Secrets Dispelled by Raven McAllan Read Free Book Online

‘I’m waiting—not very patiently’ tone. It did more for butterflies in her stomach that even riding the end of the earth rollercoaster at the theme park the previous year had.
    “Oh Lord, sorry,” Finn said quickly. She didn’t want to upset Coll for no reason. Not that she thought he’d expect her to be totally with it, not after the day she had, but this was pure wool-gathering, and not really the time for it. “I’ve just realized you’re the guy who I saw in the park carving that dead tree trunk.”
    He nodded. “And?”
    Finn wanted the earth to swallow her up. There was no way she wouldn’t be able to answer him truthfully. “And you bent over and well, I thought, yee gods, he’s got a sexy arse. Look, hadn’t we better go see whatever it is we saw?” she asked desperately. “While it’s there.”
    Coll rubbed the pad of his thumb over her jaw line. Zaps of arousal zinged over her skin like electrical impulses. “It’s still there. Look.” He pointed and Finn stared.
    “What the…” She bit back the epithet that had hovered in her mind. “What is it?”
    “Come on, I think it’s only that and us around, and it sure ain’t going to bite.” Coll pulled her after him. Finn jumped a tree trunk and did her best to keep up. But as her borrowed sweats kept slipping off her waist and over her hips and she only had one hand to haul them up again it wasn’t easy. She should have asked for some string to hold them up. Or the ropes from the bed. That thought set the juice-inducing shivers and tingles off again.
    Coll noticed. “You are cold. I can soon remedy that, I know some good ways to warm you up.”
    I bet he does. Finn knew she’d like to learn more . She screwed her nose up and resisted poking her tongue out. “No, I’m fine.”
    He slung his arm around her back and pulled her in close. “Or scared? No need.”
    “Neither, I’m fine honestly.”
    “Ah.”
    She saw the probable reason dawn in his mind and he grinned. Trust him to realize how her body reacted to him and his lifestyle.
    Finn acknowledged she was in deeper than she could have ever imagined on such a short acquaintance. But then hadn’t her mum seen her dad and accepted that whatever she needed to get to know more? “Sometimes,” her mum had told her, “if you’re lucky, one look is all you need to know that he could be the one, and you want to discover if he is. Or even, sometimes it shouts at you, he is the one.”
    “Hold that thought, whatever it was, and we’ll come back to it later,” Coll told her. “Look, this is our mystery.” He pointed to a white object on the ground a few yards in front of them.
    “A stuffed sheep. What the fu…flip is that all about?” Finn looked at the life-size stuffed animal then at Coll. “Is it an ambush or something? Packed full of sheep poo that’ll explode out if we touch it?”
    He laughed. “I doubt it. Someone is taking the mickey. Check out the markings on it.” He pointed to the toy’s rear. “Don’t touch yet.”
    Finn looked carefully and clenched her hands into fists until her knuckles where white.
    “Bastards, sorry, but are they saying it’s dead and stuffed? I’ll kill them. How dare they? That animal was going to be a champion, I know it. It was beautiful and didn’t deserve this, no animal does. Ours are slaughtered with dignity. The f… Damn and blast, add up twenty to your list of whatevers ’cause now I’m going to let rip. Fuckers, arseholes, bastards…”
    Coll put his hand over her mouth again. This time she gave into temptation and sucked the softer skin of his palm into her mouth.
    “Nice, kitten, but not yet. Let me phone Jeff, we’ll go to feed Depp and take it from there. This is just someone’s idea of a joke.”
    She lifted his hand a few inches from her mouth and he let her. “Some joke, Coll. It’s sick.” She felt her stomach churn at the ‘what if’ scenario that had briefly run through her mind. “A joke on me, it