Chapter 2
Two
Braden MacAllister could very well mark the end of all her grand plans.
Maggie ingen Blar froze at the window of the kirk as she saw the small group of men headed her way.
If ever the four riders of the Apocalypse appeared in the flesh, it would be in the form of the four men gasconading down the road toward the small kirk where she and the other women had taken refuge.
It would be any other woman’s dream to have four such sinfully handsome men headed toward her, knowing she was the one they sought with such determination.
For Maggie, it was a waking nightmare.
She’d expected to see the handsome Lochlan again.
Standing six foot four, he was one of the tallest men of the clan.
His fair hair looked as if it had literally been spun from gold.
And when it came to his features, she doubted if the angels in heaven could compete with the gentle sculpted face or dimpled smile that had made many a maid sigh.
But there was no smile in place today. Only a grim, lethal stare.
Lochlan’s younger brother, Ewan, stood two inches taller, and possessed broad shoulders and a deadly swagger that made the men of the clan scurry at his approach. His darkly handsome face had rendered many a woman mute. But it was his dangerous countenance that kept any woman from pursuing him.
Most women were as afraid of him as were the men.
The third man stood between their heights and was dressed as an Englishman, and she knew him not at all.
Still, he possessed that same lethal aura of all the MacAllister brothers, and his confident stride held a captivating, seductive quality to it.
He reminded her of a dangerous, dark beast pursuing his prey.
And the fourth...
He was the one her eyes feasted on, for she knew Braden MacAllister well. A friend to her older brothers, he had come often to her home while she was growing up.
Like some lovesick moon-calf, Maggie had always adored him.
Would there ever come a time in her life when the very sight of him wouldn’t quicken her breath? Make her heart beat out of control?
All of the MacAllister brothers were handsome, but there was something special about Braden. Something about him that was truly irresistible.
His wavy black hair fell just past his muscular shoulders and Maggie could easily recall the scent of elderberries that clung to the silken strands.
Not that she knew for certain his hair felt like silk.
‘Twas merely the sheen of it that suggested it would be wondrous to brush her hand through the long, dark locks.
He had a high forehead with finely arched black brows that lifted up when he laughed. And he laughed often. It was a deep, throaty sound that filled the air with music and warmth.
And his lips....
Full and well shaped, they were the kind of lips a woman went to bed at night dreaming of kissing. Or better yet, the kind of lips that could kiss a woman senseless.
Or so she had been told.
Unfortunately, Maggie had never known the pleasure of those lips herself. Braden had always viewed her as a pesky child, even though only three and a half years separated them in age.
Ever since she’d turned eleven, she had tried to get him to notice her, even to the point of biting him once when he failed to look her way. Yet she seemed to be the only woman alive he truly had no interest in.
Her brother, Anghus, had told her it was Braden’s loyalty to her brothers that kept him from looking twice at her, but inside she suspected it was more than that. Maggie wasn’t a fool.
She had never been the type of woman men pursued for anything other than a hot meal, or advice on how to attract some other female.
As her twin brother, Ian, so often said, she was a good, reliable friend. The kind of woman a man could turn to for advice and never worry about her judging him.
At best, she was passably attractive, not a beauty by any stretch of even the most accomplished imagination.
But what she wouldn’t give to have the courage or beauty to make Braden notice her for just an instant. To be the one woman who could tame the wild wind.
However, today was not the day to try and gain his notice. In fact, today was the worst possible day she could ever see him. For in her heart, she knew he was the one man who could sneak past her defenses.
And today she couldn’t afford to lose. Not even to him.
Nay, she must keep the handsome warrior at arm’s length. That was if any woman could keep a man like him at arm’s length.
While Maggie watched Braden’s approach, Pegeen came up behind her, asking about blankets.
Though she heard her friend’s question plainly enough, Maggie couldn’t speak. Her entire being was fixated on the most handsome Highlander ever to live.
Braden walked toward her sanctuary with a confident, masculine swagger that turned every maid’s head. The wind blew against his ebony hair, stirring strands of it about his chiseled face. He moved with his left hand on his sword, his shoulders thrown back in pride.
The hem of his black and green plaid slapped against the tanned, well-muscled flesh of his thighs. Thighs that moved sinuously with each step that brought him closer to her.
O Mo chreach! He was gorgeous.
Raw, untamed masculine sensuality and attitude bled from every pore of his body.
Braden was a man comfortable with himself, and assured of his place in the world. He’d never been one to follow the dictates of others, but rather he had always walked his own path, consequences be damned.
Today, he seemed even more confident than he had the last time she had seen him.
He was up to something, she realized with a start. She could see it in the firm set of his jaw, in the sharpness of his gaze. There was an unmasked determination about him. He had a goal.
And in an instant she knew what he was about.
“Och, balgaire le sùilibh mear!” she said beneath her breath.
“What dog with lustful eyes?” Pegeen asked from her right.
“The one headed our way!” Maggie was furious over the fact that his walk did 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.”
Pegeen shook her head. “The devil ne’er saw a day he could rival a MacAllister for looks. 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. 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 sighed dreamily. “You can rest assured 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 shifted 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 it.
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 snatched 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 assessed her body from the top of her head which reached right to his shoulders, all the way down to the bottom of her skirt.
Braden tsked. “Och, Lochlan, you failed to tell me what a bonny lass 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 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 buck-toothed at all.”
Turning his head to glare at his brother over his shoulder, Braden elbowed the giant in his gut.