Page 66 of Hot & Heavy

Just then, a cell phone buzzed in Sanders's pocket. "Excuse me," he said. "They wouldn't call me here unless it was something I needed to know." He put the small phone to his ear. "Sanders here. Yes, yes.

Uh-oh!" Sanders looked over at Ian when he said "Uh-oh!"

Uh-oh! Something's up. And it involves me. Oh, maybe one of my guys got in trouble, and he needs my help. Probably got picked up at the Wet and Wild for disorderly conduct last night.

Needs me to bail him out.

"I see. Okay. Just stick with her."

Her? Alarm bells went off in his head. He stood and tilted his head in question.

"Your wife is strolling the shops in San Diego. And she has a big cat with her."

Chapter Ten

Norsemen go a-Viking, Norsewomen go a-shopping…

Maddie and Sam were strolling, as if they hadn't a care in the world, along a strip mall about two miles from Ian's home when he finally caught up with her.

Ian pulled his red Mustang convertible into a parking slot and started after the errant pair. Sam saw him first and had the good sense to duck between Maddie's legs. Maddie had no sense at all, just waved at him as if she had a perfect right to wander off.

The first thing he said to her when he walked up, practically nose to nose, was, "What the hell are you doing here?"

She cocked her head as if trying to puzzle him out, and answered him tit for tat. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He took a deep breath and warned himself to be polite… until he got the willful witch home. "Mad-die, dear, I'm curious. What are you doing here?"

"Looking in the market stalls, dearling."

Do not lose your temper. Do not lose your temper. She's just being sarcastic. Like I am most of the time. Do not lose your temper. "I distinctly ordered you to stay home."

She looked at him as if he were dumb as toast. "Dost really think that I would take orders from you… or any other man? You have not been listening to me, if you are of that opinion. Mayhap you are deaf… or leastways, deaf where women are concerned. Some men are. Bloody hell, most men are. And, by the by, that vein in your forehead is throbbing again. Best you be careful or it may explode."

"Aaarrgh!" He took her by the upper arms and barely restrained himself from shaking her. "Did it ever occur to you that I might have a reason for wanting you to stay indoors? Did it ever occur to you that you don't know this city and could get lost? Did it ever occur to you that someone other than yourself might have a brain? Did you even think, period?"

"Did it ever occur to you that you are not my real husband, nor my master? You have no rights over me.

I do not like your tone. Not at all. I am not one of your seals that you can speak to like that. If you must know, I was bored. After washing your clothes and hanging them to dry, there was nothing else to do.

And take your hands off me. I did not give you permission to touch my body."

"Lady, if I want to touch you, I will, and by damn, I'm not going to say 'Pretty please' first."

"Be careful, troll, I could wave my magic fingers at your male parts and render them useless."

"Bullshit!" He laughed and released his hold on her. Guilt struck him then as he noted the marks he had made on her fair skin. "I'm not afraid of your fingers, sweetheart, magic or otherwise. You give me a hard-on that couldn't be brought down by a hammer, let alone your piddly little fingers."

She gasped with indignation. "I know what a hard-on is, you oaf. I asked Pretty Boy when I heard him use the word back in Baghdad." A smile flickered on her lips then as she asked, "I give you a hard-on?"

She appeared pleased at the notion. Probably because she enjoyed torturing him so.

"This is not a conversation we should be having. Not in a public place." Not anywhere else either.

"Another thing, people don't go out walking with a cat. Cats run away. Cats get run over by cars."

"Sam does not run from me. She is a good cat."

He rolled his eyes.