Ended up keeping the kiss. Only added three lines to the scene, but it works so it stays. At least until Beth (my CP) reads it.
Have to face facts here: am just not a person who likes to write love scenes. Don’t even like reading them, most of the time. Unless they’re crisp and fresh and don’t use phrases like “probing tongue.” Ick.
Read a book last week by a new to me author. It was a historical romance. Don’t usually read those unless they’re regencies, and even then prefer the slim “sweet” regencies that end with an engagement and therefore (as was proper to the era) include no explicit sex scenes.
Anyway, this particular book had been sent free (the joys of being a senior reviewer!) and it got a really good review in my local paper, so I thought, what the heck, and read it. Really liked it, too. For about the first 2/3 of the book. Then the hero and heroine got married and the whole thing deflated.
Skimmed the rest of the book, full of sex scenes, and was aware that many readers probably liked the parts I was skipping. There wouldn’t be sex scenes if readers didn’t love ’em. So I guess it’s just me.
And that’s what I can’t figure out. Am not a prude in my RL. Between consenting adults, sex is grand. Natural. Fun. Exciting, even. And sex is particularly natural, fun, and exciting when the two consenting adults are just starting to fall in love. There’s nothing better in the world. So why do I have such a hard time writing convincingly about an innocent little kiss?
It’s a mystery.