#MidWeekTease Getting back in the saddle

After a very dry writing season (although there was a decent amount of rain outside) I'm trying to be more regular, push myself to do more, to get back into the flow of writing, editing, releasing, promotion. First step? Tease something. Something new? Well, it's not newly written, but newly shared. This is from the third book of the Ghosts of Salem. One of the aims is to finish it and it's partner, the fourth and final book of the set.

Here's your tease:

“Ember!” Turning, she spotted Connor coming out of another building. Rather than head in his direction, she took a moment to drink him in. The nursing student had thick arms, filling the sleeves of his fleece hoodie. He trotted up to her, dark blond hair bouncing slightly on each step and falling into his warm brown eyes. His smile gleamed, teeth bright, and any fear or doubt faded out in its light. Those firm arms wrapped around her, pulling her to his broad chest. His chiseled chin rested on the top of her head as he hugged her, marking a straight line.

“I missed you,” she told him. He’d crossed her mind many times since her return. Their relationship was new enough that she sometimes forgot the hole left in his absence, but his arrival promptly filled it again. 

“Missed you too.” He released her enough to look into her eyes. “You had a good break, though, right?”

She snickered. “Yes.”

“Oh, good.” He sighed and took her hand in his. “Where are you headed?”

She pulled against his hold, stopping him. “Yours wasn’t?”

He sighed again. “Nothing big. Just have some family I’d rather not visit, y’know?”

Ember nodded. “I don’t really, but sure, I can see how that might happen.”

“Let’s just say, it is amazing to see you again.” Wrapping those strong arms around her, he pulled her close enough to kiss. 

They were still amid milling students, so despite her toes curling in her boots, she pulled away before it deepened. 

“Hey, I know it’s still morning, but can I steal you sometime?” Connor asked taking her hand again and leading her toward the quad.

“Depends what you’re stealing me from, I guess.” She stepped around a slushy puddle and her dream returned. She had to blink away the memory of a long skirt and buttoned shoes. Even knowing her friends were experiencing the same, she had trouble accepting the woman was actually her ancestor.

Connor’s voice broke the spell. “Nothing crucial. Just hoped that maybe, for lunch, we could go to my place.”

Butterflies appeared in her stomach, but the fluttering quickly led to the bottom dropping out. In the dorm, the same tower where she’d met Duncan, where he’d…

“Um, maybe? Is there somewhere else we could eat?” She looked to the building in the distance, worried it would fall on her, crush her.

Connor growled low in his throat. “He hurt you there. If he weren’t on his way out, I’d rip that guy apart.” He punched a fist into a palm and Ember started at the force of it. “Listen, we don’t have to go to my room, but I want to take you inside, just the lobby. You can’t let him rule you forever.”

Taking a deep breath, she settled her nerves. He was right. Duncan had made her miserable more than long enough.

Please visit all the other blogs participating this week. They've kept us rolling through my hiatus.