I've taken this excerpt from The Lady and the Duke, my current work in progress. Here's a small lead up to the passage I've lifted:
Lady Audrey is in a bit of a muddle. Just a few days ago she had been kissed nearly brainless by an eligible, intelligent, amusing man, one William Langston, Duke of Halford (with a dimple, no less). However, his lips had barely left hers before apologies and decrees were being thrown all over the place. She couldn't help but be insulted. One moment he's staring at her with that intense, melted chocolate gaze, in the next his back is stiffer than a post and he's attempting to send her from his presence.
It's enough to give a girl a complex.
Less than a week later, Audrey encounters Will at a garden party and is uncertain of what to do. Ignore him? Freeze him out? Pretend nothing happened? None of that is her style, which consists more of saying whatever happens to occupy the forefront of her mind at the moment. Will asks her to walk in the garden and to her surprise, she finds herself accepting. Perhaps it's the dimple. Perhaps it's the way he always seems to be watching her with those dark eyes. Or, perhaps it's the kiss that she just can't shake...
A little frisson of shock went through her at his words and she studied him a moment, then a tug of reluctant amusement lifted one corner of Audrey’s mouth. “So, what you are saying is, you are apologizing for the apology?”
He seemed to consider this carefully.
“Yes, that sounds right.”
Audrey snorted. “You’re cracked in the head, do you know that?”
Lady Audrey is in a bit of a muddle. Just a few days ago she had been kissed nearly brainless by an eligible, intelligent, amusing man, one William Langston, Duke of Halford (with a dimple, no less). However, his lips had barely left hers before apologies and decrees were being thrown all over the place. She couldn't help but be insulted. One moment he's staring at her with that intense, melted chocolate gaze, in the next his back is stiffer than a post and he's attempting to send her from his presence.
It's enough to give a girl a complex.
Less than a week later, Audrey encounters Will at a garden party and is uncertain of what to do. Ignore him? Freeze him out? Pretend nothing happened? None of that is her style, which consists more of saying whatever happens to occupy the forefront of her mind at the moment. Will asks her to walk in the garden and to her surprise, she finds herself accepting. Perhaps it's the dimple. Perhaps it's the way he always seems to be watching her with those dark eyes. Or, perhaps it's the kiss that she just can't shake...
A little frisson of shock went through her at his words and she studied him a moment, then a tug of reluctant amusement lifted one corner of Audrey’s mouth. “So, what you are saying is, you are apologizing for the apology?”
He seemed to consider this carefully.
“Yes, that sounds right.”
Audrey snorted. “You’re cracked in the head, do you know that?”