“What about the night you set my bed on fire?”
“I never...” Maggie’s voice trailed off as she recalled the event. It had been the night she had snuck into Anghus’s room to see Braden sleeping.
What she had never expected to see was him lying spread out on the bed with no shirt. The covers had been pushed all the way down to his waist where they gathered just below the tiny hairs that ran below his navel. He’d held onto the covers with one clenched fist, while his other arm had been curved above his head.
To this day, she remembered the sight of his tawny, flawless chest gleaming in the candlelight, rising and falling with his deep even breaths.
So intent on him, she had forgotten the candle in her hand. One minute she had been admiring him and in the next the candle had slipped from her hand and set fire to his mattress.
She had tried to stamp it out, but it had spread too quickly. Braden had jerked awake an instant before she grabbed the pail of wash water from the floor and doused the fire and him with it.
He had come up sputtering, his brow puzzled as he glared at her.
To this day, she was mortified by the event.
“It was an accident,” she told him.
“Glad I am to know you weren’t really trying to kill me.”
Maggie diverted her gaze to her feet. Oh, the things she had done to him over the years. All in all, it was amazing he still spoke to her.
“You know, Maggie, I never noticed before just how beautiful you are.”
She looked up at him doubtfully. “You’re only saying that because I’m the only woman you’ve been around for the last two days.”
“I’m saying it because I know it.”
How she wished she could believe that. But she knew the rogue too well. His heart only belonged to his lady of the moment.
So then, be his lady of the moment, her heart whispered. ‘Tis better than never having him at all.
If only it were that easy. As much as it hurt for him to pursue other women now, she couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be to give herself to him and then watch him leave her behind.
Her heart couldn’t take such a thing.
Maggie reached up and touched his face. “I wish I could believe it, but you’ve said it yourself many times. You were put on this earth to love women. Notice that is plural and not singular.”
“Is that what it would take to win you?”
“Aye. I want a man who will never stray from my side.”
“You ask a lot.”
“Too much, I’ve been told by my brothers.”
“And so you’re content to grow old alone?”
Maggie watched the way the light danced in his eyes, entranced by it. “I’ll hardly be alone. My brothers have enough children to keep me occupied.”
He frowned at her. “Do you not want your own?”
“More than anything. But I don’t need a husband for that, now do I?”
The shocked look on his face made her laugh. “I dinna hear what I think I did.”
“You misunderstood me,” she added quickly. “There are children aplenty with no one to love them. Your brother was one. When I am ready, I am quite certain I’ll be able to find a child who needs a mother’s love. And I will gladly give it.”
Braden shook his head. “Do you depend on anyone for anything?”
