After the Storm

by Tia Isabella

  That reminder had brought an end to Maya’s pleading, but she had been disgruntled nonetheless. After all, he certainly hadn’t stopped drinking. She knew he wasn’t in the least bit intoxicated, but still…

  The laughter and singing of inebriated soldiers drew Maya’s attention away from her thoughts and toward the door of Thomas’s, and now her, bedchamber door. She frowned. Maya could hear them waxing sentimental over one of Harold the Sotted’s “love ballads”.

  And to think that young Lena couldn’t wait to have that dratted man sing in her honor. Maya tssked to herself as she shook her head. Medieval girls had a strange notion of romance.

  Tonight he’ll ride a’tween her legs

  Like a horseman o’er the croft.

  Like a horseman o’er the croft.

  Maya scowled at the door. Would the MacGregor men never get enough of that ridiculous song?

  A moment later the door to the bedchamber flew open and Thomas was hoisted inside by his men. It took five soldiers to carry him and Maya spotted Sir Dugald and Argyle right away. Thomas was deposited onto their marriage bed and the soldiers made their exit as quickly as they had entered. Dugald looked back at the couple briefly, winked at Maya, and sauntered out.

  Thomas grinned when he saw the vexed look written all over her face. “Och lass, but I promise ye that ye willna ha’ tae hear those songs again. ‘Tis only at a wedding where a mon can get away with singing ballads like that.”

  Maya relented, realizing that nothing so bad happened that should warrant ruining her wedding night over. “That does make me feel better, knowing that he won’t be singing for me again.”

  Thomas shook his head. “I dinna say he willna sing for ye again, love. I said he willna sing songs of such an intimate nature of ye again, ye ken?”

  Maya nodded. “Alright sweetcakes, I can accept that. So long as none of his future ballads have anything to do with arses, breasts, and riding a’tween my thighs.”

  Thomas chuckled. “Ye will hear it again only during wedding receptions, but no’ of ye. Dugald tells me he’s tae take the Lady Sara tae wife. Harold the Sotted will sing fer her as well.”

  Maya smiled wickedly. It should prove interesting to see just how unflappable Sara the Serene would remain at her wedding reception.

  Thomas stretched out beside Maya on the bed and drew her into his arms. She sighed and snuggled into his warmth. He kissed his wife on the forehead and looked into her eyes. “Did I tell ye how comely ye looked today, Maya mine?”

  She smiled. “No, but your eyes did.”

  Thomas searched her expression for an answer. When none was revealed to him, he asked, “my eyes?”

  “Yes, Thomas, your eyes. I’ve learned to read those chocolate brown beauties to judge your thoughts. Quite well, I might add.”

  “Chocolate brown?”

  “Yes, chocolate. Where I come from chocolate is the tastiest of all sweet confections.”

  Thomas grinned bemusedly at his wife. He gathered her closer to him, reached under the animal pelts, and stroked her thigh. “Can ye tell what my eyes are wantin’ now, lass?” he whispered thickly.

  Maya grew immediately aroused, both from his words and from the hard protrusion she felt jutting beneath his kilt. “Hmm,” she teased as she reached up and nipped Thomas’s ear with her teeth. “That you want to ride a’tween my legs like a horseman o’er the croft?”

  Thomas threw his head back and laughed. “Aye.”

  He lowered the animal pelts to reveal his wife’s awaiting body. He inhaled deeply at the sight of her nipples, hard and aroused beneath her chemise. “I will no’ ever grow tired of sucking on these.” He stroked them softly, then dipped his head to tease a nipple through the sheer fabric.

  An overwhelming wave of desire washed over Maya. She sat up in bed, drew the chemise over her head, and discarded it to the floor. Thomas purred his delight as he forced his wife’s body beneath his own, then trailed his kisses back down to her breasts. He brought one ripe nipple up to his lips and drew it in between his teeth. Maya sucked in her breath as the pleasure cascaded over her.

  Thomas suckled from his wife’s bosom until her moans left him aching with need. He lifted his head from her nipples and sat up to shed his clothes. Maya helped him along in the process, unsure as to how much longer she could bear not having her husband buried deep inside of her. “I need you Thomas,” she whispered. “Take me now.”

  Thomas groaned at his wife’s words and laid back down on top of her. Never before had a woman made him feel so desired. “I will take ye more times tonight than ye can count, wife. I will take ye now and fer the rest of our lives.”

  And then he proved the truth to his words, as he surged into her body over and over, again and again. She clung to him tightly, her legs wrapped around his waist, her moans echoing throughout the dimly lit chamber as he pumped in and out of her.

  “Thomas. Oh god yes. Harder.”

  “Ye want it harder, do ye now?” he gritted out. Raising her hips, he rammed into her flesh in long, deep strokes. She closed her eyes and groaned, loving the feel of each thrust.

  “Is this how ye want it?” he asked arrogantly, pumping faster, thrusting harder.

  “Yes. Oh god yes.”

  He reached for one of her legs, threw it over his shoulder, and rammed faster. “And this?”

  “Oh my god.”

  Maya threw her head back on a groan and climaxed convulsively.

  “All mine,” he growled. Thomas held back his climax, not wanting the feeling to ever end. He pounded into her slick flesh over and over as he closed his eyes and gave himself over to the sensation of pumping into her.

  She was so wet that every time he stroked into her, the sound of her flesh slurping up his cock echoed in the bedchamber. It wasn’t long before he could hold back no more and with one final thrust, his entire body convulsed as he spurted himself deep inside of her.

  Thomas fell onto his back, taking his wife with him. Stroking the intimate cleft between her buttocks, he held her tightly in silence.

  After a long while, Maya drew her head up from his chest and gazed up at him, a teasing light in her eyes.

  “What are ye thinkin’?” he murmured.

  “That I want to do it again.”

  “Aye? Already?”

  “Mmm. You said you were going to take me over and over tonight…and then again for the rest of our lives.”

  In less than a second she was flat on her back and he was settling his hard erection between her thighs. “Oh and I will. Ye best believe it.”

  Maya grinned. “According to the history books we live well into old age. Think you can keep it hard that long?”

  “Fer ye, lass? It willna be a problem.”

  Chapter 17

  For the next few weeks, Maya managed to avoid the subject of where she and Sara had come from altogether. Thomas brought it up only a few times, but didn’t press the issue when she said that it was too painful to talk about and that she needed time for the memories to fade.

  Thomas could understand that. His wife had been forced to leave everything she knew behind, save her best friend and pet. Still, he couldn’t be sorry for it and wouldn’t change that fact even if he was. To change it would be to lose his Maya, and that was something he wouldn’t abide.

  Maya brought out a side of Thomas that he hadn’t been aware he possessed until she appeared, literally, into his life. She brought him a contentment and a lightheartedness that he was glad for.

  For the most part, Thomas never revealed this side of himself to anyone but his wife. Although Dugald did say a few times that the Lady Sara had remarked on how much happier the laird seemed. Hopefully ‘twas only a change women would notice, he mused, for he wouldn’t want his men to think him soft.

  For all that Maya had given him, Thomas felt that he owed her the time she sorely needed to let the memories of her old life fade from a feeling of mournful loss to apathy. So ‘twas quite unexpected when his lady w
ife began speaking of the future on her own. Of course, ‘twas due to the sadness of Lady Sara that Maya finally revealed more of it.

  “It’s not that she doesn’t love you, Dugald, it’s just that she’s a little nervous with the wedding coming up and what have you.” Maya reassured the commander-at-arms of his betrothed’s love as she took the morning meal with him, Thomas, and Argyle.

  Dugald sighed. “I dinna ken, milady. She speaks of missing her father and of wanting him tae walk her tae the chapel doors. I tell her tae send word tae him so he will come, yet she dinna do my bidding. I think…” He shook his head with another sigh.

  “You think what?” Maya prodded.

  “I think she fears her sire will believe she married below her station. I’m a knight, ‘tis true, but no’ a landed one. I canna—”

  “It’s not that, Dugald, I assure you.”

  “How can ye know?”

  “I know her mind. She’s my dearest friend.”

  “Then why?”

  Maya sighed. It wasn’t her place to tell Dugald Sara’s secrets. That should be up to her. “She’s very proud of you, Dugald, to be sure. Yet she misses her father. She and he were very close. And I’m sure it pains her plenty to know that he cannot be here to see her wed. It isn’t that she won’t invite him, it’s that she can’t.”

  Dugald ran his fingers roughly through his hair in agitation. “This is what my lady says, yet when I ask her why he canna come, she willna say!”

  Maya darted her eyes toward Thomas and noticed that her husband was listening intently. “It’s not my place to reveal her reasons. It’s up to Sara to do so.” She said these words as she stared at Thomas, telling him without saying it outright that he was to speak no more on the topic.

  “Mayhap she and her da’ are at odds right now, Sir Dugald.” Argyle offered this seemingly reasonable explanation for Lady Sara’s behavior as of late, then resumed eating.

  “Nay Argyle, she swears they are as close as a sire and his child can be!” Dugald shook his head. “This no’ knowing what troubles her vexes me sorely.”

  Maya took in a deep breath. This situation just…sucked. Poor Dugald was blaming himself for things he couldn’t change even if he knew the why of it. She was going to have to talk to Sara. One way or another she would convince her best friend to open up to Dugald and trust him. “Dugald, I vow I shall speak with her and see if I cannot get her to confide all to you. But for now you will just have to place your faith in my word and believe me when I say that her sadness has nothing to do with wedding you. She loves you. I’m certain of it.”

  Dugald stared at Maya for a long, silent moment. “Ye know the reason, do ye no’, milady?”

  Maya looked quickly down to her trencher and absently studied the foods in it. “Yes,” she admitted in a whisper, “I know.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “I cannot.”

  Maya held her breath, desperately hoping that Dugald would drop the subject altogether. But Lady Luck had never bothered with befriending Maya. “Milady, I must know that Sara’s feelings dinna change. I must know she wants tae wed me. How canna know if I dinna ken what troubles her?”

  Maya was rapidly growing irritated at both Dugald and Sara for being put in the middle. She speared her pheasant with a desperate jab, wanting to leave this conversation as a memory that once was. “Dugald, I vow that Sara loves you.” She waved her hand impatiently in the air. “She loved you before she even met you. When all she had done was read about you. That’s all that needs to be said.”

  Maya’s eyes widened, mirroring Dugald’s. Damn, but she had a hard time keeping her mouth shut when she was angry! She blinked and sputtered then looked quickly around, praying that Sara was still moping in her bedchamber.

  But, of course, she wasn’t. Damn Lady Luck.

  * * * * *

  Sara decided that she had spent enough time in her chamber feeling sorry for herself. What’s done was done. She now lived in the fourteenth century and nothing could change that fact. And she loved Dugald—desperately. She wanted to tell him everything, just as Maya had confided in Thomas, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. “Oh Dugald and bye the way, the reason my father cannot attend our ceremony is because he hasn’t been born yet.”

  She smirked sarcastically. How the hell does one ease into a topic like that with finesse?

  Sara walked quickly toward the great hall, her appetite coming down on her like gangbusters. Just as she strode into the hall for breakfast she heard Maya say: “She loved you before she even met you. When all she had done was read about you. That’s all that needs to be said.”

  * * * * *

  “Sara I can explain…” Maya shot to her feet and wrung her hands together as she winced from the look of disdain written all over her best friend’s horrified face.

  “You told him,” Sara mouthed, dumbfounded. “You betrayed me.”

  “No!” Maya pleaded as she shook her head vigorously. “I told him nothing. I swear it!”

  “You lie! You betray and you lie!” Sara yelled in accusation. “I heard you tell him that I loved him before I met him, when I had only read of him! How could that make sense to him if you didn’t tell him we are from the future?”

  At Dugald and Argyle’s shocked gasps, Sara realized that she had accused her best friend falsely. Maya really hadn’t told Dugald the truth. Sara had. “Oh God, I’m so sorry, Maya! I should have known you wouldn’t be disloyal to me even if your life depended on it!”

  Maya nodded. “I grew irritated and blurted out things I shouldn’t have, but I never would have told him. I swear it!”

  Thomas at last intervened, raising a hand to silence the two women. “Lady Sara, I willna take offense tae what ye said tae my wife fer I know the strong emotions behind the why of it. However, ‘tis past time tae explain all tae thy intended. Surely ye canna mean tae make an announcement such as this one, then say no more of it?”

  Sara released Maya, nodded to Thomas, then turned to face Dugald. He and Argyle sat at the table with mouths agape, both of them as still as stone statues. Sara clasped her hands together, trying to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. Finally, she turned to face Maya, silently pleading for her to intervene.

  Maya took the hint and grabbed Sara’s hand. She walked her to the table, placed her in her customary seat across from Dugald, and took her own seat next to Thomas. “Thomas,” she said quietly, “please make certain that no servants or soldiers, save Argyle and Dugald of course, are given admittance to this hall until you say it alright to do so. It’s past time that we all spoke of this…together.”

  Thomas nodded, then stood to shout his command. A squire came scurrying from the kitchen area a moment later, then left to see to the laird’s bidding.

  “Bring more ale before you take your leave,” Maya called to the boy with a grin. “I’ve a feeling Sir Dugald and Argyle will need it.”

  Chapter 18

  Poor Argyle.

  That one thought played over and over again in Maya’s mind like a broken record as she contemplated the poor boy’s stricken face. He wasn’t taking the revelation that she and Sara had traveled seven hundred years into the past at all well. He was trying, really he was, but he looked so blighted that it was all Maya could do to keep from jumping up on the table—where he was lying down to collect himself—and console him with a friendly hug. Of course, her husband would never go for that. And that’s what kept her from seeing the consolation through to its fruition.

  “Please tell me you’re alright, Argyle. You’ve come to mean a lot to us and I’d hate to think Sara and I have upset you,” Maya beseeched him as she and Sara fanned either side of his ashen face.

  “Really Argyle,” Sara scolded. “You’re making us feel awful about having confided in you.”

  Thomas and Dugald stood a few feet away observing the scene with frowns. If another had been there as witness, it would have been fast apparent that neither man liked their women cod
dling the young Argyle. Of course, in this case they both knew ‘twas necessary to make allowances for the lad, as they couldn’t blame him for his state of shock. Still…

  “Argyle!” Thomas bellowed. “I think ye ha’ held tae my wife’s skirts long enough, lad. Get a hold of yerself!”

  At first, Maya was moderately annoyed with her husband’s highhandedness, but as it turned out, it was just the push toward reality that Argyle needed. The young soldier grew immediately contrite, sitting himself upright on the table in a hurry. “I apologize, my lord,” he flushed. “’Tis much tae swallow in nigh an hour’s time.”

  Thomas nodded, but did not back down.

  The laird and Sir Dugald strode back to the table and resumed their positions. Argyle shook his head once more in bewilderment then moved slowly to his feet, as if testing that they were sturdy enough to hold him. Satisfied that they wouldn’t fail him again, he took to his seat. He ran his fingers through his hair and let out a loud sigh. “I apologize, ladies Maya and Sara. Pray continue.”

  The women eyed him cautiously, wondering if he really was up to hearing anything else of the future. Maya hesitated for the briefest of moments, then plunged right back into her topic. “So as I was saying…yes, it really is possible for men to go to the moon. And women too. We cannot forget that in the future whatever a man can do, a woman can do just as good if not better.” Maya added the last with a definitive nod of the head.

  Thomas snorted. He wasn’t so sure he liked this aspect of the future. Maya called it the Tampa English word for equality. Thomas called it the Scottish Gaelic word for dumb. Still, he kept this last bit to himself for he did not want his woman vexed with him this eve when he saw fit to love her. Apparently Dugald wasn’t so smart.

  “I can believe many things,” Dugald said, “but I canna believe this business of women going tae the moon, fighting in wars and the like. ‘Tis a boggle tae the mind.”