His face was aghast. “Nay?”
“Nay.”
Ewan reached for it again.
Nora twisted and tried to get past him, but somehow in the process she ended up dousing both of them and stumbling.
So intent on regaining his ale, Ewan didn’t think to catch either one of them. They landed on the ground, limbs entwined with Nora on top of him.
His body reacted instantly to the feel of her softness squirming against him.
For a moment, he couldn’t move. All he could do was feel her breasts against his chest, her legs against his, her breath falling on his face.
It had been so long since he last held a woman, so long since he had seen a woman so fair as this one that didn’t belong to one of his brothers.
Longing pierced him as he focused his gaze on her parted lips.
Taste her.
It was all he could do not to yield to the anguished need he felt for her. To the heated fury of his groin that begged for a wee taste of her body.
Aye, she was all fire and beauty. And he wanted her in a way most mad.
Nora couldn’t breathe as she stared down into Ewan’s perfect blue eyes. Never in her life had she been this close to a man.
Who knew one would be so hard, so...well masculine.
She felt a peculiar urge to rub herself against him, to feel his hardness with the whole of her body.
His eyes were dark, dangerous as he watched her in silence.
“Here, my lady,” Aenos said as he joined them. “Let me help you up.”
Ewan cursed again, and as Aenos helped her up she saw their clothes, and she realized why he’d done that. They were both drenched by ale.
Aenos snorted. “Have no fear, Ewan. There be plenty more of that to be sure.”
Ewan got up slowly.
“He doesn’t need to be drinking anymore ale,” Nora said, turning to Aenos. “He needs a good bath and a night of rest.”
“And who are you to be lecturing me on what I can and canna drink?”
She thought about that for a moment, then seized on the one thing he couldn’t argue with. “Your responsibility.”
Ewan’s face went from anger to shock in the span of a heartbeat. “Beg pardon?”
“I’m your responsibility,” she told him, “and you can’t be watching after me while you’re knee deep into your cups. I happen to be quite a handful and could get into any number of fixes while you’re off unconscious. So you see, it is my place to lecture you on how much ale you consume.”
She watched as the muscle in his jaw worked furiously.
He glanced to the old man beside him. “Aenos, fetch me an ax.”
Aenos headed off at his command.
Those words made her nervous. Especially since they were a mixture of anger and determination. “An ax? Why do you need an ax?”
His eyes blazed. “I’m going to take care of my responsibility so that it plagues me no more.”
