She shrugged prettily. “I know not. Travel perhaps. I’ve always wanted to see Aquitaine. My mother has such marvelous stories about the acres of vineyards. She says there’s not a more beautiful place on this earth. Or perhaps I would go to Rome. Make a pilgrimage. Have you ever been to the Holy Land?”
“Nay.”
Her face fell. “Oh. My aunt went. She had a marvelous time there.”
She unpinned a brooch from her dress, then moved forward to show it to him. “She gave me this. She said she bought it from a crusader who was selling items so that he could gain enough money to return home.”
Ewan studied the piece. It was a knight on horseback who bore a cross on his shield and was indeed a pilgrim’s badge.
He tightened his grip on it.
Was it possible that she really could be who and what she claimed?
Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t right. For all her sincerity, it wasn’t possible for the niece of the most powerful woman in Christendom to have shown up in his cave without escort.
How could it be real?
He handed it back to her.
Her fingers brushed his, sending a jolt through him.
She was so soft and she smelled so feminine and warm. Closing his eyes, he inhaled her scent.
She was so tender.
Truly a morsel worth savoring.
Nora trembled at the look on his face. She’d only been kissed once before. It had been quick and rather slimy. The event was so distasteful that she had never wanted to repeat it and yet as she stood there alone with Ewan sharing her wishes with him, she felt a strange desire to taste his lips.
He bent his head down.
Instinctively, she rose up on her tiptoes.
He reached out with one large hand and tipped her chin up toward him. In one heartbeat, he lowered his head and took possession of her mouth.
Nora moaned at the contact and at the taste of him mixed with ale. His tongue brushed hers, making her entire body quiver.
Of their own accord her arms rose up and wrapped themselves around his bare shoulders so that she could feel his muscles bunch and flex under her hands.
He was sweaty and hot and she should be revolted by his smell, but she wasn’t. He truly didn’t stink. It was a pleasant manly smell and the sensation of his wet skin only made her ache more for him.
Gracious, she’d never felt the like. No wonder some women turned wanton.
Who knew touching a man could be so pleasurable?
Ewan growled deep in his throat as he tasted the sweet honey of her mouth. It had been so long since he last kissed a fair maid. So long since a woman’s hands had brushed through his hair.
He had forgotten the pleasure and yet as he kissed her, the thought was in his mind that no other woman he’d sampled had ever tasted this good.
It was followed by another thought...
While he was kissing her, she wasn’t speaking.
He laughed at the thought.
Nora stiffened, then pulled back. “Are you laughing at me?”
“Nay, love,” he said honestly, smiling even though he wanted to cease. “It was but a passing thought that made me laugh.”
