"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation."
I love this quote by Oscar Wilde (and it pretty much sums up my relationship with chocolate!).
I find the idea of being tempted by something you know you shouldn't do particularly delicious. Take, for example, the first time Nick sees Harper again after their one night of passion. He'd gone to her place to explain that he wasn't the twin she thought he was, but instead...
He knocked on her front door,
still having no idea how he could possibly explain everything. Then the door
swung inward and she was there and he had no air left to form words anyway. Her
almond-shaped brown eyes widened at the sight of him, and he knew he had to say
something. Anything. But her haunting beauty overwhelmed him. He’d barely been
able to stop thinking about her since that night, and now here she was in real
life. Filling his vision. Smelling like heaven.
“Malcolm?” she said, her voice
breathy, and instead of explaining, he found himself mute, reaching out to feel
the silky-soft skin of her cheek. His palm cupped the side of her jaw, his
fingers feathering over her cheekbone, and he was lost.
Her eyes widened in surprise and
she took a small step back, out of his touch, but her gaze didn’t falter. He
waited a beat, waited in agony, waited until she swayed back toward him, and
then he reached for her again. Her lips parted as she tilted her head into his
palm. The world around them faded, and he took an infinitesimal step closer,
being drawn by the magnetic force that had been there since he’d first laid
eyes on her three months ago.
He was supposed to say something,
tell her something, but there were no words in his mind, only Harper and the
way her eyes had darkened as she looked at him. Breathing ragged, he lowered
his head and speared his fingers through her long, glossy hair. This was wrong,
so wrong, yet the rightness of it overwhelmed him,
crushing all other thoughts.
She lifted herself on tiptoes and
met him halfway, her mouth finding his, her lips soft, welcoming, wanting, her
arms wrapping around his shoulders and gripping tight. With a groan of
surrender, he slid his tongue along hers and hauled her flush against him.
This.
This was what had driven him
crazy the night they’d met. This was what had kept her in his waking dreams
since. This was what was making him dizzy now.
Of course, a little voice at the
back of his mind whispered, this was also what had led him into trouble in the
first place.
He had to stop kissing her. To find
the strength to pull away and explain everything. Oh, but her mouth and what it
was doing to his was divine…
Mind you, Harper finds herself pretty tempted by Nick at various points in their story as well...
Harper watched Nick and tried to
keep her breathing under control. Being so close to him on the sofa as she’d
pretended to watch TV had set every single nerve ending she had on edge. And
then he’d fed her ice cream… Her skin yearned for his touch, but if she gave in
now, all would be lost—she might not be able to pull back.
Then she noticed the strong,
insistent beat of his pulse at the base of his neck. The tension in his muscles
as he held himself in check. The way his gaze smoldered.
And she forgot what they were
fighting against.
“Nick?” she asked, her voice
breathless.
“Yeah?”
“What would happen if we gave
in?”
His gaze flicked to her mouth
then back to her eyes. “Gave in to what?”
“To this.” She motioned back and
forth with a finger. “To what’s burning between us.”
He swallowed hard. “You really
want to know?”
“Yeah, I do,” she whispered.
He looked down at her in the dim
light of the kitchen, then lowered his head until his lips brushed over hers,
just once. “This.”
A sigh built within her and escaped
her throat as she leaned into him. “Oh. This is a good plan.”
Now, I might never have met a "wrong twin" in real life, but I do find myself familiar with the concept of temptation - and not just over chocolate. There's also the stationary aisles at Officeworks, and every time I see a book on sale, and all the dogs I want to adopt on a daily basis.
But what about you? What tempts you? I'm curious!
