Welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog! It’s always a pleasure to have my dear friend Caroline Warfield here to give you an excerpt from one of her books. Today, Caroline has an excerpt from her upcoming novella Music in the Night that can be found in the boxset Dukes All Night Long that releases August 17th. We hope you enjoy this excerpt. Happy reading, my lovelies!
Excerpt:
The sound of music played by a master pianist woke Owen Pritchard in the night, but the player disappeared before he could speak with her. Only one other person he ever heard played with the same skill and passion, Lucia Castellano the woman he loved, who disappeared from his life seven years before. Is it possible the vicar’s downtrodden niece Annie Potter could be the same woman?
*****
“Lucia—Annie—you don’t belong here. Your talent is a precious gift that shouldn’t be hidden away, or worse treated as shame, as your uncle would have it.”
“It won’t feed me.”
Owen leaned as close as he dared, his face inches from hers. “Yes, it could! With your permission I could find you an agent, teachers. We could—”
“That’s a pipe dream and it was never mine. I hated the stage.” She squeezed his hand as if to convince him. “I am Annie not Lucia. I play for the joy of it. I’m not the woman you want.”
Does she think I want to use her like her mother did?
Visions of all the ways he wanted her—of bedding her, of marriage, of children, of a life together, whatever name she chose to use, tore through Owen. He opened his mouth to tell her exactly how much he wanted her.
A sane corner of his brain shouted at him not to rush his fences. Think of her, not your needs and opinions. Her life is hers to choose.
He caught a stern glance from the housekeeper at the foot of the table. Breathing deeply, he changed tack. “Do you know the name of your mother’s solicitor? Have you spoken to him?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Sir Francis Hardy. I went to see him when I first got to London. At first, he said there was a will. That I inherited, and he would have funds transferred from my mother’s bank in Rome. He sent me to Aunt Ella to wait, but later he wrote and said the funds were gone. Uncle sold what I brought with me, my few jewels and clothing—for my board he said. I have nothing.”
Mrs. Morrit made a show of folding up her mending. His time was running out. He rose, and helped Annie up, her hand still in his. She stood so close he could feel her heat. This wasn’t the time or place to kiss her as he wanted to, and yet he couldn’t resist a taste.
He kissed her lips with a gentle salute, but swallowed to rein in his attraction. “I want to see you, to spend time with you,” he said, his voice ragged. “But I have to go away on business.”
He put one finger under her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “Annie, your life (and your name) are yours to choose, but we aren’t finished here. I’ll be back. You have my promise. I’m not going to lose you again.”
She left with Morrit, and Owen clung to the hope he believed he saw in her eyes. I will be back, my Lucia, light of my life. You can be sure of it.
First, he had business with Sir Francis Hardy in London.
About the Book: Dukes All Night Long
Release Date: August 17th
Preorder for $0.99
Whether it’s a marriage of convenience, a fake engagement, or a rake ready to reform, these dukes know exactly how to turn up the heat after dark…
From glittering ballrooms to scandalous house parties, this steamy anthology brings together some of historical romance’s biggest names in over 1,000 pages of heart-racing, sigh-worthy, late-night reading.
Music in the Night is one of those stories: night after night her pursues her, chased by memories of lost love and the strains of a Beethoven sonata.
Read for #FREE in Kindle Unlimited
About the Author
Award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things: traveler, librarian, poet, raiser of children, bird watcher, Internet and Web services manager, conference speaker, indexer, tech writer, genealogist—even a nun. She reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart.
Learn more about Caroline and her books on her website at https://www.carolinewarfield.com
دیدگاهتان را بنویسید