Magic in His Kiss by Shari Anton

was older and realized I truly ought to make amends. I never did, so I will offer my apology now. I also ask your forgiveness for getting us into this mess. Had I sent you on your way when I ought have, you would not have been tossed into that dreadful tower.” She waved a hand at the crumpled building in which they took shelter. “And we would not be sitting here wondering when the guards will search this area of town.”
    Without comment, Rhodri rose and again eased his head out the doorway, apparently with the same result as before, seeing no one and hearing nothing to alarm him.
    “This is not all your fault, Nicole. On the road from the abbey to Oxford, twice I could have escaped.”
    “Why did you not?”
    “Connor sent me to fetch you, and I could hardly allow the earl to shut you up behind castle walls without my being nearby. So I stayed, though I would have preferred a pallet in the hall, to which I am accustomed when in noble houses, than to being locked in the tower.”
    “So now we are merely trapped in the town.” She rubbed her arms, telling herself the sudden chill came from the breeze allowed in by the cracks in the walls, not from a jolt of fear. “We should not tarry here overlong. We need a plan to get past the gate before the guards close it for the night.”
    “I am thinking on it, but you are right, we should try to escape before we fall prey to less gentle talons than those of the guards.”
    Rhodri hovered near the doorway, keeping watch, his thoughts bouncing between how to escape the town and what Nicole had told him about hearing spirits.
    Aware of many tales of ghosts and dragons, and various other strange sightings and beings, but never having seen or heard them for himself, he believed them all stuff of myth and legend.
    There were no dragons left to be slain. Ghosts didn’t exist.
    Still, Nicole seemed so sure she’d heard the voice of a dead man speak to her in the tower. Though he couldn’t fully explain how she’d known so much about John and Thomas, he reasoned there must be an explanation other than the one she’d given him.
    If she’d truly heard a spirit, ’twould explain her odd behavior in the tower. He wanted to believe her, if only for the relief of knowing he hadn’t hurt her overmuch with his ill use of her throat. Damn hard to accept her story as true, though.
    He shifted his stance and glanced up at the sky. Only a few hours of daylight remained. Nicole was right about not spending the night in this place. Though the building was sound enough to provide shelter, he didn’t trust the local ruffians to mind their own business. The few he’d seen on the street didn’t inspire the least sense of safety.
    The way to best safeguard Nicole from both the ruffians and the earl was to leave Oxford.
    But how to get past the guards at the gates? Without his horse and sword, he couldn’t make a fast, bold run at them. Without coin, he couldn’t bribe the guards. Without their cloaks, they couldn’t hope to sneak through.
    A cloak to cover Nicole would be more than welcome. She looked damn fine in her blue gown, the fabric soft and so snug it hugged every lovely curve. Those curves would tempt a eunuch, and he was a healthy male, possessed of all the normal, base urges of his sex. He couldn’t help but be aware of Nicole’s bountiful charms—breasts large enough to fill a man’s hands, a slender waist, and a nicely rounded bottom.
    Did she realize how temptingly her bottom swayed as she walked? The gentle yet provocative swish from one side to the other made it impossible to ignore that the adorable child had become a beautiful woman.
    Even now, as she sat on the dirt floor, leaning back on one of the building’s few sturdy planks, her pert chin tilted upward to expose the throat he was glad he hadn’t bruised, the temptation of the feast beneath the gown beckoned.
    He quickly squashed the pangs of a hunger having naught to do with food, forcing his attention back