“I’m perfectly able to do for myself now. I’m well.”
“Oh, no. I’m sentencing you to a full week of nursing in bed. If you do well with that, next Tuesday I might start letting you spoon your own parritch.”
Logan grumbled in response.
“That’s what you get for being heroic and saving my life.”
She leaned forward over him, plumping his pillow. The pose gave him an unobstructed view down the valley of her cleavage.
“Be careful, lass. You’re brushing close to danger.”
She smiled. “You’re no danger to me in this state.”
“That sounded like a challenge.”
“In all seriousness, Logan. You always work so hard taking care of everyone else. For a few days, I’m going to take care of you. And you will have to lie there and endure it.”
Logan tried not to seem too churlish. It wasn’t that he minded her presence, of course. He’d never known this kind of tenderness and attention. He simply despised the feeling of helplessness. He hated knowing that if someone charged through the door, he’d be powerless to stop it.
But he also had to admit to himself that there was a certain intoxicating pleasure to be found in surrender.
“You don’t need to sit here all day,” he said. “I know you probably have work to do. How are Rex and Fluffy?”
She set the sponge and basin aside. “Getting on very well indeed. She molted. They’ve mated and entered the tending phase.”
“And . . . ?” he prompted. “Don’t leave me in suspense. Which position do lobsters favor for their lovemaking?”
In response, she only smiled and shrugged.
Logan pushed himself up in bed, a realization settling on him. “You missed it. You missed the whole thing, didn’t you? Because you were here with me.”
“It’s no matter. I’ll just have to catch them next time. Fluffy will be ready to breed again in . . . oh, eighteen months or so.”
Her response was light, but he knew this had to have come as a blow. He reached for her. “Maddie.”
Before they could discuss it further, Munro entered the room to make an assessment of Logan’s wound and bandages.
“You’re out of the worst danger,” he declared. “No strenuous activity for a month.”
“A month?”
“A month. And if you mean to trouble me with complaints, I suggest you be grateful you’re alive to complain.”
“Mo charaid.” Logan reached to take the field surgeon’s hand. “I owe you a debt for saving my life. It willna be forgotten. Thank you.”
Munro nodded.
“That said, I hope you’ll take this in the kindest possible way. Get out. I want to be alone with my wife.”
The grizzled surgeon cracked a rare smile. “That I can do.”
Once they were alone, Maddie settled on the bed next to him.
“Come here, then.” He pulled her close, burying his face in her neck.
She resisted. “You just heard the man. That wound will take a month to heal. For the past several days, the both of us worked day and night to keep you alive. I’m not going to undo it all now.”
“If I have to wait a month to hold you tight, I swear I’ll die of wanting first.”
She stroked a hand through his hair. “I suppose a gentle embrace might be acceptable.”
He supposed he would take that.
She scooted her backside further onto the bed and cozied up to him, molding the curve of her body to his and laying her head on his chest. Her fingers stroked lightly on his collarbone, back and forth.
He pressed his nose to the top of her head and breathed deep.
She gave a soft laugh against his chest.
“What is it?”
“Oh, Logan. I hate to tell you this. But I think we’re cuddling.” She nuzzled into the linen of his shirt. “You’re doing a wonderful job of it, too.”
The little minx. Very well, she’d finally gotten her way.
They were cuddling.
And Logan rather liked it.
He loved it.
And it seemed she must truly love him. Or had succeeded in convincing herself that she did.
He slicked his hand down the tight braid of her hair. “You didna leave me.”
“Not for a single hour.”
He knew it. She’d been by his side through everything. The blood, the stitching, the cautery, the fever and racking chills. He’d felt her presence beside him, her arms holding him when he couldn’t cease shaking on his own. Her faint scent of lavender and sweetness had reached him even in sleep.