I highly recommend two authors who have taught me
much about romance and “kissology.” Susan May Warren has a great workbook
available on Amazon that I treasure, How to Write a Brilliant Romance. (Kiss and
Tell I think was the earlier version and the one I have.) And Julie Lessman, in
my opinion, is the queen of romantic tension and kisses. A blog series of hers,
I think she did on Seekerville, is in my file that I refer back to often,
Sixteen Suggestions to Warm up the Pages with Romantic Tension.
I personally love the first heady kiss between my hero and heroine.
Here’s a scene from my
just released novel, Georgia Ann, English Rose, of the first kiss and reaction.
You always need a reaction. Georgia Ann is Book 2 in my Charleston Brides series.
He (Samuel) touched a tendril of her hair curling on
her shoulder.
She gazed into his shining jade eyes so close to hers.
His glance
fell to her lips, and he drew her nearer. Slowly he bent and pressed his mouth
to hers.
Fireworks exploded in her head and travelled down her frame. Her arms
came around his neck without forethought. The kiss deepened until she felt
transported on a soft, wispy cloud.
Suddenly he released her and stood. “It’s
time to go back.” He reached a hand to help her stand, but she couldn’t. Her
knees buckled.
He chuckled and held her against him for warm moments. Her cheek
pressed into his shirt and the spicy scent of cloves enthralled her. Did all his
clothing carry that delectable scent now? "
Then there is another type of kiss
like this one when my hero Samuel first sees Georgia in the sultan’s dungeon.
It’s a kiss of sorrow and imminent danger. Up to this moment she had thought him
dead from his earlier ship wreck. And I found a photo that helped me see my
captured heroine.
Samuel knew the moment Georgia understood he was at her cell door.
Her body stiffened on the pallet. She sat up and stared toward the cell
door. Tears overflowed her eyes. She arose and stumbled toward him. They
clutched fingers through the bars.
His heart jumped into his throat at her
loveliness even in her rough Turkish slave garment. Her hair, parted in the
middle, hung down her side in a thick blond plait. Silky curls, escaped from the
braid, framed her lovely face covered with tears.
“We thought you were dead,”
she whispered between shuddering, repressed sobs. They kissed through the metal
bars, and Georgia staggered as if she might fall, but Belle grabbed her around
the waist and held her erect.
Another favorite kiss of mine is the “almost
kiss.”
This scene comes from Marisol, Spanish Rose, Book 1 in this Charleston
Brides series. One night Marisol is discovered as a stowaway on her indentured
master Ethan’s ship—with her six-month old son, Samuel, and a servant girl.
Captain Ethan loses his usually gentle nature.
"What is going on in that head of
yours, Marisol, to bring your baby and Amy aboard my ship, upsetting all my
crew?” He gave her a little shake and looked at her with such a derisive
expression, her temper flared.
She stomped her booted foot and, to her surprise,
smashed down on his. Hard.
He growled and pulled her to him, scrunching her
bouffant skirt. His tight, bearded face came within inches of hers. Manly, warm
breath feathered across her cheek. “Now that kind of attack will never do, my
Spanish lady. Maybe for a snake, never for a captain. Did you mean to do that?”
His blazing eyes held her captive as much as his arms. His glance fell to her
lips.
Her knees threatened to fold, and she couldn’t breathe. She tried in vain
to pull away from the warmth emanating from his encircling arms and firm chest.
“No, I promise I didn’t, Ethan. Please let me go.” She couldn’t prevent the
tremor in her voice.
He released her, and her knees buckled.
He chuckled and caught
her elbows to steady her.
New strength flowed to her limbs, and she pushed away
from him. “Let me go back to my cabin, sir, I have a plan to help you rescue
your sister, but we can talk about it tomorrow.”
In the daylight.
So work on it.
Get those romantic kisses in your romance and elicit those sighs.
Georgia Ann, English Rose Blurb
The lure of the legendary Spice Trail beckons,
but he may never find a spice more precious than the treasure he left in Charles
Town.
Two Charles Town men love Georgia Ann Cooper—Samuel Vargas and his
step-brother, Joshua Becket—but only one both intrigues and infuriates her. Even
though he’s a dangerous budding patriot and a privateer—or more likely
pirate—Samuel fills her dreams and waking moments.
When he leaves Charles Town
for high sea adventure on the legendary Spice Trail, she determines to push him
out of her thoughts and her graces. A task made easier when she sets out on her
own journey to England on one of her father’s merchant ships.
Samuel Vargas is
determined to make his own way in the world, not live in the glow of his
parents’ escapades in Charles Town and the Spanish Main. There’s no better place
to earn his fortune than the Spice Trail and along the Barbary Coast of the
Mediterranean. But the adventure becomes more than he bargained for when at
Tripoli he stumbles across a familiar face from Charles Town in a sultan's
dungeon, and he’s forced to use all his abilities to save the life of the woman
he’s been trying to forget.
As their paths intertwine on a journey filled with
Barbary pirates, intrigue, and romance, only love and the grace of God can
overcome the past and ignite a new beginning for Georgia Ann and Samuel.
***
Thanks for stopping by. I’d love to have your feedback and how you describe a great kiss. And please do share this on your social media by clicking on the small icons below.
Fiction.
Link to Georgia Ann, English Rose: https://amzn.to/3lYhueR (click on redirect link to go to Amazon page)
Connect with Elva
Website: http://www.elvamartin.com
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin
