Chapter 6 #4
And when he had leaned his cheek against her head, she had melted.
Rolling over, she lifted herself up on her arms to look down at him while he slumbered. A lock of black hair fell over his forehead. She brushed it back, then traced the slash of his eyebrow with her fingertip.
He was so delectably handsome. So strong and powerful even while he rested.
Why had he indulged her tonight? She had half expected him to chastise her and send her back to camp like some errant child.
Instead, he had listened to her. Held her.
What she wouldn’t give for a husband to treat her thusly. She bit her lip as that thought played around in her mind.
Would Ewan be like this if she belonged to him?
He is unfitting for you.
Was he?
He played music for her and he did listen to her. He had even handed her his sword.
Surely such moments made up for his more unrefined ways.
“It takes two to make a marriage.” Her mother’s words echoed in her head. Her mother had oft lectured her on wifely duties and what it took to make a marriage sound.
“Marriage is a contract between man and woman. The wife is to care for the husband. To see to his needs and he in turn is to protect and provide for her. But if the marriage is to be a happy one, then the two must respect each other. They must never belittle or discount the other’s feelings.
Take your father for instance. He would sooner cut his own heart out than make me cry.
Your husband should always listen to you just as you should always listen to him. ”
Nora studied him closely. Ewan didn’t seem to be the kind of man to ever discount someone.
She traced the line of his lips, remembering what they had tasted like. The way they looked on the rare occasions when he smiled.
You’ll have to marry someone. Why not—
“Don’t even think it,” she breathed.
True she did have to have a husband, but Ewan MacAllister?
He lived in a cave!
Granted it was a nice cave with glorious furnishings, but it was still a cave.
What kind of life could they have together?
Before she realized what she was doing, she was peeling back the corner of his shirt. She’d never before realized just how interesting a man’s throat was. How inviting the skin of it could be.
She stroked his Adam’s apple with her fingertips, feeling the roughness of his masculine skin and whiskers. He was all prickly and hard.
And his jaw...
Truly it was superb. Strong and well shaped. She’d never touched a man like this before.
Her parents would have vapors. Her father would have his sword after them both.
Ewan himself would most likely be terse from her exploration and study.
He didn’t seem to like her touching him overmuch.
Tonight being the exception.
If you touch me, I’ll kiss you and if I kiss you...
Did she perchance drive him wild with desire? Could he feel the same urging for her that she felt for him?
Her mother had warned her much about men and their voracious rutting ways. But instead of dishonoring her, Ewan had fallen asleep like a harmless pup.
Harmless pup, indeed!
There was certainly nothing harmless about a man as fierce as this one. And yet he treated her kindly.
Nora lay her head back down on his chest and listened to his heart thumping under her ear. She’d only imagined lying with a man like this. It was something she had thought to share with her husband, never with a man she barely knew.
Ewan turned then, drawing her in closer to him. His arms tightened.
“Ewan?” she said. “You’re crushing me.”
His hold loosened a bit so that she could breathe, but he didn’t release her. Instead, he snuggled closer.
It wasn’t so bad really.
It was actually quite nice.
Relaxing, Nora let the sound of his deep breaths lull her into sleep too.
For the first time in years, Ewan dreamt of pleasantries. There was no Kieran to haunt his sleep. No sign of Isobail and her cruelty.
Only Nora was there with her cat-like eyes and her barrage of questions.
He sighed in his sleep as he saw her out in a peaceful green meadow beckoning to him.
“Come, my lord, and be seated.” She pulled him down by her side so that she could offer him cake and ale.
In his dream, Ewan closed his eyes to savor the taste of her fingers as she fed him the cake from her hand. ‘Twas the sweetest thing he’d ever known.
He drank of the ale, then set the food and drink aside so that he could stare at the woman who made him desire again. She made him yearn for dreams he had forsaken long ago. Dreams he had purposefully thrown away.
He pulled her across him, then rolled over, pinning her beneath him.
“I want you, Nora,” he breathed.
Her smile welcomed him.
Accepting her invitation, he lowered his mouth and tasted the sweetness of her lips. She laced her hands through his hair, raising chills over him as he teased her mouth with his tongue.
He groaned her name as he moved his mouth lower, down to the cream of her neck where he had been dying to taste her. She arched her back against him, thrusting her breasts against his chest.
Unable to stand the torment of her, he cupped her breast in his hand and teased the taut nipple with his palm...
Nora moaned as she was stirred from her dreams by the heat of someone kissing her. Of the feel of someone touching her body in a way no one had ever dared before.
Startled, she opened her eyes to find Ewan holding her. His lips were hot and demanding on her neck while his left leg was buried between both of hers. His warm hand cupped her breast.
“Ewan,” she said.
He pulled back groggily and blinked. “Nora?”
“Aye. Did you not know it was me?”
She expected him to withdraw, to at least pull his hand away from her breast.
He didn’t.
“I knew it was you. I thought I was dreaming it.” Before she realized what he was doing, he dipped his head down to kiss her again.
Nora moaned at the fierce taste of him.
He tore away from her lips.
“Push me away, Nora,” he said suddenly. “Tell me that I repulse you and that you don’t want anything to do with a sullen, self-pitying drunkard.”
She frowned at his words.
Who had said such to him?
“I don’t find you repulsive, Ewan. Far from it.”
He cupped her face in his large hand and stared at her. His eyes were dark and pain-filled.
“Tell me, Nora,” he insisted. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to make love to you out here in the woods like an animal.”
His words shocked her as much for his honesty as for the desperation she heard in his voice.
Her aunt Eleanor had once told her that the most precious thing a woman possessed was her maidenhead. If a woman was lucky, she would get to choose who she gave it to.
If not, ‘twould be her father’s choice.
Ryan’s face drifted through her mind and she fought the urge to cringe. If they failed to make it to England, he would be her fate.
He would never make her feel the way Ewan did.
Her body was hot and shivery. Needful.
What if no man save Ewan ever made her feel this way again? If she turned him aside, she would go to her husband with her body intact.
Ryan cared not a whit about her virginity, ‘twas only her coffers that concerned him.
But Ewan...
He needed her. She felt it deep inside.
She’d always wondered what it would be like to lay with a man. In her mind, she had always pictured a soft-spoken troubadour who won her heart.
But it was the quiet bear who called out to her.
Don’t.
The word hovered in her mind. If she did this, it would change her forever. She would no longer be innocent. She might even conceive his child.
But something deep down inside told her that carrying this man’s child would be far from a hardship.
In the end, it was her curiosity and desire that got the better of her. Her mother had always said it would lead her astray.
Tonight it had led her to Ewan MacAllister and here she was where she wanted to be.
“Make love to me, Ewan.”