Seducing a Scottish Bride Read Free Page A

every bit as unmanageable — unlike Arabella’s sleek midnight tresses,
     which ever remained in place.
    “
She
would look perfectly coiffed in a snowstorm,” Gelis muttered, drawing her cloak tighter as she marched across the shingle.
    Marching was good.
    She wasn’t of a mood to amble. And she certainly didn’t feel like gliding along gracefully, as was her sister’s style. Truth
     be told, if her frustration didn’t soon disappear, she might even do some stomping. Great sloshing steps straight through
     the shallows of the loch, heedless of sea wrack and rocks, needing only to put her disappointment behind her.
    It scarce mattered if she looked a fool.
    No one could see her.
    Only the lone raven circling high above her.
    A magnificent creature, his blue-black wings glistening in the sun as he rode the wind currents, sovereign in his lofty domain,
     impervious to her woes. Or, she decided, after observing him for a few moments, perhaps not so unaffected after all, for unless
     she was mistaken, he’d spotted her.
    She could feel his sharp stare.
    Even sense a slight angling of his head as he swooped lower, coming ever closer, keen interest in each powerful wing beat.
     Challenge and conquest in his deep, throaty cries as, suddenly, he dove straight at her, his great wings folded, his piercing
     eyes fixed unerringly on hers.
    Gelis screamed and ducked, shielding her head with her arms, but to no avail. Flying low and fast, the raven was already upon
     her. His harsh cry rang in her ears as his wings opened to enfold her, their midnight span blotting the sky and stealing the
     sun, plunging her into darkness.
    “Mercy!” She fell to her knees, the swirling blackness so complete she feared she’d gone blind.
    “Ach,
dia
!” she cried, the bird’s calls now a loud roaring in her ears. The icy wetness of the rock- strewn shore seeped into her skirts,
     dampening them, the slippery-smooth stones shifting beneath her.
    Nae, the whole world was shifting, tilting and spinning around her as the raven embraced her, holding tight, his silken, feathery
     warmth a strange intimacy in the madness that had seized her.
    Gelis shivered, her entire body trembling, her breath coming in quick, shallow gasps. Mother of mercy, the raven’s wings were
     squeezing her, his fierce grip and the pressing darkness cutting off her air, making her dizzy.
    But then his grasp loosened, his great wings releasing her so swiftly she nearly choked on the first icy gulp of air to rush
     back into her lungs. She tried to push to her feet, but her legs shook too badly and her chill-numbed fingers slid helplessly
     across the slick, seaweed-draped stones.
    Worse, she still couldn’t see!
    Impenetrable blackness surrounded her.
    That, and the unnatural stillness she’d noted earlier in the bailey.
    It crept over her now, icing her skin and raising gooseflesh, silencing everything but the thunder of her own blood in her
     ears, the wild hammering of her heart.
    Her well-loved hills were vanished, Loch Duich but a distant memory, the hard, wet coldness of its narrow shore barely discernible
     against the all-consuming darkness. The raven was gone, too, though his breath-stealing magnificence still gripped her.
    She hadn’t even seen him speed away.
    Couldn’t see . . . anything.
    Terror pounding through her, she bit her lip, biting down until the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. Then, her legs
     still too wobbly to sustain the effort, she tried to rise again.
    “
Please
,” she begged, the nightmare of blindness a white-hot clamp around her heart. “I don’t want —”
    She broke off, losing her balance as she lurched to her feet, her gaze latching on to a dim lightening of the shadows, a slim
     band of shimmering silver opening ever so slowly to reveal the towering silhouette of a plaid-draped, sword-hung man, his
     sleek, blue-black hair just brushing his shoulders, a golden, runic-carved torque about his neck. A powerfully built