He fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes.
Maggie listened to his gentle snore as she brushed her hand through his hair.
“Oh, Braden,” she whispered, wondering how she was going to tell him he was a father.
On the one hand, she could kill him for leaving the boy, but on the other, she knew he had no way of knowing about Connor. Poor Connor’s mother probably had no idea what she should do, and the sight of Braden kissing another had probably cut her all the way to her heart.
Had Maggie been in the woman’s shoes, she would have marched herself across the yard and confronted Braden while he groped another.
But that was her, and not the poor woman who had been brokenhearted.
Suddenly a shiver went through her as she thought about herself. What if she carried his child already?
The answer was simple.
“I will love it as much as I love its father,” she whispered. And she would. Just as she loved the little part of Braden that was snoring softly in her bed.
Like father, like son.
Leaning forward, she brushed her lips against his forehead in a light kiss. “Happy dreams, sweeting.”
She pulled the covers over him, then went to find his father.
Braden sat alone in the hall. Everyone else had long taken themselves to bed in preparation for what they would do on the morrow.
Even Sin had wandered off, making Braden wonder if his brother had finally found one of the Scottish lasses to his liking. And there had certainly been a number of them to choose from.
The bad part was that, for the first time in his life, none of them appealed to him in the least.
Braden cursed.
“She’s turned me into a bloody eunuch,” he muttered as he drained the last of his ale.
And then he thought of Maggie’s words: You prefer mulled wine…
Cursing again, he set the tankard back on the table. How had she done it? How had she wormed her way into his carefully guarded heart?
Over and over, he could feel her against him. Hear her murmurs in his ear as her breath stirred against his skin. Closing his eyes, he savored the memory.
And then he cursed it.
He would banish her from his thoughts. Aye.
“Braden?”
He almost jumped out of his chair at the sound of her voice coming from behind him.
Turning, he saw her standing in the shadows. “I thought you would be in bed by now.”
“I can’t sleep,” she said, moving closer. She paused at the table, turned to face him, then leaned her buttocks against the table’s edge so that she could see him while they talked.
Braden kept his gaze on the tankard. He didn’t dare look into those deep amber eyes, lest they captivate him and make him forget what he must—or, more to the point, must not—do to her.
“What is on your mind?” he asked with a non-chalance he didn’t feel.
“I was thinking of something you said to me earlier.”
She paused, and when it became apparent that she wasn’t going to finish her thought, Braden made the mistake of looking up at her.
His heart ached at the confusion and sorrow he saw in her eyes. Her gaze on the floor beside his chair, she had her brows knitted.
“And what was that?” Braden prompted her, in spite of the voice in his head that told him to leave the matter be.
Maggie looked up and pinned him with a probing stare. “You said that you would love to have a family of your own. Did you mean that?”
His gut wrenched. So that was what was on her mind. She was now looking for him to marry her. And he couldn’t do that. He mustn’t.
“Now, Maggie, don’t be thinking—”
“I’m not thinking of marrying you,” she said sharply, cutting him off. “I am not the woman for you, and we both know it. I just wanted to know if you meant what you said. Do you want children?”
He couldn’t imagine why she would ask such a thing.
Unbidden, an image of a child popped into his mind. One with her mother’s curly russet hair and her father’s bright hazel eyes. He could see the child so plainly in his mind, hear her gentle laughter as she ran, that one would think she was real.
And worse than the image was the sudden need he found within his heart to make that child a reality.
“Nay!” he roared, wanting to push the thought out of his mind as quickly as possible.
Maggie blanched.
“I see,” she said quietly, then pushed herself away from the table. And him.
Braden reached out to take her hand and keep her at his side. “Maggie, wait, I didn’t mean that.”
“Aye, you did,” she said, pulling her hand away from his. “I heard the passion of your denial all to plainly.”
“It wasn’t directed at your question.” It had been directed at his own senseless need.
“Then what was it directed at?”
Braden opened his mouth to respond, then quickly snapped it shut. He didn’t dare tell her the truth. It would hurt her even more to know that what bothered him was the thought of the two of them being united eternally in the form of a child.
He would never hurt her that way.
“I…” He struggled to think of something. Anything he could tell her that would save her feelings but would not be a complete lie.
But he could think of nothing. Either he had to tell her the truth or lie. So, for the first time in his life, he lied to her. “Nay, I don’t want children.”
“Why?”
Again he saw the image of the little girl reaching out to him.
Closing his eyes, Braden blurted out the criticisms he had long chastised Lochlan over. “They’re messy, and they smell.”
Maggie gaped at him. “They’re children, Braden. I daresay you weren’t overly clean in those days either.”
“But I never bit anyone.”
Heat suffused her cheeks as she glared at him.
“ ’Tis a pity I didn’t bite you harder.”
She moved away.
Without thought, Braden caught her arm and pulled her back. “Don’t go away angry at me.”
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t.”
He tried to think of one. But he couldn’t. In truth, all he could do was stare at the moistness of her lips as he remembered the way they had tasted.
Without conscious thought, he reached out and cupped her face in his hand.
The anger fled her eyes as they turned a dark, deep brown. “Braden—”
She never got the chance to finish. Braden pulled her to him and claimed her lips for his own. Och, but she tasted so good to him. He could feel her breath against his tongue and he inhaled the sweet, feminine scent of her.
She had corrupted him in a way no woman ever had. She had made him noble. Caring. Kind.
Maggie saw in him things he had never known existed. Worse, he wanted to be the man she saw him as.
“Maggie,” he murmured as he pulled her into his lap.
Maggie knew she should fight him. She should probably hate him. But she couldn’t. Regardless of his faults and his past, she did love him. She would always love him.
And so she gave herself over to his magnetic power. She let him capture her and take her wherever he wanted to.
And right now, she needed him, wanted him more than she had ever wanted him before.
He ran his hands over her back, raising chills as he massaged and rubbed her skin beneath her shirt. Maggie deepened her kiss, biting and licking his lips as she fought the escalating heat of her body that craved his.
Braden stood with her then and leaned her back against the table. His touch scorched her as he unlaced her shirt and peeled it back to expose her right breast to his touch. His hand closed around the taut peak, tormenting it with pleasure as he laved her neck with his tongue.
Maggie buried her hands in his hair as she groaned in ecstasy.
And then he dipped his head to take her breast into his m
outh. Maggie moaned as her body ignited. Her body was hotter than ever before.
Braden paused in his exquisite torture of her.
“Tell me what you want from me?” he asked, his voice deep and husky with need.
“You,” she murmured, reaching for him. “I want you to make love to me, Braden.”
Braden trembled at her request. Unable to deny either one of them, he lifted his plaid and buried himself inside her, all the way to the hilt.
They groaned simultaneously. Her breasts exposed by her unlaced shirt, Maggie writhed on the table before him. Braden dipped his head to take her lips with his own as he thrusted himself even deeper into her.
Maggie wrapped her arms around his neck and met him stroke. They rode each other hard and fast with a need built from years of longing.
Braden had waited his entire lifetime for a woman who could see him as something more than just a pretty face or a rich pocket. In Maggie’s eyes, he was a man. A human being with feelings and needs the same as hers.
And in that moment, he realized the most terrifying thing of all. He did love her.
Completely, fully and without reservation.
Only she had ever claimed his wayward heart. And he trembled from the fear and wonder filling him as he filled her. Saints preserve him, he was truly lost now.
Maggie arched herself against him, then froze and quivered in his arms as her release came.
Braden quickened his strokes, then quickly found his own piece of heaven as he released himself deep inside her.
Maggie lay on the table, her body still throbbing with pleasure. With Braden still trapped between her legs, she sat up and claimed his lips.
His kiss was deep and passionate, and to her amazement, she felt him start to harden all over again.
“I’m not through with you,” he murmured against her throat. “Say you’ll stay with me tonight.”
“I’ll stay with you.”
Braden withdrew from her then and picked her up in his arms. He carried her to the stairs and up to his room.
He closed the door with the heel of his foot and didn’t let her go until he reached the bed.
Tenderly, he laid her back against the furs and stripped her clothes from her body.
Maggie rose up on her knees as she quickly divested him of his own shirt, plaid and boots. She could only see him by the light of the fire, but it was enough to let her revel in the hunger he had for her.
She smiled. “You are so handsome,” she said, running her hand over his bare, muscular chest. He shivered beneath her touch.
“And you, little blossom, you are so very beautiful.”
She scoffed at his words. “What a liar you are.”
He shook his head as he laid her back against the mattress. Mesmerized, Maggie watched the way the fire played across his tawny skin as he dipped his head to suckle her breasts. Again the inferno started deep inside as her as her body craved his touch.
He skimmed her hips and waist with his hands as he ran his tongue slowly, carefully over her right nipple.
Maggie’s head swam.
“Like that, do you?” he asked.
“Aye,” she breathed.
Her feelings of love and devotion washed over her as he moved his hand down to the center of her body and toyed with the sensitive flesh between her legs.
“And that?”
She couldn’t speak; all she could do was writhe to his touch, seeking those wonderful fingers that delved into her body over and over again.
Braden laughed, then dipped his head and replaced his fingers with his mouth.
Maggie reached down and buried her hands in his hair as he tortured her with pure bliss.
He cupped her bottom in his hands and lifted her hips so that he could gain greater access to her. Maggie obliged by pressing her feet against the mattress and lifting herself up to his questing, delving tongue.
Her entire body quivered and shook as pleasure assailed her. Finally, she could stand no more.
Maggie moved away from him then. He looked surprised as she sat up and eyed him.
“My turn,” she said, wanting to give him the same pleasure he had given her.
Braden smiled in delight as she leaned forward on to all fours.
Oh, the sight she made in his bed, her short russet hair curling around her face as she rolled him over onto his back.
Instead of straddling his waist, she stayed to his right side. She took his hand into hers and brought it to her mouth. “Such wonderful hands you have,” she breathed, running her fingers over his skin. “So strong and dark.” Then she placed his forefinger into her mouth and ran her tongue over the pad of it.
Braden hissed in ecstasy as she nipped at the sensitive flesh. He watched in awe as she alternated his fingers one by one, giving each the same sensual attention with her tongue and teeth.
As she toyed with him, he reached out his other hand and cupped her breast.
She groaned and released his hand. Braden quickly closed it over her other breast. She smiled at him and placed her hands over his.
The sight of her hands over his as he touched her soft mounds delighted him. But not nearly as much as the sight of her eyes, dark and seductive, as she watched him watch her.
She was spectacular. The way she gave herself to him without shyness or reserve.
Never had he seen such. And he wanted more. He reached for her.
Maggie grabbed his hand and tsked at him. “Do I have to tie you up?”
He grinned evilly. “Would you?”
She laughed at him. “Do you want me to?”
“I must say I have never had that happen before. It might be interesting.”
She arched a brow at him. “You would trust me to do that?”
Only if you promise to untie me when you finish.”
A wicked glint came into her eyes. Before he could reconsider, she pulled the laces from their shirts and set about tying his wrists to the bedposts.
Braden couldn’t believe he had agreed to this, and yet there was something so strangely erotic about it. He was completely vulnerable to her now. Something he had never been to anyone else in his entire life.
Maggie stared down at Braden lying against the white linen sheets. His dark skin contrasted sharply with the linen. The muscles on his arms flexed ever so slightly as she adjusted herself to sit by his side.
“Are you just going to look at me?” he asked.
“For the moment, aye.” Because he looked scrumptious lying there, naked and warm, writhing on the sheets as his long, dark hair spilled across the pillows.
There were so many places on his body she longed to explore. The muscled curve of his neck. The ripples over his stomach that flexed as he breathed.
But first she decided to start with his thighs.
Aye, those strong, dark legs seemed to be the most delectable part of him. Well, them and his buttocks. Maggie smiled. She would taste him all before the night was over.
Moving to his feet, she placed herself between his spread legs and skimmed her hand up his calves and over his thighs.
Braden ground his teeth as her nails gently scraped his flesh. He stared down at her as she dipped her head and started biting the flesh of his inner thigh.
There was no pain, only a pleasure unimaginable. Never had he felt anything more exciting than her tongue gently dancing across his flesh as her hands explored him.
Laughing, she looked up at him. “Hmmm,” she said thoughtfully, “where should I go next?”
She traced small circles with one fingertip over his thigh.
“Where would you like to go next?” he asked.
She bit her lip as if debating. Scooting to his side, she traced her finger over the contours of his ear. “Would you like that?”
“Aye,” he breathed as fire coursed through his veins.
She leaned forward and gently stroked his ear with her tongue.
Braden hissed as his entire body jerked involuntarily. His b
ody instantly sprang back to life, even harder than it had been before.
She trailed her mouth from his ear down his jaw, then buried her lips in his neck. Braden struggled against the laces holding him.
“I want to touch you,” he said, his voice ragged with need.
“Where?” she asked.
“Everywhere.”
She laughed again. “Sorry, love, you’ll just have to wait.”
She straddled him then. Braden arched his body as she skimmed herself from the center of his chest all the way down to his waist.
“You’re killing me!” he growled, wanting to touch her so badly that he could barely stand it.
Maggie smiled wickedly at his agonized tone as she felt his stomach muscles contract beneath her thighs. The hunger in his eyes burned her.
He lifted his hips then and threw her forward onto his chest. “Kiss me, blossom,” he demanded.
She did. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she lifted his lips to meet hers and she kissed him with all the strength she had.
Oh, but he tasted wonderful. And as their kiss deepened, she felt him harden even more against her bare thigh.
“You are a hungry one,” she said as she pulled back from his lips to look down at his shaft standing out from his body.
“You have no idea,” he said, his voice breathless.
Deciding she had tormented him enough, she turned and placed her hand against his rigid shaft. He shook all over.
“Like that, do you?” she asked.
“Aye.”
She skimmed her fingers over his swollen manhood, gently toying with him while she used her other hand to brush the small trail of hairs that led from his navel to his groin. He hissed and growled as he writhed even more.
Maggie delighted in her power.
Braden couldn’t think as he watched her starting at him. The look of love and desire on her face scorched him straight to his wicked soul. And just when he was sure he could stand no more, she finally took mercy on him.
Her eyes smoldering, she rose up above him, then impaled herself on his shaft.
He threw his head back and growled at the tight feel of her body enveloping him again. Lifting himself up, he drove himself deep inside her.
Never had he felt anything like her as she rode him hard. The feel of her body sliding against his as she moaned feverishly above him.
Claiming the Highlander Page 22
