“Your cards, Tabor. What do you have?”
Tabor brought the cards close to his eyes so he could read the figures and faces. It took him a while to put them together but finally he had it. “Three kings, and you can’t beat them.” His words slurred and the cards dropped out of his hand.
She smiled wickedly. “Oh, but, Tabor, I can with the aces.” Delilah fanned out her cards in front of his face so that he couldn’t miss them. “And I’ve already made the arrangements with the preacher. He should be here shortly.”
Tabor faded in and out the next few minutes, barely coming to when the Reverend arrived as scheduled and started the ceremony. Reverend Mead thought he had seen nervous bridegrooms before, even drunk ones, but he had never seen one as befuddled as Tabor Stanton. But then, he supposed marrying a woman like Delilah could make a man unsure of himself, maybe even a little loco.
Tabor shook his head, feeling like a man who had stepped outside of his body and watched his life take place before him. He saw Preacher Mead come in, and Sarah with him. He heard himself agreeing to what the preacher asked. He saw himself slipping a ring on Delilah’s finger, then kissing her. And when the preacher was gone, and Sarah was gone, he made love to Delilah with a savoring thoroughness and sweet deliberation he both watched and participated in.
Delilah. Delilah. The delicious onslaught of sensation took him. His body was fire and ice, her hands lighting the flame, her lips cooling the burn. His hands slid with feathery strokes over her skin, from the warm hollow of her throat to the rose crests of her breast. Beneath his palms those tight peaks stiffened with desire and he took them in turn in his mouth, suckling gently, tasting her, drinking in her sweetness.
His fingers slithered down her belly until they probed hotly between her thighs. But that was not enough and Delilah squirmed beneath him, impatiently telling him she had waited as long as she would. Her legs opened to him, her words were of love and forever as he positioned himself above her and dived into the fiery quicksilver pool of Delilah’s flames.
* * *
Tabor Stanton awoke twelve hours later and his head cleared in a flash just as Ching had assured Lilah it would. She held out her left hand and admired the gold band she wore.
“Goddammit, Delilah! You cheated!” he snarled, and bolted upright in the bed.
“I know,” she answered sweetly, and edged closer to him. “But we’re married just the same.”
“Dammit!” he growled, realizing the amazing dream he’d had was real. “Which one of you did I marry, that conniving bitch or that sweet little society witch?”
She made a purring sound and kissed him on the face a dozen times before answering. “That’s the best part, darling. You married us both.”
About the Author
Andrea Parnell is the award-winning author of ten novels, short fiction and articles, with more than one million copies of her books in print. Her works include Gothic, Western, and other historical and contemporary romances. Several of her books have been set in her home state of Georgia. Andrea has received both the Maggie and Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice awards for her writing, and is a member of Novelists, Inc. (NINC) and past president of the Georgia Authors Network. She is fond of cats, travel, overgrown gardens, and old houses with lots of crooks, crannies, and interesting shadows. Please visit her at www.AndreaParnell.com
Also by Andrea Parnell
from Trove Books
DARK PRELUDE
A novella-length prequel to the novel Dark Splendor. A chance encounter offers lovely young Silvia Bradstreet an escape from her miserable life in London. The Eastwind sails for the American colonies in two weeks. If Silvia chooses to accept the offer of a mysterious benefactor, she must be ready to risk her life for a chance at freedom. Silvia’s dark fate starts here.
DARK SPLENDOR
Lovely young Silvia Bradstreet comes from London to an isolated estate off the coast of colonial Georgia to be an indentured servant. But a far different fate awaits her. Clothed in finery and pampered like a queen, she finds herself a pawn in the devious schemes of Wilhelm Schlange, master of Serpent Tree Hall, as he manipulates the family members who hope to inherit his vast fortune. Haunted by ghostly dreams and threatened by the island’s deadly secrets, Silvia cannot trust her own senses, much less anyone around her. Most of all, she dare not trust her growing passion for Schlange’s nephew, handsome sea captain Roman Toller. His lips move like a hot flame over her flesh and draw the very breath from her body. Can Roman offer Silvia an escape from her dark fate—or is he leading her closer to destruction?
“This is an entertaining blend of eerie shadows and romantic interludes. An excellent gothic romance.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A beautifully written, lyrical—almost poetic in the narrative—book!...If you appreciate a great story and the true beauty of words that are put together the way they should be, you will love DARK SPLENDOR.
—Rendezvous
“The grand Gothic Romance could never be better represented than in DARK SPLENDOR.”
—Affaire de Coeur
“A tantalizing blend of suspense and sensuality, with all the thrills and chills that lovers of the Gothic enjoy.”
—Romantic Times Rave Reviews
WHISPERS AT MIDNIGHT
If only his kiss had been hard, brief and demanding, but it was not. It was gentle and probing, possessing, and took her breath away...Amanda Fairfax met Ryne Sullivan when she came to take possession of the colonial Virginia plantation that was her legacy. She could see resentment burning in his dark blue eyes, yet once in his arms she could feel how fiercely he hungered for her, and how little she could resist his desires or her own. In a place where terror ruled the night and mystery cloaked each move, Amanda could not fully trust her lover or her love, for she sensed every moment of ecstasy might be her last.
“The perfect blend of anticipation and apprehension...seductive tale by a superb writer of romantic suspense.”
—Romantic Times
“Takes romance, mystery and intrigue and weaves them into a good story.”
—Rendezvous
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