And why?
Braden paused at the edge of the stable and leaned back against the faded wood as he covered his eyes with his hand. The rain wasn’t quite as bad as it had been earlier, but it still soaked him as he sought some place safe from her clutches.
Over and over, her words echoed in his mind. She loved him. Loved him and knew things about him that he didn’t think any woman had ever known. Not even his mother.
And all the while, he had ignored her. Had never paid a bit of attention to her.
He didn’t know which made him feel worse.
Pain sliced through his heart. Emotions he couldn’t define assailed him. Dear God, it literally felt as if someone were cleaving his chest in two.
“Braden?” he heard Maggie calling to him.
“Saints preserve me…” He was torn between the desire to make love to her and to run as fast as he could.
Before he could make his decision, she came rushing to his side.
Braden glared at her and cursed. “Woman, have you no sense to be running back out into the rain?”
She arched a brow at him as she crossed her arms over her chest in a feeble effort to keep herself warm. “I could say the same of you.”
“One would think you’d know I wanted to be alone.”
“Why?”
“Because I do, now go back inside and dry off.”
She lifted her chin stubbornly. “I’ll go in when you do.”
Exasperation filled him. “I canna believe you’ve made it to adulthood without one of your brothers choking the life out of your stubborn throat.”
She took his angry words without flinching. “They have little room to talk since they were such good teachers on that account. Now, I would have an answer from you.”
Braden closed his eyes as he struggled for control of himself. He didn’t know what to do or say. “Go back inside.”
“Answer me.”
Braden wished it were that simple. His feelings were complex and deep. All his life he had been loved. Every woman he’d ever known had whispered her undying devotion to him while they frolicked and played, and at the end of the day they had all married someone else.
At ten-and-six he had made the mistake of asking Nera ingen Alward to marry him. Two weeks later, she had sworn herself to Colum.
Her reason stung him to this day. “Braden, why would I marry you? You’ve a pretty face and are a hot tumble between my legs, but Colum has money the likes of which you canna fathom. Besides, he travels much which will leave us time aplenty to play.”
He ground his teeth. He had shown her in the end. His current assets made a mockery of Colum’s puny home. Even so, it had never erased the pain in his youthful, broken heart.
Nay, women were fickle, faithless creatures. And unlike his brothers, he would never believe their honied lies.
But therein was the problem. When such words came from the lips of Maggie, he wanted to believe them.
Why that was so, he didn’t know. He only knew that it would destroy what little was left of his heart to find out she was playing him falsely.
Maggie narrowed her gaze on him. “You call me stubborn, yet here you stand ready to drown yourself than answer a simple question.”
Against his will, Braden reached out to her. He cupped her icy cheek in his hand. “You’re freezing.”
“I know.”
He gave a half-laugh at her matter-of-fact tone. “If you have loved me for so long, why have you never spoken of it?”
