Excerpt of Wild Angel by Sasha Lord

EXCERPT from Chapter 9...

As they rode, the grade gradually increased and the trees became fewer and father between. Instead of blackberry bushes and dense foliage, there were grasses and tall fronds. The fronds were tipped with dry seedpods which fluttered into the air as their horses brushed past. As the golden pods floated, they landed on Ashleigh's black tresses, glittering like golden flakes on ebony waves.

A halo.

Ashleigh glanced back. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You are beautiful. I think of you as a dark angel."

Ashleigh laughed and shook her head, sending the pods
spinning in the breeze. "Then who are you? You, too, have
black hair. Perhaps you are God's warrior."

"I prefer not to call myself a warrior at all."

"But that is silly. You are a warrior. Just because you feel
sorrow for your deeds does not negate your identity. You can
be a warrior for God just as you were a warrior for the King."

"I want to be a monk... a fully ordained monk."

Ashleigh's smile faded and she looked over Mangan's too
handsome face. Strong chin, intelligent brow. Manly cheeks
and a powerful, corded neck leading to solid, broad
shoulders. And lips. Full yet firm…she had kissed those
lips… twice. She had felt his passion and nearly drowned
within his desire. Those feelings came from him. She had not
manifested them, in fact, she was confused by them. She did
not know if her emotions had been merely a transferred need
to replace her loneliness, or something her innocent body
craved. It was true that he made her stomach tingle and her
breath shorten, but why? He made her feel like there was a
vista just ahead that would open her eyes to a new, glorious
world.

"Do you really?"she asked softly.

He shuddered. Her eyes were glinting in the sunlight,
showing the thin line of sapphire around the iris. The white
blossoms still nestled in her hair and the golden pods
fluttered around her face with magical beauty. He wanted
her. He wanted to lay her in the grass and slowly peel every
layer from her body and make love to her in the brilliant
sunshine so he could watch her body ripple beneath his caress.

These were not thoughts of a monk. "Yes,"he whispered,
unaware of the desperate yearning that filled his voice.

"Why?"she asked as she pulled her horse to a stop. They had
reached the top of the mountain and a few steps further
would put them at the crest.

He, too, stopped and dismounted. "You know why. I want to
erase my sins."

"Won't God forgive you for your sin? Doesn't he bless those
who ask for forgiveness? You told me that to be redeemed
once must learn to forgive. Shouldn't you forgive yourself?"

A breath of wind rippled across the field, casting thousands
of seed ponds in to the air and sending them spinning in the
currents. Some would land only a few feet away, while others
would travel miles, germinating in fields far, far away.

"Come,"she said as she took his hand. "Let us look at God's
country as Cairdean, my raven, sees it."A pod became caught
in Mangan's eyelash and she brushed it away with her fingers.

He groaned, feeling the sweetness of her caress and
imagining it elsewhere, wanting to feel it lower, more
intimately.

Hand and hand, they walked to the crest of the mountain and
looked over the side at the long, rolling valley. "Is this
your Scotland?"Ashleigh asked. "Is this the land your God
created?"

The view was breathtaking, and he clenched her hand tightly,
unwilling to let her go. "Aye, this is God's land."

"Does God love his land? Love the creatures within it?"

"Aye,"Mangan agreed, pulling her closer so that their sides
brushed against each other.

"Then God loves you,"Ashleigh finished as she squeezed his
hand.

He looked at her, stunned. Desire faded to be replaced by
awe. Who was this little angel who spoke as if the Great
Father spoke through her lips? Beautiful… in heart and soul.
She could have scars upon her face and still he would think
she was the most incredible woman on earth. "Perhaps,"he
whispered. "If you ask Him for me."