Secrets Dispelled by Raven McAllan Page A

woodcarver. I’ve seen your stuff and it’s gorgeous.”
    “Thank you. So you’ll understand I like to create patterns.”
    “Yeah, I get that, but now I’m confused.” Finn put her hand on his arm. “Is that on purpose or am I just being thick here?”
    There was a loud ringing noise. Coll stood up and stretched.
    “Never thick, just not used to what I say and how. You will be, soon. That’s the others. I’ll buzz them up. But I’ll add, to give you something to ponder over, I’m considered to be an expert in Shibari and I can scribe very delicately on skin with a needle or scriber, just like I can create patterns in wood with a hammer and chisel. I had a brilliant mentor in Master Alex. Once I saw him scribe, I knew without a doubt that was the way forward for me. Carve in wood forever, scribe on skin for now. Oh, and I have a way with clamps you’d never imagine.”
    She gulped and raised one eyebrow. “I’m glad you didn’t mention the hammer and chisel and skin in the same sentence.”
    Coll laughed. Would she ever lose the ability to surprise him? He hoped not.

Chapter Seven
     
     
     
    Two hours later, Finn blinked and stifled a yawn, as their—she thought of them as their, as everyone seemed to couple her and Coll together—friends made their farewells and left the castle. It hadn’t seemed at all strange to be part of a noisy arguing and very much Dom and sub group. Not even one where the main subject was how to string Donny, her boss, up by his balls.
    Lachy, both Donny’s uncle and boss to Finn, had looked as if he was about to have an apoplexy when Finn recounted what had gone on. She decided in the end to be honest about everything she knew. She didn’t say a word about Donny’s presumed whereabouts but Lachy had grimaced.
    “In bloody Mandy McGee no doubt. I thought he’d seen the light about the bike.”
    Finn wondered what on earth Lachy was talking about. Coll must have realized.
    “The village bike, everyone rides her,” he elaborated.
    Finn firmed her lips so as not to giggle. She’d never heard that one, and the way they all referred to the screwing as him in her, not in her bed, tickled her sense of humor.
    As Coll shut the door on Jeff, the last to go with a ‘yeah, okay, we’ll see you tomorrow for lunch,’ Finn stretched. Depp, who’d been on her lap, yowled and stood by the door expectantly. He’d learned within a few minutes his litter tray was in the utility and his food in the kitchen.
    “Okay, cat, here we go.” Coll opened the door into the kitchen area and turned to Finn. “You go to bed, I’ll sort this one out. Coffee what time?”
    “I’m salivating. Around eight maybe? That’ll give me a lie in.”
    The memory of his ‘ eight is a lie in, you’re a hard task master’ and his laugh accompanied her into her room. She was sure he was usually up well before that. Mind you, she also guessed he wasn’t generally up quite as late—or should that be so early.
    The bed was big, soft and didn’t have all the interesting attachments that his did. Finn wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or disappointed. She switched the light off and snuggled down.
    There was a tap at the door. “Finn, if you’re decent, can I bring you a bedfellow? A furry one.”
    She giggled. “Of course.”
    The door opened and the shape of Coll was silhouetted in the light from the corridor. Finn switched on the bedside lamp, conscious that she’d gone to bed naked. The castle was a lot warmer than her cottage and the flannelette, pink elephant jammies she usually wore were way too hot. Now she wished she’d at least put a vest top on.
    Ah well, the duvet’s over me.
    “Would he not settle?”
    Coll rolled his eyes. “Understatement of the year. I could hear him from my room. Rather than have no door left or a squashed cat, I took him into my room, but he still yowled. I decided you’d be his security blanket.”
    He dropped the kitten on the bed. “Do you want his basket or