Guest Blog: Toni Noel: Kiss Me Once...

When I'm writing a love scene, I fall back on memories of the first kiss my husband of sixty years and I shared on our first date, a blind date, some would say.

He picked me out of a class of freshman girls taking swimming lessons in the indoor campus pool and asked my swimming instructor, a friend of his, to introduce us. Minutes later, this handsome, recent college graduate asked me out on a double date.

We went to a roadside inn with a backroom for dancing. A noisy, crowded dance floor might not sound like the best place for two strangers to get acquainted, but I managed to learn a great deal about him while we slow-danced and he sang love songs in my ear. I'd never before been sung to in a heart-melting tenor voice.

Later that evening, as we sat in his car on a shadowy street while his friend escorted his date to her door, my date put his arm around me and snuggled me close, cheek to cheek. After a moment his cheek left mine and he kissed my ear, sending unexpected tingles racing along my arms. Slowly, with thoughtfully planned nips and nibbles, he began tracing a hypnotic line across my cheekbone with his lips.

I'm not sure whether his determined lips tempted me to turn my head so our lips would meet, or I longed for him to halt the torturous trail of his lips across my cheek and kiss me, really kiss me, and turned my head, ending his sensual assault, and hastening the inevitable. I only know his lips finally settled on met mine in a tender kiss and the rest, as they say, is history.

Above all the many kisses that followed, the first is the one I'll always remember, a kiss unlike any I'd ever shared, a kiss filled with promise and wonder. No wet lips. No impassioned fondling, just a gentle, I'm so glad I met you, touching of two soft, expectant mouths.

In the dark front seat of his new 1951 Ford, my date's sensual wooing stole my heart. We went out on six of the next seven days. On the missing evening I went out on a previously agreed upon date I'd made with someone else. On the seventh evening, as we thumbed through a magazine while waiting for friends to join us in their living room, my date paused at an engagement ring ad and said, "Let's do that." I readily agreed, certain I couldn't go wrong marrying such a sensitive man.

Our stars were either aligned perfectly the night we shared our first kiss, or my future husband, who'd just landed his first teaching job, was ready to settle down. Whatever the reason, at eighty-three he is still good looking, still knows how to make my day or ease my pain with his tender kiss.

Anytime I need to write a scene with squirm factor, I sit at my computer and recall our first kiss. When uncontrolled tingles race up my arms, I know I've set the right mood for writing a love scene.

Here's the first kiss scene from my latest eBook release, Restored Dreams: Buck is teaching Treasure to refinish her stair rail.

He smelled of mint when he asked, "You watching?" and gave her shoulder a nudge as he held the brush perpendicular to the can. "Squeeze the extra paint off the bristles like this, against the mouth of the can to prevent runs. Make light strokes, keeping the brush upright.

"After all your hard work sanding, you want the wood to feel smooth, not bumpy, so you use a dry brush and wipe off any runs with the rag." He turned, looking into her eyes.

She nodded that she understood.

She understood, all right. She was in big trouble if Buck didn't remove his arms.

Sheltered. Protected. Both were great feelings to experience, but not when her far-too-close instructor expected her to paint and not leave bumps.

"Is this shade all right?"

The shade of his eyes? M-mm, yes. Light flecks of gold floated on a sea of rich chocolate brown.

"Treasure?" Buck asked, those eyes squinting at her.

His minty fragrance teased her nostrils, now only inches from his. "Yes?" she whispered, imperceptibly leaning toward him as she returned his gaze.

Buck closed the distance between them with a movement so restrained Treasure sighed. His breath fanned her lips just as they touched his. Slowly, her eyes drifted shut.

*****

Buck stilled. He couldn't hug Treasure, couldn't even hold her, with the paint and the brush still in his hand. Didn't mean he didn't want to.

He wanted every inch of her sweet body touching his. Wanted to never move away.

He hadn't intended to kiss her, but she'd glanced at his lips with such longing he couldn't resist, and instead of drawing away, she pressed her mouth firm against his, her lips soft and sweet on his the instant before she leaned back.

And here's the first kiss scene from another DBP release, Law Breakers and Love Makers.

Coming back inside, Jon looked around. "That about does it. Everything's locked up tight. Where's Stalker tonight?"

"Out. He's discovered the canyon. Last night he didn't ask to come in until after one."

"Don't you worry about coyotes?"

"They come into my yard, too, but Stalker's fast."

He laughed. "Well, carefully lock up and reset the alarm when your wandering boy finally shows up."

"I promise." Zoe rubbed her hands up her arms. "You're making me nervous with all this talk about locks and alarms."

Jon’s warm hands replaced hers on her bare arms. "I didn't mean to frighten you," he whispered, then cupped her chin in his hand and locked his gaze with hers. "I just want to make you more aware of your surroundings. Understand?"

Mesmerized, she nodded, barely breathing, unwilling to break the sensual spell he'd cast. She was awash in awareness. Going down for the last time.

"Good," he murmured, his gaze locked with hers.

He's going to kiss me. Zoe's eyes fluttered shut. A long moment passed, a tense moment broken only by the warmth of his breath fanning her lips.

Why, she wondered, hadn't he kissed her? Their lips mere inches apart.

She slowly opened her eyes. "Jon? Is something wrong?"

"Everything's perfect, now. I wanted you looking at me so you wouldn't be startled when I do this." He stepped closer, so that their lips were only a breath apart.

Smiling up at him, she closed the narrow gap.

Their lips met. Bass cello and sweet violin music started playing in her head, the quiet notes becoming a joyful melody that crescendoed in her ears. Wave after wave of the symphony begun when her lips met Jon's washed over her like gentle rain.

Then, to her utter consternation, he stepped aside. The music ended on a discordant note, leaving Zoe with only the drumming of her heart.

And intense regret.

"Night, Zoe," he murmured. "Sweet dreams."

Restored Dreams and Toni's other novels are available for download at:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/StoreFront.bok
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Toni+Noel&x=13&y=20
or wherever eBooks are sold.

BIO:
Toni Noel's love of books started in childhood, when her mother first read The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew to her. She helped start church libraries in two rural Tennessee towns and appeared before the City Planning Commission and the San Diego City Council to urge a site be purchased. As the neighborhood spokesman for the new library the City Councilman for her district invited her to turn the second shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking for the new library. It is Toni's fondest dream that one of her safe-haven-for-the-heart novels will be available for checkout there.

Toni Noel's Novels... Safe havens for the heart.

Restored Dreams BLURB:
Her roof leaks, the plumbing, too, but on a teacher's salary Treasure Montgomery can barely pay the taxes on her property, so the list of needed repairs to the grand Victorian house she inherited from the aunt who raised her continues to grow.

Treasure surrounds herself with other people's children, seeking some fulfillment in an otherwise empty life until she meets Buck. A retired rodeo rider turned philanthropist, Buck willingly donates his labor to anyone who needs a helping hand, spending his father's ill-gotten fortune to make amends for his father's bad deeds, but Treasure wants no part of his charity.

Buck persists. Treasure resists, and he turns to subterfuge to get around the obstacles she throws in his path. She learns the truth and fears she might lose her house to Buck. How wrong can a woman be about the man with whom she's fallen in love?