Parris Afton Bonds Read Online Free PDF

centuries? Get it over with."
    She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, waiting for the first brutal assault. Instead, she heard a laugh of genuine amusement. "A perfect martyr, ye make. And I wager a real shrew of a wife. I have a much better notion. Let’s play the degradation to the hilt."
    "What?"
    Once more, he pressed his pelvis against hers. "I shall let me men take turns with ye. Once ye are fertilized, ye will be incarcerated until the birth of the we’an. Then the process will began anew.”
    His free hand slipped down to caress the curve of her hip, then moved up to cup her left breast. "Aye, I think ye are built well for c hildbearing. Wide of hip, though your breasts are somewhat meager. Ye will produce many fine Highland bairns.”
    She spat into the shadowy face. "Be damn to your black Highland soul!"
    His low growl of response both frightened and pleased her. She had penetrated through that steely veneer and insulted him. That was a beginning. For the plans he had for her degradation, she would find a way to retaliate tenfold. This she swore, even as his fingers, thick as musket barrels, stroked her breast with brazen familiarity.
    "Mayhap ye are not a virgin." His words dripped into the darkness like hot wax onto the flesh. "Mayhap, that snapping puppy outside your door has sampled his mistress ’s wares."
    "You foul —!” The thought of Duncan and his fate cut short her oath. “What have you done to my friend? I swear, if you—”
    "Ach, merely a friend, cinaed ? It beggars the imagination what the Lord Lieutenant’s lady might do for a friend."
    She hated the sardonic amusement that colored his voice. His voice, the weight of his body, his callused hands. . . that was all she knew about him. That, and the fact that he was a demonic artist skilled at instilling fear in his captive.
    "You are afraid of the dar k, you are. Light exposes your ugliness. Your ugly face and your ugly soul.”
    She felt him flinch. Obviously, he was not a man to be charmed; but then, she was not the kind of woman to charm a man.
    "So you come to me by night and do your dastardly work," she continued, taunting. She would not submit docilely to her defilement.
    "I might tell ye I come by night because I cannot bear the loathsome sight of a Lowland traitor. The sight might tempt me to order for ye the same torture Murdock perpetrated on me fam ily.”
    "You will regret this —”
    "Me oldest brother was tortured by —”
    "I do not want to hear this.”
    "At Murdock’s command, three of his dratted Lobsterbacks went to work on me Davy. Their torture must have vastly amused them. Too late, they noticed the intruder in the dungeon cell and the dirk that ultimately slit their throats.”
    "As for me sister, Mhorag —I have yet to take me reprisal."
    Surging blood threatened to burst the veins at her temples. The image was too grisly to contemplate. "What have you done wit h Duncan?"
    "The puppy is learning to heel. As will ye, me lady.” The bed creaked as he removed his weight. "Do not consider escape. Should ye be able to swim, there are nevertheless others to consider. They remain safe as long as ye cooperate with your laird.”
    "You are not my laird, and my cooperation is limited by the —"
    "By the length of your tether," came his melodic reply. "Whether your tether remains invisible or becomes very real is up to ye. I trust you will choose wisely. G ’day, cinade ."
    When she hea rd the door close she sprang from the bunk, this time careful of the overhang. Naturally, the door was locked. She could scream, but it would be of no avail. Most likely, every hand on the vessel was a Cameron clansman.
    Nay, she would have to use her intel ligence, guile, and wit to delay her captor’s machinations until rescue came. She would not allow herself to doubt it would.
    Without the aid of Elspeth or Mary Laurie, she began to dress herself by the light of a candle stub. Considerable time was required , which presented no