First Kiss Friday with E.L. Johnson
Thank you for joining me for another First Kiss Friday. My guest today is fellow Dragonblade Publishing author E.L. Johnson who has an excerpt from her Lyon’s Den Connected World story, In Service to a Lyon. We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene! Happy reading, my lovelies.
Excerpt:
Her smile fell. “Forgive me. I do not much feel like dancing.”
“Then let us go somewhere else, where you can be at peace with your thoughts.”
He held out his hand. She took it, and he led her from the dance floor, across the room,
and outside into the garden. The courtyard was lit with small torches that outlined a stony
pebbled path. There was a humble growing tree, bushes, flowers, and a genteel-looking pond, with a stone bench.
Marie sat down on the bench and let out a breath.
“Miss Cadeaux, what is wrong?” he asked. “You are not still concerned about Miss
Campbell.”
“No. It is not that.”
“Then what? Tell me,” he said.
She looked at him. “How can you want me? I do not understand. I am naught but a
servant. You are a soldier, you are handsome, you should be talking with ladies of your own station, not spending your time with me.”
“You think you are unworthy?” he asked.
She did not answer and instead rested her hands on her knees, looking at the ground. The
air was chilly, and he sat next to her. She felt drawn to him, like a moth to a flame.
She breathed in as he took her hands in his. “I stopped caring about that five minutes after
meeting you. I was a fool to think a person’s nationality mattered. It is a part of you, but there is so much more. I do not care where you are from. Only that you are here, now. With me.”
“Truly?” she asked.
He slowly faced her, and gently, barely touching, tipped her chin upward. Her eyes
drifted up to meet his, and he caught a glimpse of her pale chest, almost ghostly in the
moonlight, that excited him.
“You want to know why I wish to court you?” He asked.
She nodded, the movement fractionally small.
“Because you have a good heart. You show kindness to a soldier who cannot bear the
loud drums, when most women find the sight of me unbearable.” He leaned in close. “But
mostly…”
“Yes?” she asked, her gaze darting to his lips.
“Because you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. And I have wanted to kiss
you since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Her heart rose in her chest. Her eyes closed of their own accord as he bent his head and
pressed his lips to hers.
The touch of his lips were gentle and light, barely tracing hers. She might have been
kissed by a butterfly, or flirted with a feather. His touch was soft and warm, and she leaned into the kiss, her heart beating wildly.
She had never been kissed before. She did not how to do it properly and it was all
happening so fast. One second he was gracing her lips with the barest touch, the next, she found herself pressed against him, her hands firmly touching his chest.
Their bodies were molded together, closer than propriety, closer than Marie might embrace a pillow at night. Their lips were locked, pressing firmly against each other, teasing and tasting one another. His hands had magically found their way around her waist, with his right hand on the small of her back, pulling her closer to him.
“Marie! Get away from him!” Uncle Baptiste’s voice rang out.
In Service to a LyonBy E.L. Johnson
A lowly servant who may be French nobility. A scarred English lieutenant who hates all French. Can these two find love in the Lyon’s Den?
Marie Cadough is a French servant who’s learned to hide who she is. Sent to England as a child to flee the French Revolution, she and her uncle escaped suspicion by working as servants in a London household. But when she is dismissed at the hands of an unreasonable mistress, her uncle finds them new positions in the household of Mrs. Dove-Lyon, the Black Widow of Whitehall.
Lieutenant Samuel Gage is scarred by war. Having lost his closest friend to a duel and seen hearts broken by heartless Frenchwomen, he has developed an irrational dislike of all things French. But when he suffers painful memories from loud music at the Lyon’s Den, a kind servant takes pity on him. He never expected her to be French.
Marie wants to do well at her new employer’s, so when Mrs. Dove-Lyon asks her to pose as a lady and act as a French-speaking companion to a visiting Frenchwoman, Marie agrees. She never expected to fall for an Englishman in the process.
But not all is well. The other servants are jealous of Marie’s rise to success, and Marie’s new friends are keen to discover her origins. A mutual attraction begins to simmer between Samuel and Marie, but their different backgrounds and the stiff social hierarchy of Regency London pose formidable barriers to their blossoming love.
He is the third son of a baronet—she is a maidservant in a gambling den. Their worlds could not be more different. But as their desire increases, so does the danger, for scheming servants and Marie’s old employers may ruin all their hopes and dreams for the future.
Will Marie and Samuel find love or remain worlds apart?
Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Service-Lyon-Lyons-Connected-World-ebook/dp/B0D971DK45?ref_=ast_author_mpb
About the Author:
E.L. Johnson writes historical mysteries for Dragonblade Publishing, the #1 ebook publisher of Historical Romance on Amazon. A Boston native, she gave up clam chowder and lobster rolls for tea and scones when she moved across the pond to London, where she studied medieval magic at UCL and medieval remedies at Birkbeck College. Now based in Hertfordshire, she is a member of the Hertford Writers’ Circle and the founder of the London Seasonal Book Club.
Social media links:
Twitter: @ELJohnson888
Insta: eljohnson_writes
Facebook page: @theELJohnson
Tiktok: @alecto99
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18090432.E_L_Johnson
