The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (72 page)

“But why?”

He slowly closed the distance between them, walking
tentatively, almost as if he were afraid that she would spook and run away like
a wild animal.

He reached out and took her hand, cradling it within
his. “It felt too much like part of my past,” he said. “I would rather look to
the future.”

She reached up with her free hand and ran it over
his closely-cropped hair, which emphasized his already-pronounced widow’s peak
and made his stunning ruby eyes sparkle.

“I had Restlyn cut mine because Skye’s a terrible
barber,” she said, shrugging, trying to sound nonchalant. “He did an awful job.
Restlyn didn’t have much to work with.”

Drake smiled. “I like it.”

Her heart rate sped up considerably at that. “Do you
really?”

He raised her hand and, never breaking eye contact,
pressed a kiss into her palm. “I love everything about you, Ashlyn.”

I
somehow find that hard to believe,
she wanted to say, but
couldn’t seem to string together a sentence, or even make any kind of comprehensible
sound, so instead she just grinned like an idiot.

“Would you like to dance?” he asked, gesturing to
the fire.

Ashlyn nodded wordlessly, and he pulled her close,
dropping a kiss on her forehead before turning and leading her towards the
Eternal Flame.

The
End

About the Author:

Charity Santiago is a native of southeastern Arizona and a
writer since childhood. She wrote her first manuscript,
Guinea Pig Code!,
at age nine. When she’s not writing books,
Charity spends her time wrangling children and watching Sylvester Stallone
movies.

Charity currently has four books published on Amazon Kindle:
A Carol for Ben,
a contemporary
holiday romance, and the Lady of Toryn trilogy, which consists of
Return, Regret,
and
Redemption
. Charity is currently hard at work writing
Stane of Nine Thousand,
the first
installment in a brand new Kresmir trilogy called
Battle for Cosmea
.
Stane of
Nine Thousand
will follow Restlyn and Skye as they race against time to
save Kresmir from the Spirit of the Caverns.

Connect with Charity Online:

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/cinephilemama

Blog:
http://charitysantiago.blogspot.com

Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/charitysantiago