Michelle Douglas Sunday Smooch!

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a retro smooch from His Christmas Angel by Michelle Douglas, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is:

Kaelee!

Congratulations, Kaelee! Can you please contact Zana at:
zana (at) zanabell (dot) com, and she'll send you a copy of A Risk Worth Taking.

And now for today's Retro Sunday Smooch from His Christmas Angel by Michelle Douglas ...



Home For Christmas…
Once Sol Adams and Cassie Campbell had been inseparable, drawn to each other when times were tough. Cassie has spent the last ten years trying to move on from her life back then, but now Sol is home for Christmas, more gorgeous than ever, and she can’t avoid him—or her memories…

His Bride For New Year?
Sol can see Cassie’s changed—she’s now a widow, a woman who tirelessly cares for others. But he knows her too well—he can see the hurt and yearning behind her cheerful smile. Can he get to the bottom of her troubled heart and make this Christmas angel his much-loved wife?

[Set up: Ten years ago, Casse and Sol were best friends, but he left town when she announced she was getting married. Sol has returned home in the lead up to Christmas to organise care for his ailing father, Alec. Cassie, now a widow, has insisted that Sol and his father take part in the spirit of the season. It’s Christmas Day and Sol has just unveiled his Christmas gift to Cassie.]

‘I didn’t get you anything, Sol.’ She should’ve got him something. She stared at him stricken. ‘I’m sorry—’

He reached across and laid a finger against her lips. ‘You’ve already given me more than enough, Cassie. You’ve helped ease the way between Alec and I. You’ve brought us more than trifle and fruitcake today. You’ve brought us Christmas.’

‘That’s nothing more than being a friend.’

He eyed her for a moment then grinned that crooked half-grin. ‘Then I guess you could give me a Christmas kiss, as one friend to another, and we’ll call it even.’

As one friend to another? His eyes held hers and she knew she couldn’t refuse. Bracing her hands on his knees, she leant across and pressed her lips to his. A sigh breathed out of her as his scent engulfed her. Her lips clung to his for a fraction longer than they should have, then she pulled back and sat, hands demurely folded in her lap. ‘Merry Christmas, Sol.’

‘You just kissed me, Cassie.’

The obviousness of that made her grin. ‘Yes, I did.’

She gasped when he picked her up and set her in his lap. One of his arms went around her shoulders; his other hand gripped her chin. ‘I can kiss you now.’

‘Wha—’

Her throat closed over at the look in his eyes.

‘I told you I wouldn’t kiss you until you kissed me first.’

But she hadn’t kissed him like that! Not romantically. Not—

‘And I’m going to kiss you, Cassie. Like I should’ve kissed you ten years ago.’

His lips descended to hers—not quickly, not slowly, but with determination. She watched, frozen, seconds stretching into something beyond time. Struggling didn’t enter her head. All her limbs turned to liquid in that half-second before contact then his lips claimed hers.

They weren’t tentative and they weren’t tender. They were forceful and demanding. They didn’t hurt her, but they drank from her deeply, as if they needed whatever she could give. And as if they had no intention of ever stopping.

Cassie didn’t have the strength to pull back. She didn’t even have the thought as sensation pounded through her. He demanded and she gave. She could only do as his lips, his hands, his tongue bade her.

She was putty, she was helpless, and she gave and gave. Opening her lips as his tongue demanded, opening herself as he demanded, and he drank and drank until he reached her very soul, and there was nothing but her and her soul to give, and he kept drinking until a moan wrenched out of her, dredged up from some place so deep she thought she’d drown.

Only then did he lift his lips, and she dragged in great gulps of air. The darkness, the fierceness of his eyes held her still.

‘I’m not going to apologise for that,’ he growled, hoisting her in his arms so she sat rather than lay in his lap. ‘And I’m going to kiss you again, Cassie Campbell.’

He didn’t give her time to respond. Clasping her face in both his hands his pulled her lips against his in a hard kiss that had the blood stampeding through her veins. It spoke of the frustration of a long wait and the exhilaration now. Again Cassie felt powerless against it, swept along by his hunger.

Then in the blink of an eye it changed. Lips and hands gentled and teased as kisses were pressed to the corners of her mouth, to her eyelids. Fingers raised gooseflesh on her arms as they trailed a path down her throat and along her collarbone. Kisses that played and asked her to play, kisses that slowly created a heat and need deep inside of her until she’d thought she’d die if they didn’t deepen and give her what she needed.

But they evaded all her attempts until, with a groan, she straddled Sol’s lap and with both of her hands held his head still and met his lips fully with her hunger. For one electrified minute he stilled beneath her, then his arms crushed her to him as he matched her hunger. Her last rational thought before her mind fogged over was—I am home.

His Christmas Angel was originally released in Dec 2007, but it's still available in eBook at eHarlequin and Amazon.

Michelle is giving away a copy of His Christmas Angel to one lucky commenter. Just tell us, what was the best Christmas present you ever received?

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from The Weight of the Crown by Christina Hollis will be posted!