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“Why no’?”

Why, ye numpty fool? Seriously?

Because he is still in love with his dead wife, that’s why.

What mortal lass could compete with a woman raised to the status of sainthood in a man’s memory? One he obviously idolized and worshipped.

Something akin to envy scratched away at her composure.

Branwen had always wished to fall in love and have a man cherish her with his whole heart, and if he were a man like Bryston McPherson?

Well, she’d count herself very blessed indeed.

“Because I canna offer what ye rightly deserve, Branwen. What every lass dreams of in the recesses of her heart.”

His mouth was a scant hairsbreadth from hers.

If she but lifted her chin, the merest bit…

“I canna give ye what yer heart longs for,” he murmured, low and gruff and anguished.

Did he long for it as well?

Did memories and loyalty to Delphine ensnare him as surely as chains and shackles attached to a dank dungeon wall? He was a man tormented, and with everything in her, she ached to ease his suffering.

As she ran her gaze over his dear face, Branwen realized she was at a crossroads.

She could either take offense that he presumed to know what she wanted when they’d never spoken of this thing birthing between them, and thereby put him in his place and salvage her pride and dignity at his rejection.

Or, she could take a risk.

A monumental, possibly disastrous risk, and kiss him. Prove to him that perhaps, he could move on with his life.

But what if he canna?

What if he can never care for another woman again?

Och, Branwen was already compromised as thoroughly as her beloved sister had been through no fault of her own. She might as well do something to earn her ruination. Unlike that, this she could control.

Standing on her tiptoes, she rested her palms against either side of Bryston’s bristly face. “I think I ken what I need and want better than ye, Bryston McPherson, and I’ll thank ye to nae be makin’ decisions on my behalf.”

Then she touched her mouth to his, and when he groaned low in his throat and crushed her to his hard chest, she promptly forgot entirely why she’d ever held any doubts as to whether she should or should not kiss him.