... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Pam Swain!
Can you please contact Stefanie London at stefanie(at)stefanie-london.com to receive your copy of 'What She Wants'.
And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Annie West's THE GREEK'S FORBIDDEN PRINCESS.
Illicit nights
with the billionaire…
News of a tragic accident plunges Princess Amelie's life into turmoil. To escape the swarming press, she takes her newly orphaned nephew and runs, seeking the protection of one man.
Lambis Evangelos desires Amelie beyond all reckoning, but refuses to taint her radiant beauty with the guilt of his past. For years he's resisted his longing for her luscious body—until Amelie's arrival at his doorstep draws him too close to her forbidden temptation…
His secluded Greek island is a refuge from the world. There, Amelie and Lambis have no choice—they must yield to their fiery, uncontrollable passion!
News of a tragic accident plunges Princess Amelie's life into turmoil. To escape the swarming press, she takes her newly orphaned nephew and runs, seeking the protection of one man.
Lambis Evangelos desires Amelie beyond all reckoning, but refuses to taint her radiant beauty with the guilt of his past. For years he's resisted his longing for her luscious body—until Amelie's arrival at his doorstep draws him too close to her forbidden temptation…
His secluded Greek island is a refuge from the world. There, Amelie and Lambis have no choice—they must yield to their fiery, uncontrollable passion!
Scene set-up
Lambis and Amelie are together at his Greek villa, both trying to help her traumatised nephew. But despite their common purpose, they're at odds because both are fighting the attraction that has simmered between them for years.
Smooch -
She was on her feet and turning away when she heard
the scratch of his chair on the paving.
‘Wait, don’t go.’ A big hand closed around her upper
arm.
For a millisecond Amelie’s jagged nerves eased at
the reassurance of that touch. Till she heard Lambis’s hiss of indrawn breath
and his hand dropped away.
Amelie stood, blinking at the view of garden lights and
the dark bay beyond, telling herself it didn’t matter. Truly. She’d had plenty
of time to accept he didn’t want her.
But that instant reaction told her more. It told her
she actually repelled him.
What was wrong with her? Twice in her life she’d
reached out to a man, believing they shared something special. Twice she’d been
pushed away.
She blinked again, horrified by this curious stasis
gripping her. She couldn’t lift her feet. It was all she could do to repress
the wild tumble of emotions churning inside.
‘Why, Lambis? What is it about me?’
She hadn’t intended the words. Heaven knew she’d
worked for years to put on a bland, unconcerned face on the few occasions she
and Lambis had met since that fateful summer. Pride dictated she say nothing,
just accept she was flawed in some way that made her attractive from a
distance, to the adoring crowds and the press, but not up close. Not to a man
she cared about.
‘What do you mean?’
Amelie counted to five, telling herself to forget
this and walk away. She had enough to contend with without opening up this too.
Yet how could she fix whatever was wrong with her, if she didn’t know the
problem? Was she forever doomed to repel rather than attract?
On a spurt of defiant courage she spun on her heel.
He stood close behind her. So close she had to hike up her chin to meet his
unreadable gaze.
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‘Why don’t you want to touch me? It’s not that
you’re afraid I’ll misinterpret and think you’ve changed your mind about…us.’
She swallowed hard but kept going, determined to have this out. ‘What is it
about me that’s so…’ she waved a hand, searching for the word, ‘wrong?’
‘Wrong?’ His brow wrinkled. ‘There’s nothing wrong
with you, Amelie.’
Yet she read strain in the tendons of his neck that
stood proud. In the flare of his nostrils and the pulse racing at his temple. Amelie
looked down and saw his hands bunched into fists.
‘Isn’t there?’ She lifted her hand and lightly
touched his cheek. Silky heat and just a touch of abrasiveness met the pads of
her fingertips.
She’d wondered how it would feel to touch him.
But his instant step back told her everything she
needed to know.
‘Actually, don’t bother answering.’ She’d been
wrong. She didn’t need to know the answer. Tonight, with so many other insurmountable
problems, she didn’t have strength to wrestle with another.
She was turning when his arm shot out, barring her
way. Again, he didn’t touch her, yet it felt as if the air between them snapped
and sizzled with electricity. How she deluded herself.
‘You want to know why I don’t touch you?’ His voice
sounded different, raw and hard. ‘It’s because I don’t dare.’
Amelie frowned. ‘What are you saying, Lambis? I
don’t understand.’
‘No, you don’t, do you?’ His voice was husky. His
hands closed around her shoulders, turning her to face him, pulling her so
close she shivered as the heat of his big body encompassed her. ‘I’ve tried to
resist you, Amelie. I thought I’d succeeded, but I can’t do it anymore. Not
when you’re so close, so…’ He shook his head. ‘Every time I see you I want to
touch you, more than touch you.’
Amelie’s eyes widened. Her breath caught as he
lowered his head. His eyes, the colour of a storm cloud shot with lightning,
captured hers.
‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you, Amelie.’
His breath feathered her cheeks. ‘The problem is me. And the fact I want to do
this.’
He hauled her up on her toes, wrapping powerful arms
around her, then slanted his mouth over hers.
Have you ever believed something and then found out you were completely wrong? Maybe it was a first impression of someone that proved false, or a discovery not about a person but a thing. How did you react?
Leave a comment and you'll go in the (international) draw to win a signed copy of 'The Greek's Forbidden Princess'.
Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Liz Fielding will be posted!
Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver
