Miracle Monday

If I get through the holidays with my sanity intact, it’ll be a miracle! :-)

The posts this week will all be Christmas themed: random Christmas facts on Tuesday, Christmas videos on Wednesday, a holiday themed poem on Thursday . . . the only day that won’t have a Christmas theme is Friday, because Christmas just doesn’t really fit into my Space Opera.:-)

Today, however, is something a bit different. The wonderful Jamie over on The Variety Pages posted a link yesterday for the Official Kissing Day Blogfest.

To participate, just sign up on the original post with a link to your blog and post an excerpt from your current WIP, or write a new scene that spotlights a kiss or an "almost kiss". If you are not a writer, or are uncomfortable sharing your work online, post your favorite kissing scene or almost-kissing scene from any book or movie.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what everyone’s posted!

Mine is from a work in progress with the working title of Changeling. The couple in this scene were childhood sweethearts, but she’s got amnesia and doesn’t remember him. They’ve just recently met up again and are having a picnic on the shore - cooking some fish over an open fire.


“Listen,” Matt said. “Do you hear that?”

Octavia cocked her head and listened. “Is that–”

“Whale song,” he confirmed.

Together they listened to the undulating lament of one whale to another. Matt moved over so he was sitting down beside her.

“That’s the male, crying for his soul mate,” he murmured in her ear.

“Is she answering?”

“Not yet.”

The keening rose and fell again. Another voice joined in.

“There she is. She tried to play hard to get but there’s no denying true love.”

“That’s so beautiful,” she whispered.

“Yes, it truly is,” he answered, but he wasn’t talking about the whale song.

She turned to face him and went still at the look in his eyes. It was insane, they’d only known each other for a few days, but at the same time it was as though she’d known him forever.

He leaned slowly forward and she met him half way. He only meant it to be a gentle meeting of the lips, a kiss friends might share while caught up in the moment, but at the first touch of her lips beneath his, all his good intentions evaporated.

What few fears Octavia may have had fled as Matt kissed her. Her eyes fluttered closed; the whales, her problems, everything was forgotten as she gave herself up to his touch. It was like coming home at last.

His lips were gentle, at first, and then grew more demanding. With very little encouragement her mouth opened under his. When he deepened the kiss she sighed and melted against him. His hands stroked her face, like a blind man reading Braille; her own hands had a mind of their own, sliding up his arms and over his shoulders to tangle in his silky hair.

When they finally came up for air she found herself sitting in his lap, with no real idea of how she’d gotten there, arms twined around his neck. They were both breathing hard. She looked up at him with wide, luminous eyes.

With a groan Matt pulled her close again, burying his face in her hair. She smelled like flowers and sunlight. If they lived to be a thousand he would never get enough of her.

“I’m not going to apologize,” he told her in a muffled voice.

“Good,” she said. “I’d hate to think you didn’t mean it.”

He pulled back to look at her and was amazed to find her smiling.

“And here I thought I was taking advantage of you.”

She leaned forward and brushed her lips against his again. “You’ll just have to wait until next time.”

Her stomach chose that moment to rumble and he grinned at her look of chagrin. “It sounds to me like I’d better not let supper burn.”

Octavia blushed and moved reluctantly out of his lap to let him tend to the fish.