Joann Williams

“Jakub, darling, Welton has set out breakfast, it isn’t polite to keep him waiting.” Millie hated the breathless note in her voice. “But we were in the middle of a lesson.” Jakub reared back, settling into some kind of fighting stance. “I have a center line, and no one can push me off it. Well, Mr. Argent can, but no one else. I can punch anyone who tries to touch me in the throat, or thrust the heel of my hand into his nose. Also, I can pry off a kneecap with a knife, even a jam knife, Mama. And—” “Jakub,” she said more firmly, realizing Argent had taught her son the same things he’d shown her only yesterday. He hid his mulish frown by looking at the floor. “Yes, Mama.” He slunk past her, his shoulders so dramatically slumped that she wondered if she’d also let him spend too much time in the company of actors. “I’ll be along, kochanie,” she said more gently. “I need to discuss something with Mr. Argent.” As he plodded down the hall she heard him mutter to himself, “I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned the kneecaps.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Hunter

“I honor their journey through this world, and hope they have found peace in the next. That … I might also find peace.” She studied the napkin in her lap. “Sometimes, though, I fear the weight of my sins will pull me into the abyss. I hope if God exists, if we are to stand judgment, that justice is more compassion than vengeance.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, How To Love A Duke in Ten Days

“I can’t,” she cried, feeling her knees melt. His lips left her with a wet, wicked sound. “Ye will,” he breathed against her most intimate flesh. “I’m going to fall,” she warned weakly, her hips undulating toward his mouth with mortifying wantonness. “Fall apart in my arms, lass,” he soothed, his hands caressing around to fill his palms with the flesh of her backside, making a cradle of her hips. “I’ll not let ye go.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Highlander

“Instantly, he released her. “It’s just after dawn,” he clipped. “Now put some clothes on.” Millie narrowed mulish eyes at his bare chest, her jaw thrusting forward in a gesture that was becoming somewhat familiar. “You put some clothes on,” she snapped. “And wake me at a more decent hour.” Scowling, she grasped at the covers and heaped them on top of herself, before rolling away from him and sinking back into the bed. Christopher stared at the bundle she made with a sense of pure, frustrated astonishment. “It was my impression that the later the hour, the less decent it becomes.” “Your impression is wrong,” her sharp voice informed him, somewhat muffled by the coverlet. “And if you wake me before nine in the morning again, I’ll pâté your liver and have it with my breakfast. Now get out.” It was a rare person, indeed, who dared to question him, let alone threaten him. Frozen in place, Christopher found himself at a loss for what to do next. How did one make a recalcitrant woman do what she was told? He’d have to ask Dorian.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Hunter