Free Maggie Mine by Starla Kaye

using them. His leg still pained him. And now she’d shot the castle’s hunting hawk!
    “I’m verra sorry,” she said quietly, reaching to reclaim her bow.
    The hardness in his expression forced her to change her mind. He held the bow so hard it was a wonder the wood didn’t break. “You disobeyed me , Lady Urquhart.” He w ould not call her Maggie in this moment. He had to separate in his mind the young woman who he was becoming all too fond of with the woma n who had chosen to go against his order.
    “Aye.” She sounded annoyed.
    What a trial she was! “It won’t take long for all in the castle to know what you’ve done.” She worried her lower lip and he felt a stirring in his loins. Her mouth appealed to him, a lot.
    Irritated with where his thoughts had wandered, he pinned her with a determined look. “I suspect most have heard about you being confined to your bedchamber for the day. Now they will know that you purposely disobeyed me.”
    She shifted from foot to foot, studied her slippers. “Probably,” she whispered, and raised her gaze. “I suppose ye will—”
    He gave a curt nod, cutting her off. “Aye, I must discipline you. I have no choice or I will lose the respect of my people.”
    Her eyes flashed with defiance, but she blew out a breath. “I dunna suppose ye would just confine me to my chamber for another day or so.”
    “What do you really think?” He held her gaze in challenge.
    Her shoulders straightened. “That I should wait for ye in my bedchamber.”
    “Aye.” He glanced down into the bailey before he looked back at her. He needed to calm down.  “I will check on the hawk before I come up to deal with you.”
    She didn’t say a word, simply strode by him with her head high into the keep. He found himself admiring her spirit. She did not shirk her duties, other than instructing Mary. She treated all within the keep with kindness and even the gruffest of his men had grown fond of her. She did not back down from a quarrel with him and he’d discovered he enjoyed their sometimes heated discussions. Maggie had a fine mind. Yet she pushed him to the limits of his patience at times, like now. While a part of him wanted to pull the sassy minx to him and taste her sweet lips, another part of him was determined to deal grimly with the necessary discipline. All would expect it, just as he’d told her.
     
    * * *
     
    Maggie was growing impatient waiting for Nicholas. She’d paced the small area of her chamber for far too long for her peace of mind. If she was to suffer punishment, then she wished it done with. She frowned toward the door again and finally heard his heavy footsteps on the stone floor outside her room.
    His large body stopped in the doorway and they shared a strained look. Then he pushed the wooden door shut. When he faced her again, she noticed the well-worn wooden paddle he carried in one hand. So he had gotten it from Anice after all. She wished that she’d found it and burned it. Now it would be used to burn her poor bottom.
    “Let’s get this over with, Lady Urquhart.” He motioned her to the bed. “You will remember this paddling well , for I intend to make my displeasure with your disobedience very clear.”
    “I stayed away from the others, spoke to no one,” she offered as a weak defense of why she’d left her room.
    “Was that what you were told? To stay away from others and speak to no one?” He rubbed the paddle against the side of his breeches.
    She followed the movement of the paddle. Her gaze shifted away from it only to spot a bulge in the front of his breeches. She’d spotted it before, at times when she’d caught him looking at her with darkened eyes and nostrils flaring. He wanted her as a man desires a woman. The idea made her heart pound and her woman’s place feel warm, moist.
    “Answer me,” he ordered brusquely.
    “Nay, that ‘twas no’ what I was told,” she snapped, irritated to be forced to stop thinking about his desire