Hi there my little Moonlighters!
Firstly, Happy Valentines Day everyone!!
Secondly, I’m extremely sorry for the lack of communication on my end. My last few weeks have been incredibly busy. I had the torturous job of trying to find a new apartment and then having moving in. I’m happy to say, I’m now all moved in and set up with a lovely housemate (who just so happens to be a friend). Our place is great with spectacular views of the cityJ
I’m also very excited to tell you all that I’m proud aunty to a second little Princess. Avah Lily arrived on the 12th of February (just 2 days ago!) The eldest little Princess, Elle Rose, has been a very good big sister and trying to help Mummy out as much as possible. It’s ridiculously cute!
Ok, so let’s get up to some updates.
I’d like to announce that my amazing little brother is helping out again with the cover art for the Moonlight Prince. Yay! As some would know, he designed the cover for the Moonlight Guardian and I was lucky enough or forceful enough to get him to do the second (best brother, seriously). He’s been working very hard and we’ve had many discussions about how it will look. Let’s hope I can show you all the final result over the next month. I really hope you guys will like it.
There is no confirmed release date of the Moonlight Prince just yet. But I would like to hopefully have it available by April or early May.
I have a few other projects I’ve been working on, which I plan to have out before April and it is mainly the reason why it might take longer for book 2 to be released. Sorry, guys!!
Lastly, since it’s Valentines Day, I thought it would only be appropriate to share with you another teaser from the Moonlight Prince, one with a little romance in it ;-)
Enjoy!!
Please be aware that what I post may be edited or deleted prior to publication.
"He was still talking and I was trying hard to listen but a distracting figure standing in the distance caught my eye. Jealousy filled me as soon as I noticed Dash standing with a familiar dark haired girl in a huge ivory dress. Misha. Well, that was incredibly fast of him to move on. How could he? How could she? Well, I didn’t actually know her, but she was all smiles and giggles with Vladimir earlier, how could she just move on to Dash so quickly?
The little cow had her hands all over him. I could bet on my life that she was only pretending that his suit was out of place just to have a reason to touch him. My jaw tightened and my hands balled into fists at my sides. I wanted to go storming over there, slap her silly and tell her to keep her hands off. At least he was trying to pull her hands away, but the smile on his face and the way is head tilted back from a laugh, proved he was clearly enjoying every minute of her company.
The sound of Aleksey saying my name brought me back into reality.
“Ella?” Shoot!
“Sorry. Yes Aleksey?” I forced myself to look away and focus instead on the handsome guy I had standing right in front of me.
To my relief, I don’t think he noticed I hadn’t been listening. He might've just said my name in conversation. At least I hoped so.
"Would you give me the honor in accepting this dance?" He smiled, offering a gloved hand out to me, while the other rested gently behind his back. Whoa. What the hell happened? One minute he was apologizing for last night, next he’s asking me to dance? How much of the conversation did I miss? All I really wanted to do was to storm over to Dash and that bitch Misha and demand what was going on. But were you allowed to refuse a dance from a Prince? After all, Aleksey has been nothing but nice to me the entire time I’ve been in this country. One dance wouldn’t hurt would it?
I went to open my mouth to answer but at the same time a tiny arm reached over from behind the Tsesarevich and tapped him on the shoulder. Aleksey spun around.
"Your Imperial Highness, may I have this dance?" asked a sweet little voice.
As Aleksey stepped to the side I could see that the voice belonged to a cute teenage girl, no older than fourteen and dressed in a pale green puffy ball gown. She was also wearing more jewels around her neck and on her ears than I'd ever owned, full stop.
Aleksey seemed to tense with annoyance but then quickly relaxed as he offered his hand out to the young girl batting her eyelashes up at him.
"Of course, Violetta. It would be a pleasure." He nodded briskly before turning back to face me. "We shall have to have our dance later in the evening, if that’s okay. I’ll come find you." He gave me a sweet smile and winked before he turned back to the young girl and led her out towards the dance floor.
I watched as they both disappeared into the sea of people, and then looked around the room trying to figure out where on earth the girl had come from. Who was I kidding, Aleksey was gorgeous and charming, not to mention a royal amongst his people; it only made sense that all the young Guardian girls went crazy for him.
The answer came to me quickly when I spotted Amiel nearby watching me with a wide grin and Vladimir standing beside her, giving me a little wave and a telltale smile. Amiel winked then held her drink up in the air to toast. I eyed the both of them and shook my head before turning away, scanning the room for Dash.
I spotted that annoying little Misha girl pretty quickly but no sign of Dash. Misha was now talking to another guy. That girl just doesn’t give up does she? I was about to roll my eyes and groan when a figure stepped in front of my view, startling me. Dash.
He was staring at me with a look I couldn't quite work out. My defenses went up immediately. I straightened up and crossed my arms at my chest.
“Come to apologize? Or is it because that Misha girl turned you down?” I raised my eyebrow at him.
“Misha? How do you know Misha?” he questioned with a definite look of confusion on his face.
I sighed. “Vlad. That boy has a major crush on her. He just doesn’t know it or won’t admit to it. Though, I’m beginning to think she has a major crush on anyone she can get her filthy little claws on.” Ok, well that was a little unfair to say since I hadn’t even met the girl. But I was still green-eyed from seeing her touching Dash.
He pulled a funny face. “Vladimir? A crush on Misha?”
“That’s just what I said,” I replied drawing my brows together. “Are you just going to stand here and keep repeating parts of my conversation back to me?”
He seemed to consider something for a moment before an annoying mischievous smirk took over his face. “No. It’s just interesting that you say that," he finally answered with a lazy shrug. "And the part you mentioned about her turning me down? I’ll tell you now that you've got the complete wrong idea.”
“Sure. I saw the both of you earlier.”
“Ella, trust me. But I do love the look you have on that cute little face of yours right now.” The mischievous smirk returned. “You’ll realize soon enough and when you do you’ll feel stupid for even thinking that way, believe me,” he said matter-of-factly.
I frowned. How dare he say that. I wanted to say something back but his next few words completely pulled the rug out from underneath me.
“Dance with me.” He wasn’t smiling anymore, instead his expression was replaced by a slightly uneasy one with a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He was watching me carefully, waiting for my answer, worried what the answer would be. What had gotten into him?
“What? Dash, you just called me stupid. There is no way I’m goin―”
He ignored me and grabbed hold of my hand. This was the Dash I knew all too well.
He headed towards the dance floor, dragging me along behind him. Yes, I was still very annoyed at him but I definitely didn’t want to make a scene in the middle of the Imperial Winter Ball. I was already unwelcomed and now everyone could see that I was being dragged out by one of them to the middle of the room. I tried my best to force a smile up at anyone who looked our way as we passed by. I was definitely going to hurt Dash after the night was over.
When Dash found a space on the floor between some people, he spun me around so I was face to face with him. He laced out fingers together with the hand he was already holding and held it up in front of us, while his other hand slid down to the small of my back. He pulled me in close and began swaying us both gently from side to side. I immediately came undone.
My anger vanished, replaced by a strong feeling of desire while the very same jolt of electricity I got whenever Dash touched me, surged through my body. Damn it. I hated how he had his effect on me.
The internal struggle I was having between my mind and body must've shown on my face because a dangerous, sexy grin suddenly appeared on Dash’s face. I felt my cheeks flush red hot and my knees buckle. I didn’t need a mirror to tell me I was red as a tomato.
I swallowed and raised my spare hand, resting on his shoulder, and then I took a deep breath before forcing myself to look him in the eye.
My heart threw itself hard against my ribcage before fluttering a million miles and hour as I took in all of his beautiful features.
His unique colored eyes sparkled as they held my gaze. Usually stern and hard, filled with frustration or determination, there was none of that I could see tonight. Tonight his eyes were filled with uncertainty, sincerity and admiration. The smirk was gone replaced by a slightly nervous smile.
I suddenly found myself worrying that my dancing skills weren't up to scratch, especially to the standards of a boy who attended Russian royal balls all of the time. It couldn’t be much different to dancing ballet right? Dash gave the hand he held a tiny squeeze which instantly soothed me.
“Aren’t you worried about everyone seeing you dancing with a nephilim?”
“Not at all. You're the Tsar’s guest, everybody knows that. Even if they don’t like it, they will never say anything to disrespect him or go against him.”
“Right. Never say anything to my face that is.”
“Shh, don’t ruin the moment,” he whispered, continuing to sway me from side to side in time with the string orchestra that I'd only suddenly noticed playing.
I tried to scowl at him but he just gave me an annoying grin and held me closer.
“You know better and that I don’t care what anyone else thinks. You're all I care about.” He pressed a kiss on my forehead, leaving my entire body tingling.
Even if I wanted to be angry with him, I couldn’t, my body wouldn’t let me.
Giving in to my emotions, I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes. No matter our differences, this boy had the ability to make me surrender my entire body and soul over to him and I was willing to give him all if he were only to ask."
©Michelle Congdon
