Claiming the Highlander (22 page)

She caught Braden’s gaze. Tension sizzled between them as they stared at one another for a long minute, motionless.

“Here, now!” Seamus shouted as he came around the side of the house and broke their unspoken exchange. “What are you girls doing out
here? I told you you were to stay inside while the lads be working.”

“But Da,” Tara said, stepping away from Braden, “we just thought—”

“I know what you be thinking, and you’d best be getting back inside. You might be grown, but you’re still me daughters and I’ve a good strap for your backsides if you don’t listen to me.”

Tara poked her bottom lip out, then reluctantly did as her father ordered.

Seamus cast a malevolent glare at them until he saw the woodpile. “That should carry me through the winter!” he said gleefully. “Now, if you’ll see about that fence, I’ll see about your food.”

Braden didn’t move until Seamus left them.

At least he had the good grace to look ashamed as he approached her. “Maggie—”

“Don’t,” she said, cutting him off. He didn’t have to explain it to her. She knew.

Bock, bock.
She heard the cruel, taunting laughs of the boys from her clan as they mocked her. Women who looked like her didn’t turn the heads of men who looked like Braden.

At least, nowhere other than in her dreams.

“There’s work to do,” she said, stepping around him.

He sighed, then led the way to the broken fence.

Sin frowned at her as she walked past him.

“What?” she asked.

Sin started to speak, then locked his jaw and followed Braden.

Maggie felt like throwing her hands up in defeat. Sin’s look had been accusatory. Though why he would accuse her of anything, she couldn’t imagine. She hadn’t done anything wrong.

Braden was the one who needed to be chastised. His behavior was deplorable.

Oh, bother anyway. They would soon reach the MacDouglas and then she wouldn’t have to worry over it anymore. Then she could go back home, and Braden would be free to make lustful eyes at all the pretty lasses who caught his fancy.

Besides, she didn’t need a man. She’d never in her life needed one. All they did was gulp down food without so much as a thank you, belch and sniff.

Why, she’d be better off with a pet pig.

And yet, deep in her heart, she didn’t believe her words. For it was there she knew the truth. And not even the harshness of her thoughts could protect her from caring. Because she did care. She wanted Braden for herself and the thought that he could just dismiss her and claim another woman cut her to her soul.

Saddened, Maggie joined the men at the fence and they worked in silence.

Once the fence had been mended, Seamus brought their food.

They barely made it into the stable with their platters before the storm broke. Sin shut the door
as thunder clapped and hard raindrops pattered against the wood.

Maggie paused and looked around the dim interior as Braden lit two lanterns.

Inside, the stable’s worn wood was faded to a light tan, but the structure appeared sound. Two cows mooed from their stalls to her right, and an old nag chomped at its hay on her left. There were four nicer horses huddled in a large stall to the back of the stable.

Braden led them to the center of the building, where bales of hay could provide makeshift tables and chairs. He sat on the one closest to the door while Sin sat to his left. Maggie took the smallest bale, farthest from the door, and set her platter on it.

As they ate quietly, the rain pelted the roof and more thunder rumbled.

“‘Tis a good thing we stopped here,” Sin said after a few minutes.

“Aye,” Braden agreed. “It would have been a miserable night otherwise.”

To Maggie, it already was.

When they finished eating, Braden gathered up their platters and cups. “I’ll return these to Seamus.”

Maggie narrowed her eyes on him and the lie he was spilling. Did he honestly think she was too stupid to know what he had planned?

“What?” Braden asked innocently as he caught her glare.

Averting her gaze, she said nothing as he shook his head at her and walked off. If he was that dense, then she truly had nothing to say to him.

Still, she fumed. Did he honestly think she didn’t know what he was going to do? He wouldn’t give those dishes to Seamus; it was Tara he was aiming for.

Damn him!

“Why don’t you hit him and get it over with?” Sin asked as soon as they were alone.

Maggie looked up to see him reclining on his own pile of hay. “I beg your pardon?”

Sin tugged his boots off and stretched his legs out. “If looks could kill, Braden would be smeared all over yon wall.”

“That’s right,” she said churlishly, “side with your brother. After all, ‘tis the right of your gender to strut around after anything in a skirt.”

In a royal tiff, Maggie ignored Sin as she pulled her sleeping plaid from her pack. She struggled to make a pallet and as she worked, her pain over Braden built until tears gathered in her eyes and fell down her cheeks.

Angrily, she wiped them away.

“Maggie,” Sin said with a tenderness in his voice that she wouldn’t have thought him capable of. “Why don’t you tell Braden how you feel?”

“Why?” she asked, her voice breaking on a sob. “So he can laugh? Or worse, I could have him for
a night or two, but then so could
any
woman. Don’t you understand?”

Tossing his boots aside, Sin laughed bitterly. “You ask a man who has never known love or kindness whether or not he understands your need to feel special? Of course I do. But while you condemn Braden for what he might do, let me ask you this. Have you ever really known him?”

Maggie sniffed and looked at him as if he were daft. “Of course. I’ve known him all my life.”

Sin snorted. “No, you haven’t. You may have seen him all your life, but you’ve never known the
real
him. If you had, you would know just how foolish your fears are.”

“What do you mean?”

Sin’s gaze intensified. “If you truly knew Braden, then you would know Braden would sooner gut himself than hurt someone he loves.”

“What has that to do—”

“Think about it, Maggie.”

She did, but at the moment, she felt completely stupid, for she had no idea what he was talking about.

“As the youngest of five headstrong boys,” Sin continued, “Braden learned to negotiate peace between us. If you hit one of us, we’ll hit back instantly, without thought. If you raise a fist or sword to Braden, what does he do?”

Maggie didn’t hesitate with her answer. “He tries to talk you out of using it.”

“Aye, but is he a coward?”

“Nay,” she snapped defensively. “I’ve never known him to shirk from a fight.”

“That’s right. And do you know why he’s like that?”

She shook her head.

“Unlike me, Braden doesn’t like to hurt anyone.”

Sin had yet to tell her anything she didn’t already know, and none of that bore any importance on why she was angry at Braden. “What has this to do with his womanizing?”

Sin breathed as if exasperated with her. Although why he should be, she couldn’t imagine. After all, he was the one being cryptic. She was merely trying to follow his logic.

“Tell me,” he said, “how many women do you think he’s been with?”

“By all accounts I’ve heard, nearly every woman in Kilgarigon, London, and pretty much any other place he’s ever visited.”

“By whose accounts?”

“The women who brag about him.”

“Have you never thought about how odd it is that he has been with all these women yet there are no bastards of his roaming about?”

Maggie froze while smoothing her plaid over the straw. She’d never considered that. “But he has never denied it.”

“Of course he hasn’t. He’s a man.”

She ran through her mind all the years she’d
known him. The time she’d saved him from being mobbed by the girls of the village. Even today, the way Tara had gone after him.

Come to think of it, she seldom knew him to actively pursue a woman. Most of the time, he was running from them.

“Are you telling me he’s had no women?” she asked suspiciously.

Sin laughed. “Nay. I’m sure he’s had plenty, but I think some accounts are seriously exaggerated. Personally, I’ve only known him to take three women successfully.”

“Successfully?”

“Aye, due to his reputation, I’ve noticed that most brothers and fathers tend to keep a close eye on him and whatever woman he’s around. Most of his encounters were cut short before he could, shall we say, finish the transaction.”

Now that she thought about it, she knew a number of such events herself. Indeed, some of the juicier interruptions had kept the village gossipmongers happy for weeks on end.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

Sin averted his gaze as he unstrapped his sword from his hips and laid it down by his side. “Because Braden likes you. More than I’ve ever seen him like anyone else, and I can’t stand to see him so misjudged. I think you owe it to both of you to give him a chance.”

He met her gaze. “You know, Maggie, Braden can’t help the way he looks, nor can he help the
women who run after him. But he would sooner cut his arm off than hurt someone he loves.”

At last she understood what he’d meant earlier. “You’re saying he would never stray?”

“Not if he loved you. Believe me, I know my brother well enough to say, without doubt, that he would never leave a woman he truly loved for another.”

“But he doesn’t love
me,”
she said, her voice breaking.

“Are you sure of that?”

Maggie’s breath caught in her throat. Was he implying …

Surely not. Why on earth would Braden have any tender feelings for her?

“Are you saying he loves me?” she asked doubtfully.

“I’m not sure,” he answered honestly. “But I do know he’s a different man around you than he is other women.”

“Different how?”

Sin shrugged. “It’s hard to explain exactly. He’s just more at ease with you. Teases you in ways I’ve never seen him tease anyone else.”

“And how would
I
know if he loved me?”

Sin gave another bitter laugh.

He looked up as if addressing the Lord Himself. “Again, she asks a man who has never known love,” he muttered. Then, louder, he said, “How does anyone ever know if they’re truly
loved or not? You just have to take a chance and see.”

He seared her with the intensity of his gaze. “But I can tell you this: If someone were after something I wanted, I wouldn’t stand in here weeping about it. I’d go take action on the matter.”

His raked her with a cold stare. “I thought you were a fighter. Or are you willing to just give up on your dreams?”

“I’m willing to fight,” she said.

Aye, that she was.

Stiffening her spine, she rose to her feet and went to find Braden and his strumpet.

Because if there was any truth to Sin’s words, then she might actually have a chance at the man of her dreams. And if that was true, then she wouldn’t stop until she had him at the altar.

 Chapter 12

“O
ch, now, what a big, bonny man, you are,” Tara purred as she took the platters and cups from Braden and set them inside the back door of her cottage.

Braden smiled at her as she closed the door and stepped out beneath the small overhang that protected the back door from the rain. It was a tight space, but it easily accommodated both of them.

The light from the cottage’s window lit the area just enough that they could see each other.

A flash of lightning highlighted her face and the dark hunger in her blue eyes.

Aye, he’d be tasting a bit of heaven in a few minutes, and he couldn’t wait to put an end to his celibacy.

Braden braced his arm above Tara’s head, against the doorframe, and let his gaze roam her
voluptuous body. She had one of those figures that could drive a man to distraction. Large, lush breasts where a man could bury his face and hands, among other things, and a tiny, inviting waist. Her hips flared gently, and by the way she was rubbing herself against him, he could tell she knew quite a few tricks to please a man.

And then the unimaginable happened as she glided her hand over his chest.

His body did nothing.

Nay, it couldn’t be!

Instantly his smile faded.

Tara pressed her breasts against his chest and ran her arms about his neck. She breathed in his ear, stirring his wet hair, before she took his earlobe between her teeth and ran her tongue along the edge of it.

Normally, such actions would have his head reeling, and he’d be feverishly relieving her of her clothes.

But tonight…

Well, he couldn’t say it wasn’t pleasurable, because it was. Yet somehow, it wasn’t satisfying to him. Worse, his body only stirred a bit. It was far from the fiery loins he’d been having the last few days.

And in that instant he knew why.

He wanted Maggie.

Dear saints in heaven! It was all he could do not to curse aloud as Tara ran her nails down his spine. And nothing happened. No chills, no …

iWell, his body did perk up a bit as she rubbed her hand against his groin. Still, it wasn’t the same reaction he’d had even last night when Maggie had teasingly displayed her more conservative, fully clothed cleavage at him.