Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell Page A

trouble you no longer.”
    Long auburn lashes swept down for a moment, concealing Meg’s eyes. She wondered if Dominic would feel the same way about protecting her when he realized that he had been trapped into a union with a Glendruid girl of doubtful fertility.
    â€œBut do not try to deceive me again as you did in the mews,” he added coldly. “No trick works twice on me.”
    â€œYou startled me. I wasn’t dressed to receive my future husband. In any case, my father had forbidden our introduction until the wedding itself.”
    Though Meg wasn’t looking at Dominic, she could sense him weighing her words as carefully as a miller weighed wheat to be ground into flour. Unease rippled through her. He was a very powerful man; should he choose to beat her, there was nothing she could do, no place to which she could flee. She was like her mother.
    Trapped.
    After a moment Meg put her hand on Dominic’s arm and looked up, in control of her emotions once more. Her most important goal had been accomplished: Blackthorne Keep was safe from a ruinous war. For the remainder, she would simply take each difficulty as it came and pray that Dominic showed as much restraint in the rest of his life as he did in battle.
    Together Dominic and Meg climbed the steep stone steps to the keep, then turned to acknowledge a final chorus of good wishes from the people. Once inside the forebuilding’s dark interior, Meg turned hesitantly to Dominic.
    â€œWill you go to our wedding feast in chain mail?” she asked.
    â€œYes.”
    When Meg would have spoken again, Dominic put his thumb lightly against her lips. Startled, she stood very still, watching him with eyes that were luminous even in the half darkness of the keep’s forebuilding. Her dress shimmered with light, as though mist and moonlight and stars had been woven into the fey cloth.
    â€œFear not, bride,” Dominic said deeply. “I won’t wear hauberk and sword in the bedchamber.”
    Meg’s breath went out in a rush of warmth across Dominic’s thumb. An odd smile changed his face, making it both handsome and compelling.
    â€œWell, perhaps a sword,” he said huskily. “It willbe quite hard but it will have not one cutting edge. It will lie quite smoothly within your warm sheath.”
    So surprised was Meg by the transformation the sensual smile made in Dominic’s face that it took a few moments for the meaning of his words to register. When she understood, heat rose in her face. He saw the blush and laughed softly.
    â€œWe shall do well with one another,” Dominic said with obvious satisfaction. “I expected to do my duty by my wife, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it overmuch. I see that I was wrong. Planting my seed within you will be a very pleasant duty indeed.”
    â€œPleasant for whom, my lord?”
    â€œBoth of us.”
    â€œAh, I see you want heirs.”
    â€œOf course I want heirs,” he said. “There is no other reason to marry.”
    â€œLand and a keep?” Meg suggested with a cool smile. “Are they not worth a marriage?”
    â€œWithout heirs, land is a demanding burden and marriage a cruel hoax,” Dominic said succinctly.
    Before Meg could speak again, Simon and Duncan strode into the forebuilding. When Duncan saw Meg, he stopped abruptly. Simon looked at Dominic, who signaled his brother to go on into the keep alone. But when Duncan started to talk to Meg, Dominic spoke first.
    â€œBefore you berate my wife ,” Dominic said icily, “know that you enjoy life only by her sufferance.”
    Duncan gave the other man a long look, took a deep breath to cool his temper, and said, “Meggie had naught to do with any of our plans.”
    â€œExcept as a pawn,” she said before Dominic could speak.
    The two men looked at Meg in surprise, for there had been an edge to her voice that was unusual for her. She continued talking in that