Free The Raven's Revenge by Gina Black Page A

next, Katherine appeared in his mind’s eye. Not as she sat, stiff before him on the horse, but a different Katherine, a winsome, responsive, full-blooded woman.
    This other Katherine did not wear her hair bound under an ugly white cap, but wore it flowing free. Long and silken, he could imagine it spilling across his pillow. Her mouth, instead of drawn in a tight line, was soft, yielding, and full of erotic promise. Her eyes, instead of sad and wary, were beckoning, warm, and hungry. For him.
    A dream Katherine to be sure. He cursed silently and shifted in the saddle to ease the tightness in his breeches.
    Katherine’s Puritan upbringing did not bode well for bed sport. He’d heard that Puritans regarded bedding with the same dry religious conviction as they did everything else. Likely for Katherine, fornication would be a cold perfunctory joining purely for the begetting of children. No doubt she would be as wooden in bed as she sat before him now.
    And a virgin, too. Although some men preferred them innocent, that chaste state was not at all to his taste. He preferred a seasoned woman, one who could match his level of passion and delight in sex play.
    Nicholas grimaced and shifted in the saddle again. Taking a deep breath, he acknowledged that traveling with Katherine presented complications he had not foreseen.
    He raised his arm in a signal to stop. “We can rest now,” he said, and at Katherine’s pleased smile, he added, “but only for a moment.” Although he’d been aching for her to smile, perversely, he now wished to crush it. 
    He dismounted, and then helped her down, putting her away from him with haste.
    Montford sprang from her arms and darted off into a thicket.
    “I will not wait for you to find your cat,” Nicholas warned.
    “My kitten will come when I call,” she said, her voice a trifle haughty.
    It had better , he thought, turning away.
    After Nicholas and the other men went off, Katherine found a group of bushes to seek her ease.
    “Montford,” she whispered when she was done. Then louder, “Where’d you go, puss? Will you make me a liar?” A rustling in the far undergrowth caught her attention. In a flash of grey fur, Montford dashed across the clearing and scampered up a stately old oak. Shading her eyes against the late afternoon sun, Katherine spied her kitten several branches up and well out of reach.
    “Montford,” she pleaded. “Nicholas said he would not wait, and I think he’s a man of his word. At least I’ve been hoping so.”
    That didn’t budge the cat, except, perhaps, to send Montford higher up into the branches. The kitten’s movement dislodged several leaves and an acorn, which hit Katherine squarely on the forehead. She let out a yelp and jumped back at the sudden pain.
    Rubbing her brow, she vowed she would not leave without her kitten, no matter what Nicholas said. If he wanted to go on, then he would have to leave without both of them.
    She looked around the clearing. Night would soon obscure the shadows and plunge the woods in darkness. She would be prey to any wild animal or thief that happened by. Katherine shuddered and clenched her hands into fists. She could not let it come to that. “Montford!”
    Nicholas, returning at that moment, winced at hearing his name, and hoped Jeremy did not see the astonished look on Henry’s face.
    “’Tis her cat,” he hissed to his friend. “She gave it the family surname, I forgot to tell you.”
    In an instant, Nicholas could see what had happened. Speaking in his normal tone, he addressed the two men. “Leave this to me.”
    Unable to resist toying with Katherine, he sauntered over to her. “Lost your cat up a tree, have you?” He smirked.
    She looked away.
    He took hold of her up-thrust chin, slowly turned her face to his, and looked straight in her eyes. “And you want me to get it back for you?”
    She swallowed deeply and nodded. A plaintive meow from up in the branches echoed her assent.
    He looked into