Taryn's Snippit Sundays~ "...so long as you dress appropriate this time." CASTAWAY HEARTS #excerpt

Twice orphaned, Catherine Barrett arrives in Virginia a stranger to her closest kin and secretly engaged to the one man her family would disapprove of—her seafaring grandfather’s apprentice. Add to her troubles, the rich and intriguing older brother of her secret betrothed, Dawson Randolph, a plantation owner who is as heartless as he is handsome. Heartbroken when her intended sets sail for his maiden voyage, Catherine finds it difficult to adjust to her new life, hoping to befriend the one man who is, undoubtedly, the match her grandparents wish for her. Dawson’s distaste for her secret engagement to his brother makes it clear he has no designs for marriage to anyone. Especially her.

Ten years since the tragic loss of his young wife and infant son, Dawson Randolph is convinced love and marriage is a fool’s game and resents being pardon to his brother’s hidden engagement. Damned by his instant attraction and his own growing desire, Dawson vows to befriend her against his better judgment. Determined to bring her happiness in a time of fear and uncertainty, Dawson puts aside his animosity to become her confidant, only to realize Catherine holds the key to his heart. When tragedy strikes at sea, Catherine’s guilt pushes Dawson to the fringes of her life as madness consumes her.

Can his love save her before she drowns in her own grief? Or is he doomed to love her from a distance, always in the shadow of her love for his dead brother?

     Catherine’s smile spread, her heart rising up on wings of hope at his offer.

     “But how?”

     “Meet me tonight, around the same time. I’ll bring along Willow, the gentlest mare in my barn. Saddled and ready. We’ll race along the beach.”

     “You’d do that for me?” Catherine pressed a hand to her bosom, surprised by this fortunate turn of events.

     “Yes, so long as you dress appropriate this time.” Dawson whispered—his words husky.

     Heavens. He saw her in her nightgown!

Taryn's Sunday Snippits Heavenly, cursed man! CASTAWAY HEARTS #excerpt

     “What? Do you want to rub more salt into my wounds?” Catherine spit the words in his direction.
     “No, Catherine, I wish to apologize.” Dawson knelt down and took a seat next to her on the grass. “For what I said last night and for what I mentioned at dinner tonight. I only meant to tease.”
     “Well, that’s cruel mockery on your part.” He smelled of pine and tobacco, familiar scents that reminded her of England and caused her to bite back another round of homesick tears.
     Heavenly, cursed man!

Taryn's Snippit Sundays~ The man had some nerve. CASTAWAY HEARTS #excerpt

 

      “Nathaniel looked happy as a lark to sail his maiden voyage as Captain.” Dawson commented. “Since a child, he’s claimed his wife would be the Sea.”
     Catherine shot Dawson a glare. The arrogant smile on his lips and the message in his eyes read as a warning.     She rolled her eyes at him and took another bite of green beans, chewing with such force she almost bit her tongue.
     As wonderful a cook as Althea was, the food tasted bland and had the texture of rubber. She knew it wasn’t the food, but her distaste for Dawson’s heartless remarks.
     The man had some nerve. {TWEET THIS}
     He knew she wouldn’t talk about her secret engagement to his brother in front of her grandparents and yet he seemed determined to taunt and tease her that she was not the wife his brother wanted or needed.
      Who was he to think he had any right to make that kind of presumption?

Taryn's Snippit Sundays~ You have no right, Catherine CASTAWAY HEARTS #excerpt

     When she turned toward the house, her thoughts turned to Dawson, too. The man seemed different this day than he had the day before, the expression on his face softer, kinder. She turned away, but in her mind, she could still see his face. His eyes penetrated her thoughts. Her heart quivered and her stomach dipped with nervous apprehension.
     She wanted to hate him, to tell him to go away and leave her alone. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel she didn’t hate him near as much as she wished she could. Even after the harsh way he spoke to her, she still felt the crackle of attraction between them. She hated how often her thoughts turned to him and what he would have looked like in a sailor’s uniform.
     You have no right, Catherine—no rights whatsoever to think of Dawson in those intimate ways. Think of Nathaniel. He’s the man who’ll be your husband.

Taryn's Snippit Sundays~ A mermaid? CASTAWAY HEARTS #excerpt

A riotous slosh sounded in an alcove to his left and captured his attention. Inch by inch, he guided Gypsy closer to the rocky cliff, afraid of what he might find there. He thought perhaps a fish or some other sea creature had washed ashore, unable to make its way back out to sea.

As he stole closer, he made out the form, but it was not a fish or any other animal he had ever seen wash up on the beach before.

Wrapped in wispy white fabric that rippled in the wind, a ghostly female figure began to solidify in his sight. Dawson pulled Gypsy to a standstill. It reminded him of mermaid stories he had heard as a child, but this was no mermaid. This was an apparition, floating along on the breeze.

The fabric she wore was so thin he could make out the supple curves of her breasts, his eyes traveling down over her full hips, and the long slender legs that carried her to the water’s edge.

Dawson rubbed his eyes with his fists. Surely, the moonlight had deceived him.