In my stories, I wrote Malcolm as fire and gold and power, but here in my arms, Colin is cedar, silver, and summer air.

You know... It’s been a long time since I’ve been that nervous.” “You were nervous?” I ask. “Why?” “I’m making love to a romance author,” he explains with a grin. “Your standards are high.” “My standards are fictional.

As a romance author, I’m supposed to know how to make love out of words, and maybe once, I thought I did. After tonight, however, I don’t think I would know where to begin. It’s easy to fill a page with saccharine dialogue and pretty similes. Yet now it seems that every word of every page I’ve ever written falls terribly and tragically short.

After walking the Royal Mile, we visit Edinburgh Castle. Overlooking the city from the grassy hilltop of the Castle Rock, the fortress itself looks as though it has been carved from the very stone upon which it sits. It is powerful yet elegant, lavish yet wholly inviting to anyone fortunate enough to find themselves standing at the castle gate. These are doors and walls and windows that have seen kings and queens, saints and sinners, voyagers from all corners of the world. And now us.

Tonight, Dunadhar Castle is ours.

He isn’t afraid to share himself with me. And I’m not ashamed to want every inch of him.

I can’t believe you’re afraid of ghosts.” “Really? I’m afraid of everything: ghosts, germs, vulnerability, the dark, Slender Man, public speaking, earwigs...

Okay, he’s hinting at something. I may not know a lot about men, but I do know something about dialogue. It’s the only thing my editors say I’m really good at. Because it’s fairly obvious I don’t excel at grammar. Or plausible storylines.

Love was more than just a fleeting desire, or a brief glimpse into a fairy tale, or a flash of playful flirtation in her beautiful hazel eyes. It was more than infatuation with a person’s best qualities, or reluctant acceptance of their less appealing traits. Real love meant loving the whole person, in every form, in every state, in every way. It was what transformed the ordinary monotony of everyday life into extraordinary moments of warmth and compassion and joy.