Excerpt of Forbidden by Lauren Smith

He lifted his glass to his lips and sipped. It wasn’t ale
he was drinking but something else, a dark, warm gold
color, probably Scotch. She realized she must have been
staring at his mouth when he licked his lips and spoke
again.

“Keep staring at me like that and I’m liable to kiss
you.”

Desire and hunger lit up his eyes, heating the strange
mixture of blue and green. It almost made her forget that
she was talking to a stranger. It really was possible to
lose yourself in someone’s eyes. Maybe the poets weren’t
wrong about love at first sight. She didn’t love this
man, but she was…captivated by him, which felt like love,
in a strange sort of way. The lightness of her head, the
wobbly knees, the fascination with him.

“There’s nothing stopping you from kissing me,” she
breathed. Her heart was pounding against her ribs as
excitement skittered through her. Would he accept the
challenge and kiss her?

His eyes softened, but there was a dangerous glint to his
expression, one that warned her that if he kissed her…it
wouldn’t be chaste, wouldn’t be sweet. It would be the
sort of kiss that made a girl forget where she was and
moan helplessly for more.

They were mere inches apart now…When had she leaned into
him? Somehow she had shifted closer, fixated on his
mouth, the full sensual lips. The bit of the cider ale
she’d been drinking earlier made her thoughts a bit
muddy. Well, all but one thought.

I want him to kiss me. If he won’t, I’ll kiss him first.

Before she let herself think better of it, she seized the
chance to be reckless and rocked up on her tiptoes,
curling her fingers into the lapels of his coat as she
kissed him. Hard. It was wild, the way she let go and
just gave herself into kissing him. Her own sexy
stranger…

His hands gripped her waist, fingers digging in slightly,
making tingles of excitement shoot down her spine, clear
to her toes. His lips were soft and warm, moving against
hers hungrily. When he angled his face, he caressed her
lips with his tongue. The startling, erotic feel of it
had her mouth parting, and he thrust inside. The little
teasing strokes of his tongue against hers created
shivers deep in her belly. He overwhelmed all of her
senses, and Kat couldn’t catch her breath. There was no
escaping his strong hold, and she didn’t want to. His
lips were a drug, and she couldn’t get enough.

Every cell in her body pulsed and hummed to life when the
kiss turned slightly rough, as he nipped her bottom lip.
She rocked her body into his, desperate to get closer, to
feel him completely surrounding her.

All mine. She smiled against his lips just as their
bodies separated a few inches and she gasped for a
breath. Blood pounded against her temples, and she panted
and glanced up at him. Stark, raw lust burned like coals
behind his eyes as he stared down at her, an almost
animal ferocity in his expression.

“That was—”

Before she could finish, he curled an arm around her
waist and pulled her flush against him for another kiss.
The touch of his lips this time was feather light…as
though he were savoring her. A simple, almost innocent
brush of mouths, before she shivered, and a little moan
of longing escaped. Suddenly he rotated her, pinning her
against the bar, his mouth taking her hungrily, seeking
entrance to hers. She parted her lips, more from surprise
than anything else. When his tongue slid in and teased
hers, she whimpered. The bare hint of stubble rasped
against her skin as he kissed her, making her sensitive
to every sensation.

More, I need more of this…

No one she’d dated in high school had kissed like this,
as though he had all night to taste her, explore her,
excite her. Nothing else mattered, nothing but this man
and his life-altering, seductive lips.

When his mouth parted from hers, she blinked and stared
up at him, wondrously dazed.

“You were too tempting to resist. Makes a man hungry for
more when a woman looks at him like that.” He brushed the
pad of his thumb over her swollen lips, his eyes tracing
the shape, along with his finger.

“Like what?” she asked, fascinated by his words just as
much as his hands and the way they touched her.

His laugh was dark and rich like a pint of Guinness.
“Like she needs to be kissed, to be taken by a man who
knows just what to do to make her moan with pleasure.”

Taken…the word was heavy, dark, forbidding and yet it
filled her with a secret thrill. She could picture this
man taking her, doing a thousand erotic things that would
blow her mind and her body apart.

She struggled to respond, but what could she say to the
man who’d just changed her life with one mind-blowing
kiss and talked to her about how he could make a woman
moan with pleasure? Had she really just made out with a
complete and total stranger? She needed to do something,
anything, to lessen the suddenly awkward moment.

She thrust out her hand and said, “I’m Katherine Roberts,
but everyone calls me Kat.” It felt silly to introduce
herself after the kiss they’d shared, but she did it
anyway.

The man stared at her hand and then took it, raising it
to his lips rather than shaking it. He brushed his mouth
over the backs of her knuckles in a caress, like an old
world prince greeting a lady. Her heart fluttered inside
her chest at the little romantic act. She’d never met a
man who’d done that before, and it made her imagine what
it might feel like to have his lips on other parts of her
body.

“Tristan Kingsley. It’s been quite the pleasure meeting
you.”