He was her heart.
This man who could bellow louder than any she knew, who could melt steel with his grimaces. The same man who could climb a tree to catch her brat. Who could show her how to play her lute and who could make love to her with the tenderest of care.
How could she not love such a man?
Och now, and what use was her love of him?
She couldn’t stay with him. Even if Ewan would accept her, her father would not. He was set on her marrying Ryan.
And then there was the matter of Ryan himself. Greedy little beggar that he was. He wouldn’t graciously step aside. He would demand she marry him.
The beast!
It was hopeless, this love.
Nora wrapped her arms around Ewan’s neck and held him tight as the pain wracked her body.
“Nora,” he rasped. “You’re strangling me.”
She loosened her grip, then buried her face in his neck. His hair fell across her face and she took comfort in the rough whiskers that scraped her cheek. She didn’t want to let him go.
You’ll have to.
Nay, it wasn’t fair. Not when all she wanted was to love him. Be with him.
Why couldn’t it be?
Because you are promised to Ryan...
A man she despised. A man who could barely be in her presence that he didn’t start criticizing her.
“You make enough noise for ten women. Had I been your father, I would have broken you of that habit right quick.”
She shivered at the thought.
Ewan moved to nibble her lips.
Pushing away all thoughts of Ryan, she sighed contentedly and forced herself to forget all that.
For now, she was where she wanted to be and with the man she wanted to be with.
She closed her eyes as he trailed kisses over her body, down to her breasts where he teased and played. Arching her back, Nora melted under the onslaught of his tender care.
Ewan moaned aloud at the taste of her salty skin. If he lived forever, he would remember this night. Remember her dance and her taste. The way she felt beneath him.
The way her hands played in his hair.
It was heaven.
Growling deep in his throat, he left her right breast and made his way over to the left so that he could draw that taut peak into his mouth and let his tongue sample it.
He slid his hand down her body, through the moist tangle of curls until he could touch the part of her he craved. She gasped and moaned, then opened her legs even wider for his exploration.
“Tell me what you want me to do to you, Nora?”
“I want you to kiss me.”
“Where?”
