Monday, January 2, 2012

No-Kiss Blogfest

Yay! It's time for the 3rd annual No-Kiss blogfest!!





This is when you get to write a scene or post one from your favorite books, movies, or TV shows that show the almost kiss-- the rising, crushing, excruciating, longing, tension that comes when two characters get oh-so-close to kissing that you can just feel it, want it, NEED it....and then...they don't!


I've chosen a piece of a scene from my WIP novel Break Free (which I lurrrve, btw. Seriously in love with this novel, guys)

Setup:

Kiel (MC) has been tasked to lead Izzy (love interest) through a jungle of deadly wild magic. He wears a collar that's attuned to Izzy, so it forces him to intervene whenever she's in danger.
In this scene, they just escaped from a bounty hunter who was looking for Kiel.

As always, this is still a rough draft. I haven't even started line edits yet, so please overlook any rough spots.

Onto the fest!!


"This way,” I yelled, pulling her down another game path. We zigged and zagged until finally the pulse in the collar began to dissipate. Izzy took another left and I followed into a clearing with a large tree. The hot breeze shook the tree’s branches and moisture dripped off its leaves; a mini rain-storm brought on by the wind.

“We can hide beneath it,” Izzy said.

The ground surrounding the tree was scraped clear of any sort of vegetation, a circle of dirt. Moisture from the leaves sizzled in an oily sheen before it soaked into the earth. The drops had a strange golden glow to them, similar to the stone in Izzy’s chest. Something wasn’t right.

Izzy stepped to the edge of the dirt circle and the collar flared up again. It jerked me forward, faster than my own reaction time, until I was pulling Izzy away from the tree, yanking her so hard that we stumbled to the ground, landing away from the tree and its rain.

“What the hell, Kiel?” Izzy yelled, trying to pull herself out from under me.

I didn’t even notice, the pounding in my head from the collar was so loud. “It’s not safe,” I managed to get out. The pounding slowed, then stopped. Damn collar. I didn’t need it jerking me around. If it kept up, it would get us both killed. And then who would protect Izzy?

“That’s not water,” I said. “It’s something else. Acid, I think.”

She paused, then peered over my shoulder at the tree and the liquid which dripped off its branches. “How did you know?”

“The dirt surrounding it. Where are all the plants? A tree that big should have some stranglers or other undergrowth below it. There’s nothing but dirt.”

She watched the liquid drip onto the ground. “Huh. Well, that would’ve been bad, but do you think you could get off me now?”

Only then did I realize the collar had forced me to cover her in protection. Interesting. The collar controlling me pissed me off, but I had to say, I wasn’t too terribly upset at my current predicament.

I watched her for a moment, just enough time for her skin to start to flush. It was surprising how easy it was to get that color to spread across her cheeks and neck.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m pretty comfortable.”

“You’re also pretty heavy…”

I sighed and pushed myself off. I offered her a hand and pulled her up. She stumbled into me but I held her before she fell. I caught a whiff of her perfume, still exotic, still tantalizing. Did she taste as good?

She blushed again and dropped her gaze. “We should probably find Dayre…”

No. Screw Dayre. The heat her off her body rivaled the warmth of the jungle. I wanted to pull her closer, feel that heat pressed against my skin. I inhaled deeply, trying to imprint this moment on my memory. Then I breathed out. “Yeah. I guess so.”

She stepped away from me, her fingers still gripped in mine.


 
 
Bam!! There you have it! Now I'm off to read the other entries!
How about you, did you participate?
.

30 comments:

Sarah Tokeley said...

Oooh, this is great. So tense :-)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Very brief no-kissing part - thank you! The rest of it was excellent. I want to know more about the collar.

Christine Danek said...

Me likey. Nice job. Great tension. :)

LD Masterson said...

Rats. I wanted to keep reading.

Loralie Hall said...

I love your visuals here, and your MC's reaction to certain stimulous. The perfume, comparing the heat to the jungle...fantastic, intense stuff ^_^

Jon Paul said...

Very cool! Love the premise of the collar. Really adds a wrinkle to the scene. Nicely done! :D

Lindsay said...

Ooh, I love the visuals here. Great job. More please :)

Frankie Diane Mallis said...

Wow, I love the idea of a collar magically forcing him onto her and him wanting her and then feeling a duty not to proceed. Very cool! Lots of neat tension.

Amalia Dillin said...

Now I am trying to devise a situation in my head which will result in the collar making him kiss her. Very interesting world!!

Larissa said...

Ooh! Cool premise and great scene! :)

Kimberlee Turley said...

Loved it, but the botanist in me got hung up wondering if it was plausible that there SHOULD anything growing under the tree. (I'd have thought it'd be too shady or the tree roots would absorb all the moisture.)

Would love to hear more about the world you've made where acid drips from trees. : )

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

"I'm pretty comfortable" Ha! I'm sure I really like Kiel. :)

Anonymous said...

I agree with what Tricia said. I want to read more about Kiel, and see what other ways he's found to make Izzy blush.

Kaye Manro said...

What a lovely no kiss scene! Makes me want to know what happens.

Happy New Year!

(I joined in too! Thanks to you!)

Anne Gallagher said...

Nice no kiss. Way to go Sarah.

KT Simpson said...

Baha, I loved when he said he was pretty comfortable XD That was awesome. The collar concept is really interesting too!

Lost_without_a_Map said...

..,just when I was beginning to drool.

C.V. Marie said...

Lovely, wish they would have kissed! I love his attitude! :D

Olivia J. Herrell, writing as O.J. Barré said...

I really like your writing, and your story. These two will be kissing soon, I just know it! I also LOVE your Nano 2010 cover featured on your right sidebar. Bet the book is just as amazing.

~ that rebel, Olivia

The Blogger Girlz said...

The details really hooked, and I'd love the idea of the collar.

-Aaron

vic caswell said...

teeheehee! i'm pretty comfortable. teeheehee! too great!

Julie said...

Loved it! What a great idea. I hope I get to read more someday!

1000th.monkey said...

I like the idea of a deadly forest of magic :)

...just curious though, how long have they been running? The comment about her perfume made me think it's only been like and hour or so, but the impression of the scene made me think it's been days.

Sorry, I always think about practical things like bathing/body odour/etc whenever there's chase scenes :)

Matthew MacNish said...

YES! Just the right mix of sexy, tense, and funny. Well done, sistah!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I didn't participate but I really like your entry. Good of you to use foliage like that to increase the tension.

Ninja Girl said...

Wow, wow, wow, lady!!
That was fantastic. Loved how it's from the male POV, also loved the bit about the collar. That part's really interesting. Wish you'd post more :)
Ninja Girl

Rebecca T. said...

Ooh very fun Sarah! Wish I'd had time to participate in this fest - it's been a long time since I did one! Loved your scene!

Wendy Lu said...

Nice, I love the tension! Thanks for adding that tidbit in the beginning to give your blogfest entry a bit more context. It was very helpful! Great job; I enjoyed this very much. :) Also I love your character names, especially Izzy!

~TRA

The Red Angel Blog

Austin Gorton said...

This just reminds me that I really want to finish reading this ASAP.

Adrianne Russell said...

This is so great. I love your MC's voice. Thanks for pointing me toward the No-Kiss Blogfest! My scheduled post went wonky but I got it up. Better late than never, right? :)

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