Kiss and Tell

According to Elana's blog (well, she got the idea from another blog), today is a Kissing Day Blogfest, when you're supposed to post a kissing scene from your blog. I don't often post excerpts from my work in progress here, but I thought I'd play along. This is from Across Two Universes. Paul is attempting to convince his childhood sweetheart, Yvonne, to help him, but he becomes distracted when he learns he has a rival....


Paul’s blood pulsed at the unfamiliar male name. “Caleb? Who’s Caleb?”

She flushed. “The minister’s son at Nana’s church. We dated a couple of times while I was on leave.”

He grabbed her hand. How dare someone try to steal Yvonne from him! He forced himself to breathe slowly, normally, as if he didn’t want to punch this Caleb’s guts out.

“You love him?” he challenged her.

“I...I don’t know. No. Not yet, anyway; I don’t know him that well. All I know is he expects to take over the church when his father retires. I felt like he was interviewing me for the job of minister’s wife. Stop squeezing me so hard!”

He relaxed his grip. “I’m sorry.” He rubbed her hands with his thumbs, hoping he hadn’t hurt her. “Look, I don’t care who this guy is, if he’s telling you what to do, he’s not the one for you.”

She met his gaze. “And you think you are?”

He looked down at her. Even as upset as she was, she was still beautiful. If anything, the tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes and the color in her cheeks brought her passion to the surface. Her hair smelled like lavender; he wanted to bury his face in it. For the first time since he’d revealed he was Sean’s clone, she didn’t seem afraid of him.

His hand drifted up to her chin. “I could be, if you’d let me.”

It seemed the most natural thing in the universe to kiss her, so he did. He wasn’t sure if she’d ever French-kissed before, so he pressed her lips gently with his tongue. When she let him in, he wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her closer. He’d waited years for this moment; he needed to savor every detail of her, from the way her mouth tasted of apples to the way her curves fit so well against him.

Yvonne’s hands crept up his back, raising prickles of excitement. Her mouth opened wider, and she returned his exploration of her mouth with a tentative quest into his. But then she pushed herself away. Stunned, he let her go.

She fought to control her breathing, but her eyes were still full of longing even as she said, “I can’t do this, Paul.”

The sweet taste in his mouth turned bitter. “I shouldn’t have done it. I’m sorry.”

He bolted for the exit so quickly he almost stepped on a butterfly.