Today on First Kiss Friday, we welcome romance author, Jessica E. Subject, and an excerpt from her New Adult Romance anthology, “Love in a New World.”
An alien prince, a farm girl, two university students from a small town,
and more are all ready to begin their lives as adults. They have everything
planned out. But when drastic events crush their dreams, they must carve a new
path. And they just might find unexpected love along the way.
Includes the New Adult Romances Beyond Reach, Accidental Romance, It
Took a Zombie Apocalypse, Hey Santa, and bonus story Alien Kisses at Midnight.
First Kiss Excerpt
“Fifty
dollars for a kiss.” RJ held the bill and waved it across the counter. “It goes
in the jar if I get a kiss from you.”
“I’d
do it for five.” She pointed to the paper sign on the jar. “But if you’re
willing to donate more, go ahead.”
He
walked into the booth and sat on the bench. “You misunderstand me, Missy. I
don’t want a peck on the cheek. I want a real kiss, your lips on mine.”
Her
cheeks reddened, making her all the more adorable, and she stepped back. “I,
um.... It’s not.... I can’t.”
“It’s
one kiss.” He waved the money around again, enjoying her discomfort. “The same
money you’d make kissing ten old guys with beards, or ten creeps who gawk at
your cleavage when you bend over to kiss them.”
The
flush on her face disappeared. Maybe he shouldn’t have included that last
observation.
“Hey.”
He needed her attention back on him. “One kiss, and you never know, you just
might like it.”
“Really?”
She placed a hand on his knee then waltzed in front of him with a confidence
he’d never seen from her before. “You’re that confident of the power of those
full brown lips, are you?”
Before
he had the chance to think of a response, she snatched the bill from his hand,
leaned between his spread legs, and kissed him. He barely had a chance to close
his mouth when it was all over.
“Thank
you so much for your support.” Missy curtsied then stuck the money into the
collection bottle.
RJ
gripped the bottom of the bench, trying to process the fact the kiss had
already happened. He’d hoped for so much more.
“Another.”
He stood and yanked his wallet from his back pocket. “I’ll give you one hundred
dollars if I can kiss you.” Yanking the bill from inside the leather fold, he
held it out in front of him to prove he was good for it.
“Now,
that’s against the rules.”
Her
jaw shifted to the side, but when she tilted her head, he hoped she was
actually considering his proposition.
RJ
hopped off the bench and took a tentative step forward. He’d didn’t want her to
automatically say no. “You know I’ve never played by the rules. Why would I
start now?”
With
a laugh, Missy playfully pushed on his chest. “You’re trouble, RJ. And you’re
looking to get me into trouble with you.”
Returning
to the stool, he stared into her crystal-blue eyes and smiled. She hadn’t said
no. “Just a kiss.” He nodded to a patch of bushes with a bench set amongst
them. “No one will see us over there.”
“Is
that brown boy bothering you, Missy?”
The
twang in the woman’s voice bothered RJ more than her reference to the color of
his skin.
“No,
Shelley.” Missy turned her back to him. “He was just leaving.”
“Good.”
Shelley, another of their classmates, sized up the jar of money. “Cause we
don’t need his cash. We’re doing fine here without it.”
The
punch to the gut that used to come with such ignorant comments never came. Some
people refused to change, especially in this town. But he’d always believed
Missy to be different. Maybe he’d been wrong.
“Are
you taking over for me, then?” she asked Shelley.
“Yeah,
your dad followed me around for the last fifteen minutes to make sure I was
here on time. He was really freaking out about your kissing guys on the cheek.”
RJ
walked away. He’d been dismissed. And if Missy’s father was that upset, he was
probably waiting with disinfectant or something.
No,
there was nothing good about coming back to West Vitula for the summer. His dad
still worked the same long hours, so except for the day spent together on the
anniversary of his mother’s death, RJ was spending his summer alone.
“Wait!”
He
turned with the hope Missy was talking to him for some reason.
And
she was, standing right in front of him. She grabbed the money he still held in
his hand. “You forgot to put this in the jar.” Without giving him a chance to
question her, she jogged back to the booth and shoved it through the glass
bottleneck.
Did
that mean he was going to get his kiss?
***
Missy
raced back to RJ, grabbing his hand then pulling him toward the alcove in the
bushes he’d pointed out earlier. She only had a couple of minutes before her
father would be breathing down her neck again.
No,
if she was to have anyone’s breath on her neck, she wanted it to be RJ’s. After
he’d finished kissing her. Or maybe during. But, if her parents caught her lip
to lip with him, she’d be dead. At least grounded until she left for Cremshaw
again. They still believed her to be a good girl, pure until she married. No
way would she confess she’d lost her virginity to a guy she didn’t even know.
Still didn’t, only the smell of his cologne. And she’d said RJ’s name in the
middle of sex with the stranger. That’s when the guy up and left, leaving her
in the dorm bathroom to get dressed before someone else walked in.
She’d
crushed hard on her neighbor for years but never had the courage to go against
her parents’ expectations until she’d left home.
Sitting
on the bench, she pulled him down beside her. “This is long overdue.” She
fisted the front of his shirt and leaned into him, closing her eyes. His warm,
minty breath met her lips before his soft skin. She nearly melted at the
contact, unable to pull away.
What
started as a gentle, sweet ballet of a kiss quickly turned into a frantic lambada.
Missy clung to him, desperate for more. She straddled his lap, pushing against
him. Why had she waited so long to act on her feelings for him? She’d had
plenty of opportunities to be alone with him. Yet, what her parents thought had
always seemed to matter. Not anymore.
When
he slid his hands under her shirt, she moaned, anxious to feel them all over her
body.
“Get your hands off my daughter!”
“Love in a New World” is available through:
Thank you so much for sharing RJ's and Missy's first kiss! :)
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