kiss kiss

Blogfest is brought to you by Christina Lee and Stina

This is an excerpt from my time-traveling historical romance, Almost Paradise. My two main characters, Jack and Katherine, have traveled back to 1881, but separately; neither of them has any idea the other is from the future, too.



“You sure don’t like wearing shoes, do you,” Jack commented.

“No, I never have,” Katherine admitted, thinking of her closets and all the shoes she had she didn’t like to wear. She rolled down her stockings and tucked them in her boots.

Jack shook his head but didn’t say anything and Katherine stretched her legs out, wiggling her toes. She took another sip of the whiskey, wishing for tonic water or ice. So many things to miss, she thought, glancing over at Jack who was watching the embers burn. The light from the lamp accentuated the highlights in his hair, and she wondered what it might feel like to run her fingers through it, what it might feel like to kiss him…

What would he do, she wondered, if she got up and went over to him?

She took another fortifying sip from the cup and set it aside, rising and going to stand before him. She began to unbutton her blouse.

“What are you doing?” he asked, almost choking.

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

He shook his head, rising, stopping her with his hands. “You don’t have to - ”

“But I want to,” she said, “unless of course, you don’t.”

“Oh, I do, but…”

“But what?”

“Are you sure?”

“Very.”

“Then let me,” he said, unbuttoning the next, his fingers surprisingly agile with the tiny flat buttons.


“I take it you’ve done this before,” Katherine said.

“A couple of times,” Jack said with a smile, slipping her blouse off, letting his hands skim lightly over her shoulders and down the length of her arms. “You?”

“I was married, remember?”

“Oh, really?”

“Well, almost,” Katherine amended.

“Then this won’t be the first time you’ve been kissed…”

But it felt like the first time the way he brushed his lips against hers, his tongue teasing. She shivered, and when his lips moved down to her neck, she sighed and close her eyes, leaning in to him.