kiss and make up,” he suggested, reaching for her.

She swatted his hands aside and said, “Go swive yourself!” He could tell by the expression on her face that she was unaccustomed to such expletives … archaic as it was.

“I would rather … swive you.”

She gasped and glanced down at the bulge in his running shorts. “Oh, nay! Nay, nay, nay! You are not going to tamp my anger down with bedsport.”

“More like laundry sport, baby.” He was already shrugging out of his shorts and jockstrap.

She looked at his erection and waggled her fingers at it. At first he didn’t understand what she was doing. But then he did. With a hoot of laughter, he told her, “Honey, you are not talking, mocking or waggling down this hard-on. There’s only one way to do that.” And he told her explicitly what that was.

“You are a vulgar, vulgar man.”

“Yeah. Don’t you love it?”

Spouting some mumbo-jumbo now, she continued to waggle her fingers.

He just grew bigger.

“It works. It really does,” she cried out. “Your tupping days will soon be over.”

“Tupping, huh?” He laughed and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “I thought about you all morning,” he said huskily.

“I did not think of you at all.”

“Out of sight, out of mind, eh?” He was nibbling at her neck, and she wasn’t shoving him away. “Perhaps I need to do a better job so I’ll be on your mind, too.” He ground his hips against her belly.

He saw stars.

She still glared. But the pink on her face had moved down her neck. He knew when a woman was aroused. She was.

He kissed her.

She kept saying “no, no, no” against his mouth. At the same time, her hands had crept around his neck and pulled him closer. He moved his chest back and forth across her breasts. He hoped to God that the abrasion of cloth on cloth, chest on breasts, felt as good to her as it did to him. When the nos turned into a moan, he put his hands inside the elastic waistbands of both her shorts and panties and let them drop to the floor.

She looked up at him, her eyes droopy, her kiss-swollen lips parted, and murmured, “I’m still angry with you.”

“I know,” he said. “We can fight later. Let’s make up first.”

“Truce before the war?” She laughed, but it was only a short laugh because he’d perched her on the edge of the washer, spread her legs and slammed into her. He closed his eyes and saw bright red sparks. When he opened them, he saw that Maddie had closed her eyes, too. Leaning back, holding on to the edge of the machine, she spread herself wider for him. He looked down and saw her blond curls intermingled with his dark ones … and almost lost it.

It was short and sweet … emphasis on sweet. She came. He came. A dustpan, plastic bucket and box of detergent had gone flying off the shelf at the force of their lovemaking. Now he pulled his shorts back on and helped Maddie with hers.

He did not like the look on her face. It was definitely that of a woman who was well satisfied and looking for more … but something else, too. They went into the kitchen, which was fortunately empty. Geek must still be in the computer room. Ian soon found out what was on her mind.

Maddie turned to him. Her braid had come half unbraided. She did indeed have whisker burns on every visible surface of skin. And her nipples were standing out like sentinels. But she was staring at him with … determination.

Little alarm bells went off in his head.

“Do not give me orders again,” she said.

That’s my job, sweetheart. Leaders give orders. But she is not going to like hearing that. At first he refused to answer. Then he said, “I’ll try.” That is such a lie.

“One more thing.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Since we are getting along so well, does that mean you will help me raise an army to regain Norstead?”

Norstead again! Raise an army? Who does she think I am? “Be reasonable.”

“Reason has no place in a quest for vengeance.”

“That sounds like one of my motivational quotes.” He laughed.

She did not laugh. “Say me aye or nay, but do not muddle about with half-answers. Are you going to help me raise an army?”

“Hell, no.”

She exhaled loudly with disgust. “So be it. That was the last time we will make love, then. It cannot happen ever again.”

“If raising an army is the price, then you’re damn straight it’s the last time.”

She looked at him as if he’d just killed her cat. He felt as if he’d just killed her cat.

Sam walked into the kitchen just then, her belly dragging on the floor like a mop. She seemed to study Maddie, then him, then made a hissing sound as if to say, Dumb, dumb, dumb!