It’s Friday so that must mean you’ve found my First Kiss Friday blog. Please welcome my guest Deb Marlowe who is sharing with you that all important first kiss scene from Death from the Druid’s Grove. Didn’t Dragonblade Publishing do a fabulous job with this cover? It’s just stunning! Happy reading and enjoy, my lovelies!
Excerpt:
He climbed down and turned to assist her. The bracing night air prodded her awake, although she gave a great yawn that left him smiling.
She squeezed his hand. The carriage moved on, heading for the stables. They stood alone in the dark, with the sky full of the sparkling beauty of a multitude of stars and his heart full of conflicting emotions.
“Thank you, Niall.”
It was thanks offered for more than his help out of the carriage. He heard the breadth of her meaning in her tone.
He smiled in answer, returned the squeeze and let her go.
With a sigh, she began to move toward the house. He watched her for a moment, before turning toward his forge and the loft above.
The sound of her footsteps in the gravel stopped.
“Niall?”
He turned around. She faced him, her hair coming down a little on one side and wafting in the night breeze. He drank in the beauty of her. She was a mad combination of exuberance, stubborn determination, extraordinary vision and the lovely sweetness of her soul. It almost hurt to look at her.
And suddenly, she was moving. Lifting her skirts and racing toward him. As she drew closer, she let go and reached out—and leapt into his arms.
He caught her. Staggered back a step. And her lips were on his and he was lost.
Her fingers were in his hair. Her legs wrapped around his waist. He braced one hand across her back to hold her close and the other beneath the curve of her bottom, to keep her, high and hot and pressed against him, with her mouth locked to his.
She’d gone soft and pliant. Need sprang to heated life in his chest and he felt the answering sensation in her. Together, their longings rose and combined, whirling between them, spiraling higher and fueling the fervent, dangerous beauty of their kiss.
She was inexperienced. He showed her subtly, delicately, how it was done. An enthusiastic pupil, she let him coax her mouth open. Their embrace deepened, transforming this encounter into something more demanding and desperate. Something that fought and railed against the cold knowledge of its fleeting nature.
She moaned, a low sound of aching want, and he clutched her closer still, wishing he could pull her right inside, so that this might never end.
But end, it did. She pulled away and looked down at him, her face filled with sorrow. Slowly, he let her drop, felt the forbidden slide of her down the front of him. But he could not let go, not yet. He bent his head so that their lips hovered close.
“I wanted to know,” she whispered. “When you are long gone and I am lying awake, making myself miserable with what might have been, I want to know exactly what I will be missing.” She ducked her head, pressing against his chest and gripping him tightly for a moment, before looking back up, her expression gone stern. “Perhaps I wanted you to know, too.”
Death from the Druid’s Grove
By Deb Marlowe
Secrets hide in the Druid’s Grove, in a murderer’s heart, and in Niall Kier’s past . .
October 1851. After millions of visitors and months of success, the Great Exhibition is winding down. Mr. Niall Kier and Miss Kara Levett are busy with the celebrations planned for the last weeks—and with all the commissions their involvement has brought them. Their artistic works stall, though, when the closing ceremonies are interrupted by a murder.
Suddenly, a friend is under suspicion and the murder has been linked to the Druid’s Grove, the secret society in which Niall is a member and Kara has just been inducted. They dive in, hoping to quickly clear their ally’s name, except nothing is simple in the Grove and no one is exactly who they seem to be.
Niall and Kara put their talents and resources to work once more, but they find that old, sinister secrets might be behind the present-day bloodshed.
And as they investigate, it appears someone might also be digging about in Niall’s mysterious past.
The Kier and Levett Mystery series
Book 1 – A Killer in the Crystal Palace
Book 2 – Death from the Druid’s Grove
Book 3 – Murder on the Mirrored Lake
Buy Links:
Amazon https://amzn.to/3SAjk6L
Barnes and Noble https://bit.ly/DruidsGroveBN
Kobo https://bit.ly/DruidsGroveKOBO
Apple https://bit.ly/DruidsGroveAPPLE
If you love a print book in your hand, order from
Amazon https://amzn.to/3KwiKn7
or
Barnes & Noble! http://bit.ly/3MFF6Ff
About the Author:
USA Today Bestselling author Deb Marlowe grew up with her nose in a book. Luckily, she’d read enough romances to recognize the hero she met at a college Halloween party – even though he wore a tuxedo t-shirt instead of breeches and boots. They married, settled in North Carolina and raised two handsome, funny and genuinely intelligent boys. A Golden Heart winner and Rita nominee, Deb writes Regency Romance and Victorian Mysteries.. A proud geek, history buff and story addict, she loves to talk with readers! Find her discussing books, movies, TV, recipes and her infamous Men in Boots on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Find out Behind the Book details and interesting historical tidbits at deb@debmarlowe.com
Follow me on my FB author page at https://www.facebook.com/DebMarloweAuthorPage
Or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debmarlowewrites/