Sunday Smooch with Michelle Douglas

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  First Comes Baby..., but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- BN100!

Congratulations, BN100. Can you please contact Alison Stuart at: alison (at) alisonstuart (dot) com to receive your copy of By The Sword.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Michelle Douglas's First Comes Baby...

Meg has always dreamed of having the perfect family, and when she learns her baby window is closing there's only one person who can help...

Ben has been Meg's best friend since childhood. Their relationship is strictly platonic--except for that one unforgettable kiss. Helping her to become a mother is the easiest decision Ben has ever made. Only, soon he wants to be more than just their baby's "uncle." Can he convince Meg that he's ready to do the unthinkable and settle down to be a real father?

Scene set-up: Meg and Ben have just had a heart to heart about their childhood and are now paddling on the beach...on a warm summer evening.

He pulled her in close for a hug. She clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she forced her arms around him to squeeze him back for a moment. She started to release him, but he didn’t release her. She rested her cheek on his shoulder and bit her lip until she tasted blood. It took all her concentration to keep her hands where they ought to be.

And then his hand slid down her back and it wasn’t a between-friends gesture. It was…

She drew back to glance into his face. The hunger and the need reflected in his eyes made her sway towards him. She planted her hands against his chest to keep her balance, to keep from falling against him. As soon as she regained her footing she meant to push him away. 

Only, her hands, it seemed, had a different idea altogether. They slid across his shirt, completely ignoring the pleasant sensation of soft cotton to revel in the honed male flesh beneath. Ben’s chest had so much definition. And he was hot! His heat branded her through his shirt and his heart beat against her palm like a dark throbbing promise. The pulse in her throat quivered.

She swallowed and tried to catch her breath. She should move away.

But the longer she remained in the circle of Ben’s arms, the more the strength and the will drained from her body and the harder it became to think clearly and logically.

And beneath her hands his body continued to beat at her like a wild thing—a tempting and tempestuous primal force, urging her to connect with something wild and elemental within herself.

She lifted her gaze to his. A light blazed from his eyes, revealing his need, an unchecked recklessness and his exaltation. 

‘I’ve been fighting this all night,’ he rasped, ‘but I’m not going to fight it any more.’

He tangled his hand in her hair and pulled it back until her lips had lifted, angled just so to give him maximum access, and then his mouth came down on hers—hot, hungry, unchecked.

His lips laid waste to all her preconceptions. She’d thought he’d taste wickedly illicit and forbidden, but he didn’t taste like whisky or leather or midnight. He tasted like summer and ripe strawberries and the tang of the ocean breeze. He tasted like freedom.

It was more intoxicating than anything she’d ever experienced. 

Kissing Ben was like flying.

A swooping, swirling, tumbling-in-the-surf kind of flying.

 I really do think the beach is a romantic place for a kiss. Where's the most romantic place you've ever snuck a kiss? 

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from Fish Out of Water by Ros Baxter will be posted!