"Safe with Me" by Gabriella Mahoney (HIstorical Romance)

Genre:  Historical Romance, Scottish Romance

Summary:  Book 4 of the Heart of the Highlands Series. 

The time for battle is at hand. Doug MacKinloch's near-legendary sword skills give his enemies a reason to fear him. With women clamoring for his bed he is a man used to winning. But he finds himself completely unprepared for his encounter with Melanie Keir. He thought to have forgotten his long-ago childhood playmate and yet his heart seems to feel otherwise...

This short novelette is approximately 10,100 words.

Excerpt:

Melanie Keir hissed with pain as her body slammed into a stone wall with brutal force. The power of the blow was enough to momentarily daze her. She shook her vision clear and looked at her assailant dead in the eye as he let out a drunken, maniacal laugh. Things had not been going well for her this week.

“Oh ho! The lass has some spirit to her!” the man said as he took another swig from his bottle, sloshing the liquid everywhere in the process.

“If you think for one second that this is going to win me over, you can thing again you arrogant pig!”

He moved with surprising speed for someone so drunk. He grabbed her throat with his free hand and pressed her back against the wall. His breath smelled stale and his hair clung in greasy clumps around his face. “I think I can do whatever I want with you whenever I want. Whore.”

His grip was strong enough to cut off her air circulation but Melanie didn’t dare move a muscle. She could feel his raging erection and knew that he was in no mood to debate right now. All she could do was glare at him with cold, green eyes, neither asking nor begging for mercy.

He tossed her aside in a fit of disgust. “You are not worthy of my attentions just yet,” he slurred out. “I will not be with a woman who thinks herself above me. No one is above me. I’ll teach you to respect your betters.”

Melanie squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for whatever pain her “lesson” might entail. But after several seconds nothing came. She peeped one eyelid open and saw that her assailant was distracted with chugged the remaining contents of his bottle. He burped loudly and teetered off to another area of the caves, lesson apparently forgotten… for now.

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