Flirt Fest Blogfest

Today's the Flirt Fest Blogfest hosted by my critique group over at Critique This WIP! I've pasted my flirty scene below. After you read mine, be sure to go over to the Critique This WIP site and read click the links to read the rest!

The setup: Holly and Shadow are faeries. The two of them have only recently met and there's chemistry between them, but they're confused by it. Holly is an empath, which is why she can sense the emotions around her. In this scene they're at a Lunasa harvest festival. I only recently added this chapter to the novel, so it is, as of yet, unedited.


She kept her eyes on Shadow who seemed content to continue watching her, for now. His steady stare stoked a heat in her belly which quickly translated to her cheeks. The swirling storm of everyone else’s wild emotions just outside her focus was getting stronger, the drumbeat more insistent, and Shadow’s gaze possessive.

She sipped her drink, keeping her eyes on him. She thought they’d stand there deadlocked all night as the party raged around them until he took another long draw from his drink, placed it on the table then started in her direction. She watched his progress, her hand sweating and her mind racing. What’s going on with this guy? When he reached her he took her cup from her and placed it on the table, too, then took her hand and led her to the dance floor. He took her in his arms where, she noted with not a little chagrin, she felt right at home. In a daze her arms went around him, their eyes never leaving each other.

“Dance?” he asked, a cocky grin on his face.

To her own horror she realized her mouth was hanging open and she was still staring at him, as if in a trance. She snapped her mouth shut and broke eye contact, shaking the cobwebs from her head. Was he using some faerie magic to lure her in? But she could sense his feelings clear enough; he wasn’t faking his attraction to her, he just wasn’t sure what to do with it.

“It looks like we already are,” she said, feeling it was safer not to look him in the eye for now. He had some power over her she needed to figure out. Dancing with him sure wasn’t helping. His hand at her low back, he pulled her closer until they were snug and then with his arm wrapped around her he swept her off her feet, hovering into the crowd above them. This took her by surprise and she clung to him. “Whoa!”

He chuckled. “Just use your wings.”

She blushed, feeling silly. She was so distracted by him she’d forgotten about them. He lifted her chin with his finger, bringing their eyes back into contact, and her heart lurched again.

“Relax,” he said, burying his fingers in the hair at the nape of her neck and brushing his thumb over her cheek. “This is supposed to be fun. You’re tense.”

“Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?” She asked.

“You get right to the point, don’t you?”

“The last time I saw you, you ran away like I was a leper.”

She was finding it easier to deal with him if she was irritated. Otherwise was afraid she’d get lost in him, he was that overwhelming to her senses.

“Well,” he said, a wicked grin spreading slowly across his lips, “as you recall, the last time I saw you, you were stark naked.”

“I guess you weren’t so impressed if my nudity sent you running.”

He chuckled. “Let’s just say I was taken aback.” Still holding her close he traced the line of her tank down one shoulder, across her chest stopping briefly at the valley between her breasts, then back up the other shoulder, making her shiver. “But as I recall, your nudity was quite impressive.”

The heat bloomed on her face again. Between the wine and the music and Shadow coming on so strong she found herself flustered and confused. She didn’t buy his lame excuse for disappearing so quickly the last time they were together. He had definitely been freaked out. And now here he was oozing sex appeal. The way he was moving against her, holding her so close now that she could feel his breath in her ear, and the way he smelled, so masculine, like an invitation to remove her clothes and be ravaged, was fogging her mind so she couldn’t think straight.

He leaned in and laid a gentle kiss on her cheek, then pulled back enough to stare into her eyes again. She forced herself to breathe. One of his brows went up and a slow, confident smile developed on his lips before they descended toward hers.