Rites of Spring Blog Hop March 20-23

I struggled with what I wanted to write about, I love so many characters.  I started thinking about my favorite first meetings of characters that make me wonder just how the author was going to pull off them falling in love.

Sam Kane and Scarlett Morningstar from Marshal of Hel Dorado by Heather Long have one of my favorite first meetings.

“He yelled the order this time, but as the shadows sharpened and redefined, he saw the woman, alone, was standing there, hands up, facing him… Under the faint light of his brother’s lantern, Sam saw a cascade of red hair, an up tilted chin and a sprinkle of cinnamon colored freckles across a pert nose. Between the alabaster skin and the red hair, she was a picture.

He barely took notice of the gingham shirt with its rolled up sleeves and haphazard buttons which opened at the throat and dipped invitingly down to flesh a lady should never be revealing or the tight breeches that hugged her slender shape. Boy's clothes should not look so fine on a woman.

But her curves made them more attractive than Miss Pontfour’s dancing girls in their silks and feathers… “Are you armed?” He demanded, ignoring the way her lush lips parted over white teeth.

Most of the ladies at Miss Pontfour's were yellowed by this age and even sported a gold tooth or two of their own. Not this red haired filly with her sassy nose and pert ass.

He scowled at the direction of his thoughts.

“No, sir. I don’t believe in guns.” The warm honeyed voice laughed at him and Sam’s mouth thinned.

“What about knives, Miss…?”

“Knives are useful.” She bobbed her head, but the hint of humor perfuming her words set his shoulder blades to itching again.

“Hand it over.”

“I didn’t say I had one Marshal.” Now she was playing coy, her eyelashes dipping over her summer green eyes. The shade was a miracle of spring, a color not favored in their high summers when grass yellowed and drooped in the Texas heat.

He released her, taking a step back and bringing his gun out of his holster again. His father would give him the back of his hand for pointing a gun at a lady, but this lady had been in the bank vault somehow, robbing it. Sam tried not to focus on the how's and the why's. That meant she was a thief, pure and simple. The law had one solution for her ilk and it delivered that promise at the end of a rope.

“Hand it over.”

She sighed, smoothing a hand over her sleeve as though he’d bruised her, but Sam ignored the purely feminine invitation to feel bad for his manners. Thieves didn’t deserve manners. But when she rolled up the sleeve, he frowned. Strapped to her forearm was a four-inch piece of metal dovetailed into a white boned handle.

Two thin leather ties fastened it in place against the pale skin. She stretched out her arm expectantly, a glint of amusement in those green eyes daring him to take it himself.

He obliged, pulling the ties loose and pocketing the knife.

“Anymore?”

“No, sir.”

He was mighty suspicious of her cooperation and gestured for her to move over to the single cot sitting in the corner. She lifted her eyebrows, challenging his authority, before deigning to stroll over and sit down. He’d seen that look on his father’s horses, the strong-willed ones who didn’t cotton to breaking. Those horses had to be gentled, persuaded that they wanted to do what was asked of them, but even the most successful behaved as the woman did.

As though she were allowing him to be in control and if he turned his back, even for an instant, he might find himself on the sharp end of a hoof slash.

“Much obliged.” He bobbed his head and backed out of the cell, closing it with his foot and holstering the gun to lock it again.

In the cell, the fiery haired vixen sat down and leaned back against the wall, her arms crossed under the full, firm curves of her breasts that seemed to be straining at their confinement.”

Quoted from Marshal of Hel Dorado by Heather Long

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It only gets better from there, who would think that even with how attractive he finds her that a straight-laced Marshal can fall in love with a bank thief. I loved that they met under such adverse circumstances; it just sets the stage for an action packed story. I love characters that start off at odds, that just make the journey to a happily ever after all the more interesting.

Do you have a favorite first meeting of characters? Do you love when characters start off at odds, or are you more of a love at first sight instantly fall all over each other?

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