Free Red Snow Bride (Wolf Brides Book 2) by T. S. Joyce Page B

the God’s honest truth that I, Lorelei McGregor, had never been kissed by a man like that before. I waved as Jeremiah disappeared down the street in front of my apartment and stumbled abstractedly up the stairs to my room. The violence and raw power had terrified me in the moment it happened, but as he’d nipped at my lip, all thoughts had washed out of my head until only the most primal and base consciousness existed there. There was no way an honorable man kissed like him, but I was having difficulty caring about such things as that. My, had I changed my tune over the last month of struggle. Murdering? Okay, so long as they deserved it. Holding hands and touching in the midst of the public eye. All right. Kissing a man like some shameless commoner in the street? So long as it’s Jeremiah who was doing the kissing.
    I had to admit to an acute satisfaction at the sight of Daniel’s enraged face when Jeremiah had pulled away from me. What did I care what he told everyone in the morning? My reputation could get no worse, and I wouldn’t be around Boston to hear it anyway.
    I kicked the door closed with my shoe only to have it fling back open. I pulled my bag out from under the small bed and folded my few belongings neatly inside of it.
    “You going somewhere?” Analise said from behind me. We’d become friendlier over my time here.
    “I’m following your advice.”
    She gasped and flung herself onto my screeching bed. “You answered the advertisement? That’s so romaaantic,” she sang, clutching the lumpy pillow to her chest.
    I didn’t know about romantic, but it did seem terribly exciting to leave the heartache behind and start fresh in a new place with new people. “I met him today. He surprised me and was waiting outside when I left for dinner tonight. I just met his family.”
    “And?” she all but squealed.
    “They are scandalous people with almost no manners on proper etiquette or conversation.” Analise frowned and I pursed my lips to contain the excitement. “And I liked them.”
    “When are you leaving?”
    “In the morning. He wants to leave early. If I pen a letter for the Countess, would you mind delivering it?”
    Anilise lay on my bed staring at the ceiling with a dreamy look in her eyes. “Yes, of course.”
    I’d tell Mother and Father of my decision when I was officially married and it couldn’t be undone. They’d try their best to convince me out of doing this, but moving away with Jeremiah was something I had to do. Every instinct I possessed said this was important. I sat at my small desk for what would be the last time and wrote my farewell to the only remaining friend I had from my old life.
    Sleep came fitfully that night. How could one sleep with such change in the air? As I lay staring at the cracked plaster ceiling and peeling pink paint, I couldn’t help but imagine what he was doing. Likely he was fast asleep in the comfort of his tavern bed. The memory of our kiss touched my lips over and over until I was hot and writhing in the confines of that small room with a discomfort I couldn’t seem to soothe.
    With my internal clock set to rise with the sun in order to secure a seat at the poultry house, today was no different. Jeremiah had promised to pick me up at dawn, but I couldn’t wait in my stifling room that long. I’d wait on the street so he didn’t have to send someone for me. It would be my first kindness paid to him as his betrothed.
    Through the buildings, a deep purple and pink stretched across the sky as the first wisps of dawn yawned and stretched. I’d find a dry place for my bag and sit upon it until he came for me. The stairs seemed endless in my haste. What if he’d changed his mind in the night? What if he realized he really didn’t want another’s cast offs and didn’t come for me at all? What if I sat here all day as people passed and sneered at me for my naiveté?
    I almost tripped over a large form in the dark and strong hands reached up to