Kindle Edition
SC Hutchinson
Category:
Romance
Publisher: Breaking the Barriers Author Services
ISBN-10: 1511490470
Type: Fiction
Pages: 291
Copyright: Apr 07, 2016
ISBN-13: 9781511490474
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Southern debutante meets wealthy, secretive Scottish elite...with a secret.
Adeline Bruce is chosen to take part in an opportunity of a lifetime--to study under her idol, Dr. Matthew MacStone in Scotland. Never having traveled far from home before, she is consumed with excitement and apprehension, but presses forward. Little does she realize that nothing is as it seems.
Hadrian Balliol is the hottest, most desired eligible bachelor in all of Scotland. His only desire, his secret desire, is the gather all six of the Highland Stones. It is said that he who possesses all six stones will be the key to making Scotland free again. Being in the public eye, everyone know OF him, but no one really knows him...and he likes it that way. That was, he did until he met her.
She changed him from the moment he rested his eyes on her. She was different. He discovered just how different when he learned who she was...
...and that she was the key to his destiny...
....to Scotland's destiny.
Find out what happens when the search for the Highland Stones begins.
Excerpt
EXCERPT:
Drip. Drip.
Drip. Drip..
The slow, steady sound of the water dripping from the old pipe on the other side of the cell reverberated through the entire dungeon. Its thunderous and constant banging against the concrete was the only way she could measure time. She guessed that the drips were roughly a second apart, so sixty drips were equal to a minute. Three thousand six hundred drips were equal to an hour. She estimated that she had been stuck in the dungeon for at least forty-eight hours since she woke up. No telling how long I’ve been here before I woke up, she thought to herself. Is my math even right? Oh, fuck it. I can’t even think straight.
Suddenly, a sound of metal being scraped across the concrete, much like nails on a chalkboard, echoed through the dungeon. She had no idea from which direction the noise came. Until it began, the only other sound had been from her ragged breathing.
“Hello?” she asked reluctantly. She knew she would regret speaking out and attracting attention to herself, but she had to find out what direction the sound was coming from. No matter what she did, she was trapped. I might as well find out what direction the end of my life is coming from.
She was tired—very, very tired. Her eyes strained to see through the darkness.
Dammit, how the fuck did I get here?
She could smell the scent if whiskey wafting through the air. The scraping sound grew closer and closer. Footsteps echoed in the halls like the clopping sound of a horse’s hoof.
Hard-soled shoes, she thought, trembling.
Fear began to set in.
Adeline struggled to move. Her body was bruised and battered. Turning herself around, she leaned against the concrete wall.
Why am I here? What have I done? Where am I?
Her heartbeat resounded in her head. Thump thump. Thump thump.
Fear gripped her in its malevolent clutches causing her to nearly lose her mind, but her determined spirit forced her to feign a serenity with which she had been all too familiar. Still, her heart pounded as if it were the bass drum at a death metal concert causing her pulse to quicken. She became dizzy and light-headed as she forced her eyes to remain focused on the door rather than to cower in the corner. Whatever, or whoever, was on the other side of that door was coming to get her. Adeline could not figure out what this person wanted from her, but to have tied her up and thrown her in this room told her that it couldn't have been a good thing.
The door cracked open with a screech. The iron curtain of her will fell as she turned her body around in an instant, laid back down on her side, and pretended to be asleep. She hoped that if the person coming in the room thought she was unconscious; they would leave her alone. It was a long shot, but worth the try.
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