Authors of 'Passionate Kisses 2' boxed set share memorable smooches
From the authors of the bestselling Passionate Kisses Boxed Set comes a new set featuring five never-before-published stories, Passionate Kisses 2: Love in Bloom, out now. And the authors — Magda Alexander, Wendy Ely, Kylie Gilmore, Allie Boniface, Liz Kelly, Nikki Lynn Barrett, Sydney Holmes, Rebecca J. Clark, Victoria Barbour and Jessi Gage — are with HEA today to share some of their own most memorable kisses and give us a taste of their stories in the new boxed set.
Wendy Ely, author of Split Decision
My most memorable kiss is recent even though I'm 38. We don't get snow where we live, so my fiancé and I drove the kids up to the mountains to play in some. We stopped in a small mountain town for lunch and it started to snow as soon as we left the car. In the middle of the parking lot, I said, "I've never kissed anyone in the snow before." My fiancé pulled me into his embrace and gave me a toe-curling kiss with the snowflakes falling all around us. When he pulled away, he asked, "Was that a good one?" Yes, it was perfect.
About Split Decision: Sports reporter Grace Avery is up for a promotion, but only if she gets an interview with the notoriously private, heavy weight champion, Rally Brewer. Grace discovers who Rally is beyond the boxing ring. Little does anyone know, as Grace gets Rally to open up, a two-year-old secret is in jeopardy. Is revealing his secret worth gaining Grace's love?
Kylie Gilmore, author of Stud Unleashed: Barry
When you're married and have trained your hubby to kiss you a minimum of three times a day (once upon waking, once when returning from work and once before bed), it's difficult to choose the MOST memorable kiss. Frankly, it's an embarrassment of riches some days. Not to mention the first kiss (sparks), the wedding kiss (restrained passion), the I-just-had-your-baby kiss (shock and awe times two).
Then there's the I love you more every day, I'm so lucky that you're mine, I'm never going to let you go kiss, which can morph into the no-pants boogie faster than you can say, "Honey, what brought that on?"
So many memorable kisses, and I'm so lucky that I get to relive them every time his lips touch mine.
About Stud Unleashed: Barry: Successful, not-so-great-with-the-ladies, nice guy Barry Furnukle can't believe his luck when Amber Lewis agrees to date him. But when the world's most awesome date (birding and fro-yo) lands him in the friend zone, it's time to unleash his inner stud to win the woman he can't forget.
Allie Boniface, author of Setting Sail
My most memorable kiss was my first one. I was a late social bloomer, so when the guy I had a crush on through most of high school offered to take me home from a party (where I had been unceremoniously dumped by my party date, who was getting back together with his ex-girlfriend), he didn't have to ask twice. When he confessed that he'd always had a crush on me too, and then kissed me in the moonlight in the front seat of his Chevy, I think fireworks went off in every cell of my body!
About Setting Sail: When real estate agent Jace McClintock discovers his billionaire client's latest target is the historic diner owned and run by his high school crush, Pearl DeVane, things get more than a little complicated. Does forging a successful career mean giving up everything from his past, including the only woman to ever steal his heart?
Liz Kelly, author of Tempting Vivi
My most memorable kiss was in a car, a kiss good night, and so good it had me forgetting where I was and what was happening. It was like an out-of-body experience. So when my heroines get kissed by their Mr. Right, they too enjoy that out-of-your-mind, out-of-your-body, crazy-good kiss.
About Tempting Vivi: This is a really fun, truly romantic and sexy story about relatively young love (my youngest hero and heroine to date) and the twist of fate that puts them in a painfully awkward situation. The idea came to me when I was writing about Vivi's cousin in Taming Molly. I had the urge to drop everything and write Vivi's story then. But I had pressing deadlines. Luckily, when I did get around to Vivi's story it practically wrote itself. And what I thought was going to be a novella, turned into a full-length novel. That was a lot of fun for me. I hope readers find Tempting Vivi fun to them too.
Nikki Lynn Barrett, author of A Masterpiece of Our Love
My most memorable kiss you want to know about, eh? OK. Really that's easy. It was the kiss I shared with my husband when we were first married. When they said, "You may now kiss your bride," we were surrounded by a few family members and friends. It was a special day, because I finally married the love of my life. The picture that was taken I post every year on our anniversary, and so many have said we make a perfect romance cover couple.
About A Masterpiece of Our Love: This is a story about two childhood plane crash survivors. They were strangers before the accident, but a bond formed that lasted 20 years. Hunter and Becca are two characters that have been through so much, and now their bond deepens as they finally admit they are in love with the other. There's a little mystery involved as well. They are very special characters and dear to my heart.
Sydney Holmes, author of Escape
When I was 19 years old, I was working with a guy who I was absolutely infatuated with. We'd been flirting for months, but we had never taken it to the next level. After a while I figured it just wasn't going to get there. Sadly, I was attempting to readjust my feelings about him as we still had to work together.
One day I was in the office break room washing my coffee cup when he came up behind me and lifted the hair off my neck. His mouth came down on me, showering my neck with slow hot kisses. My breath evaporated and my heart stopped.
"Just so you know," he whispered before turning and walking away. Whoa! Still gives me goose bumps — which is a good thing because I married him.
About Escape: My story is about Rowan Baker, a woman who has faced unbelievable obstacles in her life yet continues to fight every day to find the life that's waiting for her. This is a unique story and one I hold dear to my heart. I wholeheartedly believe that every person has a right to their own life — some people just have to fight harder for it than others.
Rebecca J. Clark, author of Borrowed Stilettos
My most memorable kiss wasn't a good one. At all. It was with a guy I dated a few times in high school. He kissed me for the first time at a school dance by opening his mouth as wide as it would go (at least that's what it felt like) and clamped it over mine. I was shocked and a bit grossed out. I pressed my lips tightly together as his tongue licked my closed mouth. Eeww. Needless to say, I never kissed him again.
About Borrowed Stilettos: Plans go hilariously awry when mild-mannered Audrey Thompson dresses as Ava, her flamboyant but cowardly twin, in order to break up with Ava's fiancé, Zach Banister. However, as Audrey pretends to be Ava — which means stuffing her bra and tottering around in borrowed stilettos — she can't help falling for Zach herself. Little does she know he has his own agenda, one that involves a seduction she can't refuse.
Victoria Barbour, author of Geek God
My most memorable kiss came in the moments after my son was born. The details are foggy, of course, but what I remember most clearly was holding him against my chest while my husband held us both. He kissed me on the forehead and said, "Thank you, my love." We had struggled for a long time to have a baby and the awe and gratitude he showed me in that moment will live with me forever.
About Geek God: Geek God is the first book in my Forever Geek trilogy. The idea for the books came based partly on my own experiences with falling in love with a geeky guy. Of course, our hero might have geeky hobbies, but he's also a romance-novel hero, which means he's hot and alpha. The trilogy is based on exploring what happens to the hero and the heroine after they fall in love. I wanted to show the happily ever after, and then explore how a romance grows, and changes, the longer two people are in a relationship.