Sunday Smooch!

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from The Man Who Saw Her Beauty by Michelle Douglas, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is – Ella A!

Congratulations, Ella! Can you please contact Natalie at natalie (at) natalie-anderson (dot) com and she'll send you a copy of First Time Lucky.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Man Who Saw Her Beauty by Michelle Douglas ...

Blair Macintyre's daily routine: put on a brave face, and try not to be so distracted by unnervingly gorgeous Nick Conway...

All Blair wants is to be normal. To be the Blair B.C. -- before cancer. She's determined to show her friends she's okay...even if it means bluffing.

There's only one person who doesn't treat her with kid gloves. In fact, Nick Conway doesn't treat her with any gloves whatsoever--especially when saying exactly what he thinks of her helping his daughter in a beauty pageant!

Soon Nick is getting under Blair's skin--and defences. Maybe he's the one to show her she's just as beautiful as before.

[Blair and Nick have developed a tentative friendship. In this scene they're on a picnic, but the rest of their picnic companions have gone for a bush walk...leaving them alone.]

She glanced up...and drowned in the sight and scent of her picnic companion, at the expression in the warm brown depths of his eyes—sympathy, understanding, hunger. The pulse at the base of his jaw pounded. She watched that pulse, counted the beats, felt her own body quicken in answer and fall into tempo with it.

Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Surely he must hear it?

The expression in his eyes heated her flesh. The heat started in her neck, her cheeks, and then flashed down through the rest of her body, stealing her strength. Even though she'd promised herself that the warmth would not beguile her.

But the heat cascading though her now was like nothing she'd ever experienced, and Nick smelled of sun-warmed grasses and soap and cotton and it made her forget bad things. It made her remember she was only thirty-six.

He leaned closer, slugging her anew with his scent and his heat. She could see a tiny nick on his chin where he must have cut himself shaving this morning. And still the pulse in his jaw pounded. His eyes darkened. His gaze dropped to her lips. Her breath caught and her lips parted the merest fraction. The merest fraction, perhaps, but he noticed.

His gaze lifted back to hers, his eyes dark and fiery. 'I'm going to kiss you city girl.'

He wrapped a finger around a lock of her hair and she didn't even flinch.

'Why?' She reached up to press the flat of her palm against his cheek.

'Because you're beautiful.'

Not any more she wasn't. Even if his eyes told her otherwise. She moved her hand experimentally. Beneath her hand his skin was firm and hot. Her fingers prickled with the urge to explore further.

'And because I like you.'

Her mouth dropped open.

'And because I can't get the thought of it out of my head.'

Pity, she told herself as his lips swooped down to hers. This was a pity kiss.

And then all thought fled, because this was no tentative I-might-hurt-her kind of kiss. It was strong and sure and hungry, and it demanded that she take part or back off now. The strength of his passion knocked her preconceptions sideways. She hadn't meant this to go beyond a brief touch of the lips. But...

There were no kid gloves as he cupped her face with both his hands to drag her lips more fully against his, as his tongue swept across hers, daring her to dance and revel and enjoy. This was straight man-and-woman passion. No hiding, no games...and no pity. It was so heady and so liberating that Blair found herself kissing him back with a fervour she hadn't known she had.

She shuffled closer to him on her knees. Her hands crept around either side of his neck, revelling in the strong column of his throat. The short hair at his nape tantalised her palms. Her hunger built and built and he matched it, kiss for kiss, caress for caress, until she found herself needing to get closer and closer. She crawled right into his lap, straddling it. His hands caressed her backside as their bodies strained against the barriers of their clothes towards each other until there was barely an inch of space between them. And not once did they break the kiss.

Finally she had to drag her mouth away to draw much-needed air into oxygen-starved lungs. Nick pressed slow, drugging kisses to her neck, and she couldn't hold back a moan or the wanton way her body arched against his mouth.

It was magic, like Sleeping Beauty coming to life at her Prince's kiss. And she wanted more!

And then something wrong, out of place, made her still...

She realised what it was—her prosthesis. An alien and ugly thing, pressing against Nick's chest and her even uglier scar.

Blair flung herself off Nick's lap, unable to meet his eye as she readjusted her clothes with fingers that shook.

'What the hell...?'

'That shouldn't have happened.'

The Man Who Saw Her Beauty is out now in North America and will be released in Aust/NZ in June.

To be in the draw to win a signed copy of The Man Who Saw Her Beauty, have you ever had a memorable picnic experience, or do you prefer 5 star dining?


Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from Undone By His Touch by Annie West will be posted!