With that in mind, I thought I'd offer a peek at the book. Here's an excerpt from Journeyman's Ride.
“Coin is fine. I take fifty up front, another forty once you’re
there safe and sound.”
A rather steep trade. That didn’t fit with what she’d heard about
Danner’s generosity. Of course, she hadn’t been warned to beware his natural
magnetism either.
She quickly shook the awkward attraction from her mind. “Would you
consider an even hundred? An extra ten for finding me a guide to survive the Spyder
Haven?”
“Your hair sure is long. And soft.” He fingered a strand of it,
his touch so light she wouldn’t have felt it if she hadn’t seen him do it. He
let her go and his expression darkened even more.
“The Spyder Haven?” At his silence, she shook her head. “Never
mind.” She didn’t want to push her luck. Every step closer to the Crystal
Palace and saving Clarissa was one step closer to ending this farce of a life
she was forced to lead. “Ninety coins it is, then. Shall we get started?”
Danner glanced down at the hand by her side. He looked back up at
her face. His gaze slipped from her eyes to her lips.
Before she could blink, he closed the distance between them and
covered her mouth with his. Her eyelids closed automatically, her heart raced
in her breast and the feathery tickle in her belly traveled lower, to that
place between her legs she could no longer ignore.
She couldn’t form the will to protest his liberties. Callused
hands cupper her cheeks and trailed down her neck to her shoulders, holding her
close with a gentle firmness she wouldn’t have credited a man of his size. Then
his hands traveled lower on her arms and transferred to her sensitive rib cage.
Heat sizzled across her skin. She could feel him through her shirt, as if she
wore nothing at all.
His lips whispered over hers, exploring and tasting but not
pushing for more than she wanted to give. The shock of Danner’s palm across her
taut nipples increased the ache deep within her, and she gasped at her
overwhelming sense of need. He took the opportunity to slide his tongue inside
her mouth.
The wild taste of his kiss turned her body into a crazed mass of
feeling. Good gods, she’d never been touched like this.
He groaned and slanted his mouth to better overtake hers. She stroked
him back with her tongue when he demanded reciprocation, and he tightened his
arms around her. To her acute frustration, her body throbbed, needing something
just out of reach.
Danner slid his hands to her hips and tugged her closer into the
hard ridge pressing against her traitorous belly. Before she could protest the
loss of his hands on her breasts, he yanked his mouth away, his breath as
uneven and shaky as hers.
“Fuck.”
All she could think was that gentlemen didn’t use that kind of
language. Her body hummed and her mind buzzed. What to make of that?
“Forget the coin. I’ll take you all the way to the Crystal Palace.
But you’re mine for the duration.”
“Yours?” She could still taste him on her lips. The rocking,
sizzling sensation of magic in the air remained all around her. In front of
her. Hard against her.
“All of you, sweet.” He ground against her pelvis, as if to remind
her of his state of arousal.
As if she could forget.
“B-but—” Think,
Miranda! You’ve encountered blackguards before. Push him away. Resist his
advances. But her body
craved more.
“No one else will get you there in one piece, you fool woman.
You’ll be raped and robbed and left for dead. I know jaunts over the border are
all the rage right now, but this ain’t a game.”
“No, it’s not a jaunt.”
He swore under his breath. “If you’re really set on going, then we
trade. Your body for my protection.” He gave a dry laugh, obviously not
believing she spoke the truth. “Just think, when you get home you can tell them
all about your uncivilized adventures with a real man. A Western savage.”
For all his common talk and anger, his arousal had yet to abate.
She noticed a crafty gleam in his eyes and narrowed her own. Did
he really think the threat of carnal liaison would scare her away? Fat lot he
knew. Miranda didn’t have a future to ruin if she didn’t find and return her
miserable cousin to the throne. Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she
steeled her resolve. Miranda shifted her hips, deliberately grazing the bulge
in his trousers, and kissed him back.
She knew
she’d shocked him when he pushed her back, his eyes wide, his body hard.
“Sealed with a kiss, Mr. Danner. When do we leave?”
An excerpt from Journeyman's Ride, by Marie Harte
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