“Nay. My only enemy was Robby MacDouglas, but since the feud ended between our clans, he’s forgiven me and we’ve been friendly enough.”
“‘Tis peculiar, isn’t it? I wonder if it could be some woman who caught fancy to you and paid someone to bring you to her.”
Ewan scowled at her. “What a strange thing for you to think.”
“Nay, not really. You’re rather fetching when you’re not making that face.”
“I’m not making a face.”
She touched his forehead and smoothed his features. “You scowl overmuch.”
“And you talk overmuch.”
She smiled a smile that warmed him. “Aye, ‘tis what makes Ryan so angry at me. He says I am ever a whirlwind of nonsense.”
Ewan touched her cheek with his fingertips. Then he leaned forward and kissed her lightly. “I rather like your nonsense.”
Nora sighed as she cupped his head to hers. She could drink from his lips for eternity.
Ewan nibbled on her lips for quite some time. Stroking and teasing them.
It was the first time ever she had sat with a man like this and let him have free reign with her lips and body. She enjoyed it immensely.
Finally, he pulled back and Nora settled down by his side, safe in the shelter of his arms while the wagon rocked beneath them. Neither of them had slept much the night before.
So she let the soothing sound of his heart lull her to blissful slumber.
Ewan toyed with her hair as her gentle breath fell against his neck. How he loved the way this woman felt in his arms. She was so soft against his hardness.
He tried to remember Isobail. He couldn’t even recall her face, only the pain she had left in her wake.
It was Kieran he remembered. He had tried to tell him that Isobail didn’t love him.
Kieran had attacked him viciously, calling him a liar.
“Damn you, Ewan. You know nothing of what you speak. She was meant for me and no other. She has said it to me a thousand times.”
“Listen to me, damn you. She told me herself that she has no feelings for you.”
“Liar!” Kieran had backhanded him for those words.
Ewan had reached to attack, and Lochlan and Braden had come between them, forcing them apart.
“Why are you upsetting him, Ewan?” Lochlan had demanded.
“She loves me.” The words had leapt out of his mouth before he could stop them.
All three of his brothers had laughed.
“You?” Kieran had shaken his head. “Now I know you jest.”
His words and their laughter had torn through Ewan. “Why is that so hard for you to believe?”
It had been Kieran’s final words to him that had set everything into motion.
“Look at yourself, Ewan. You’re gangly and sullen. What few women you’ve had, I had to pay them to take you and all you did then was talk to them instead of make use of their charms. The day will never come when a woman would h ave you over me. What could you ever offer a woman?”
“I know the answer to this one,” Braden had chimed in. “A lifetime of brooding silence and evil glares.”
