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 all 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.
Maggie had corrupted him in a way no woman ever had. She had made him noble. Caring. Kind. She saw in him things he had never known existed. Worse, he wanted to be the man she saw him as.
Needing her, 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 this irritating man. She would always love him, no matter what.
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 enclosed 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 mouth. 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 reached 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.
