AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Never, if I don’t wish to. Our future is up to us. My only task was to see Zurri betrothed. Now that he’s settled, you and I can travel the world to our hearts’ content.”
“You are my heart,” Cynthia said with a smile.
Ammalia kissed the tip of her nose. “And you are mine, tesoro.”
With the magpies chirping behind them, the two women drove off without a backwards glance, exchanging smiles and kisses with every turn of the wheels.
And they lived happily ever after.
About the Author
Erica Ridley is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of witty, feel-good historical romance novels, including the critically-acclaimed sapphic romcom THE PERKS OF LOVING A WALLFLOWER, featuring the caper-committing Wild Wynchesters, as well as the heartwarming m/m romcom UNDRESSING THE DUKE.
Other popular series, such as the Dukes of War, Rogues to Riches and the 12 Dukes of Christmas, feature roguish peers and dashing war heroes who find love amongst the splendor and madness of Regency England.
When not reading or writing romances, Erica can be found eating couscous in Morocco, zip-lining through rainforests in Central America, or getting hopelessly lost in the middle of Budapest. For more information, visit https://www.EricaRidley.com
Love Wins
CYNTHIA ST. AUBIN
Author’s Note
In deciding which of my existing characters I wanted to invite to be part of this anthology, the answer came to me almost immediately: Katherine Abernathy, trouble-causing younger sister of art-loving werewolf Mark Abernathy from the Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery Series. As readers of the series know, Kat makes a bit of mischief for Hanna and the crew in the first book of series but retreats to plot behind the scenes for the next several stories. She’ll be making her grand re-entry into the narrative soon, along with a character you’ll meet in the following pages, and I thought, what better way to introduce them both than a twisted retelling of sibling-centric Hansel & Gretel? Against the backdrop of a fairy tale classic—with a few other familiar favorites peppered in—Kat finally gets her say, and her perfect match. I hope you enjoy!
-Cynthia
Chapter One
SOMEWHERE SCOTTISH, 1691
Love at first sight.
Much like happily ever after, it’s a concept I’ve always hated.
In my opinion, they’re about the laziest ways to begin or end a story.
Completely unrealistic as well.
Because the first sight is never the one that matters. The one that matters is three years down the road when the bloke who once made you blush starts leaving his toenail cuttings all over the privy and tossing his trews on the floor. Or worse, ceases wearing trews at all when he’s at home.
Show me a lass who hasn’t wanted to kick her man’s hairy coin purse when he’s bent over the woodstove, and I’ll show you a liar.
But my brother was a man—at least sometimes—so he didn’t understand this.
Unlike me, Mark Andrew Abernathy, the great bloody doofus, still believed in love at first sight and happily ever afters.
This fact was annoyingly, disgustingly obvious as I sat across the sticky pub table from him, enduring the pathetic, puppyish look of longing in his eyes.
Across the noisy hovel, the object of his affection flounced up to a table of weary travelers, boring them with a soliloquy that lasted at least a fortnight on the various cheese offerings of the Drunken Goat Inn.
I could tell by the glazed look in their weary eyes that they’ve tuned her out, but their rapt attention is still fixed on the tits that her corset has squeezed up to the base of her neck. They’re not half bad if I’m honest.
The tits, not the travelers.
The wench they belong to was tall as well, but not what you’d call delicate. Particularly not the hips, which were round enough to balance a full tray brimming with ale glasses.
A fact not lost on the louts drooling down their dirty doublets.
