The Merchant's Love will officially be out on Monday, though preorders from NineStar were available yesterday. I'm a mess of excitement and nerves, as always—though perhaps a bit more about this one since Faelen is my first published demisexual main character and that's so important to me. I'm sharing another snippet from the book today. This is Maxen talking with his friend Valentin about meeting Faelen.
“So what happened? You said you didn’t spend the night with him.”
“I didn’t.”
“But you wanted to?”
“Maybe. He’s beautiful. Just beautiful. But...I didn’t want to jump into bed with him. I wouldn’t mind ending up there someday, but I’d like to know him first. See if we like each other.” Maxen thought they would, maybe already did. He murmured, “I wouldn’t have minded a kiss.”
“What did you do? You aren’t the type to just stare at him all night.” Valentin waved a hand before Maxen could speak. “You aren’t the type to have these instant attractions either, not often, but you’re far more direct than most of us. You wouldn’t just pine.”
Maxen huffed. “Pine?”
Valentin shrugged again. “Some of us pine.”