Claiming the Highlander (18 page)

Braden chucked Sin on the arm. “I’m jesting. You know I would never leave a woman in distress.”

“‘Tis what I thought, but you looked a little too sincere just now.”

And for a fraction of an instant, Braden
had
considered ignoring her. Especially given the severity of some of her curses. God help him if any of them ever came true. Why, he’d be a two-headed, three-toed, monkey-nosed, blind son of a cesspit-licking lackey if she had her way.

But, in spite of her uncharitable remarks, he couldn’t leave her in whatever condition she was currently in.

All in all, as much as he hated to admit it, he actually liked the hellion.

“Braden!”

“I’m coming,” he assured her, stepping around a large shrub to see her….

Braden froze. Not even in his wildest imaginings had he thought to see her like
that!

Her posterior wiggling and thrusting about rather provocatively, she lay bent over. And heaven help him, but it looked as if she were battling the very forest, or at least the hapless shrub in front of her.

Sin burst out laughing.

Braden probably would have laughed too, had a breeze not ruffled up the hem of her plaid, gifting him with a bountiful sight of her creamy buttocks. As well as a glimpse of other things that stirred a man’s interest and loins.

Desire flooded through him, sending a painful throb straight to his groin.

The lass truly had a beguiling bottom. One of tempting proportions that would contour just perfectly to his body. And in that instant, he swore he could feel the softness of her thighs in his palm, hear her moaning as he buried himself deep inside her over and over again until they both cried out in blissful release.

Braden ground his teeth as his need for her flamed so hot that for a moment it rendered him immobile.

“It’s not funny!” Maggie snapped, trying to pull herself out of the tangle of brush and limbs. All she succeeded in doing was baring more of her backside to him.

At this rate, the plaid would be gathered up at
her waist in another move or two and her entire bottom would be bared for his hungry view.

His eyes feasting on her, Braden held his breath in expectation. And for the first time in his life, he realized he was actually salivating over the sight before him.

“Braden!” she shouted again. “Please, help. I can’t move. Every time I try to pull out, it just gets worse.”

Nay, love
, he thought wolfishly,
it only gets better.

Much better, point of fact.

“Braden?”

Braden briefly closed his eyes as an image of her writhing in his arms flitted through his mind. Too easily, he could picture her surrender, imagine the sound of his name on her passion-drunk lips.

And when he opened his eyes, he was again greeted by the plaid just barely concealing her natural charms.

It was all Braden could do to force his gaze away from her wiggling hips and move around her to where he could see her flushed face.

He would definitely like a few more leisurely minutes to explore her—

“What is taking you so long? Would you
please
help me?” she asked again.

Aye, he’d help her all right, but what he really wanted to help her do, she’d slap him into eternity for.

Focus, man, it’s not like you’ve never seen a woman’s backside before.

True enough, but he couldn’t ever remember a woman’s body tempting him
this
much.

Dropping his pack on the ground, Braden eyed the contraption on top of her with a frown. Maggie lay on what appeared to be a leaflike table while more branches and leaves had fallen on top of her and held her pinned face down.

“How did you get in there?”

She arched her back to where she could glare at him. “Oh, I don’t know. It just looked like a good place to stop for a bit of a rest.”

Sin laughed again as Braden rolled his eyes at her sarcasm.

“Well, Lady Venom Tongue, perhaps I should leave you in there.”

Panic flitted across her brow, then she quickly added, “I was walking, then I tripped over something and all of a sudden this giant mass of leaves fell on top of me. Now would you please help me get up?”

Braden ran his gaze over her body. She was in quite the perfect position for—

“Braden!” she snapped, as if she could read his thoughts.

He couldn’t resist teasing her. “Think you, we should leave her here?” he asked Sin.

“Well, she did say, ‘Men, who needs them?’ Perhaps we should, just to prove a lesson.”

“You wouldn’t dare leave me here like this,” she said. Then she added less forcibly, “Would you?”

Braden gave her a devilish, dimpled grin. “Why don’t you catch up to us after you get yourself free?”

Maggie groaned, cursed him yet again beneath her breath, then fell prone on the bed of leaves. “If you were a gentleman, you wouldn’t even consider leaving me here like this.”

“Well,” he teased, “according to you, I’m not a gentleman, but a lust-ridden, warted sow’s ear fit for naught save eating, belching and chasing after other men’s wives.”

Her face flushed even redder. “You heard that?”

“Aye, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the king of England sitting on his throne in London heard it as well.”

Maggie wanted to bury her head in shame. She hadn’t meant for him to hear her words, and she didn’t really mean any of them. She used those words to stiffen her resolve and try to keep herself focused on his flaws. Her only real problem with him was that she loved the scoundrel entirely too much.

Well, except for this moment. Right now, she would like nothing more than to choke his arrogant hide as he stared at her with humor dancing in his greenish brown eyes.

Sighing, she tried again. “Very well, I’m sorry for what I said. Men are good for some things. Now please help me.”

Braden looked skeptically at Sin. “I just don’t feel she meant that apology. What say you?”

Maggie huffed and squirmed. “Please,” she said, stressing the word.

Pressing his lips into a grim line, Braden shook his head. “Still it lacks sincerity.”

She froze and glared at him.

Braden bit back a laugh as he regarded her anger. If her amber gaze could kill, he would definitely be shredded by the malice she directed at him.

“If you don’t get me out of this, Braden MacAllister, I swear I’ll haunt you for an eternity.”

“Now,
that
could be frightening,” Sin said.

Or it could be a whole lot of fun.

Braden’s gaze drifted back toward her bottom. A whole lot of fun, indeed.

Stifling the thought, Braden used his foot to move his pack out of his way, then leaned over to try and move the leaves from her back.

It didn’t work.

Braden frowned as he looked more carefully at the limbs. “This was a trap of some sort,” he said, noting the way the branch had been rigged to fall from behind Maggie.

“Probably some child wanting to trap another. You can tell it wasn’t meant to hurt anyone, just pin them down for a bit,” Sin said as he examined
it as well. “Sort of like the ones we used on Kieran and Lochlan.”

Braden laughed at the memory.

“While you two admire the handiwork, would one of you please find a way to free me?”

“I’m working on it,” Braden said.

He moved to stand behind her so that he could pull the limb back in the direction from which it had swung.

It suddenly dawned on him what he’d have to do to free her. And in his gut, he knew she wasn’t going to like it.

He, on the other hand …

Braden licked his lips in anticipation.

“Maggie, my love, I’m going to have to get really close to you to free you.”

“I don’t care what you have to do,” she said sharply. “Just please do it and let me go.”

Braden dropped his gaze down to her hips as his hunger for her grew even more, as well as another part of him that stiffened and strained, begging for her softness.

Well, if that’s the way she wants it…

He stood directly behind her, then had to lean forward, over her back, to pull the limb off her. As he did so, his painfully aroused groin made full contact with her bottom.

She gasped, then jerked her hips to where they collided fully with his swollen shaft. The action wrung a deep moan from him.

“This is a priceless sight,” Sin said from behind them. “Should I leave you two alone?”

“Shut up, Sin,” they shouted in unison.

Braden struggled to breathe against the agonizing pain of his need for her. He had never wanted anything as badly as he wanted to take her right then and there.

Forcing himself to move, Braden pulled the limb away from her spine. Maggie scooted out from between him and the leaf-table lightning quick. Her face was the same color as her hair as she looked about at anything
other
than him.

“Thank you,” she said.

“My pleasure,” Braden said before he thought better of it.

Her eyes flashing, she met his gaze with fury smoldering in the amber depths. “Only
you
would take advantage of a woman in that position.”

There, she was wrong, and if he were the demon she thought him to be, he’d have done a whole lot more to her than just free her.

“I wasn’t trying to take advantage of you. I was simply trying to get you out as quickly as possible.”

“Oh, I’m certain of that.” Her sarcasm made a mockery of Braden’s even tone as she tugged her plaid back down to her knees.

“Well,” Sin interjected, “while the two of you catch up on insults, I’m going to scout us a place to sleep.”

Sin quickly vanished into the trees.

Maggie glared while Braden fought down the smile he knew would only anger her more.

The air between them was rife with awkwardness. An awkwardness Braden didn’t like.

As far back as he could remember, there had always been the easiness of friendship between them, and he didn’t like the sudden change in her demeanor.

“Did you get hurt?” he asked.

The anger dimmed a bit as she shook her head. “I’m uncertain how I fell. I’m usually very surefooted.”

“Well, even the best of us occasionally falls into the wrong trap.”

She looked down as if his words triggered something in her memory; then, unexpectedly, she smiled.

He delighted in the change it made in her. Her eyes glowed warmly as her entire face lit up. The lass was beautiful when she smiled.

“What?” Braden asked, wondering what had brought about this sudden change.

“I was just remembering another trap.”

“The one where I goosed you at the cave?” Braden asked.

She frowned for a second, until she recalled the event, then she gave a short laugh. “Nay, I was thinking of the trap you mentioned earlier when Nera, Mairi, and the others ambushed you on the way to my house.”

Braden squirmed at the memory. “You know, I still have scars on my body from it.”

To this day, he had a thin spot on his crown where one of the girls had pulled a handful of hair from his scalp. “When I first ran into you that day, I thought you were in with them.”

“I know,” she said, smiling. “I’ll never forget the terrified look on your face when you ran me over. ‘Tis the only time I’ve ever seen you panicked.”

“And I was too. I had no idea how to get away without hurting one of them.”

Then Braden recalled how he had escaped the lust-crazed lasses.

Looking at Maggie, he smiled. “And I’ll never forget how you shoved me into the hollow of that oak tree, then sent them off in the opposite direction.”

“I was shaking,” she confessed, “terrified they would learn I’d lied to them and set upon me with a vengeance.”

That wasn’t the way he recalled it. Barely ten-and-three, she had appeared out of nowhere to save him. He didn’t remember her looking afraid. “You looked poised and calm to me.”

Braden stared in awe of her as memories played through his mind. Memories of Maggie sneaking him out of the tree, then the two of them literally crawling through the bushes to reach her house undetected by the girls.

And later, Maggie bandaging the cuts and bruises the lasses had inflicted upon him. She had
even hummed a gentle tune as she smoothed the salve across his skin. Her touch had been so light and soothing. Her voice pleasant.

He couldn’t remember whether or not he had thanked her that day. But right now, with the sunlight on her face and the fire in her eyes, he wanted nothing more than to kiss her until eternity came and went.

Impulsively, Braden reached out and ran his fingertip over the freckles covering her cheekbone. “I’ve always wondered why you saved me that day.”

She didn’t pull away. Instead, she looked up at him with a strange emotion in her eyes. “I was but returning the favor.”

“What favor?”

She drew her brows together. “Don’t you recall it?”

“I don’t think so.”

Maggie’s frown deepened. “You truly don’t recall saving my life?”

As he toyed with the delicate, soft skin, Braden searched his memory, but for his life, he couldn’t remember ever saving her from anything except one of her brothers, and none of them would ever have truly hurt her. “Nay.”

“I was but seven when you came to my rescue.”

“I would have been ten.”

“Aye. My father had gone to the castle to deliver wool. Ian and I were supposed to stay in the
wagon, but I snuck his toy horse from his side and when he realized what I had done, he started after me.”

Braden smiled as he finally recalled the event. The two of them had been quite a sight. “You were running through the great hall, screaming for help.”

“Aye, and I thought he was going to kill me for sure.”

“You ran straight into me and sent us careening into my mother’s best tapestry.”

They both cringed at that part of the memory.

Maggie bit her lip. “She wasn’t overly angry, was she?”

His mother’s wrath had been immeasurable, and she had given him quite a thrashing over it. Why, even to this day, she brought it up every time he displeased her.

Braden started to make a quip about it, but then caught the look of concern and guilt in Maggie’s eyes. And for some reason he couldn’t fathom, he wanted to soothe her. “Nay, she wasn’t overly angry.”