Free Howling Sacrifices by J.K. Coi Page B

as Aileen’s brother and happy to hear that Lucy was coming, she’d taken him at his word that she should get on the late-night coach to Kinlochleven.
    Now, however, as the oppressive darkness pressed into the carriage and onto her chest, she was finding it hard to breathe. Lucy’s fears stretched over the miles still in front of her until she started questioning her judgment in getting on that plane and leaving everything familiar and comfortable to come here where she barely knew a soul.
    She found her gaze drawn again and again into that void on the other side of the carriage. It was like Pandora’s Box, the darkness where her fellow passenger hid. She tried to pay him no mind since he obviously didn’t want to be sociable, but the teasing glimpses she’d had of him made him seem all the more irresistible.
    And strangely sexy.
    Wearing a long wool coat and black dress pants with boots, he sat in the corner of the bench seat across from her, one ankle propped on the opposite knee. The shadows concealed everything else except for his hands. Large, rough hands as if he worked outside often, despite his refined clothing. She felt a mortifying blush stain her cheeks as she pictured those hands against her too-pale skin, drawing sighs of pleasure with every firm caress.
    Jesus, Lucy. You can’t be that hard up. It’s only been a week since classes let out.
    A week ago she was finishing up the last of her university exams and Christmas shopping at the Eaton Centre for her boyfriend, and now she was newly single and across the world for the holidays instead.
    Aileen had gone home to Scotland just after exams. When she’d invited Lucy to come for a visit, Lucy had originally said no. But after Michael’s cowardly voicemail on her cell phone saying he’d met someone he had more in common with, who made him feel more alive , Lucy decided it was time for an adventure and she called Aileen. The trip would be her chance to live dangerously and sow some of her wild oats—whatever that meant.
    So now here she was, alone in a throwback travelling coach with a mysterious stranger. Normally, she would have been nervous—and she was—but not in the same way as before hearing Dougald’s voice. The sound of his voice had penetrated her like the deep thrust of a lover’s cock. Lucy swallowed hard just thinking about how the rumbling warmth of it made her feel tense and intimidated, but also needy. Wanton. And for the first time in her life, wonderfully wild.
    A lone wolf’s haunting howl echoed from somewhere beyond the road, although not too far away by the sounds of it. Lucy opened her mouth to ask if Dougald had heard it too, but suddenly a loud crack split the air and the carriage jolted to the side and threatened to tip over. Lucy’s arms went out to brace herself but she still flew forward when the vehicle swerved back the other way, falling to her knees on the floor between Dougald’s legs.
    He bent forward, gripping her elbows to steady her as she got to her feet, but another lurch of the carriage tossed her right into his lap. His arms came around her just as the carriage came to a crashing stop, listing to the side like a ship tossed up on the banks of a deserted island.
    God, he was so warm. Warm and solid.
    Perched on his thighs, she looked up and gasped as his face was finally revealed.
    As hard and beautiful as what she’d seen of Scotland so far, the deep crevices in his forehead and the sharp angles of his cheeks and chin warned her that his rough good looks no doubt hid a flawed and darkened soul and she should retreat back to her side of the coach immediately. But something else in his surprisingly light eyes seemed to beckon Lucy closer. Dougald’s eyes reminded her of a winter storm, turbulent and intense. Promising adventure, danger and the realization of all her darkest fantasies.
    Everything she was afraid of…and everything she desperately wanted.
    His gaze found her mouth and her fingers clutched the