Braden tsked. “Och, Lochlan, you failed to tell me what a bonny lass she’d become over the last year. Why, I doubt if there’s a maid in all of Kilgarigon who could come near to such beauty.”
Lochlan said nothing in response.
In spite of her best intentions, Maggie’s heart leapt at his words. She’d yearned all her life to hear such from a man, and especially from Braden.
Unfortunately though, she knew it for the flattery it was. There wasn’t a bit of truth to it.
Lifting her chin, she met his bold look levelly. “You must think me lacking in the head to fall to your honeyed words, Braden MacAllister.”
“Ah!” his brother, Ewan, said from behind him. “You were wrong about her teeth, Braden. She’s not buck-toothed at all.”
Turning his head to glare at his brother over his shoulder, Braden elbowed the giant in his gut.
“Buck-toothed?” The mere thought offended her. That was probably the only insult one of her brothers had never hurled at her. And why would they? Her teeth were as straight as anyone’s teeth could ever be.
Braden’s stern glare melted as he flashed one of those devil-may-care smiles her way. “I never said you were buck-toothed.”
“Aye, you did. I heard it as well,” the Englishman said.
“Nay,” Braden said between clenched teeth as his malevolent stare went to the Englishman in turn. “I said no such thing.”
Braden took a step toward her, and lifted her hand in his.
Maggie steeled herself as the contact sent chills along her arms. She could feel the rough calluses on his hand, the raw power of the man who was as much a fierce warrior as he was a woman’s downfall.
She watched, mesmerized, as he lifted her hand to his lips and placed a kiss just over her knuckles. His lips were feather light against her flesh. And as he moved those lips in a slow, searing circle around the back of her hand, he looked up at her with such bedroom eyes that for an instant she lost herself to the desire playing havoc with her senses.
At that moment, the terrible, treacherous part of her wanted to feel those lips against her own. She wanted to feel his strong arms wrap around her body and draw her close to his delectable heat.
Oh, heaven help her, she was as susceptible to him as all the other women were.
Braden ran his tongue over her flesh in a tender caress that both startled and titillated her before he gently nipped her skin with his teeth and moved her hand to rest just over his heart which beat strongly beneath her palm.
It was all she could do not to close her eyes and moan in pleasure as his thumb toyed with her palm, sending wave after wave of heat through her.
“They misheard me, my love.” He all but purred the words at her.
Her body literally melted as she stared into eyes that were warm and inviting. A rich brownish-green, Braden’s eyes could compel a woman to forget everything else in the world.
Get a hold of yourself, Maggie! The devil’ll take the rest of your loved ones if you yield to his charms.
Though it was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, she narrowed her gaze on him as she forced her wanton thoughts to the back of her mind.
She had to get control of the situation or all would be lost.
“Let me guess,” she said coldly, removing her hand from his grasp before she succumbed anymore to his masterful touch. “Did you perchance say I was sweet-toothed? Or pearl-toothed perhaps?” Maggie noted the stunned look he quickly hid. Aye, she was on to him for sure, and he knew it.
She took a moment to savor her victory.
But a moment was all she had, for in the next minute a scream rent the air.
“Maggie, come quick!”
She left the front gate open and rushed through the kirkyard toward the back gate where the scream had originated. She reached the small courtyard in time to see one of the women, Bridget, being accosted by her bear of a husband. The man fair dwarfed the petite blond who was doing her best to resist being pulled out the gate.
There were several women standing about, but none moved to help. Maggie couldn’t understand how they could just stand there and do nothing.
“I’ve had enough of this, woman,” Fergus said as he twisted his grip on Bridget’s arm.
