Imagine this scenario.
You’ve
committed yourself to writing a sensual romance with everything that might
entail. You’re sitting at the keyboard
thinking about what to write. You’ve been given this excerpt and have been
tasked with getting your characters to the point where the first kiss enters
the equation.
What would you write
after reading this?
Excerpt from Monogamy Twist
…..I don’t expect love, Rhia, but I do expect sex.” He closed the gap between them and positioned
himself in front of her, straddling her chair, his long legs wide balanced as
he looked down at her. “If you’re honest you’ll agree we have enough chemistry
going on between us to ignite a bonfire.”
Rhia’s face flamed
at his candid assessment but couldn’t deny what he was saying.
“I was thinking more
of a mutually agreed arrangement where we share all aspects of our lives-including
sex-till the year is up. Then we’d stop the arrangement.” He was a mere step
away.
“That sounds like
I’d be a long-term whore or a mistress!” Rhia recoiled from him.
“We’d be living
together legally as man and wife.” Luke bent toward her.
“For a year?” She
remained rooted in place, but her whole body frizzled.
“That’s what it will
take to fulfill the requirements of the will. Then the property will be mine.”
Barely a
hairsbreadth separated them now.
Rhia was still
rattled by his cold propositions, her chin hitching up again as she faced him.
“You would seem to be getting a lot more out of this arrangement than I would.”
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What have we got to
work on?
We know there’s a good going attraction already between them
so a first kiss is probably not going to be a hesitant one.
Luke’s proposal is very cold and calculating even if the man’s
attraction to Rhia in not…so is she going to hold out till he re-outlines his
terms in a more ‘lover friendly’ manner?
Luke does reinforce the point that she’d be his legal wife
for the year and would have the benefits of that status. Is Rhia going to force
him to clarify what those benefits might be?
Is the attraction between them so volatile that all other practical
concerns will be completely over-ridden by Rhia? Or, how much will she demand
of him before any capitulation might take place, since she’s obviously not
enamoured by his pragmatism.
Fast forward a bit
and what have we got…
…“Or…if you say you’ll be monogamous, and you fail to keep to the requirement during the year, I’ll start
divorce proceedings and we will
go our own way. Of course, if I go you
won’t meet the conditions of the will.”
“But then I won’t have Greywood Hall, and it won’t be restored
properly.” Luke reached to gentle his fingers on her shoulders, the light touch
setting a tingle reverberating up her forearms that shocked and aroused her in
equal measures. “You don’t want that to happen,” he warned.
Shrugging out of his grasp, Rhia stepped back, hoping the passion
couldn’t be heard in her response, for his touch was electric. “No, you won’t
have Greywood Hall! And you won’t have me either.”
Turning her back on him, she didn’t understand why that thought upset
her so much. She’d only just met this man who was having such a profound effect
on her. He overwhelmed her, consumed her.
“Now who’s blackmailing whom?”
Luke’s words whispered behind her, his huge body moving closer to
somehow cradle her without making contact. Then he reached for her. Resting his
hands on her shoulders, his thumbs kneaded the tension at the back of her neck,
his lips feathering butterfly kisses behind her ear before turning her round.
“Rhia.”
Rhia drowned in her own need. She reached up to him at the very instant
he bent to her, lust no longer to be denied. She couldn’t wait another second
or she’d just die. She wanted his lips on hers. She needed him to touch her all
over and stop the utter sexual torment.
“Kiss me?”
Rhia wasn’t sure if the request came from her own lips, but it didn’t
matter since they were both on the same page. Luke’s mouth plundered hers. His
arms became a tight band around her. Their lips melded, gently to begin with,
but she’d been waiting too long for finesse. He demanded she open her mouth to
him allowing his tongue to savor; she complied. Their tongues shifted, sliding
sinuously around, tasting and teasing each other, drawing a groaning response
from her.
Through their mingled breaths she heard him murmur, “Bella. You taste so good,” before he
swooped in again for a thorough gorging.
Why don't you share a first kiss scene with us? Show us how you got your characters to that pivotal point. Is it near the beginning... or does it take quite a chunk of the book to reach that point?
Slainthe!
Hi Nancy - Great conflict for Luke and Rhia and first kiss!
ReplyDeleteNate and Kay's first kiss in CLEAR AS DAY occurs in the first scene. Kay is content with the "friends with benefits" relationship and comfortable affair she has every summer with Nate, but this year Nate has new plans:
Nate Quinn had come along with July and Mohave for the past six years. He’d sail in like a freshening wind, they’d share two weeks of fishing, playing, and loving, Kay’s careful schedule demolished to a pleasant shambles, and then he’d be off again on his adventures. Kay’s life would resume its organized pace, punctuated by glossy postcards, scattered bursts of e-mails, IMs and silly Tweets, the occasional twenty-plus-page letter, and the odd oblivious-to-time-zone phone call.
Kay liked how they kept the relationship simple. No demands on each other. No clinging, pining or carping. A happy, mutual understanding: she stayed and he went. But this summer, however much she hated admitting the feeling, Nate’s absence threw off her sense of balance.
No whining, no pining, remember?
She turned with a splash, adjusted her cap, and swam hard toward shore.
Life happens. Focus on what you can control.
. . . Fast forward a little bit and . . .
Yes! Exactly the distracting challenge she needed. Shaking the water from her ears, she pivoted toward camp.
“Kay!” That male voice was not her imagination.
“Oh, shit!” She twisted and dropped into the water, sinking neck-deep.
Mother always said, among other things, that a lady never goes skinny-dipping and must always wear a proper hat. Kay was only half skinny-dipping, but she fervently wished she’d worn something a bit more substantial than a baseball cap and the bottom half of the quintessential teeny-weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.
Shit, oh, shit, oh, shit. She so hated when Mother was right.
Okay, time to find out who’d just gotten an eyeful. The guy had called her name, so she should know him. Oh boy, if she’d flashed old George…
She wiped water from her face, sucked in a breath against her pounding heart, and peeked around.
Nate.
She must be sun-dazed. Nate? With a beard? Hair curling over his ears? No way.
Just because a familiar slouchy fishing hat topped those unruly, sun-bleached blond curls and just because this guy possessed the same deep-water tan and footloose taste in clothes as Nate with his electric blue Hawaiian shirt, bright orange swim trunks, and beat-up deck shoes didn’t mean—
“Hey, babe. Now that I’ve finally caught your attention, how about a hug from my girl?” He opened his arms. “Am I coming in after you or are you coming out?” Only Nate’s voice held that mellow timbre like chocolate for her ears.
“Nate! What…” Giddy delight flushed over Kay, clearing her shock. She dashed from the water and into strong arms, a wonderful hug, and a better kiss that launched her mind into a blissed-out whirl of oh, yes and why?
The oh, yes won out until the need to breathe forced them apart.
Nate gave her a long look, his usually easy gray eyes holding a new, simmering heat.
Wow. Whoa.
His slow hands followed the trail of his roving gaze: gentle tracing of cheek and lips, gliding across hips, waist and ribs, and grazing over her breasts to cup and caress. With his tender, simple touches, he stirred the warm desire of her daydream into full need. She shut her eyes, soaking in the unexpected pleasure. Oh, yes.
“Damn, I missed you.” He settled his mouth back on hers.
Kay laced her hands into his hair, but the soft, curling strands under her fingers and the brushing of his new beard and moustache against her face changed their kiss, as if she were kissing a stranger, the sensations sexy and disconcerting. Too much. The sweet, sensual spell broke, leaving her strangely caught between aroused and unsettled.
Wonderful excerpt. I've got to get to the rest...sooooon, Babette.
DeleteThanks, Nancy! :)
DeleteGreat tension before that fist kiss, Nancy - which makes it all the better when it happens!
ReplyDeleteLisa and Paul's first kiss in 'Changing the Future' comes a couple of weeks after they have met again, five years after an acromonious breakup. Things have been fraught between them, but both know the magnetic attraction that first drew them together is still alive and kicking. After a particularly stressful day, Paul persuades Lisa to come back to his house for a takeaway Chinese meal.
She sat down on one of the couches and realised she was trembling. It didn’t seem real, sitting there, listening to Paul whistling in the kitchen as he made the coffee—just as he always used to do.
“Put on a CD if you want to,” he called. “They’re over in the corner, in a very untidy heap, I’m afraid.”
Relieved at having something to do, she jumped up, and as she crossed to the corner of the room, she glanced at the three-shelf bookcase. Her eyes were drawn to half a dozen books on the top shelf, all with Paul’s name on the spine. She picked one up and was flicking through the pages when he came back with coffee mugs on a tray.
“I didn’t realise you’d had so many published.”
“What? Oh, those—” He put the tray down on the table in front of the couch. “All excruciatingly boring.”
“This one does look rather too technical for me. The photos are good though.”
There were several pages of photographs and, as she looked through them, he came and stood behind her, looking over her shoulder.
“That’s Ubinas, down in the south west of Peru,” he said. “It was the start of a small eruption. And this is one of the camps, about ten thousand feet up,” he went on, pointing at a huddled group of tents in the snow.
“Looks cold.”
“It was—and I was utterly miserable.”
His voice had suddenly changed and she glanced round at him. She tried to look away again but couldn’t. The blood pounded through her temples and an exquisite pain of longing swirled deep inside her.
Without a word, he took the book from her hands and put it on the bookcase, his eyes never leaving her face. For a long moment, he gazed at her, and then leant forward, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.
Her instinctive reaction was to push him away, and she brought her hands up to his shoulders, but her mind suddenly stopped working.
His mouth was soft, his tongue tenderly explored her lower lip and she couldn’t think. She was aware only of the surge of need, quivering down her spine, igniting every nerve ending, and flooding her with warmth.
Helplessly, she parted her lips and his tongue slid inside, still infinitely tender, probing, seeking, and finding hers. Her head swam, her knees started to give way and a small gasp escaped from her throat. His arms tightened around her, pulling her firmly against him. Their tongues met in a sensual entwining which melted every bone in her body. She let her head fall back when his mouth moved across her cheek to her earlobe, alternately nibbling and kissing. His tongue trailed a line down her neck and she writhed at the delicious sensations which heated her skin.
She gripped his shoulders and made no resistance when he moved one hand to stroke her shoulder and then her upper arm. As his hand folded around her breast and his thumb and finger caressed the hard nub of her nipple through her thin blouse, a hot flame shot through her. Her body arched against his and she felt the warm dampness between her legs.
Desire ran riot through her. She yearned for him, longed to see the look in his eyes as he made love to her, to hear his breathless gasp of her name when he reached the edge, and then to lose herself completely with him in the ecstasy of completion.
“I want you,” he whispered, his mouth still nuzzling her neck.
Reality returned like a pistol shot. Panic-stricken, she pushed him away. “What the hell are we doing?”
I guess it might take a few more pages for another blistering kiss to happen Paula. Thanks for sharing and best wishes with sales!
DeleteMany thanks for the opportunity to post, Nancy!
Delete