#soldierbatch

...because I simply can’t resist!

[from an upcoming chapter of The Secret of Salvation]

He had sent a note along to the Apollo in the afternoon, advising Fannie that he planned to collect on her promise to see him again, this very night, and that he would be waiting for her at the stage door after her performance.  Jamie had found himself imagining in detail how together they might fill the hours that lay ahead, while his anticipation mounted each time that door had opened, the warm light from inside spilling out into the alley, causing a little rush of adrenaline to fill his veins.  As prepared as he believed he was, when she finally appeared, the sight of her took his breath away more thoroughly than it had the night before.

Fannie was a vision in lavender and pale gold, pearls woven into her raven hair and draped around her neck and wrists, her willowly arms bare to the night air beneath puffy cap sleeves.  The creamy splendor of so much skin revealed had him picturing himself tracing slow kisses from her inner wrists unto the inside of her elbows, while she answered that delight with the sweetest sounds of assent.  The dearest of which would be his name, sighed with longing from her pretty, parted lips.

There’s only one way this ends. Last man standing.