Page 56 of Hot & Heavy

Sonofabitch! You can't tell a guy that he turns you on, then expect him to control his libido, as if it has an off-on switch. He would have taken back his earlier words about no sex, but his nemesis came up then. Dan the Slime Spy.

"Congratulations, Ian. Is this the lucky lady?"

If he dares to try to kiss her, I'll knock his teeth out.

But Dan just shook her hand, a gesture that seemed to puzzle Maddie.

"What are you doing here, Dan?" Ian asked bluntly.

Not at all fazed by his rudeness, he handed Ian some documents. "The general sent these."

He frowned. The general knows I'm here? In the chapel? Getting married? "What are they?"

"Travel papers. For you and the little lady." Ian smiled smugly.

Ian took hold of the schmuck's arm and pulled him a few feet away from Maddie. Then he cocked his head. "General staff knew about my wedding plans?" Then an unbelievable suspicion entered his mind.

"Did they have a hand in this?"

Dan shrugged. "Not exactly. Let's just say your wedding to Ms… uh, Olgadottir… fits into the government's surveillance plans."

"Dammit! No matter how you spin it, I've been railroaded."

"Hey, man, take it easy. You get to enjoy a beautiful wife… for now." Dan was eying Maddie like she was a popsicle and he'd like to lick her up one side and down the other. "And you get to serve your country at the same time."

"This was your idea, wasn't it, dickhead?"

"Tsk-tsk-tsk! Sticks and stones, Kermie. No one made you do this. But we didn't put up any opposition either."

"Get out of here, slimeball, before I kick your ass up to your tonsils."

Dan smirked at him.

"Do not threaten my husband, you worthless piece of dung." Maddie had come up beside Ian and heard at least some of their conversation. "If my father were here, he would skin you alive." She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at Dan with belligerence.

All Ian could think was, Look at her breasts in that shirt when she puts her hands like that. I am in male chauvinist heaven. Hope I'm not drooling. Belatedly, he pondered her words. I can't believe this. I am being defended by a woman.

Dan gave Maddie another vulgar once-over, then turned and walked away.

"Would your father really skin a man alive?"

"Well, not this fellow, but Steinolf, the man who stole Norstead and degraded me so… yea, my father would skin him alive and feed his heart to the pigs. This man he would probably throw into the sea."

Unbelievable! Ian inhaled and exhaled several times to calm himself down.

"Even if he is not as vile as Steinolf, I do not like that Dan person, not one bit," Maddie went on.

"You and about a zillion other people."

"He kept staring at my breasts."

"Maddie, everyone stares at your breasts."

"Not really. Leastways, not in my country. Karl called them udders."

He gave her a look of disbelief. "Karl was a jackass." She smiled then. At him. A full-blown smile which came from the heart and made her eyes dance. He felt the smile in every cell of his body.

Then she put a hand on his forearm and said, "Sometimes you are not such a troll."