Hello, my lovely Readers, and welcome to another First Kiss Friday! Today’s guest is my dear friend, Jude Knight who has an excerpt from her upcoming story The Lyon, The Lady and a Fine Pair of Boots. It releases on June 3rd and is still available for preorder for only 99 cents! We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading and take it away Jude!
Inspired by Puss in Boots this story puts the romance spotlight on those often ignored secondary characters, the valet and the maid, who is dressed as a footman for most of the story. Join them as they support the romance of their employers. In this excerpt, they don’t quite make it to a kiss, but the kisses that made it onto the page near the end of the book were under circumstances not suitable for a family audience.
Excerpt:
A sudden thought occurred, and he blurted it. “I should have flowers!”
Kat laughed, her face suddenly alive with amusement. “That is what is keeping you silent? You should have flowers?”
There she was. The girl behind the mask. And he had made her laugh, even if the joke was on him. “Well, I should. I always promised myself I’d propose to you when I saw you again. You took me by surprise in the bakery, but I knew I would see you again today. I should have thought to bring flowers, as a token of my esteem and affection.”
“Listen to you, with your fine words—‘a token of my esteem and affection,’ indeed,” she jeered, but her tone was fond.
Jake’s heart soared. She would not be teasing him if she did not still like him. Suddenly, declaring his heart seemed the easiest thing in the world. “Kat, I have loved you since I was a boy. I told you eight years ago that I wanted to wed you, and I’ve never changed my mind. Now that we are both grown, you are even more amazing than you were eight years ago. I admire your devotion to Miss Ellen. I am in awe of how you turned one guinea into a marriage and a future for her, and your behind in those breeches is driving me demented.”
She was no longer hiding behind a bland expression and the emotions flitting across her face made him increasingly certain of her answer. He finished, “I love you, Kat. Will you marry me?”
His beloved still had the habit of tipping her head to one side while she thought. Jake held his breath, waiting for her answer, and he hadn’t passed out from lack of air by the time she answered, so it could not have been as long as he thought.
“You are the only man I have ever imagined marrying, Jacob Flynn. If I do not marry you, I suppose I shall never marry. But we do not know one another. Not anymore.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she put up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t misunderstand. I like what I have seen. But Jacob, eight years!”
It was to be a negotiation, then. “How about this? We ask the vicar to read the banns, then spend the next few weeks in one another’s company. Miss Ellen and Captain Harraway will be husband and wife in a few days, so we shall have plenty of time to see if our wedding should go ahead.”
Kat thought about that, too. “Very well,” she said, at last. “But if we don’t agree, let us not fall out about it. We will still have to work together.”
Jake agreed without a second’s thought. That would not be an issue. Either they would marry, or he would leave. For he loved Kat Fivepence with all his heart and soul, and he would not be able to stay near her unless he could make her his.
***
They would marry, of course. Kat was already certain of it, though all the lessons she’d learned about the unreliability of others urged her to caution. She amended her thought. We shall marry unless Jacob shows himself to be a bad man.
He isn’t, scoffed her heart. He is my love and my heart’s desire. He was also just a trifle smug. His expression at the end of his confession of love had made it clear he was sure of her.
“Flowers would be nice,” she commented. No one but Jacob had ever brought her flowers. He used to seek out the first primroses, the first violets, the first of every sort of wildflower that grew in the fields or woods around the Miller home. Once, when he had run an urgent message for Lord Miller and had been rewarded with a penny, he had spent it on a rose from the village.
“Roses,” he said. “I bought you a rose, once.”
Ignoring the melting of her heart at this evidence the memory was precious to them both, Kat repeated, “Flowers. I shall leave the choice to you.”
“May I have a kiss?” Jacob asked, reaching for her as if her agreement was assured.
“Out in the open like this when I am dressed as a man?” Kat demanded. He must have completely forgotten, for her refusal had him blinking in surprise.
“Oh. That’s right,” he said. “Later then? When we have some privacy?”
How did such a masculine man—a tough, hardened warrior—manage to make puppy eyes? Kat took advantage of her masculine persona to punch his shoulder. “Definitely later,” she promised.
The Lyon, the Lady, and a Fine Pair of Boots
By Jude Knight
Releases June 3, 2026
Preorder for $0.99
Marriage is the only way to keep Kat’s lady safe…
When her mistress is put out of her childhood home, Kat goes too. She may be only Miss Ellen’s maid, but she has a plan to secure a future for them both. But first, she needs to give Miss Ellen a male escort, for propriety’s sake. Kat herself, dressed as a footman, complete with a fine pair of boots.
Jake has been looking after his employer since they both came home for the war. The captain drinks too much and gambles too much. And now he has come to the attention of the Black Widow of Whitehall. Could a wife be in the offing? Perhaps a wife is just what the captain needs.
But, while the captain is happy with the lady Mrs. Dove Lyon has chosen, Jake has discovered that the lady conceals a secret that could destroy everything. The Lady of Carr Abbass cannot possibly be who she says she is.
… and the one dream for herself Kat thought would never be fulfilled
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Lyon-Lady-Fine-Pair-Boots-ebook/dp/B0GZ8YG4WL/
Meet Jude
Jude always wanted to be a novelist. She started in her teens, but life kept getting in the way. Years passed, and with them dozens of unfinished manuscripts. The fear grew. What if she tried, failed, and lost the dream forever? The years since 2014 have brought 17 novels, 16 novella, 6 volumes of short stories, a number of awards, and hundreds of positive reviews. The dream is alive.
Website and blog: http://judeknightauthor.com/
Subscribe to newsletter: http://judeknightauthor.com/newsletter/
Jude’s bookstore: https://judeknight.selz.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JudeKnightAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudeKnightBooks