Don’t you just love it when romance characters are kept apart by their own foolishness. This week I’m posting an excerpt this week from my latest wicked regency romance novel, Charity, the final installment in The Distinguished Rogues series. In this emotional scene, inspired by the U2 song “All I want is you”, my hero and heroine are so close they could touch.
Agatha popped her head out her bedroom window and let her gaze rest on the adjacent balcony. Oscar wasn’t there. Not yet. She let her head fall, disappointed, and noticed a bag of sweets waiting. The sign of his constancy made her heart ache. She had thought he would stop leaving her little gifts.
She hefted the bag, and tossed it between her hands. By rights she should not accept such small pleasures, she should return them and hope he stopped being so kind. His continuing kindness was a sharp pain that never truly left her. The rattle of a door handle reached her ears. Agatha drew back, knowing the sound came from Oscar’s door. The sharp rap of boots rang on the tile, then a slither of sound, and a heavy thump.
When she peeked out the window again, Oscar sat with his back to her. Glass clinked to the tile and she could hear his heavy sigh. She laid her head on her arms, staring at the back of Oscar’s head and willing him to turn.
He stubbornly stayed facing the other way, drinking slowly from his glass. When the glass was empty he stood, brushed off his clothes. His head turned fractionally, finally acknowledging her presence. “I miss you.”
Then he disappeared inside his townhouse.
Agatha lifted her hands to the window frame, slid it shut, and then wiped the tears from her eyes.
Oscar and Agatha have been with me so long that I am strangely sad that I completed the story. Yet there are funny and smoldering encounters sprinkled through the story too. I’ll give you another peek next week.
