MacAlister - Taming The Scotsman Part 29

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...

She froze as she realized what she had just thought.

She loved Ewan MacAllister.

Nora loved everything about him. Even that harsh, furious frown that he wore so often.

She never wanted to leave him, and yet she dare not admit it to him.

He couldn't welcome the news. That much she was sure of.

"I have no wish to think on that, Ewan," she whispered. "Especially not while I'm with you. Let me love you, my lord. For tonight, stay with me and pretend that we have no families. Pretend there aren't any obligations or fear for either one of us. No past. No future. There is only now. Just me and you, and nothing else."

Ewan trembled at her words. He trembled at the warmth of her soft woman's body contoured to the hardness of his own. Her stomach was feather-soft against his erection. Her hands were tender on his shoulders.

He stared into her ever-curious amber eyes and lost himself there. What would it be like to spend the rest of his life staring into those eyes?

To hold her like this when they were old?

At this moment, he could see her ripe with his child. See her warm and welcoming in his bed forever.

The thought both terrified and thrilled him.

How could he even think of such a thing as keeping her when he had his oath to Kieran?

The day of his return whispered through his memory, and he saw himself again on the sh.o.r.e of the loch where Kieran had drowned himself.

The winds had been fierce and cold, the water dark and choppy. He'd looked out across the waves, his heart sickened by the news that his brother was gone, his soul burdened by grief and self-hatred.

Iwill never again take any pleasure in my life. I swear it to you, Kieran. I shall make my home here by the loch so that I can look out every day at where you rest and remember what I did to you. I will spend the rest of eternity paying penance for my stupidity .

Nora reached up and cupped his face with her hands. Her touch brought him back to the present. Back to the only pleasure he had known since the day he had released Isobail into the arms of her lover.

"Have I lost you this night?" she asked quietly. "You look as if you're far away in your mind. Will you come back to me, or should I go?"

"Stay with me, Nora."

Stay with me forever...

How he wished for the courage to say that last bit aloud.

But he couldn't.

He didn't dare.

She opened her legs to him and wrapped them around his hips, then leaned up to kiss him blind with bliss.

Ewan let her taste roll over his senses. He inhaled the precious scent of her hair and breath as he lay flat against her.

Her touch reached deep inside him, setting him free of his past. Free of his guilt.

Nora ran her hands through Ewan's hair and down his whiskered cheeks. How she loved the manly feel of him lying atop her. She ran her feet down his legs, feeling the crisp hairs that dusted them, and reveled in the differences between their bodies.

And it was then she realized just how much she did love this man. How much she treasured his rare smiles.

Her unrefined bear was so much more than what she wanted. He was what she needed.

This man whose kisses set her afire. Whose strong touch made her weak.

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 retrieve 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 so that she could inhale the warm, manly scent of him. His hair fell across her face, and she took comfort in the rough whiskers that sc.r.a.ped 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...

Aman she despised. A man who could barely be in her presence without starting to criticize her.

You make enough noise for ten women. Had I been your father I would have broken you of that habit right quick.

She s.h.i.+vered at the thought.

Ewan moved to nibble her lips.

Pus.h.i.+ng 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s, 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 one breast and made his way over to the other 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?"

She touched his lips with her fingers. "On my lips."

He obliged her until he could scarcely breathe for the fire inside him. "Where else would you have me kiss you?"

"Here," she said, turning her head so that she bared her neck to him.

Again he licked and teased her neck. He felt the chills spread over her body, felt her nipples harden even more against his chest.

She made little noises in the back of her throat as he nipped her skin with his teeth.

"Is there anyplace else you would have me?"

Her face pinkened, and she looked away sheepishly.

"Here now," he said, capturing her chin in his hand and turning her face until she looked up at him. " 'Tis not like my Nora to be timid. You've never s.h.i.+rked from talking before."

Her eyes softened.

Ewan turned serious as he leaned on his arms and met her gaze. "Never be afraid or embarra.s.sed over telling me what you want, Nora. So I ask again. Where would you have me, my love?"

She bit her lip and slowly trailed her hand down her body. Ewan watched the path of it, his breath rattling in his chest. It was the most sensuous thing he'd ever seen.

She braced one leg up, spreading herself open to his hungry gaze, and touched herself between her legs.

Nora s.h.i.+vered at the hot look Ewan gave her. She still couldn't believe what she was doing, but there was no shame in her heart.

Only love for the man who was with her.

Ewan kissed his way down her body, slowly, languidly. The touch of his lips on her skin made her burn with fiery need. Who could have imagined a man's touch could be so pleasurable?

When he took her into his mouth, she cried out.

His hot tongue licked and teased, around and around, stroking and delving. The room spun out of control while she lay there, weak and panting from the ribbons of pleasure that shredded her.

She reached down and took his large, masculine hand into hers.

Ewan laced his fingers with hers and gave a light squeeze. Nora smiled as her love washed over her.

There was truly nothing more sublime than having him like this. Feeling him with her body, holding on to his strong hand.

She looked down to see their entwined hands. Her skin was so pale compared to his. Scars marred his knuckles and stood out against the darkness of his skin.

She sighed as his thumb stroked her palm in time to his tongue stroking her body.

"Oh Ewan," she breathed. She lifted his hand up to her lips so that she could kiss his scars.

But she didn't stop there. She opened her mouth and suckled his fingers one by one, tasting them.

Nibbling them.

Ewan looked up, startled by her actions. No woman had ever kissed his hand, let alone given it so much consideration.

No woman had ever given his fingers such lush and warm attention.

But he had to admit that her tongue felt heavenly sliding over his skin, between his fingers.

He crawled up her body and then stared down at her, warm and open, beneath him.

The sight tore through him.

How he craved her. Needed her.

Her hands released his. Then she trailed them over his chest, his hips, ran them down until she could sheathe his hot, rigid shaft.

His body jerked in response.

Ewan moaned at the sensation of her hands sliding down his shaft, of her reaching down lower so that she could cup his sac.