Part 3 (1/2)

”Och, balgaire le sililibh tnear!” she said beneath her breath.

”What dog with l.u.s.tful eyes?” Pegeen asked from her right.

”The one headed our way,” Maggie snarled, angered over the fact that his walkdid affect her.

And even worse, she wasn't keeping him at arm's length!

Pegeen stood on her tiptoes to look out the window. ”Oh, bother me,” she whispered. ”There be four of them for sure. Handsome all.”

Maggie glared at the approaching group. ”They say the devil himself is a handsome man, and I'd sooner meet with him than Braden MacAllister.”

”The devil ne'er saw a day he could rival a MacAllister for looks,” Pegeen whispered. ”My, my, that Braden be the one for sure.”

A dreamy smile curved her lips.

Only a year older than Maggie, the attractive, raven-haired Pegeen had married four winters past, but she still had a roving eye that drifted toward any bonny man. And right now both of Pegeen's eyes were fastened on Braden, and they were larger than platters.

”Oh, to have my Ross look like that one,” Pegeen said dreamily. ”You can rest a.s.sured, if he did I'd not be hiding in here with you right now. But rather I'd be in my home giving him the-”

”Pegeen!” Maggie chided. ”You're inside a kirk.”

Pegeen waved her words aside with her hand. ”The good Lord knows I mean no harm with my thoughts. I'm merely speaking the truth, and well He knows it.”

Maggie barely heard Pegeen's words, for her attention had now s.h.i.+fted to the other women who were coming out of various buildings to peer over the walls at the men. Even from her distance, she could hear the breathless sighs and giggles of the women as they admired various parts of the men coming toward them.

”Braden's home!” several of them shouted.

”Mary, how's my hair look? Think you Braden will notice it?”

”Saints, that man gets bonnier with every year!”

”That man's got the finest backside the good Lord ever saw fit to put on a man. Now if we could just get a good, strong wind to blow, we could be in for quite a wondrous sight!”

Maggie ground her teeth in anger as a plethora of such comments filled her ears.

Leave it to the laird to summon the one man home who could spoil her plan. She should have expected this. Indeed, she should have planned for it. But the idea had seemed so flawless, and with Braden gone she hadn't thought about his possible effect on her senses.

Until now.

Her vision turning dark, Maggie gathered her skirts and headed out of the kirk to confront the devil before he came too close.

She reached the gate at about the same moment Braden did. She s.n.a.t.c.hed open the door to see him standing there with his arm uplifted as if to knock.

”Maggie, my love,” he said, his face breaking into one of those wonderful, charming dimpled smiles that could make any woman weak in the knees.

Or worse, weak in the head.

His eyes shone with his confidence. Aye, the man knew he was irresistible.

But worse was the fact that she knew it as well.

”You're just the woman I was coming to see.”

”I can imagine that,” she said, her voice icy even though there was a treacherous part of her that thrilled at his words.

His gaze became daring, probing, as he boldly a.s.sessed her body from the top of her head, which reached right to his shoulders, all the way down to the bottom of her skirt.

”Och, Lochlan,” he said to his brother, ”you failed to tell me what a bonny la.s.s 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 mere 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 bucktoothed at all.”

Turning his head to glare at his brother over his shoulder, Braden elbowed the giant in his gut.

”Bucktoothed?” she asked, offended by the mere thought. That was probably theonly 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 bucktoothed.”

”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 t.i.tillated 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 all but melted as she stared into eyes that were warm, inviting. A rich greenish brown, Braden's eyes could compel a woman to forget everything else in the world.

Get 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.