Sunday Smooch with Helen Lacey

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from Helen Lacey but first ...

The winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Franca Poli!



Can you please contact Michelle Douglas at michelle (at) michelle-douglas (dot) com to receive your copy of The Spanish Tycoon's Takeover.........






And the winner of our Welcome Shannon Curtis packs are -

Laurie and Anthea have won the LoveCats books packs and Enisa Haines won the book pack supplied by HMB Australia. Congratulations ladies! please contact Annie West at annie (at) annie-west (dot) com to arrange your prizes!

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Married To The Mom-To-Be by Helen Lacey........

She's late. That kind of late…

Kayla Rickard always planned to marry and start a family—with the right man. Then she met Liam O'Sullivan. Once she sampled passion in his arms, she forgot the feud that separated their families for decades. Now Kayla's in two times the trouble. She's secretly married to—and pregnant by—public enemy number one.

After eloping to Vegas, the scion of the O'Sullivan empire wants to come clean. Liam wants his wife—at his side, in his bed. He'll do whatever it takes, even get to the bottom of the feud. But are he and Kayla prepared for the bombshells they'll uncover? They have no choice—because in nine months their little secret will be born!






Scene set-up (Kayla has just woken up from an afternoon nap and goes down to the boathouse where Liam is restoring his grandfather's old boat. Things have been tense between them and she accuses him of sulking and avoiding her)

“Sulking?”

Her mouth twisted. “Isn’t that why you’re down here hammering away at this old boat?”

Annoyance crept through his blood. “I am not sulking. I was giving you some space.” I was putting space between us. Damn, he hated it when she was right. Her brows were back up in that infuriating way and he ignored how it made his skin twitch. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yes. I had a solid gold nap and now I feel great.”

Liam drank the rest of the soda and placed the bottle on a bench. “You look beautiful.”

Her cheeks tinged with color. “You look hot.”

“Thanks.”

“I mean, working hard kind of hot,” she qualified and then stammered a little. “Well, of course you’re hot…argh…you know what I mean.”

Liam laughed again and took the unopened bottle from her hands, laying it aside and then drawing her closer. “Can we stop talking for a while?”

“Did you have something else in mind?”

“Yes,” he said, twisting her hair through his fingers and anchoring her head gently. “I’d like to make out with my wife.”

“And ruin a perfectly good argument?”

“To hell with arguments. To hell with everything and everybody. For the moment, at least.” His throat felt tight and he met her gaze. “You’re in my arms, but you feel so far away.”

Her eyes shimmered, undoing him. “I’m right here,” she whispered.

Liam sucked in a sharp breath. “Are you?”

She nodded. “Right here,” she said again and her lips parted. “So, about this making-out thing?”

“I think that can be arranged.”

Then he kissed her. Long and deep and with blistering intensity. Her hands came to his shoulders and she clung to him, urging closer. Her mouth tasted sweet, like mint and green apple, and he plunged deeper, coaxing her tongue to dance with his. His body responded instantly and he grasped her right hip, bringing her hard against him. He said her name on a kind of agonized whisper, running his other hand down her back. The zipper on her dress teased his fingertips and he edged it down slowly, inch by torturous inch. She moaned low in her throat when his palm splayed across her bare back and he realized she wore no bra, which drugged him senseless.

“Kayla,” he said raggedly against her lips. “Let’s go back to the house. If I don’t make love to you soon I think I’ll go crazy.”

“No,” she said and pressed against him, drawing his mouth to hers again.

“No?” he queried, confused by the mixed signals.

“Let's stay here,” she replied, breathless. “I want this. Now.”

The urgency and longing in her voice in that moment made it impossible for Liam to deny her anything. He kissed her again. Hotter and harder, over and over, until he could take no more and he scooped her up into his arms and lifted her into the boat and laid her down on the small bed in the cabin. He chucked off his shirt and shoes and pulled the sandals from her feet in about twenty of the longest seconds of his life.

 

Then he kissed her again. And again. 

 

This book was one of the most challenging I've written - essentially because the hero and heroine and already married and are clearly in love with each other. Kind of my take on the Romeo and Juliet trope, but without everyone dying at the end....

Have you a favorite story where the couple are obviously in love but cannot be together?

Leave a comment to go into the draw to win a signed copy of Married To The Mom-To-Be....


Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and another smooch will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver