Dear Readers,

The release for Dukes Court for Keeps is almost upon us! One more week! Less than that! More like half a week! I'm pretty excited. I can't wait for you to read Samuel and Emma's story. In fact, I'll give you peek at it right now! Just scroll down to read a bit of the scene where these two first meet!

More rustling as she slid closer to him, halving the distance between them. He inhaled to steady his nerves, which seemed to leap at her closeness, and along with the night air, he caught the scent of something sweeter. Something cinnamon and something floral. Her? He inhaled again, deeper, dragging it in as if doing so could drag her even closer.

“Who are you?” she asked. She faced him, and he could see the whites of her eyes, see when she blinked, but her face was shadows still beneath the hidden moon at the dim edges of the gas lamps surrounding the garden. So must his face be to her—nothing more than hazy lips moving within a pale oval.

“I am a man with many sisters. Unwed sisters.”

“I was looking for a name, but that tells me more. Even though I already knew that.” The last bit she grumbled as if she was half a breath away from chastising him.

He scooted into the disappearing space between them. “No names, moon maiden. Not tonight.” Moon madness. Him? Fanciful? Not in years. Decades, it seemed. Another life when he roamed wild over the fields and forests surrounding Clearford Castle, a gaggle of sisters at his back, stick swords strapped to their waists, paper crowns topping their hair.

When he realized he was lifting his hand, reaching out, it was too late to stop it. That’s what he told himself, at least, as he pushed a curl behind her ear. He’d never touched anything quite so soft.

“Aye.” The word a breath. “No names tonight.”

“You understand.”

“I think I do. Tomorrow the work begins. But tonight… right now—”

“Just the moon.”

“And us.” She shook her head. “Madness.”

“You read my mind. How do you do it?”

Her tiny shrug somehow brought them even closer together. He flattened his palm against the ground right at his side. Only the width of another hand would fit between her body and his.

Her hand dropped from her lap, fell into that sliver of a space. “I have long believed souls come in pairs. It is the lucky pair who find one another.”

“A romantic notion.” If he flicked his pinky outward, he might touch her. Did she wear gloves?

“Not always. Sometimes two practical souls meet and bond for reasons other than romance.”

“I pity those souls.” A truth he should not have put into the air. He did not have the luxury to pity himself.

“Do not pity them. Not everyone seeks a fluttering heart. Some wish only for a steady rhythm to live by. Something they can rely on.”

His heart fluttered. It had grown wings at the first sight of her, and now it lifted his hand, setting it atop hers. No glove. Cold satin skin stretched over the hills and valleys of her knuckles. Without searching, without seeing, he was able to slip his fingers between hers and curl them, his fingertips trapped between the top of her palm and the grass. Her hand froze. She stopped breathing. Then her fingers curled around his, and her breath warmed the night once more.

“And what do you seek?” he asked.

“That which I cannot have.” The pain in her voice, the longing…

It shattered him. 

He looked away. “You are cold. You should return inside.” His hand clenched around hers, revealing the lie. He did not want her to leave.

“I should.”

Yet she did not move. The night air shivered, seeming to perk up to spy on them. The moon peeked out of the clouds, bathing them in light once more. It, too, curious as he about the woman, about himself, about what kind of mischief two bodies could create in a garden alone.

Not alone. They had each other.

“I should go,” she said again. 

And when she did not yet move to leave, he wondered what he might do if she didn’t.

****

You can still grab Dukes Court for Keeps on pre-order discount at wolfpublishingstore.com. For those who do use Kindle and Amazon, it will be available there starting February 13.

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