“That is a good start, my love.” He reached up and unlaced her dress until her breasts were free to his starving gaze.
Ewan held her close, his heart pounding.
How strange, the only place he’d ever felt at home was in her arms. She made him feel warm and welcomed.
No one else had ever offered him so much.
Marry her.
How he wished he could. But he didn’t know who she was. Who her family was.
Does it matter?
Aye, it could. Politics were a large part of his family’s life and any decision he made would affect all of them. Even the simple act of running off with Isobail had caused a feud that had killed countless members of their clan.
That feud had taken the life of three of his sister-in-law’s brothers. It had caused years of deaths and property waste.
He wasn’t free to just pick a lass and marry her.
Everything he did could have a major impact on his clan and his brothers’ lives.
And yet even though he knew that, he couldn’t bring himself to get out of this bed and leave her. She was like some missing part of himself.
A vital part of himself.
Nora watched Ewan’s face as he pulled back from their kiss to look down at her. His arms were braced on each side of her and he stared at her as if trying to memorize her face.
There was a dark, deep sadness to him tonight. One that seemed more severe than the other times she had seen that look on his face.
“What is on your mind, my lord, that you look as if the Second Coming is upon you?”
“Tell me who you are, Nora. Who is your family?”
“Does it matter so much? Can I not be a peasant?”
“Are you?”
“If I said, aye, would you toss me out?”
He ran his forefinger over the arch of her brow and studied her face as if he were trying to discern the truth.
“Nay,” he breathed, “I would not.”
“Then pretend I am peasant born. Let me be a gypsy like Catarina with no family ties to bind me.”
“And when your father finds you?”
Her throat tightened at the thought of her father’s fury over her absence.
“I wish you to marry, Ryan, Nora. He’ll make you a fine husband...”
Even now she flinched at the thought of what her future might hold.
Nay, she would run until she died.
She would never submit to Ryan. Not like this. She refused to share her body with him while it was Ewan she loved.
No one but Ewan would ever touch her like this. Only he could fill her...
