Darcy Branwyn

Here’s another excerpt from a work in progress, just because I felt like sharing it. ❤️😘

 “I’d hoped that maybe in light of my life soon changing.” She stopped and started again. This time she looked him straight in the eyes. “I was going to wait to say anything until later in the summer, but seeing as I’d rather die than to let the Duke bed me, I was hoping that you might… as my friend, be the first to have me.” She waited with her heart in her throat.

She wasn’t sure how to decipher his intake of breath. He shook his head, and then he laughed.

Alana stiffened against him. No, not him; she couldn’t bear it if he’d turned her down. But his hand squeezed her waist reassuringly. “No, stop. I laugh at myself only.”

“But why?”

“At my brother’s wedding, do you think I spent most of my time with you on accident?”

She shrugged. “We were thrown together. Neither of us was there with anyone else.”

“No, we weren’t.” He let that hang in the air. “Yes, I’ll be the one to have you, Alana of Berkley.”

Pure elation washed over her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, tears burning her eyes. “Thank you.”

“Believe me, there’s no thanks needed.”

“Do you think that you, I mean do you think you might like it?”

He loosened her arms from around him. His horse shifted beneath them as if eager to be on with getting back home, but he ignored it. He cupped her face in his hand, and his thumb caressed her cheek.

“I would like it very much,” he said.