The man was the devil!
Anger and pain mixed inside her. And to think she had actually started liking him again.
He’d been such a dear boy. Her hero. How many times had he come to her rescue back then?
More times than she could count.
In those days, he would scoop her up in his arms and fight or scare off whichever brother was after her. She had looked to him as her champion.
Why did that dear, precious boy have to grow into such a man? A man who had no soul.
“How can you come back here and try this with me after I told you the reason we’re here?” she asked. “Have you no shame, man?”
Braden sighed inwardly as he wished he were the one tied to the chair, and Lochlan left to woo Maggie.
I am a monkey’s arse.
This is what I get for listening to Sin. I should have known better. The only advice Sin can give that’s worth a damn is when it involves war, not women.
The entire day was starting to wear on his nerves. Would it ever end?
Taking a deep breath, he tried again. “Maggie, my love, don’t you understand that Lochlan can’t just give in to you. If he does that, it’ll make him look weak before his men, and what man is going to follow a laird who got led about by a mere lass?”
Maggie glared at him. How could he be as dense as the others?
“Damn you men for your pride,” she said between clenched teeth. “‘Twas that pride that led two of my brothers into their graves. Can any of you ever admit when you’re wrong?”
His smile charming, Braden reached out and touched her cheek in a gentle gesture that sent chills the length of her body. “We are complicated beasties, to be sure, but no more so than you women.”
Even worse than the touch, the light teasing in those greenish brown eyes reached inside her and made her yearn for a time when they weren’t on opposite sides.
It would be so easy to give in to him.
But she couldn’t. Not when she had so important a goal. And not when giving in to him would ultimately break her heart.
“This is nothing to jest about, Braden,” she said more harshly than she meant. In truth, she wasn’t as angry at Braden as she was at herself for letting him affect her this way. “Lives are at stake here.”
“Aye, they are. More even than you know.”
She frowned at the note in his voice. A shadow passed over his face and it was then she knew he was hiding something. “What do you mean?”
Dropping his hand, he hesitated a few minutes before he spoke again. “The clan is ready to shed blood to get you women back home.”
Maggie clenched her teeth in exasperation. Men! How insufferable they all were. It seemed to be the eternal plight of women that they were forever drawn to the unreasonable oafs.
“Does everything with you men have to come down to bloodshed? Canna one of you just sit down and have a conversation?”
He tilted his head in a beguiling, attractive manner that showed off those deep dimples. “If we did that, then we’d be women and you wouldn’t love us as much as you do.”
“Aye, but we might like you a lot better.”
He arched a questioning brow.
Rolling her eyes, Maggie didn’t understand how he could be so nonchalant about the matter.
“How can you make light of this? Are you not worried about dying in battle?”
“Nay, love,” he said gently. “None of us are. We’re Highlanders. Born to fight and to wench. Personally, I prefer the wenching part, but as you well know, I’ve never shirked from a fight.”
