“Ewan?”
“Leave me alone, Nora,” he growled without pausing. “I need to be by myself.”
“Ewan,” she repeated, her voice more insistent.
He turned to face her.
She came to stand before him, her face pale and concerned by the moonlight. “I think you’re a good man and if Kieran was half the man you are, then ‘tis a shame he’s no longer here. Isobail was a great fool if she failed to see that.”
Her words reached out to him in a way nothing had in a long, long time.
She moved toward him, slowly like a wraith in the night’s mist.
“Don’t touch me, Nora,” he breathed as she reached to touch his face.
“Why?”
“Because if you touch me, I’m going to kiss you again. And if I kiss you right now, I’m not sure I’ll have the strength to pull back and be satisfied with just the taste of your lips.”
Nora trembled at his whispered words.
By the light in his eyes, she could see the truth of it. He wanted her.
Part of her wanted his touch and part of her was terrified of it. She was terrified of what she felt for him.
Here there were no lies. No hiding.
She could lie to Catarina, but not to herself.
Nora had never been with a man and until now she’d never really felt anything more than a passing curiosity about a man’s touch.
But for some reason, she was more than just curious about Ewan.
What would it feel like to hold a man like him?
One who was wild, untamed?
One who could make her quiver with nothing more than the sound of his deep, rich voice?
Would he be gentle with her or would he mount her like an animal whose only desire was to sate himself?
Touch him and see...
She stood in indecision. The air between them was rife with desire. Rife with need and hunger. Both of them wanted it.
All she had to do was reach out and take it.
She stepped back.
He released a relieved breath. “Go back to camp, lass,” he said. “I’ll return shortly.”
Nora watched him turn and leave.
Heartsick over what had happened and over the fact that she was a coward, Nora made her way back to camp where Catarina was waiting.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Nora glanced back in the direction of where she had left Ewan. “I can’t understand what it is about Ewan that lures me so. It’s rather baffling.”
