Under Loch and Key

by Lana Ferguson

My entire life, I have been told to fear this woman, the one I didn’t know existed until just now—but she certainly doesn’t look like the end of the world as I know it.

Her smile changes her already pretty face to something breathtaking—straight white teeth with the two front ones just slightly longer than the rest and somehow making her smile all the more endearing.

“But Nessie has always been a girl!” “I did try to hint at the falsity of that, you remember,” I remind her. “Outside of Loch Land.” “Yeah, but I just thought you were being a dick.” “No, I was trying to tell you that Nessie has a dick.”

She looks excited, damn her. Why does she look so bloody excited? Can’t she be properly terrified of me? I’m a monster, for fuck’s sake. Not a fucking puppy.

I hate how fucking lovely she looks when she’s being a pain in my arse.

“I told you,” he says, his deep brogue heavier and his voice sounding gravelly. “I don’t lose control.” His lips skirt along my throat until he can kiss the sensitive spot beneath my ear. “But you make me fucking want to.”

She smells like something soft and sweet, her shampoo maybe—but she tastes like honey and sunshine and every good memory I’ve ever had, however few. How can I possibly push her away when she’s the first thing I’ve allowed myself to hope for in years?

Her lips find mine, her kisses almost desperate, and it occurs to me all at once—there’s a good chance that I’d give Keyanna MacKay anything she asked me for.

I’ve touched her countless times since we first fell into bed together—and with each time I think that maybe this will be the time where the overwhelming feelings she instills in me will settle, where they won’t threaten to overtake me completely, but each time I’m proven wrong. Every time I touch Keyanna, it feels right—like she’s made for me. Like she’s mine.

You are not who you are because of where you come from; you are who you are because of where you choose to go.”

There will always be things in this world that remain unknown to me, but one thing I can know for sure is the way I feel about her. And I know that whenever I’m unable to find my way, she’ll be there with an outstretched hand, ready to show me.

I flash him a grin, my love for him seeming older than the short amount of time I’ve had the joy of feeling it. It feels like home to me. It feels like forever.

You are not who you are because of where you come from; you are who you are because of where you choose to go.