Sunday Smooch with Alison Stuart

     
Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from  Alison Stuart, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- Rita Reitz!


Congratulations Rita! Can you please contact Sue Mackay - lsmackay (at) ts (dot) co (dot) nz  - to receive your copy of You, Me and A Family



And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Alison Stuart's latest release, SECRETS IN TIME...

When a seventeenth-century cavalier hurls himself over her garden wall, Doctor Jessica Shepherd is more angry than surprised. Although she ís no stranger to military re-enactors, there ís something different about Nathaniel Preston. If he ís to be believed, something…or someone…has sent him forward in time from the midst of a civil war to the quiet English countryside of the twentieth century.

With time working against them, Nathaniel has to convince Jessica why fate brought them together before he ís forced to return to his own era and certain death in battle.

Can the strength of love overcome all obstacles, even time itself?





Scene set-up: 
(Nat and Jess tell you the set up in their own words )

(Nat) took my hand. Strong, calloused fingers tightened on mine and I shivered, thinking of the contrast with Mark’s almost delicate surgeon’s hands. Mark took better care of his hands than I did. 

“And where do you end up?” I laughed as I extricated my hand.

He turned wide, guileless eyes on me. “Mistress Shepherd, I am a gentleman. May I not be permitted to hold your hand?”

“It depends on your intentions, good sir,” I said with a laugh and held out my right hand as I imagined a seventeenth-century lady of quality would have done.

He took it in his fingers and regarded it for a moment. “I see you are no gentlewoman. This hand has seen rough work.”

“What it has seen is too much hospital disinfectant.”

He turned it over and raised it to his lips, kissed each finger in turn. My knees weakened and my breathing became ragged.

He looked up at me and I saw the now familiar twinkle in his eye. “You have never been courted?”

“Not like this,” I conceded. “Video and a takeaway curry was Mark’s idea of romance.”

“Then I am pleased there are some things I can teach you.”

Kiss Scene  

I closed my eyes to fight back the tears and sensed, rather than saw him draw near. He folded me into his arms and I found I couldn’t resist leaning my head against his chest. He smelled of my soap and something else, spicy and foreign.
His lips brushed my hair. “Jessie, my witch,” he whispered.

“I’m such a fool.” I sniffed. “I only met you two days ago and you don’t even belong here. You could be whisked away at any moment and then where will that leave me?”

His chest rose and fell beneath my cheek as he sighed and his breath whispered past my cheek as he replied, “I do not know the answer to that question, Jessie. I’m here for a reason. It was not some momentary lapse in God’s concentration that sent me over your wall.”

“A reason? What reason? How--”

He laid a finger against my lips. “Later.” He stroked the hair back from my face and smiled down at me. 

My heart began to race. Whatever had brought him here didn’t matter, not for this moment. 

He continued. “You are right, Jessica. I know I must go back to my death. That is my fate and cannot be changed. I would rather die in the knowledge that, for a few brief moments, I had some happiness with a woman who intrigues me beyond measure.” He smiled and tugged gently at a lock of my hair.

“That is the corniest pick up line I have heard,” I muttered as his lips touched mine, stifling my objections. It may have been corny but it was effective. I would have given myself to him there and then on the bridle path.

I closed my eyes and parted my lips, devouring the taste of him. In my carefully ordered life, the pattern of time had not only been disrupted, but had given me the opportunity to forget for a while that I was a sensible, responsible doctor. For a fleeting moment I could just be a woman; a woman responding to a man in a way she had never experienced before.

I stood poised on the edge of a cliff from which I might never return. He could be gone tomorrow, tonight even, and I would be left forever wondering what it would be like to lie in his arms. We parted and I leaned my head against his chest. He rested his head on mine, engulfing me in his strength and solidity. I closed my eyes listening to the steady rhythm of his heart against my cheek.
 

SECRETS IN TIME is released worldwide and is available from AMAZON and LYRICAL PRESS



Alison is giving away a signed, print copy of her award-winning historical, BY THE SWORD, to one lucky commenter.  She'd love you to share your most romantic kiss!

And as an extra treat today, Alison has sent us this fab picture of Oliver Kat smooching up to the camera!

Oliver Kat ready for his Sunday Smooch!

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from 'First Comes Baby...' by Michelle Douglas will be posted!