Part 16 (1/2)
She cradled them to her breast. ”My mother has oft told me that men have sacrificed their lives and kingdoms for a woman's smile, so why not risk the ire of a bear for a bouquet?”
”Most men are fools.”
She paused at his words and the pain she heard his voice. Remembering what Sorcha had said about his betrayal, she felt sorry for the man who had forsworn beauty in his life. ”You don't think beauty is worth sacrificing for?”
”Nay. I do not.” His sincere blue eyes scorched her.
He meant that.
”But surely you didn't always feel that way?”
”I learn from my mistakes.”
Her stomach tightened at what he said. She couldn't imagine such a life.
”And you've been without beauty ever since,” she said wistfully. ”I'm sorry for that, Ewan. Everyone needs some beauty in his life.”
Ewan wondered for a moment if she were mocking him, but one look into her guileless amber eyes and he knew she wasn't.
She could never relate to the kind of pain he lived with. To her, the world was a kind, happy place filled with only goodness and light.
How he wished he could live so ignorantly.
”I can't imagine living a life where nothing gives me pleasure,” she said softly. ”It would take a strong man to live as you have. To get up every morning and carry on when all you can see is the gloom and misery of the world.”
”I'm not strong,” Ewan confessed. He wondered why he said that. It wasn't like him to be open with anyone. But there was something about Nora that comforted him. Something about her that made him want to share things with her. ”I was a weak-minded fool who believed a lying termagant. There's no strength in what I do now or what I did in the past.”
He took her back through the woods, toward the gypsies' camp.
”I disagree,” she said as she walked beside him. ”A weak man wouldn't still be alive.”
”A strong man would be able to look his mother in the face.” Ewan couldn't believe those words had left his lips. Never before had he confided that secret to anyone.
Nora paused and took his hand into hers.
Ewan stared at her tiny hand, at the long, graceful fingers that were laced with his own. His hand was almost twice the size of hers. Her skin was pale, soft, while his was tanned and callused.
There was no softness in his life.
No grace or beauty.
In truth, there was nothing in his life at all.
”This is not the hand of a weak man,” she said as she gave a light squeeze to his fingers. ”You could have left me to my own ends and yet you didn't. Even though my situation caused you pain, you came with me rather than see me hurt. What is weak in that?”
Ewan didn't know what to say. No woman had ever said such a thing to him. No one had ever before defended him.
She made him feel almost heroic.
How did she do it?
Lifting her hand to his lips, he kissed it gently and inhaled the soft, fragrant scent of her skin. She smelled of the flowers she held in her other hand, of the earth and of the woman. It was a heady combination.
One that cut through him and made his entire body burn.
In that moment, she was beautiful to him. Not just in her looks, but in her being.
She was the beauty he wished he had. The beauty he would love to spend the rest of his life staring at and holding close to his heart.
But she could never be his.
She belonged to someone else.
”Thank you,” he whispered, lowering her hand.
”For what?”
”Making me feel better.”
She smiled at him, and he felt an invisible fist slam into his gut.
How he wished he could keep her with him like this forever. But it wasn't meant to be. She was promised to someone else, and like as not she had a father who was probably beside himself with panic at her disappearance.
If he were a decent man, Ewan would head off to Lochlan's castle with her now and let his brother find her father so that she could go home and relieve the man's worry.
Instead, he was going to spend the next few days with their untoward hosts. Not just because he wanted to find out why he'd been taken, but because he wanted to spend more time with this woman.
It didn't make sense.
Nora was everything he should hate. She was bold and stubborn. Vexing.
But most of all, she was enticing, and it had been so long since anyone had enticed him. An eternity since he'd felt the molten heat of pa.s.sion or desire.
He wanted her.
With every ounce of masculinity he possessed, he wanted to take her in his arms and claim her body with his. To peel the clothes from her and explore every inch of her bare skin with his mouth.
To fan her hair out across his pillows and watch her face contort with pleasure as she came beneath him.
Yet it would never be.
She was a virtuous maid.
And he would move heaven and earth to keep her that way.
Nora held her tongue as Ewan led her back to camp. He must have washed his face right before he came to seek her. His black curly hair was slicked back from his face and sleek. His shoulders were broad, and yet he didn't appear as fearsome to her now as he had before.
She was growing accustomed to his brooding features and scowls. He was a strange combination of gentleman and beast. An intoxicating blending of dangerous predator and protector.