Page 2 of Scot of Seduction

There!

Catreena thought she saw something move in the trees. She stepped forward, away from the marshy ground and onto the firmer loch bank. She peered, straining her eyes against the darkness to see what was there, then suddenly, something with great flapping wings shot out of the branches. Inhaling sharply, she scarcely managed to stop herself from yelping, as the creature shot past her and into the sky.

She staggered, spinning around as she saw the barn owl, spectral in its white plumage, darting across the river surface, then up toward the mountains.

Realizing how much she had been panicked over nothing more than an owl, she chuckled under her breath, shaking her head. She placed the dirk back in the small scabbard that hung from a leather belt at her hip, ready to return to the gypsywort herb, just as a hand snaked across her waist –

“Nay!” Catreena screamed and whirled around, though she wasn’t fast enough.

She couldn’t reach her dirk as the hand tightened, now clasping her tightly across the back. The tall figure bent his head down toward her, the long dark hair a mass that cloaked the cover of the moonlight for a moment.

Fear erupted in her chest, her heart pounding fast as she pushed into his abdomen, trying to escape him.

“Let go of me!”

“Is that anyway tae greet an old friend, little Catreena?”

She froze, knowing that nickname without even being able to see his face in the darkness. He cocked his head to the side and his lips practically brushed her ear. An unwelcome shiver of delight passed up her spine.

“Are ye mad tae come out here alone in the middle of the night?” he hissed.

The anger was plain, and only mirrored by the anger she felt within her own gut at liking how close his lips were to her ear. Catreena thrust harsher into his stomach and this time managed to wrench herself from his grasp. She backed away into the reeds, stumbling, scarcely keeping her balance, as her eyes settled on his face.

The moonlight now shone on those features she knew very well indeed.

The tanned skin looked very dark in this light, and the tattoos she that covered his body were somewhat difficult to identify, but what was clear was his face. The strong jawline, the pronounced cheekbones, and the gray eyes. In the white light surrounding them, those eyes shone with intensity.

Not once did he blink as he slowly folded his arms, glowering at her, with his tall figure towering over her, despite the distance she had managed to put between them.

“Why did ye dae that?” she raged at him, waving her arms madly. “Ye frightened me half tae death.”

“Imagine how frightened ye would have been had I been an attacker and nae yer friend.”

“Some friend,” she scoffed, and the two of them exchanged an awkward look.

We both ken we arenae friends.

They were more like brother and sister than anything else, though Tad was like the brother she hated. He was her brothers’ dearest friend, and his sister - her best friend - had recently married Bran, so they were now technically extended family. She had known Tad her whole life, watched him as he grew from a boy into a philandering man. Much older than her, a laird with a very particular reputation, Tad carried darkness and seduction with him, wherever he went.

“Ye didnae need tae frighten me,” she tried to go on the offensive again, doing her best to walk out of the marshy reeds and up the bank, far away from him, yet her feet had become stuck in the bog and one foot was refusing to move.

“Ye are telling me off?” he exclaimed, his voice so sharp that her gut squirmed. “Cat, look where ye are!” he hissed loudly.

“I currently seem tae be in a bog,” she muttered to herself, trying to free her foot again, but finding it impossible.

“Bloody hell. What if I was an attacker, eh?” He had clearly seen her predicament and marched toward her.

“Dinnae touch me,” she ordered, holding up her hands. She didn’t want him to again, fearing that she’d feel another one of those excited trembles she despised.

Tad was too seductive for his own good and it didn’t help that she had already made a decision long ago to hate him.

“Come here,” he said, ignoring her order and taking hold of her hand, trying to pull her out. It did nothing though, her foot stayed fast. “Ye are bloody lucky,” he went again, cursing loudly. When he couldn’t free her foot, he stepped closer toward her.

“What are ye doing!?” she hissed in panic.

“What dae ye think?” he matched her tone, his handsome face coming startlingly closer to hers. He wrapped a hand smoothly around her waist and lifted her with one clean jerk out of the bog. Her body fell against his as he walked backward out of the marsh, carrying her. Her hands found his chest, trying to push him away. “Imagine if someone else had found ye. What would ye have done then if he had tried tae take ye here and now in this darkness? Dae ye think a guard could have heard ye scream fer help? Dae ye think ye could fight him off?”

Catreena turned as cold as ice in his arms.