‘Tis Valentine’s week, ’tisn’t it? I’m not one to pile onto the steaming morass of marketing marshmallow cream that is Valentine’s Day (see what I did there?), but this year the wife and I have chosen not to add to the post-holiday bill-paying stress-a-thon, and are making our own fun. Sans roses and chocolates.

Not to say we’re not romantics at heart… and to that end, I thought I’d share a tiny snippet from The Curse Servant. Posting this excerpt was inspired by a little blog contest, and I thought it was somewhat topical. So, here you go… Ches and Dorian’s first kiss:
~ ~ ~

“Ches, you’re impossibly amazing, you know that?”

“I totally do.”

“So, I’ve wanted to kiss you for a long time now. And here we are, standing in the middle of Fell’s Point, and I’m trying to figure a good way to bring that up.”

She screwed her brow together. “Oh my God, you’re actually asking permission to kiss me?”

“I figured the worst case scenario would―”

She gripped the back of my neck and pulled my head down to hers. The kiss was slow, and anything but delicate. She moved her lips in a constant writhe, her tongue taking furtive caresses of my mouth. It was the kind of kiss that made me breathe heavy. I ran my fingers up into her hair, pulling them down her back as those curls smoothed out over the skin of her back exposed by the gown.

She pulled away and ran a slow thumb around my mouth, wiping away her lipstick.

“For future reference, never ask a girl permission for a kiss.” She turned and continued down the sidewalk. “Unless you actually don’t have permission, in which case you’re just a skeev.”

I watched her swagger up the pavement, and hopped forward to catch up with her.

“How is a guy supposed to know the difference?”

“Knowing is the entire point.”

“Isn’t that a little unfair?”

“Suck it up, magic man.”

~ ~ ~

What the hell’s happening here? Who is Ches? Why is she kissing Dorian then dropping the mic like a boss? The Curse Servant’s release date is February 26th. It’s available for pre-order now… so run and grab a copy and find out what leads up to this moment.