Tis the 11th day of Romance during the Romancing February Blog Contest—and it’s my day to blog! So my topic is
First Kisses. From your first kiss ever, to your first French kiss (oo-la-la) to your first kiss with your significant other—firsts are special.
My first ever kiss was when I was nine years old. Shocking isn’t it? But then I didn’t experience another one until I was sixteen so I’m chalking it up to curiosity or the boy, Frankie T., all of twelve, being a little, well, exhuberant.
We were sitting in a tent in his backyard, sharing a bag of salty potato chips. How did he know that potato chips were my favorite snack?
I didn’t know him all that well, but he was very cute. He was always getting into to scrapes, always very daring and adventurous. There were lots of neighborhood stories about Frankie T. These facts should have been clues of what might happen, but a nine- year-old's trouble antennae isn’t very experienced yet.
He leaned in close, looked right into my eyes and said, “Wanna, kiss?” My pulse rate, which was already thumping away just being in a tent with him, went into overdrive. I don’t remember saying anything, just staring into his golden brown orbs. Next thing I knew, his lips were on mine, salty and firm. He was kissing me. I held my lips tightly shut and barely moved. It was exciting—but nothing more. He kissed me again. This time, I remember, it wasn’t even exciting—just salty.
Finally, my trouble antennae started sending signals. Before he could try again, I rose. Grabbed a handful of chips (had to have those chips) and told him I had to go. Walking home I wondered about what I had done. And figured I probably shouldn’t have. So I never went over to Frankie’s again. And he never said more than hi to me. I probably wasn’t much of a kisser.
Still, for seven more years, I clung to the fact that I had at least been kissed once! And I can promise you, my kissing experience at sixteen went a whole lot better.
On the web, the site
Virtualkiss.com has a whole section on first kiss stories. A quick perusal of sixty-five first kiss listings showed that the majority of people (40) were under fourteen when they had their first kiss. Of them, twenty-seven experienced their first kiss at age thirteen or fourteen. Only one cited age nine. (My cheeks are red!)
And did you know that there are sites that will give you step-by-step instructions on kissing? Check out
Kissing.net/French kissing tips for matter-of-fact, fairly reasonable kissing instructions. Who knew?
Some of their suggestions include brushing your teeth and taking a bath—ahh, definitely. And “don’t bite. Just nibble. Whatever, you do, don’t bite.” Can’t argue with that. LOL.
But nothing beats the first kiss of the man you fall in love with. The heart-stopping, world- jarring, lightening-striking kiss of real love.
In my story
Re-ride at the Rodeo, Dusty is surprised by her first kiss with Clay and it foreshadows the rest of the story. Dusty wants nothing to do with a rodeo rider for reasons all her own. Clay can't resist the challenge of someone who's "not that into" him. Here’s an excerpt that contains the first kiss:
She turned around to the sight of Clay bearing down on her. Her heart skipped a beat. His white shirt almost glowed in the moonlight while the rest of his body was etched in black against the gray night sky. He moved with the rolling gait of the cowboy he was, all fluid motion and power, a trim muscled torso on long lean legs. He held up his hands in surrender. “Don’t I count? You gave Jesse a dance. Don’t I get one?”
He sure was a hunk of man. Her heart thumped hard inside her chest. She couldn’t tell his expression with the brim of the Stetson shadowing his face but she guessed it wasn’t a happy one.
“I didn’t know you wanted one,” she managed to get out, just as he stopped short in front of her.
His looming height made her feel small. She looked up at a set of unyielding lips, midnight blue eyes and the gray shadow of a beard etching his strong jaw.
“I want.” His voice had a husky timbre to it. He reached for her and she endured the slight brush of his hand against her shoulder as he fingered strands of her hair. Goosebumps danced where he touched. “Your hair is down. I knew it would be worth seeing.”
She couldn’t move.
He smoothed a tendril back behind her shoulder with the barest touch. “I’ll take this instead.” He bent down.
He was going to kiss her. She knew it and still she rooted in place. Firm lips gently breezed across hers. The taste of hops filled her senses. His lips brushed again as his hand touched her shoulder and tugged her closer. She tingled clear to her toes. His lips pressed harder against hers, seeking a response. She opened and his tongue slid inside. A whimper of surrender escaped. He reacted to the sound by pressing her head closer to him, holding her for his taking as his mouth devoured her. She barely noticed the stubble of his beard scraping her cheek.
“So sweet,” he mumbled against her lips. Strong fingers threaded through her hair. Hot and hungry, he deepened the kiss as he fitted her between his legs and moved against her like he couldn’t get enough, like he was ready to swallow her up.
Her legs weakened.
Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his neck, skimmed her fingers through the hair that feathered his collar, and hung on, giving into the desire for a connection with someone warm and willing. Need pounded within her. It had been such a long while since Bradley. Clay’s hands, hot and heavy, moved to her waist as his mouth drank her in. One hand slid across her back and pressed her nearer, while the other inched near her breasts. His thumb rubbed against her nipple. A jolt of sensation shot through her, and her mind switched on.
What was she doing?---From Re-ride at the Rodeo available at The Wild Rose Press
So do you have a “
kiss” story—first or otherwise? Leave a comment, regardless, and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free copy of
Re-ride at the Rodeo. And if you are participating in the Romancing February Blog Event Contest the next blog to go to tomorrow is fellow western writer, Anna Kathryn Lanier’s blog :
http://annakathrynlanier.blogspot.com/.
For those who want to start and catch up in the Romancing February contest where the grand prize is a
$75 gift certificate to The Wild Rose Press, go back to Ginger Simpson’s blog at
http://mizging.blogspot.com/ to follow the thread back. You need to list each author's blog and the book of that author for all the authors who are blogging this month (one for each day) and send them to
christmasrideblog@live.com by midnight CST Feb. 27th 2009 to enter.
Thanks for stopping by! And stop in again for romance with a western flair. Don't forget to leave a comment!