Magical Mayhem (17 page)

"You just make me so angry, Montague! I know I shouldn't have involved Holly, and I am very sorry I did. It was wrong; but, you were wrong, too. You knew how much I wanted to know where we are going... and you forced me to take drastic action to try and find out. I wouldn't have had to do that if you'd been honest and discussed a decision you made that should have been a mutual one!" Megan felt that he wasn't being fair.

"I wanted it to be a surprise, Megan," he explained once again.

I wanted to be consulted, Montague!" she insisted. "Please stop spanking me. I want to be able to enjoy the wedding, and if I sit there and squirm all through everything it will be embarrassing. I promise I won't ever involve one of your sisters when I want to learn something that you are hiding from me."

"Megan, the way you word things..."

"I'm being honest," she insisted even more firmly. "I have a right to know, Montague. How am I supposed to pack when I don't know what kind of clothing I will need?" She started crying again. "How could you do this when you know that it is all your fault I resorted to snooping...? I meant no harm, and it really upsets me that you are spanking me right before our wedding... and our wedding night! You are spoiling everything, Montague!" She cried even harder and he felt like a jackass.

"Don't cry, Meggie. I didn't look at it in that way. I just don't want you to think it is okay to snoop."

"I don't think it is okay to snoop; I don't think it is okay to have secrets, either!"

"I hear you, honey. But planning a surprise isn't a deep, dark, sinister secret, and it isn't wrong, either. You need to accept that."

"If I promise to try, will you please let me up?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes," he agreed, knowing full well that it was as good as he would get. He helped her up from the back of the sofa and sat her on her feet. She looked at him and he opened his arms and she came to him, seeking comfort.

Megan had a sore bottom at her shower that evening, and it was still sore for the luncheon the next day, and for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner that same night. She was still tender on the day of their wedding, but if anyone suspected she was wearing a spanked bottom, they said nothing. They enjoyed the reception, and everything went off without a hitch. Megan found that the excitement of not knowing where they were going on their honeymoon added to the specialness of the day. When they arrived, she was so excited she thought she would burst. The fact that Montague remembered some little thing she'd mentioned in passing was even more proof that he loved her. Making love for the first time was worth waiting for, too. Megan knew she would always look back on her wedding night and smile. She loved her husband and she was certain he loved her, too.

* * *

"You'll have a great time, Meggie," Six insisted. "It is a lot of fun to perform for other magicians."

"I won't know anyone, and I am terrible at socializing with strangers."

"You won't be a stranger long," he informed her.

"And you are performing...?" she clarified.

"Yes. Headlining. It's an honor; we'll have to come up with something new..." He seemed happy as could be, but she wasn't one bit happy! The last thing she wanted to do was talk about magic day and night while learning an entirely new routine to perform for a group of fellow magicians to criticize. She couldn't bear the thought of disappointing Montague, and what if his contemporaries disliked her?

Montague knew something was troubling his new wife, but each time he asked her about it she gave him the same answer... nothing. He felt like spanking her, but she hadn't done one thing to earn a spanking since they were married. All her passion was reserved for their bedroom, and when she did lose her temper there was a good reason for it, and even at that, she was courteous in the way she expressed her anger. No, spanking Megan wasn't the answer. He gently questioned her, and the only thing he could hazard a guess about was the convention for magicians that was coming upon them. She seemed worried, and for no good reason. She was the best assistant he'd ever had, and the fact that she was now his wife elated him. He was a truly fortunate man.

Their performances were sold out and they were usually playing to a full house. Megan was getting used to being on the stage, and rarely suffered from stage fright. The first night in a new venue was always the worst, and she learned to hide her queasiness from her vigilant husband. She didn't want his cure. She hadn't been spanked since before the wedding, and as far as she was concerned, that special honor could wait until after several anniversaries passed! Perhaps, when she was a mother... someday in the distant future... Montague would consider her too old for a spanking...?

The convention drew closer and closer and Montague worked harder and harder to develop a new show. Performing for his peers was challenging as well as fun, and he wanted to offer something new and different. Being asked to headline the main show, the one that was open to the public as well as to fellow magicians, meant that his peers recognized his talent. It was humbling and a great honor. He was also doing a lecture, and he wanted it to be more than a sales presentation. He liked to give something valuable that each magician attending the hour long lecture could take home and incorporate into his own act. Montague put a lot of time into planning and rehearsing for the event.

"Montague, I think we need to take a couple of days off and go and visit family," Megan told him over breakfast a couple of weeks before the convention was due to start.

"Sorry, honey, but I don't have time for that right now. I need to keep working on the lecture I'm to give, and I am still perfecting the new illusions for our show. We need to spend more time rehearsing the whole thing, beginning to end."

"We need time for ourselves, too," she complained. "You've been working on all of these tricks for several weeks now, and we've barely taken any time to talk of anything except magic."

"Magic is what pays our bills, Megan," he said softly, reminding her of the fact.

"Maybe so, but it shouldn't be all we ever think about. You have been eating and sleeping magic!"

"Only because it matters, Meggie. If I can impress the other people I work with, it will lead to a better future for us."

Megan wasn't convinced, but she kept quiet as he rehearsed, first without her and then with her. Some of his newer stuff included 'close up'. He normally didn't use a lot of close up in his routines, but for his lectures he felt it was important to use tricks that were used for smaller groups, or even tableside. He felt that one of the most difficult things a magician could do was make an illusion that was normally for a few work for a larger audience.

They were among the first to arrive at the hotel for the convention and from the very beginning Megan felt as though she was on display. It seemed that everyone knew her husband and looked at her as if to measure her and see if she was good enough for her very promising talent of a husband. They were polite to her, of course, but Megan feared what they were saying about her behind her back. She absolutely hated being on display, and she felt that everyone was staring at her and finding her lacking in some way.

Montague wondered at Megan's strange mood. It wasn't like her to be so quiet, but when he questioned her she denied that anything was wrong. "Meggie, did someone say something rude to you?" he finally asked, desperate to figure out why she was so unhappy.

"Will you stop? You know your friends better than I do! You know better than I what they are thinking behind those polite smiles. You know if they find me lacking or not. And, from the way they look at me, I can only guess that they think I'm not good enough for you... both onstage and off!" she angrily declared. "It makes me wonder which ones of the single women here thought to have you for their own? Just what of these women are my competition? I feel as if I am the only one left out of the great joke! Oh, Montague, why did you bring me here?"

Chapter Twelve

"Megan, no one thinks badly of you. These are my contemporaries, and most of these people have watched me turn from a brash high school senior to college student and then stage performer. They've watched me grow over the years, and they are interested in you for that reason. Not one person has looked down on you. I've heard nothing but compliments, and I've been told that I am a lucky man to have my own wife acting as my assistant."

"The men are saying that, but what of the women? How many of them have you dated?" she demanded.

"I don't think I've dated any of them, honey," he said far too calmly, taking her hand and pulling her over to the bed in the bedroom of their hotel suite.

"I'm in no mood to make love!" she told him.

"Neither am I," he assured her as he took a seat and tugged her down over his lap. "I'm in the mood to spank this silliness right out of you." He swatted her rounded bottom over the silken gown she was wearing. "I am in the mood to spank the moodiness out of you, Meggie." His hand fell again. "I've never heard anything so ridiculous in my entire life." Again he spanked her upturned behind.

"I am not being ridiculous," she argued, thoroughly insulted that he was spanking her. She was a married woman now, and he had no business treating her like a bratty child! "These women are catty and they keep looking at you as if they want to eat you up. I can't handle that, Montague! I know I don't measure up to them, but they don't need to keep reminding me of that fact."

Montague pulled up her gown. "Not one of those ladies have said one unkind word to you, Mrs. Montague." He brought his hand down on her bare skin with some force behind it. Megan yelped in pain. He nodded in satisfaction and continued to spank her while she kicked her legs up and down and tried to get her hands behind her to protect her posterior. "None of that," he ordered, taking her hands in his and holding them to the small of her back. "And, as long as you keep kicking, this spanking is not going to count."

Megan tried to wiggle off of Montague's lap, but had no success. She squealed in outrage and temper as he continued to spank her bottom with stinging smacks. "Stop it, Montague! I haven't done anything!" she yelled. "It is your lady friends who need a spanking. You're married now and they just need to accept that."

"I've never even dated any of those women," he stated calmly. "You need to calm yourself down and stop imagining all sorts of things." Her feet were still kicking, which meant she was very angry and not listening to him. It was going to take a while to reach the point where she was willing to listen and accept the spanking he felt she needed. He spotted her hairbrush lying on the bedside table and he reached over her to grab the brush. He was pretty sure that he would get a better response from her the next time he questioned her.

Megan jumped when she felt the hairbrush land on her right cheek with a loud crack. "Owwww! Not my hairbrush, Montague! That isn't fair!" He didn't answer her, but continued to smack her bottom cheeks with her own hairbrush! "Owwww! You are hurting me, Montague! Stop!" He didn't listen then, either, and the spanking continued, moving down to her sit spots. He raised his foot to bring her butt up higher and expose more of her sit spot so he could spank it well, and he did, while she cried and begged him not to spank so hard.

Montague noticed that Megan finally stopped kicking, and she stopped fighting the spanking. He was relieved to know that he was finally getting somewhere. Her bottom was a deep dark red, and her sit spots were going to be sore and she would find sitting in the rooms for the lectures and the competitions arduous, but sit she would. He wasn't going to permit his wife to act like a jealous shrew when there was absolutely no reason to be jealous. "Are you ready to listen to reason now, Meggie?" he stopped spanking long enough to ask.

"Yes," she answered, her voice hoarse from crying.

"Good. Meggie, I haven't dated any of the women here. And, even if I had, I chose you to marry and make my wife forever. I love you, and I won't tolerate this jealous behavior of yours. There is no excuse for it. Hear me?" He gave her another firm spank to reinforce his words.

"I hear you, Montague. I'm sorry I got all crazy." Megan was embarrassed and wondered at herself. He'd never given her one reason to distrust him, and she'd given in to vexations and took it out on Montague. "I'm sorry and I promise not to do it again."

"I hope you don't, Meggie. I think a good marriage is based on trust, and without trust there can't be the closeness that comes from two people who love and respect each other. I give you my word that there will never be any reason for you to be jealous. I can't stop women from coming up to me, but I can promise you that I take my wedding vows seriously, and I will tell them 'no'. Do you believe me?"

"Yes, Montague." She felt very small. "I promise you the same."

"I know that, honey." He gave her a loving pat, but she winced. "Now, what is this about people looking down at you? What or who gave you that impression?"

"You know all of them so well, and I felt like I was being judged and found lacking. I don't like that, and I am uncomfortable," she admitted, telling him the truth.

"Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place and then I could have reassured you? Meggie, you have to remember that I have been seeing some of these people at these conventions for many years now. Some of us were junior magicians with each other, and we competed in contests. Sure, they are curious about you, but I think that is pretty normal. All you need to do is smile and be yourself. You are a lovely young woman and I am proud to show you off to everyone."

"But, Montague, some of those women are beautiful! How can I possibly measure up?" she wailed.

Montague heard enough and he started spanking her sore flesh. "I am surprised at you Megan Montague. You are very beautiful, and I will not permit you to put yourself down. When you can accept that, tell me."

Megan cried out in pain when he started spanking again. He used his hand this time, and she knew it was because he wanted to feel the heat of her bottom when he punished her. He told her again that she was beautiful, but she wasn't ready to accept that. Next to a few of those women, she was lacking.