READ: Excerpt Time! By Ripley Proserpina. PDF, EPUB online free reviews.

I’m not sure why, but I tend to write books that take place in the fall and winter. I think it’s because, where I live, it’s perpetually cold. Except in July. People in Vermont live for July. Finding Valor, the second book in my series, The Searchers, took place in November, probably the least Vermont-y of the Vermont seasons. Leaves are gone. It rains. Constantly. Indian summer is well forgotten and there’s only the five months of snow to look forward to. Sound lovely??

But forget about November, because it’s almost May! So in order to appreciate the beauty that is summer in Vermont, I leave you with an excerpt about November.

Groaning, Nora’s hands gripped the back of Ryan’s jacket, slipping beneath it to push his sweater and t-shirt aside. Her chilly hands against his skin made him shiver. Their kiss was a jumble of teeth, tongues, lips. It wasn’t his smoothest kiss by any stretch, but he held nothing back, and neither did she.

He didn’t know how long he kissed her, but eventually it lost its urgency. Whatever his anxiety or fear or discombobulation, it disappeared when he kissed her. For a moment, one blissful moment, he only thought of her and his sudden, overwhelming desire to bring her home, throw her on his bed, and finally lose himself in her.

Her lips were swollen when she pulled away. She sucked her lower lip into her mouth, her tongue sneaking out as if gathering up his taste, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

Her cold fingertips touched his face.

“I have class,” he said out loud, reminding himself of the reason why he couldn’t drag her back to the house. “I have class.”

When she chuckled, he opened his eyes. “Walk with me?”

She nodded quickly, happily.

It was so easy with Nora. Despite sharing her with four other guys, it was effortless. Whatever mess his head was right now, it was all on him and had nothing to do with the girl staring at him like he hung the moon.

Wrapping her arm around his, he walked toward his class. She tucked her head into her shoulders when the wind blew and her curls flew everywhere, spirals catching the sunlight and gleaming like gold.

She gave a little shiver, and he untangled his arm in order to pull her into his body. “You need a hat.” While he wore a wool coat, Nora still only had a fall jacket. It wouldn’t do much when the lake froze and the wind barreled across campus like a train.

“I know,” she whispered, rubbing her face against his shoulder and wrapping both hands around his arm.

“And mittens.” As he spoke, he remembered the small bag of belongings the police had left her and worried she didn’t wear them because she didn’t own any, but she smiled.

“I have some, somewhere,” she mused. “I remember seeing them when I unpacked.”

“Why didn’t you wear them?” This conversation was safe, and from the way she giggled, distracting.

“I didn’t realize it’d be this cold.” The tip of her nose was red, and she shivered again.

“And a scarf.”