Book meme: Day 20!

I am watching Nigella make "turkish delight syllabub" -- sugar, Cointreau, lemon juice, cream, orange flower water, and rose water -- which she dollops into glasses and tops with pistachio nuts. I can't decide if I think it would be absolutely delicious, or terribly gross.

Day 20 - Favorite kiss

Okay, my favorite kiss from any book ever is a very specific kiss from After the Night by Linda Howard. I did some double checking, and this book, like Shades of Twilight, came out when I was fifteen (and was just reprinted in 1997, hence my earlier confusion). After the Night is about a woman who, as a young girl, was run out of town (with her family) by the adult man she had a crush on, who was the son of the man her mother was having an affair with. Years later, she decides she wants to move back to that small town -- which, frankly, is never quite explained to my satisfaction, since she never liked anyone there and they never liked her, but when I was fifteen, I hand-waved it -- and she keeps running into that guy, and, of course, because this is a romance novel, they fall into tragic love that nevertheless gets a very satisfying happily ever after.

Before they fall in love, back when he just wants to nail her, they run into each other in New Orleans and he follows her back to her car and grabs her and kisses her.

I found this very thrilling when I was fifteen -- although, to be honest, if the dude who ran my family out of town when I was a kid grabbed me and kissed me on the street, I would be furious, and probably punch him in the face; I mean, I am pretty hard-pressed to think of anyone who I'd let kiss me in the middle of the street, much less someone who I don't like, who is trying to run me out of town again, you know? But that is why this is a romance novel and not real life, which I keep reminding myself!

Anyway, it is page 137 - 138 (although if you own the book, I bet you know exactly what I am talking about!), and it turns out that she not only accepts his kiss, but passionately kisses him back, and they make out on the street until the thunder knocks them out of their little bubble, and then -- well, then she's furious! And she gets soaking wet from the pouring rain, and says in a rough, low voice, "Don't touch me again."

Oh, it is so hot. Or, rather, it was the hottest kiss I'd ever read when I was fifteen, and it pretty much remains the hottest kiss due to being both hot even now and hot in my memory!

(If it sounds like the kind of book you like to read -- and it is definitely the kind of book I like to read sometimes -- then I recommend buying it. Otherwise, if you "search inside this book" on Amazon, you can read the kiss scene; it's the first result when you search for "thunder."

I should warn you that it's sort of creepy -- although in my opinion that kind of adds to the hotness value, since it's fiction. I have complicated emotional, social, and political ideas about this, honestly, but it boils down to still finding this book really satisfying and hot.)

So that's me. What about you all? Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, link me!

( Other days of the book meme )