Romantic Friday Writers

I haven't done a post with RFW for at least a year!
The topic this week is I Should Have Kissed You. 600 words to describe the hesitation.
I've chosen to do a scene for my best friends story. It's a little hot!

Emma inhaled Matt's scent. Closing her eyes she let the spice and soap that was uniquely him fill her senses as his hands warmed her in his embrace. 

The heated path his hands created over her bare skin was more than enough to get her heart racing. The feel of his smooth muscled chest under her palms and against her cheek sent her mind reeling.

His splayed hands travelled ever so slowly from the dip in her spine upward causing the warmth to pebble her skin in anticipation. Letting her head fall back Emma smiled when he obeyed her instinctive movement and brushed his lips along the ridge of her jaw, his warm breathe creating yet more heat. 

“This is wrong,” he murmured before clamping his teeth on her earlobe, his hand fisting her hair and holding anchor at her nape.

Moaning at his obvious hesitation of claiming her mouth and the riot of desire coursing through her, Emma gripped Matt’s shoulders. “No it isn’t.”

Pulling her head free from his restraint caused a sharp pain at the roots of her hair but she ignored it as she looked him in the eye. 

“We both want this, have wanted this for a long time.” Reaching forward with her own lips seeking his, she was thwarted when he gently cupped her throat, rubbing his thumb at the sensitive spot right below the hinge of her jaw, their lips only a whisper apart.

“Matt, please.” His dark eyes widened and she read the battle in their depths. She knew he was scared. She was terrified. If he pulled away now things between them would never be the same again.

Taking the plunge she fisted his hair and yanked him forward. When she captured his lips with her own, she felt the resistance but threw herself, her love into her movements, moulding her body further into his embrace.

When he muttered a curse but didn’t break contact with her mouth, pulling her even closer she felt victory as their mouths each fought for the upper hand. The cold shock of the sheet on her back was her only indication they had moved to the next stage. 

The stage she had set. Wanted. Oh how she wanted. 

Bracing his weight on his elbows as his body covered hers, Matt lifted his lips from hers to stare searchingly into her eyes, only to replace them just as quickly.

As his hands grew increasingly searching as they travelled her heated skin, Emma let out a small laugh. “I should have kissed you ages ago.”

His response was muffled when she plunged her hands into his hair as his lips travelled over her belly button. Tugging on his hair she pulled him back to her mouth, reveling in the smile she felt against her lips. He did pull back then and she felt panic crash through her system. Please don’t stop, don’t regret this!

His eyes dilated as he focused through his desire. Even his hands stilled encircled as they were around her hips. Swallowing she watched as his eyes tracked the movement of her throat, his gaze slowly settling back on her mouth. 

“Yes. You should have.” 

Mating her tongue with his, Emma felt her panic disappear and be replaced with satisfaction. As long as he was being ruled by desire, he wouldn’t have time to regret this.

words 562.

full critique allowed.

It's been more than a month??

OMG, i have not posted in more than a month.
I have, however been writing! When i read Nicola Marsh's Not the Marrying Kind it got my creative juices flowing and i have been attacking my Princess story. I have been dreaming of this story for ages and know all the key scenes. They just need to be written!
So slowly, very slowly (i have to juggle writing time with study time, kids, dog, hubby and home!) i have been adding to my word count.

A sneak of my WIP? Okay!
This is the first time my heroine Tori sets her eyes on her hero Max.
Enjoy!

Compared to the other three he stood relaxed, his weight balanced slightly on his left leg. His suit was a darker grey that somehow exuded unrestrained power.

Tori immediately wondered why he would need bodyguards. The fabric of his pants showed clearly the strength in his long muscled legs. His buttoned jacket, tailored to broad shoulders, tapered to a narrow waist that just showed the strength in his torso more clearly. It was clear to her he would be able to handle himself.

Her perusal and musings were stopped in their tracks when he spoke and her gaze rose swiftly to his mouth. He had a rich rumbling British accent, tinged slightly with the lilt of Ireland. It flowed through her so quickly, warming her body, and settled the spinning in her tummy to that of a calm lap against a sandy beach. She felt safe and absent of fear.

Why would a man’s voice affect her so much, especially one she’d never heard?

“Ma’am. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”

Her mother stepped forward and accepted his greeting with a little smile, a slight flush tinting her pale cheeks as she curtsied. Curtsied!

Kissing her cheek, the man held her close and said something in her ear that made her mother break out in a proper smile. He released her and when Tori tore her fascinated gaze from her mother being enfolded in her husband’s bracing arm, she was arrested by the deepest pair of blue eyes. The gentle lapping in her tummy stilled and lay quiet as she drowned in their depths. The dark blue with hints of gold, as his strength had done had her at peace, safe and protected, Like she was home.

Why then was her heart hammering so hard she was sure everyone could hear it, or at least see it trying it’s darndest to explode from her chest. Drowned as she was in his bottomless eyes, she vaguely saw a curtain of soft dark hair framing a strong face, a long straight nose and thin lips. In the depths of her wavering vision she saw a young boy, waves of ebony hair swirling around his face as he raced over tumbled stones scattered on uneven ground, his mouth open in a laugh as he looked over his shoulder.

Who was he?

“Victoria.” With a bow of his head he spoke her name in a tone so full of joy but so formal it made her want to cry. The expression in his eyes were at odds with his tone yet so unfathomable to her. It was said exactly as she heard it in her head, the young boy turned towards her with laughter and affection in his gaze. Tori was so overwhelmed with her emotions she ignored his outstretched hands, obviously expecting her to accept his greeting as her mother had. 

Character Gesture Crutches

And no i don't mean the crutches that help one to walk!
I mean their gestures, movements that are idiosyncratic to your characters.

Do you have lots of shrugging, huffing, or frowning?

Julie Coulter Bellon has a great post here about this, which she found on Jordan McCollum's blog.

One of the commenters on Julie's blog mentioned a great book "The Emotional Thesaurus" which may prove useful to help explain your character gestures, instead of restricting it to a few. I think i'll get that for my kindle (really, i just love my new kindle so any chance to get a new book for it!).

So, pull out your manuscript, read through a page or two and see if you have repeated gestures or crutches, then 'find' them all and see if you can make them better.

This is a great way for your readers to see what the characters are thinking, even if they don't say it, or say something completely contradictory!

Not the Marrying Kind

Nicola Marsh's newest release - also her first with Entangled Publishing, is out now!
And already gaining rave reviews!!!

Here's a blurb to whet your appetite (but you don't need it do you! You love Nicola Marsh's witty, sassy writing and are going to buy it anyway, right!)

Diva Las Vegas!

When investors tarnish the King of Construction’s reputation he’s forced to prove his respectability…by finding a wife!

Beck Blackwood, desert bad-boy made good, will do whatever it takes to expand his construction company nationwide. Including blackmail a woman guaranteed to drive him crazy, into marriage.

LA party planner Poppy Collins is a woman on a mission: save her sister’s sanity. Determined to keep business afloat, Poppy pitches for the divorce party of the century to Vegas hotshot Beck Blackwood, not expecting a proposal of a different kind.

Beck leaves Poppy no option. Marry him or her Divorce Diva Daily secret is out and her sister’s business implodes. He holds a winning hand. However, Beck hasn’t played the game with a defiant woman who has a few tricks of her own!

In the city of high stakes and high flyers, can the Divorce Diva and the construction king take a gamble on love and beat the odds?

Go buy it now!

Reading...

That is all i have been doing the last month that relates in any way to writing.
I haven't written a thing in a long time and i think this year is a no-writing year. Oh, don't get me wrong i still want to! And i think about it all the time.
I finish my Early Childhood Diploma this year an as it includes a 7 seven week Practicum i am focusing on that.

But, i have been reading up a storm on my brand new Kindle Touch. Thanks to all the free reads out there!
I've come across some great books - yes including Fifty Shades of Grey!
I managed to snap up two of Sally Clements stories and i love them! As soon as the money comes in i'm buying a few of her stories, her writing is fantastic!
Now, i'm glad some were free reads, cos quite frankly they were either badly written, or the stories weren't deep enough of the characterisation and feelings and moved too fast. I think those authors would have benefited from some friendly editing or critique buddies.
All this reading has made me see my own writing more critically - well, when i get back into it that is! I will be on the lookout for shallow characterisation and actions of characters that don't fit the characterisation. You get the idea.

What have you been reading?
I'll do a post on my thoughts of Fifty Shades soon ;)

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, today i am 30!
I was worried for a while there that it wasn't going to be a special day. I had awesome phone calls and texts and the kids at my practicum sung happy birthday before eating a slice of cake I had made.

I was expecting the evening to be a typical Thursday, guitar practice for son, husband at soccer practice, cooking own dinner...well, i was surprised!
('Cos, even at 30 a birthday isn't a birthday without a present, or a cake!)

Soccer was cancelled, hubby had put a butter chicken in the crock pot. Then about two bites into it, my son pulls out a present....
A Kindle Touch!!

I plugged it in to charge straight away, and am already browsing the Amazon Kindle store for books!

And after the chicken, out came a beautiful Strawberry Fields Cake from the local CheeseCake Shop! Yum.

I'm back!...I think

This morning i woke up with a burning urge to write.
This has been missing this year, since my sore neck resulting in the horror of migraines, i haven't wanted to write anything.
Ad i've felt so guilty about it. I mean i consider myself a writer, among other things, but i haven't had the urge to write!
I was so excited to open one of my WIP's and delighted when all the joy came flooding back.
So, even though i'm back to fighting fit, and one week into my five week practicum for my ECE degree, i am back to writing! Even if it's a few words or lines, i'm going to be calling myself a writer again.

What have you all been up to? I've tried to visit blogs, but haven't seen as many i used to...