The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

Author:Stephanie Garber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

25

Evangeline was not too proud to admit that she was easily dazzled. She liked pretty stories and pretty things, and this young man was far more than just pretty.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she couldn’t even feel embarrassed that she was breathless.

His voice was deep and his handsome face was touched with a smile that widened as he said, “It’s entirely my fault. I was hoping to bump into you, and I may have been a little too eager.”

He reached for her hand, and Evangeline felt a sudden thrill. He wore a ring! A shining, roughly cut black jewel. A powerful thing that looked as if it could have been enchanted.

She waited to feel a zing of magic from his ring as he took her fingers and brought them to his lips, but there was merely that gentle tingly feeling that came from being appraised by someone who found her attractive.

“I’m Merrick of House Redthorne,” he said.

“I’m Evangeline.”

“And I’m Jacks,” Jacks said, appearing beside Evangeline, no longer wearing the smile he’d shared with the Darling girls. “How’s your new wife, Merrick?”

The young man blanched. “She passed last autumn.”

“How tragic.” Jacks’s voice was all false surprise. “Didn’t your previous wife pass the autumn just before that one?”

“She did. I’ve had quite bad luck,” Merrick bit out.

“Well, then it’s probably best you not pass it on to Evangeline.” Jacks grabbed her arm.

She started to object, but before she could finish, Merrick Redthorne was gone.

Evangeline glowered at Jacks.

“You’re welcome,” he said smugly.

“You didn’t have to scare him away. I wasn’t going to marry him.”

“Good, because if you did, you’d be dead next autumn.” He dropped her arm.

Evangeline gritted her teeth. Of course Jacks could flirt with girls, but she couldn’t even talk to a man. “I’m already married, Jacks. I was speaking to Merrick because he had a ring with a stone!”

“Everyone in here has a ring.”

“You don’t.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, I am not everyone, Little Fox.” His eyes dropped to her lips, searing her mouth with one sharp look and instantly reminding her of what he could do with a single kiss.

Evangeline bit down on her lip, just to taunt him back.

Something primal flashed behind Jacks’s eyes—desire or anger, she couldn’t quite tell. All she knew was that her mouth felt swollen from the force of his gaze and the inescapable sense that he wished to be the one biting down on her lip instead.

And for a second, she wondered what that would be like. She imagined him taking her lips right there, in the middle of the party, tangling his fingers through her hair, holding her close while everyone watched.

She tried to shove the idea away, but it seemed she wasn’t fast enough.

Jacks’s mouth kicked up as if he knew what she’d been thinking, and then his gaze plunged lower, moving from her lips to her neck, until it rested on the swell of her breasts, where her heart was suddenly pounding.

Laughter trilled in the background and glasses clinked together, but it sounded much farther away than it should have.

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