Ewan grimaced at her reminder.
"Did that bother you? I"m sorry, Ewan. I should think you"d be proud of the fact that you"re so large. My cousin Sean often laments that he is shorter than most men. Indeed, he"s a full head shorter than I am.
Why would your size bother you?"
Catarina answered for him as she rode her horse beside them. "I imagine "tis as big a curse to be too tall as it is to be too short. I am sure Lord Ewan lives in a world where nothing fits. Chairs and beds are ever too small."
"Aye," he agreed, "I"m forever banging my head, arms or legs into things that are designed for men half my size. I even had to have my horse specially bred to be larger, too, else my knees would be dragging the ground."
"I like your height," Nora confided. "There is nothing about your size that I would change."
Ewan stared at her, amazed.
"Catarina?" Nora called out. "Do you think we will stop where there might be fresh berries to pick?"
Ewan rode in silence as the women talked to each other. He couldn"t fathom why Nora"s tireless conversation no longer bothered him.
"Would you?"
He realized Nora was speaking to him. "I"m sorry, I didn"t hear you. What were you asking?"
Nora laughed and looked completely unconcerned for the fact that his thoughts had trailed off from her conversation. "Catarina wanted to know if you"d pick berries with me. Will you?"
"I..." He frowned at the question. "Pick berries?"
"Nora will need protection," Catarina said. "Else she might get lost or perhaps be mauled by some bear or other wild thing in the woods."
Ewan frowned at her words and at the odd note in her voice as she spoke of bears mauling Nora.
He hadn"t picked a berry since he was a boy. But the thought of being alone with Nora...
Well, he"d most definitely like to maul her himself.
"I would be happy to."
Catarina nodded. "There you go then, Nora. We"ll have fresh berries for dinner."
The women talked until they stopped to eat. It was a little after noon. Ewan and the other men tended the horses while the ladies made a light meal of cold meat and cheese.
But it wasn"t food Ewan hungered for. It was the dainty woman who sat with her back straight and whose manners were as perfect as a queen"s.
Whose laughter rang out while she talked to the men and Catarina.
As soon as they finished eating, Catarina handed Nora a small basket. "You fetch your berries while I clean up."
The men started to protest, but the vicious scowl Catarina directed toward them stopped them instantly.
"Take your time," Viktor said.
"We won"t be overly long," Nora a.s.sured them.
That"s what she thought.
If Ewan had his way, they would be gone for a while, at least.
They walked deep into the woods, until he could no longer hear the others and the gypsies could no longer hear them.
Ewan watched her stoop for the berries. His gaze was fastened on her bottom as she bent over.
He hardened instantly as he imagined lifting her skirt and burying himself deep inside her again.
"Have you ever made your own tarts?" Nora asked, then stopped herself. "Nay, I guess not. You being a man and all. You probably never even picked berries, did you?"
"I did."
She straightened to look at him. "Truly?"
"Aye. My mother used to take me and my brothers into the woods to pick berries for her pies and jams." He smiled wistfully at the memory. "But we usually ate so many of them that she would shoo us away shortly after we begun."
"Who ate most of them?" Nora asked as she led him through the foliage in search of her fare. "You or one of your brothers?"
"Kieran. He was always hungry."
"And you weren"t?"
"Nay, not really."
Nora started to climb over a fallen log.
Ewan picked her up easily and swung her over it.
"Thank you."
He inclined his head and jumped over it with little effort.
Nora watched him in the dappled sunlight. His black hair was curling becomingly around his shoulders.
He was such a handsome man.
Before she could think better of it, she took his hand in hers. She half expected him to let go. He didn"t.
Instead he squeezed her hand in his and offered her that hesitant smile that was such a part of him. It was one where the corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly, and if one wasn"t paying attention, one might not realize it was a smile at all.
But she knew it.
Just as she was beginning to know the man who gifted her with it.
Then he led her hand to his mouth and placed a tender kiss on her knuckles.
Nora s.h.i.+vered as she recognized the fire in his crystal blue eyes.
"I"ve been wanting to kiss you for hours," he said, his voice deep and hoa.r.s.e.
Nora smiled as she cupped his face in her hands. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him. Her brat fell from her head, down to her shoulders as he pulled her up to reach his mouth.
Her head swam at his taste.
She felt him reach around her and lift her skirt up.
Ewan knew he shouldn"t be doing this. One of the gypsies could stumble across them at any moment.
But he couldn"t pull back from her.
She was irresistible to him.
Nora gasped as he set her up on top of a tree branch and leaned her back against the tree trunk. Before she could ask him what he intended, he shoved her skirt back and spread her legs.
She trembled at the sight of him staring at the center of her body. His eyes were dark and hooded as he slid his fingers down her cleft and gently into her.
Then he dipped his head and took her gently into his mouth.
She bit back a cry of pleasure as she reached up to hold on to the branch above her.
Ewan was like a wild animal as he tasted her, and his caresses made her breathless and weak.
He pulled back, his eyes blazing as he loosened his trewes, baring his swollen shaft to her eager sight.
He kissed her lips a moment before he slid himself deep inside her.
This time Nora did groan out loud.
"Oh Ewan," she choked.
His lips seared her as he thrust against her. Her body spiraled out of control, and when she came it was so intense that she couldn"t keep herself from crying out.
With three deep, sharp thrusts, Ewan joined her.
Nora held him close as he breathed raggedly in her ear.
"What have you done to me, la.s.s?" he asked roughly. "G.o.d help me, I can"t seem to keep myself away from you."
She laid her hand against his flushed, stubbled cheek. His eyes were dark and stormy. ""Tis a madness that seems to envelop us both. For I feel the same of you. I know I shouldn"t. You are everything I find distasteful in a man."
He looked offended by that. "Thank you, my lady."
"Well, you are, and yet there is nothing about you that I find distasteful at all. Why is that?"
"I don"t know. I should have taken you straight to my brother."
"I"m glad you didn"t."
He kissed her. Then kissed her again and again until she was breathless and weak.
Nora sighed at the sensation of him around her while he was still inside her.
With a groan, he pulled back and left her with an aching void.
"We"d best not be too long or someone will come searching for us."
He helped her right her clothes and covered her hair again with her brat, then led her back in the direction from which they had come.
As they walked, a lowhanging branch caught her brat and pulled it free of her hair.
Nora hissed at the pain. The bowed branch snapped back, tearing the brat from her head and dress, and launching it up to a higher branch.
"Oh bother!" she said, her voice rife with aggravation as she tried to jump up to reach it.
"Here." Ewan moved her aside and tried to reach it. When he realized he couldn"t, he moved to leave.
"Nay," she said. "We can"t leave it in the tree."
"Why not?"
" "Tis my favorite and was a present from my mother."
He growled at her words.
"Please, Ewan?"
His face softened. He handed her the basket and headed for the tree.
Nora watched in fascinated awe as he easily climbed the branches. He effortlessly worked his way out onto the branch where her brat was snarled.
The tree groaned in protest. Nora stepped back as a bad feeling consumed her.
Mayhap she shouldn"t have sent him up there after all.
No sooner did he capture the wayward brat than the branch broke and sent him straight to the ground.
Her heart stopped at the sight of him falling.
"Ewan!" she gasped, rus.h.i.+ng toward him.
He lay on the ground unmoving.