Claiming the Highlander (24 page)

But that wasn’t all she knew. And before she could stop herself, she rattled off more things she knew about him. “Your favorite foods are roasted venison with stewed cabbage and elderberry tarts. You drink dark ale around other men, but in truth, you prefer mulled wine. When you’re at home, you always have a cup of warm milk sprinkled with cinnamon before you go to bed. Your favorite tale is Dierdre of the Sorrows, and though you’d never admit it and you try to look
disinterested when they play, you like to hear bards sing.”

He looked completely baffled by her admission. “How do you know all that?”

“Because, I’ve loved you all my life.”

 Chapter 13

B
raden didn’t know which of them was more stunned by her confession. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Maggie looked terrified.

He
felt
terrified.

Indeed, he couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, as he stared at her while her words tore through him.

Eternity seemed to pass as they stood just a foot apart with her words hanging like a pall between them.

“Nay,” he said at last. “You can’t love me.”

“Why not?” she asked, her voice filled with the same pain he saw reflected in her amber eyes.

“Because you can’t.”

Before she could move, he turned about and left the stable in search of a way to cope with the news she had given him.

But all he could focus on was the raw agony tearing through his soul. He didn’t want her to love him. He didn’t want any woman to love him, at least not for any longer than an hour or two.

Dear saints, how had this happened?

And why?

Braden paused at the edge of the stable and leaned back against the faded wood as he covered his eyes with his hand. The rain wasn’t quite as bad as it had been earlier, but it still soaked him as he sought someplace safe from her clutches.

Over and over, her words echoed in his mind. She loved him. Loved him and knew things about him that he didn’t think any woman had ever known. Not even his mother.

And all the while, he had ignored her. Had never paid a bit of attention to her.

He didn’t know which made him feel worse.

Pain sliced through his heart. Emotions he couldn’t define assailed him. Dear God, it felt as if someone were cleaving his chest in two.

“Braden?” he heard Maggie calling to him.

“Saints preserve me,” he whispered, torn between the desire to make love to her and to run as fast as he could.

Before he could make his decision, she came rushing to his side.

Braden glared at her and cursed. “Woman, have you no sense, to be running back out into the rain?”

She arched a brow at him as she crossed her
arms over her chest in a feeble effort to keep herself warm. “I could say the same of you.”

“One would think you’d know I wanted to be alone.”

“Why?”

“Because I do. Now go back inside and dry off.”

She lifted her chin stubbornly. “I’ll go in when you do.”

Exasperation filled him. “I canna believe you’ve made it to adulthood without one of your brothers choking the life out of your stubborn throat.”

She took his angry words without flinching. “They have little room to talk since they were such good teachers on that account. Now I would have an answer from you.”

Braden closed his eyes as he struggled for control of himself. He didn’t know what to do or say. “Go back inside.”

“Answer me.”

Braden wished it were that simple. His feelings were complex and deep. All his life he had been loved. Every woman he’d ever known had whispered her undying devotion to him while they frolicked and played, and at the end of the day they had all married someone else.

At ten-and-six he had made the mistake of asking Nera ingen Alward to marry him. Two weeks later, she had sworn herself to Colum.

Her reason stung him to this day:
Braden, why
would I marry you? You’ve a pretty face and are a hot tumble between my legs, but Colum has money the likes of which you canna fathom. Besides, he travels much, which will leave us time aplenty to play.

He ground his teeth. He had shown her in the end. His current assets made a mockery of Colum’s puny home. Even so, it had never erased the pain in his youthful, broken heart.

Nay, women were fickle, faithless creatures. And unlike his brothers, he would never believe their honied lies.

But therein was the problem. When such words came from the lips of Maggie, he
wanted
to believe them.

Why that was so, he didn’t know. He only knew that it would destroy what little was left of his heart to find out she was playing him falsely.

Maggie narrowed her gaze on him. “You call me stubborn, yet here you stand, more ready to drown yourself than answer a simple question.”

Against his will, Braden reached out to her. He cupped her icy cheek in his hand. “You’re freezing.”

“I know.”

He gave a half laugh at her matter-of-fact tone. “If you have loved me for so long, why have you never spoken of it?”

“Because I didn’t think you’d want to hear it.”

Maggie was far too astute. But then, she’d always been that way.

Her eyes turned dull. “Look, Braden, I’m not a
fool. I know I can never have you. I know you don’t share my feelings and I wish I’d never spoken of them. Unfortunately, I can’t take them back. Can we just forget what I said and go back inside before both of us catch our deaths?”

Braden nodded. Not because he was afraid for himself—he’d survived much worse conditions than this—but because he didn’t want to see her sick. The depths to which he would go to keep her safe didn’t bear investigating. In truth, that place in his heart where he found concern for her frightened him more than anything else ever had.

Reluctantly, he took her by the arm and led her inside.

When they entered the stable, Sin’s voice rang out, “Guess you two will have to run around naked for a bit, since all your clothes are now wet.”

“Actually,” Braden said as he wrung the rain from his hair, “I was thinking of raiding your pack for some clothes.”

“I somehow thought as much.”

Braden handed Maggie one of Sin’s plaids and his spare shirt.

Maggie took them and quickly changed in private, all the while her thoughts churning. Why had she ever spoken those words? And why did they torment Braden so?

The man had always been an enigma to her, but no more so than he was tonight. Shouldn’t love make someone happy?

She scoffed at the thought. When had loving Braden
ever
made her happy? The sad truth of the matter was that loving Braden had only caused her misery. Nothing but misery.

Crestfallen, she belted the plaid.

When she returned to the center of the stable, she saw Braden wrapped only in a plaid, his chest bare and glistening in the low light. Her throat dried at the sight.

It was going to be a long,
long
night.

Before she could give the matter any more thought, Sin jumped to the floor. “Hope there’s a way to bolt the doors.”

Maggie frowned at his odd behavior and comment. “Why?”

“There’s a sortie of women headed our way, and by the looks of them, we could be in for a nasty battle,” Sin said as he made his way to the door.

Maggie’s frown deepened. What was he talking about?

Braden cursed as he reached the door first and searched for a latch. “Wouldn’t you know it,” he said bitterly.

“There’s nothing to bar it,” Sin finished for him. “Well, doesn’t this beat the devil?”

Even more perplexed, she stared at them. They looked as if the angel of death were upon them and they had forgotten to get last rites. “They’re just women. Tell them you’re not interested—”

“And they’ll try and change our minds,” Braden interrupted.

Maggie rolled her eyes at his dire tone. “No, they won’t. You forget I’m a woman. I know how they think.”

“And I know how they act,” Braden said as he returned to her side. “They’ll not leave until they get what they want.”

Maggie laughed at his ego. “You’re being ridiculous, Braden. You’re not
that
irresistible.”

His look bore into hers. “You think not? Then explain to me why Tara is on her way here after I already told her I had no interest in taking her.”

Before she could think to respond, Seamus’s three eldest daughters threw back the doors to the stable.

“Knock, knock, lads,” Tara said, her hands on her hips as she surveyed them. “We’ve come to see to your comfort.”

 Chapter 14

S
in darted away from the women to the back of the stable.

The
I told you so
look from Braden was such that Maggie almost laughed. Until the youngest of the women headed straight toward her with a swing to her hips and a look in her eyes that told Maggie
exactly
what the woman was after.

Her.

Oh, bother me!
She’d better move—fast.

Maggie started for the stall behind her, but tripped and fell.

“Och, now,” the girl said as she bent over Maggie and pressed one pale hand to Maggie’s forehead. “Do you have a boo-boo I need be kissing?”

The girl’s lips were dangerously close to her own as the girl pressed her breasts against Maggie’s arm.

Seeking a way to pry the hoyden off her, Maggie curled her lips in disgust.

“Uh, nay,” Maggie said, dropping her voice an octave as she struggled to roll out from under the girl. “My boo-boo is just fine. Thanks.”

“Now, ladies,” Braden said as he sidestepped Tara’s outstretched arms. “What would your da be saying if he caught you out here?”

Tara backed him against the wall.

Undaunted by Braden’s evasive tactics, Tara laughed. “Oh, he’d be after the lot of you for sure. But he’s off asleep already. Now,” she said, grabbing his plaid and pulling his face closer to hers. “How bout another taste of those sweet lips of yours?”

Braden ducked and twisted out of her clutches.

Maggie was appalled. Never in her life had she seen such. Braden had been right about the women.

Mo chreach!
They were in serious trouble.

Just as the girl reached to grope Maggie, strong arms pulled Maggie back.

In one fluid motion, Sin lifted her from the ground, tossed her up on a horse and smacked the rear of the beast. The horse shrieked, then bolted from the stable at a dead run.

Struggling to bring the horse under control, Maggie panicked.

The horse flew into the woods with the bit between its teeth. She pulled at the reins, but the horse paid her no heed as it dashed through
limbs that clawed at her, threatening to knock her out of the saddle. Her heart pounding, she leaned forward and latched on to the horse’s neck, praying she didn’t fall off and kill herself.

It was probably a good five minutes before Sin and Braden caught up to her and brought her horse under control. Braden leaned over and took the bridle in his hand, then used his horse to slow hers. Her heart still pounded in her ears as she gave a quick prayer of thanks for the deliverance.

“Are you all right?” Braden asked her.

Still too terrified to speak, Maggie took deep breaths and nodded.

Braden patted her arm comfortingly, then turned on his brother with a furious glare. “Och, man, what have you done to us now?”

“I saved your bloody arse. What do you think would have happened had the women discovered Maggie wasn’t a lad? Were you ready to explain?”

A tic started in Braden’s jaw. “Now we’ll be hanged for horse thievery!”

Sin shook his head. “I left more than enough gold for these nags. Their owners will be thrilled to have it.”

Maggie watched as some of the tenseness faded from Braden. “My thanks, then.”

Sin shifted in his saddle and cast a pitying glance to Braden. “You know, little brother, it seems to me you must live in eternal hell. I can’t take you anywhere that the women don’t seize upon you like the last morsel of their last supper.”

Braden reached up and raked his hand over his own neck. “Aye, I just wished you’d acted sooner. That Tara had nails like a hawk. I swear, I think I’m bleeding.”

It was then Maggie realized the truth of Braden. He wasn’t a conscienceless rapscallion out to seduce any woman he found. Indeed, other than a little flirting, he hadn’t really done anything to make Tara pursue him.