Welcome to another First Kiss Friday. My guest today is the fabulous Ruth A. Case who has an expert from The Love She Chose that is her contribution to the boxset The Bell Tolls At Midnight. You can preorder it now and it releases on October 25th. We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading, my lovelies!
Excerpt:
“You said,” she began, her voice softer now, “that a bell does not decide what has not yet been chosen.”
“I did.”
“And that certainty is rarely given.”
“Yes.”
She turned then. Fully. Her eyes met his, and this time she did not look away.
“And yet you speak as though you are nearing it.”
Stephen held her gaze. “I am.”
The words settled between them without embellishment. No hesitation. No retreat.
Dorothea felt the shift as clearly as she had on the ridge, but this was not the same. This was not anticipation. This was knowing.
“And if you are mistaken?” she asked.
His expression did not change. “Then I will know it honestly.”
A brief pause.
“I would not call that a loss.”
Something in her breath faltered, not sharply, but enough that she felt it. Enough that she knew this was no longer a question she could leave unanswered.
She studied him then, not for charm or wit, but for truth. And found it.
That was the moment. Not the ridge. Not the silence that had followed it. This. Where nothing was concealed. Where nothing was offered without understanding its cost.
Dorothea stepped closer. There was no uncertainty in it. No hesitation. Only decision.
Stephen did not move, but something in him stilled completely, as though he understood that whatever came next must be met, not shaped.
“You are very certain,” she said.
“I am choosing,” he replied.
The words settled into her, deep and undeniable. She had waited long enough for others to decide the course of her life. She would not do so again.
“You said a bell does not decide it.”
“It does not.”
“And that we must.”
“Yes.”
Dorothea held his gaze. “Then I will not wait for one.”
Something shifted in his expression, not surprise, but recognition.
She lifted her hand. Not quickly. Not hesitantly. Deliberately. Her fingers came to rest against his coat, the contact light, almost inconsequential—and yet it changed everything.
Stephen’s gaze dropped briefly to where her hand lay, then returned to hers.
No question remained. No distance. Only choice.
He lifted his hand then, not to take, but to meet hers. His fingers closed gently around hers, not claiming, but answering.
Dorothea felt her breath steady. She stepped closer.
And this time, he did not stop her.
The space between them disappeared, not in haste, but with a quiet inevitability that neither resisted. His hand rose to her cheek, careful in its touch, as though he understood that this was not a moment to possess, but one to receive.
Dorothea held his gaze until the last possible instant. Something in her stilled, then shifted, before she could name it.
Then she closed the distance.
The kiss was not hurried. Not uncertain. Not begun in decision, but in something that had already moved between them.
It was chosen.
Soft at first, a quiet answering of what had already been spoken without words.
Stephen did not deepen it immediately. He allowed it to remain what it was, a beginning, freely given, freely returned. Then, gently, his hand shifted, drawing her nearer, not to take control, but to accept what she had offered.
The world did not fall away. The street remained. The distant voices. The quiet motion of lives continuing around them. But it no longer held them in the same way. Because this, this was something they had made.
Dorothea felt it, not as surprise, but as recognition. As though her body had understood before she had allowed herself to.
As though something long unsettled had, at last, found its place.
When they parted, it was not abrupt. Not reluctant. Measured, as the moment itself had been.
Stephen did not release her hand.
Dorothea did not step back.
They remained where they were, the space between them no longer waiting.
“You have answered it,” he said quietly.
“So have you.”
There was the faintest breath of laughter between them, not quite spoken, but understood.
“And without a bell,” he added.
Dorothea’s lips curved. “We did not require one.”
He inclined his head slightly, his gaze steady on hers.
“No.”
Something deeper settled in his expression then, not fleeting, not light. Enduring.
Dorothea saw it. Felt it. And knew. This was not a moment. This was a beginning.
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The Love She Chose By Ruth A. Casie
Some legacies are claimed. Others survive.
Dorothea Grayson fled Hartleigh to escape a marriage arranged to settle her father’s debts. Far from the world she left behind, she built a quiet life of her own, a life founded on hard work, independence, and a promise made to a dying friend.
For years, that promise has been enough.
Then Stephen Vale returns.
Thoughtful, steadfast, and impossible to forget, Stephen offers Dorothea something she never expected to find: a future shaped not by obligation, but by choice. Yet the secret she has guarded for years stands between them, and some truths carry consequences that reach far beyond a single lifetime.
When a royal summons draws Dorothea back into a world she thought she had left behind, she must decide whether love is worth the risk of revealing everything she has fought to protect.
Set in Tudor England, The Love She Chose is a heartfelt historical romance of sacrifice, family, and enduring devotion, the story of a promise that would shape generations to come.
Purchase Links:
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJJG2FGD
- Universal Link: https://books2read.com/Bell-Tolls-Midnight
- BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-bell-tolls-at-midnight-a-historical-romance-anthology-dragonblade-publishing-boxed-sets-by-maeve-greyson-and-e-l-johnson
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/258759241-the-bell-tolls-at-midnight
About the Author:
USA Today Bestselling Author Ruth A. Casie writes historical romance filled with emotional depth, compelling characters, and stories where love is earned, tested, and ultimately triumphant.
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