Hello, dear readers!

Today is release day for The Christmas Belles holiday anthology!

Here's a peek at my novella, The Heiress Who Dared Me:

Chapter Four

“Kisses. Bah. Cake is better.” –from The Masculine Inconvenience: Memoirs of a Superior Lady

Giving a sharp woman a pair of blades for her feet would likely prove a bad idea, but Josiah was the daring sort. And she did seem better now after an hour’s walk through the gardens. He’d left her there to sober up while he gathered supplies, and in the hopes Sarah would release the other guests to skate with them in time. He needed people, barriers, between he and Georgiana after the earlier events of the day. But after the negus, everyone seemed to have sunk into a lazy haze for the rest of the afternoon. So now with two pairs of skates slung over his shoulder, he led Georgiana toward the frozen lake, shoving the word “dare” right out of his brain.

He couldn’t think about what he’d been dared to do. Not after sitting so close to her, arms pressed together, her scent—fresh soap and soft velvet—burning him up as much on the inside as on the outside. Not after her muddled question about dead husbands. Not after confessing his weaknesses to her, showing her his raw wounds. Not after watching her pace the garden for an hour, waving her arms as if she was talking out loud to herself, likely trying to work through her muddle.

No dares. No… kisses.

Only blades and ice and wicked whipping winds. Skating, with its precariousness—an open situation on a lake, viewable from the house, and a painfully hard surface—offered the perfect location to avoid those things.

The sky hung low and gray to match Georgiana’s thundercloud scowl, though, and a kiss would go a long way to brightening up, well, everything. How long had it been since his lips had touched another’s? He liked kissing too, and he’d given it up. For a good reason. Even if his father didn’t see it.

The storm clouds above made a home in his chest.

No! He would not turn grump. Christmas was a mere three days away, and his friend had arrived to make things merrier than they would have been. What need had he of a wife when he had Georgiana? There was no room in his life for a wife. But Georgiana fit just nicely.

“Lady Gee,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her, “the weather has entered your face. Be careful about that.”

Her scowl deepened. “This seems the height of folly. Skating. Bah.”

“It’s the height of diversion. You’ll see. And it saved you from more communal merriment.”

“There’s that I suppose.” A grumble like thunder.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.”

She glared. “I hope I skate circles around you.”

“The negus leaving you feeling nasty, Gee? Have a headache?”

She bared her teeth. Pretty little things. Didn’t make him a bit afraid.

When they reached the water’s edge, they stopped and surveyed the dark-blue ice.

“Are you sure it’s thick enough?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip.

“See how it’s dark blue in color? That means it’s safe. Thick. If it were white, we’d not venture out. Is it thick enough?” He huffed. “Lady Georgiana, I would not toss you on too thin ice. Surely you know this about me. If you fell through, I’d have to go in after you, and do you know how cold that would be?”

“Very?”

“My bollocks would freeze off.”

The storm cloud broke, and a smile lit her face like the summer sun, melting the ice within her. She threw a laugh skyward that called to his own smile as he slung the blades to the ground. See, he didn’t need a kiss to give her the sun.

“This is why I value our friendship, Josiah. You do not mince words around me. I thank you for it. Most see a lady and censor every word that passes their lips.”

He dropped to the ground. “Are you a lady? Hadn’t noticed.” He had. Often. Quite often he’d noticed her… lady bits. He simply chose to ignore them. To varying degrees of success.

“Precisely.” She dropped to the ground beside him and reached for a pair of blades. “Now, how do you do this?”

“Let me.” He came around to face her and took the blades from her gloved hands. Her cheeks were lovely today, berry red and glowing, and he tried his best not to notice, but Xavier’s question yesterday—have you thought about sleeping with her—had not stopped nagging him since. He picked up one of her booted feet and fitted it to the skate. “You’ve got big feet,” he grumbled. And nice ankles and pink stockings that he should not know existed, and placing a kiss right in the hollow behind her ankle bone would be—

Damn Xavier. Right to hell for he’d thrown Josiah into one. Would he ever be able to turn off the visions the word kiss had flooded through him?

She swatted his shoulder. “Take it back.”

“Can’t take back the truth.” Can’t take back dares, either, and all their wanton suggestions.

“Humph. The better to kick you with, then.” 

“If you can catch me.” He finished tying her skates on her boots and managed his own before standing and holding out a hand to her.

She took it, and he pulled her to her feet, studying her as she studied the lake stretching out before them.

“You look worried, Lady Gee.”

“I am a bit. I’ve never done this before.”

“And you really doubt you’ll be anything but terribly proficient in no time at all?”

“Perfectly right.” She grinned. “Well then, teach me.”

Why did those words, from her lips, sound so erotic? Like cake, they were. And cake was decidedly not good for the constitution.

~~~

What happens when these two wobble out onto the ice? You can purchase the entire anthology here at the Wolf Publishing store or here at various other retailers!

You can also join all the authors from the anthology for a celebratory party in the Wolf Publishing reader group on Facebook from 10 am to 6 pm eastern today. I'm planning multiple giveaways of my previous holiday novellas--A Very Daring Christmas and Three Kisses Till Christmas, so stop by for a chance to win one of those and many more from my fellow authors!

You can join here.

I hope everyone is staying warm or cool depending on your hemispherical situation! I hope to see you at the party!

Happy reading,

Charlie Lane