FOR YOUR HEART -- Sneaky Peek 2:

Another excerpt from my upcoming YA paranormal romance novel, FOR YOUR HEART.  If you're interested in reading more, check it out here and don't forget to tell your friends!

            I slip down the oak and kneel behind the trunk of a white pine.  She has stopped spinning and is now pacing forward, her eyes scanning the ground like she's looking for something.  Then she stops and I see what she sees.  Everything inside me freezes solid.  I fight to breathe, I fight to stop her, but I can't move.  She steps forward and crouches in front of one of Roxel’s precious jewels.

            No, don't touch the roses.

            She reaches out and her fingers delicately trace the deep red petals of the tallest, most beautiful rose.  A delicious shiver dances up my spine.  The look on her face is enough to electrocute my heart back into beating and I draw in an awed breath.  She’s so beatific and enrapt that I’m entranced by her pleasure.  I never knew a woman could look at something with such innocent, unbridled pleasure.  Her eyes go liquid and her cheeks flush a shade pinker, her warmth spreads through my veins like a summer's breeze.  Her lips part ever so slightly, like she's expecting a kiss – one I’m more than willing to give. Then I hear it:

            Snap

            I blink and my eyes trace the smooth length of her arm.  She's got the rose's stem in her hand, but the stem no longer reaches into the ground.  Inch by inch, the space between the flower and dirt grows until Lovely has the petals against her soft lips and, eyes closed, is savoring the scent of the faerie queen's sacred bloom.

            For a moment, the simple act sends a primal ripple of pleasure slithering over my skin.  But then my mind takes hold and my heart gallops wild, fear eating my intestines like a rabid wolf.  What is Roxel going to do to me?  I’m to protect her roses, that’s why she sent me to patrol Carver Hall Park.  What will I do?  She's going to kill me.

            Suddenly, I'm filled with hatred for this tantalizing but destructive human girl.  She couldn't appreciate the beauty before her, she had to destroy it.  Why should I die on account of her folly? 

            Before I realize what I'm doing, I let out a roar and leap through the underbrush.  I grasp her by her treacherous hand, throw her to the ground, and hold her there. 

            “What have you done!?” I demand, knowing full well the implications of what I'm asking.  “How dare you come to this place!  How dare you pick a rose!  How dare you break its stem!  Do you not understand that you must ask leave of me!?”

            Lovely’s fingers loosen around the rose as terror slackens her muscles.  Those fae green eyes chase her crimson sin as it falls to the ground.  Then she stares at me, as if she can’t believe I am real.

            I tighten my grasp, drawing her attention to my hand shackled around her wrist, reassuring her that I am no dream.  “Speak up.”