First Kiss Friday with Jude Knight
Welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog. Any day I can have my friend Jude Knight showcase another one of her new releases is a great day. Today, Jude has an excerpt that is close to a first kiss scene from her novel The Secret Word that releases tomorrow, September 6th. Wishing Jude success on her latest book baby! Happy reading, my lovelies, and take it away Jude!
When I went looking for a first kiss scene, I couldn’t find one! Clem remembers how wonderful his kisses have been when she is fretting about their wedding night, so I must assume Chris managed to separate her from her chaperone for long enough to give her a taste of things to come, but I don’t put that on the page.
Here, though, is the start of their wedding night. Since things get rather specific very quickly, and this is a family-friendly blog, I’ve only covered the beginning.
Excerpt:
It was only a short drive to the house they had rented. Chris was mindful that what was to come was new to Clem. Thanks to the efforts of Aunt Fern, their embraces so far had been nearly chaste—certainly far more chaste than Chris would have preferred.
Even so, he could control the urge to leap on her as soon as the carriage door was shut. He would have to, for he would not want to frighten her, nor did he want her to be embarrassed in front of her new servants when they arrived at their new house looking as if he had tumbled her in the carriage.
Instead, he took the seat beside her, took her gloved hand in his, and lost himself in thinking about the bedding to come. Not for the first time, he wondered what she had been told.
She was curious, he knew that. And she listened to the servants, so she knew a little. Had anyone thought to explain the details? Was she frightened? She didn’t appear nervous, though. Was she glaring at him?
“Is something wrong, my love?”
Clem blushed. “I was just thinking…”
She broke off, and Chris made what he hoped was an encouraging sound.
“Martha said you would want to kiss me as soon as we were alone, and—” her blush deepened— “other things.”
“Other things?” Chris was intrigued to know exactly what the knowledgeable maid may have disclosed.
“You know, Chris. Embraces and such.” She leaned closer to him and hushed her voice, as if afraid that the driver might hear. “Touching me with your hands. In… places. She said men like it?” Clem sounded uncertain.
“This man likes it,” Chris assured her. “Very much, when it is my hands and your body. And I hope you will like touching me, too. I did not want to start something in the carriage that would leave you rumpled and uncomfortable when you arrived at our house, for if I once start, beloved, I am not certain how much control I will have. I want you. Very much.”
“Oh.” Clem thought about that. “I’m not sure exactly what ‘want’ means, but…Will I like it, Chris?”
“You will like it very much,” he assured her. He would make certain of that. “In fact, you can tell me what you like most about it, and I will do more of that, and if there happens to be anything you don’t like, tell me, and I won’t do it. But not here in the carriage. Not for your first time.”
“Oh,” she said, her face clearing by the moment, and her second, “Oh,” sounded much more cheerful. “Not until this evening, then.”
“Here we are,” Chris commented, as they drew up at their own front steps. This evening? He could wait until this evening if she insisted, but he hoped she didn’t.
By the time he had helped her from the carriage, the front door was open and the servants were lined up in the little entry hall, ready to greet their new employers.
Clem went down the line, greeting the cook-housekeeper, the parlor maid, the kitchen maid, the footman (who was going to provide any valet services that Chris needed), and the boot boy, and presenting them all to their new master. She had met them all when she interviewed them for their positions, and from what Chris could see, she had done well.
Martha was there, too. Chris greeted her. He’d be keeping an eye on this one. When Clem had said she planned to keep the maid, Chris had questioned her choice. “What if her loyalties are still with your father?” he asked.
“That could be true of anyone we employ,” Clem said. “Since she and I made our bargain, she has been an excellent maid—loyal, as far as I know, and competent. She knows how I like things done. I’d like to keep her, Chris.”
She was Clem’s maid, so it was over to her. And Clem was right, of course. Any of the servants could be reporting to Wright, to Billy O’Hara, even to Chris’s grandfather. Time would tell, Chris supposed. He’d be careful not to leave anything that should be confidential where one of the servants could see it.
Meanwhile, he had a wife to kiss, and “embraces and stuff.” She had seemed disappointed that he had not started in the carriage, and he hated disappointing his wife.
Clem was dismissing the staff. How did one ask a lady if they were open to the idea of moving the consummation from the evening program to the afternoon? Especially since Martha and the footman had not left with the rest.
“Clem, would you like Martha to help you into something more comfortable?” he asked.
“I am quite com… Oh. Now? You mean this afternoon?” Fortunately for Chris, she sounded more intrigued than scandalized.
“Yes, why not?” Please, Clem. Please.
Martha gave him an approving nod, and Clem smiled. “Yes. Martha, come along,” she said. “Give me half an hour, Chris.”
“Half an hour,” he agreed, with an internal sigh. He used the time to order a tray of tea from the kitchen to be sent up immediately, and another with food and more tea in three hours.
Then he went up to the bed chamber they had agreed would be his dressing room—they planned to sleep in the same bed. He stripped out of his wedding finery, washed thoroughly, and put on a banyan—one that he’d bought only that week, since the robe he’d had for the past ten years was not fit for other people to see.
Ready, ready, more than ready he knocked on the door to their shared bed chamber and
The Secret WordBy Jude Knight
When Christopher Satterthwaite rescues Clementine Wright from would-be kidnappers, he is offered an opportunity he can’t refuse. Clem’s father, a wealthy coal magnate, has been looking for a husband for his only child. Someone with aristocratic bloodlines and no family—someone who can give him the blue-blooded heir he craves, without the interference of noble relatives.
Chris figures he and Clem can work together to keep Wright from controlling their every move. As their partnership develops, they fall in love. Wright doesn’t stand a chance against them. Or does he?
And what about the other men who are showing an interest in the child who is soon on the way? Chris’s reprobate grandfather is hanging around like a bad smell, and clearly has a scheme in mind. Chris’s more respectable relatives have not disowned him after all, and are eager to shower the as-yet unborn child with every advantage—because they regret not helping Chris as a child? Or for purposes of their own?
And then there is Ramping Billy O’Hara, the most sinister of them all, and Chris’s patron.
Some are villains. Some are on the side of the couple and their child. Only time will tell which is which.
Buy Link or read for FREE in Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM8R25VP
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/
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