Why hadn't Connor's mother told Braden anyway?

Maggie didn't know for sure, but she suspected Braden would have gladly taken the boy in. And even if he hadn't, Lochlan most a.s.suredly would.

Don't judge his mother, Maggie, she told herself. 'Tis for G.o.d alone to do.

But it was hard not to.

In fact, at that moment, she didn't know whom she wanted to thrash more, Connor's mother or Braden.

Laying the matter aside for the moment, she pushed open the door to her room to see Connor sitting on the bed. He jumped off as if terrified she would scold him, and when he saw the food in her hands, he wahooed again.

Maggie placed the tray on the small table by the fire and watched in delight as he crammed roasted beef, carrots, peas, onions and apples into his mouth.

Once he finished eating, she tucked him into her bed and left him there to dream of better days to come.

He fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes.

Maggie listened to his gentle snore as she brushed her hand through his hair.

"Oh, Braden," she whispered, wondering how she was going to tell him he was a father.

On the one hand, she could kill him for leaving the boy, but on the other, she knew he had no way of knowing about Connor. Poor Connor's mother probably had no idea what she should do, and the sight of Braden kissing another had probably cut her all the way to her heart.

Had Maggie been in the woman's shoes, she would have marched herself across the yard and confronted Braden while he groped another.

But that was her, and not the poor woman who had been brokenhearted.

Suddenly a shiver went through her as she thought about herself. What if she carried his child already?

The answer was simple.

"I will love it as much as I love its father," she whispered. And she would. Just as she loved the little part of Braden that was snoring softly in her bed.

Like father, like son.

Leaning forward, she brushed her lips against his forehead in a light kiss. "Happy dreams, sweeting."

She pulled the covers over him, then went to find his father.

Braden sat alone in the hall. Everyone else had long taken themselves to bed in preparation for what they would do on the morrow.

Even Sin had wandered off, making Braden wonder if his brother had finally found one of the Scottish la.s.ses to his liking. And there had certainly been a number of them to choose from.

The bad part was that, for the first time in his life, none of them appealed to him in the least.

Braden cursed.

"She's turned me into a b.l.o.o.d.y eunuch," he muttered as he drained the last of his ale.

And then he thought of Maggie's words:You prefer mulled wine ...

Cursing again, he set the tankard back on the table. How had she done it? How had she wormed her way into his carefully guarded heart?

Over and over, he could feel her against him. Hear her murmurs in his ear as her breath stirred against his skin. Closing his eyes, he savored the memory.

And then he cursed it.

He would banish her from his thoughts. Aye.

"Braden?"

He almost jumped out of his chair at the sound of her voice coming from behind him.

Turning, he saw her standing in the shadows. "Ithought you would be in bed by now."

"I can't sleep," she said, moving closer. She paused at the table, turned to face him, then leaned her b.u.t.tocks against the table's edge so that she could see him while they talked.

Braden kept his gaze on the tankard. He didn't dare look into those deep amber eyes, lest they captivate him and make him forget what he must-or, more to the point, must not-do to her.

"What is on your mind?" he asked with a nonchalance he didn't feel.

"I was thinking of something you said to me earlier."

She paused, and when it became apparent that she wasn't going to finish her thought, Braden made the mistake of looking up at her.

His heart ached at the confusion and sorrow he saw in her eyes. Her gaze on the floor beside his chair, she had her brows knitted.

"And what was that?" Braden prompted her, in spite of the voice in his head that told him to leave the matter be.

Maggie looked up and pinned him with a probing stare. "You said that you would love to have a family of your own. Did you mean that?"

His gut wrenched. So that was what was on her mind. She was now looking for him to marry her. And he couldn't do that. He mustn't.

"Now, Maggie, don't be thinking-"

"I'm not thinking of marrying you," she said sharply, cutting him off. "I am not the woman for you, and we both know it. I just wanted to know if you meant what you said. Do you want children?"

He couldn't imagine why she would ask such a thing.

Unbidden, an image of a child popped into his mind. One with her mother's curly russet hair and her father's bright hazel eyes. He could see the child so plainly in his mind, hear her gentle laughter as she ran, that one would think she was real.

And worse than the image was the sudden need he found within his heart to make that child a reality.

"Nay!" he roared, wanting to push the thought out of his mind as quickly as possible.

Maggie blanched.

"I see," she said quietly, then pushed herself away from the table. And him.

Braden reached out to take her hand and keep her at his side. "Maggie, wait, I didn't mean that."

"Aye, you did," she said, pulling her hand away from his. "I heard the pa.s.sion of your denial all too plainly."

"It wasn't directed at your question." It had been directed at his own senseless need.

"Then what was it directed at?"

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 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.

She had corrupted him in a way no woman ever had. She had made him n.o.ble. Caring. Kind.

Maggie saw in him things he had never known existed. Worse, he wanted to be the man she saw him as.

"Maggie," he murmured as 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 him. She would always love him.

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 ma.s.saged 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 closed 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 murmured, reaching 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.

They groaned simultaneously. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s exposed by her unlaced shirt, Maggie writhed on the table before him. Braden dipped his head to take her lips with his own as he thrusted himself even deeper into her.

Maggie wrapped her arms around his neck and met him stroke for stroke. They rode each other hard and fast with a need built from years of longing.

Braden had waited his entire lifetime for a woman who could see him as something more than just a pretty face or a rich pocket. In Maggie's eyes, he was a man. A human being with feelings and needs the same as hers.

And in that moment, he realized the most terrifying thing of all. He did love her.

Completely, fully and without reservation.

Only she had ever claimed his wayward heart. And he trembled from the fear and wonder filling him as he filled her. Saints preserve him, he was truly lost now.

Maggie arched herself against him, then froze and quivered in his arms as her release came.

Braden quickened his strokes, then quickly found his own piece of heaven as he released himself deep inside her.

Maggie lay on the table, her body still throbbing with pleasure. With Braden still trapped between her legs, she sat up and claimed his lips.

His kiss was deep and pa.s.sionate, and to her amazement, she felt him start to harden all over again.

"I'm not through with you," he murmured against her throat. "Say you'll stay with me tonight."

"I'll stay with you."

Braden withdrew from her then and picked her up in his arms. He carried her to the stairs and up to his room.

He closed the door with the heel of his foot and didn't let her go until he reached the bed.