No Other Woman (No Other Series) Read Online Free PDF

even as he stared at the castle, he looked at what remained of the old stables, and a fire began to burn within him as fiercely as that inferno which had raged that night, five long years ago. He could remember the heat.
    And he could remember her.
    The whispers, the pleas, the promises, that had brought him to destruction. The ebony of her hair, splayed out upon the bunk. The ivory silk of her flesh, the sky blue promise in her eyes. He remembered her arms around him, her fevered words. A mint freshness in the warmth of her breath against his lips as she whispered her lies, the fire within her that made him heedless of the warmth igniting around him until he turned, too late...
    ... and entered into a world of damnation.
    Ah, but miraculously, he was back. From the dead. A demon returned from the fires of hell—to discover the truth.
    She'd not been in it alone. And he'd come back as he had with no word or warning because he intended to know just what had happened, just who had been involved with her. And they would all be made to repent.
    Ah... but she would be the first from whom he would demand justice for the past.
    She would be the first....
    * * *
    The night air of autumn was beautiful, crisp and clear, against her cheeks and flesh. It felt good to be out and good to run. She mocked herself, telling herself again that running in the moonlight probably certified her for madness; it would not help her escape the past. Maybe she just wanted to run away from the future, maybe it would be harder to face Andrew Douglas now than it had been when David had died.
    She was accustomed to running over this terrain, riding over it, swimming within the cold waters of the loch, but tonight, she didn't seem to have her usual stamina. She was running from herself because she was...
    ... guilty.
    Not guilty! She had never meant such awful harm to come to David; she had been more than halfway in love with him most of her life. Nay! Oh, God, how proud and arrogant she had always been around him! But she had been younger; he had been the great laird. He'd known many women. Easy to admit now that she had been jealous, and therefore as disdainful as she could manage to be at all times.
    Until that night.
    Well, he was dead and buried, and she was at least partly to blame.
    Her lungs were growing sore. Her thoughts were robbing her of breath. Even as she ran, she knew that she had to pause. She stopped at the ancient Druid Stones to catch her breath, inhaling, exhaling, raggedly.
    Leaning against the stones, she studied them in the moonlight. There were twelve of them, each stone standing at least ten feet high. Time and exposure had eroded whatever ancient writings might have been upon them, but some of the deep etchings of men, women, and animals remained. The stones were quite beautiful, arranged in a circular pattern, with a thirteenth stone set horizontally in the center, like an altar. Just to the side of it was a circular stone weighing a good two tons, a stone that still cast shadows from which people could tell the time of day.
    Shawna loved the stones. They had all played here as children, she and her cousins as well as the Douglases, though David had been older and tolerant of their games, rather than a part of them. Shawna had wanted the stones to be on MacGinnis property, but they were not. She had made up stories when she was little that changed the events of history, and gave the stones to the Clan MacGinnis. David had told her curtly once that she should not be so fond of them; the altar had most probably been used for human sacrifice in ancient times. She should have realized that—since they still celebrated so many of the holidays around the stones.
    Christian holidays.
    That just happened to coincide with many of the old pagan celebrations of the ancient inhabitants of the Highlands.
    She ran her hand over the cool roughness of the tallest stone. The old ways were enchanting. She was grown now, but she still loved the