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.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” “You mean somewhere other than the cove where the magic loch monster saved me and then turned back into an asshole farmhand?” She scoffs. “No, I don’t have anywhere better to be.”

“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.”

“I think when a woman nearly sets my arse on fire, I’m allowed a wee bit of dramatics.” “Says the guy that turns into a dinosaur at night.”

“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.”

It seems Keyanna MacKay is the exception to all of my rules.

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