Temple of the Winds

"Nadine always wanted to be like her father, to learn what herbs helped people and to work in his shop. She'd go with me sometimes, to learn how to find certain plants."

"She only went with you to look for plants?"

"Well, no. There was a little more: to it than that. I-well-sometimes I'd go visit her and her parents. I'd go for walks with her, even if her father hadn't asked me to find some herb. I danced with her at the midsummer festival, last summer, before you came to Hartland. I liked her. But I never led her to think I wanted to marry her."

Kahlan smiled and decided to end his twisting in the wind. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. She wondered briefly at something he had said to Nadine, at what more there had been, but then her mind was spinning from the feel of his powerful arms around her, and his soft lips against hers. His tongue glided across the inside of her front teeth, and she sucked it in. A big hand slid down her back and pulled her hard against him.

Then she pushed him away. "Richard," she said breathlessly, "what about Shota? What if she causes trouble?"

Richard biinked, trying to banish the lust from his eyes. "To the underworld with Shota."