First kisses change the dynamics between an evolving romance between two people. It’s no longer just boy meets girl, but it’s taken to a new level. So when my editor says I need to put it earlier in a book (I always try to have it as early as I can, but sometimes heroes and heroines aren’t cooperating), it really changes things between them. So then the first kiss I had no longer is the first kiss. The relationship between them between the original first kiss and the now earlier first kiss has to be changed to reflect that they’ve had that first kiss. It’s known as the Kiss Effect (you know like the Butterfly Effect–one change changes all?)…okay, so I made it up, but it’s true!

Like anything, setting, plot, characters, the first kiss has to evolve from the relationship between the characters, and it has to be different from any other story you’ve written. Which makes them really fun for me to come up with.

So here is the one from: Vexing the Highlander

Copyrighted by Terry Spear

Feeling panicked, she was afraid she wouldn’t make it down the corridor to her room in time before she was caught.

Alban must have assumed the same thing and suddenly moved her against the wall with his hot body pressing indecently close and held her hostage. “Forgive me,” he breathed against her cheek. And then he moved his warm lips against her mouth and kissed her.

A lady with the right upbringing would never, ever kiss a gentleman—or an untitled Highlander—let alone do so in the king’s own castle when he planned to marry her off to one of his loyal lords. She would never have kissed Alban back—or so she told herself—except to pretend she was not who she was, rather just a servant girl having a good time with one of the king’s honored guests.

Yet, she gave into the kiss as if she’d been trained in the art of kissing, which, with the way Alban was kissing her back, she found it easy to follow his lead. She soaked up the feel of his warm mouth against hers, and the smoldering flame that ignited low in her belly and fanned the heat all the way through her, despite the chill in the corridor. His chest pressed against her breasts, making them tingle with the most delicious need. His manhood stirred against her waist, and she realized why her mother had warned her and her sister never to kiss a gentleman in such a manner. Indeed, not until she was wed to him, for she felt urges she’d never known she could experience. Womanly urges that compelled her to take this further.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, Alban’s mouth smiling slightly against her lips, as she pressed him tighter. She thought if he was as close as he could be, whoever was about to pass them by—hopefully without stopping to speak—would not see her, as tall as Alban was. Though she was hoping the Highlander would not presume she was always this forward with a man whether she knew him or not. Yet she was thrilled beyond measure to enjoy his attentions, even if it was just to keep her reputation intact. But if the man stopped to speak with Alban, and the Highlander quit kissing her to speak with the person in kind, her character would be in tatters.

“Ahem,” the male said, but continued to walk on by.

She didn’t dare glance in his direction to see if she knew the man. Alban didn’t either, but she wasn’t sure if it was because he was so wrapped up in kissing her, or because he was afraid to reveal who she was.

If Alban hadn’t been holding her so close, she would have melted right into the stone floor, her body boneless. His breathing was as labored as hers, his heartbeat pounding just as fast. He didn’t make a move to release her, waiting while the footfalls faded away. He smelled of summer and the woods, of freshly-washed, earthy male. And then the footsteps were gone.

Yet even then, Alban didn’t let her go. “Wait, just a moment more.”

ENCHANTING THE HIGHLANDER is up for pre-order!!! All BRAND new novellas!

5 new Scottish romance novellas by 5 bestselling authors!  BRAND NEW stories!

PROTECTED BY THE LAIRD by Eliza Knight — When she needed a champion, he raised his sword…