Retreat Guest Blogger Erin Nicholas

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I've been reading romance since my mom first let me into her book cupboard when I was about fourteen. LaVyrle Spencer, Julie Garwood, Debbie Macomber... they took my 'happily ever after' ideas from animated princesses to real people in the real world.

I've been writing romance almost as long. Many a family car trip was spent with my head bent over a spiral notebook in the back seat. I'll confess that my very first attempts at fiction were fantasy and paranormals, influenced by my father's love of the Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the original Alice in Wonderland. If Harry Potter had been around, I'm sure he would have been on the bedtime story shelf as well.

But it wasn't long until I started writing about true love and that's where I've been ever since.

I'm so thrilled to be able to share these stories with you! I hope that they make you smile, sigh, maybe even choke up a little. Most of all, I hope that they help you believe in magical things like first kisses, the spark of passion, and the power of true love.


Just A Kiss
Thanks for having me to the party, Lucy!  You always have such fun stuff going on!

I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about today, and thinking about my upcoming release of Just A Kiss, the fifth book in my Bradford series and realized that with a book title like I had to spend some time talking about… kissing!

I think that the first kiss might just be my favorite part of a romance as a reader.  It’s for sure in my top five favorite parts.  It’s also one of my favorite parts to write.

That first kiss changes everything—it makes it a romance versus a friendship, it finally crosses that line that one or both people have drawn in the sand, it proves that at least some of what they’ve been feeling is good old-fashioned passion—and that they’re ready to act on it.  It changes the story… for the hero and heroine, and for the reader.

In my books, that first kiss sometimes comes in the first few pages, sometimes it’s a ways into the story.  Sometimes the guy initiates it (okay, in my books often the guy initiates it), sometimes the girl does.  Sometimes it happens without warning to either of them, sometimes it’s very intentional—for at least one of them.

But no matter what, it is always a big deal.

When I needed a title for the fifth book in the Bradford series, it took me about two seconds to come up with it.  Just A Kiss was the perfect title for this book—the hero and heroine have known each other forever, have been in love forever, actually.  In fact, they were once married.  As Kevin thinks in the book “it was just as kiss like Niagara Falls was just a waterfall”. It’s never been just a kiss between them and certainly isn’t now that they’re reunited—which is what made it so fun.

I love kisses, but especially those first kisses, so I also took a look back at all the first kisses in the series.  Here’s how they each happened:


Just Right, the Bradfords, book one

He just wanted to feel good. And he had an excellent idea about how to make that happen at the moment.
Ben grabbed Jessica by the upper arms, pulled her up onto her tiptoes and kissed her, eliciting as many gasps from the ER staff as when he’d hit Ted.
This felt so much better.
Hell, he was going to get suspended anyway. Might as well add sexual harassment to the list while he was at it.
Not that Jessica was responding like a woman being harassed. Her hands gripped his shoulders and she tipped her head to the right, making the fit of their mouths more absolute. She pressed her chest and hips against him, parting her lips for his tongue to invade the silky heat of her mouth.
In fact, the only reason Ben didn’t back her up against the nearest wall and make things really interesting was the security guards who showed up.


Just Like That, the Bradfords, book two

Sam moved in close, pressing Danika back until her shoulder blades hit the shelf. “Do you want me to show you?”
She met his eyes directly. “Yes,” she said softly.
He swore under his breath. Then he cupped the back of her head and pulled her up onto her tiptoes for a searing kiss. It wasn’t gentle or romantic. It was full-on, wet and hot, I-want-you-underneath-me-now.
And Danika returned it stroke for stroke, groan for groan.
He wanted her with a ferocity that shook him. He’d been with a lot of women. Women who weren’t shy about anything. He thought he was long past losing control.
It was now painfully clear that he’d been wrong.


Just My Type, the Bradfords, book three

She scooted her chair closer. “Mac, honestly. Have you ever thought of us together?”
“Sure. We’re together all the time at Sam’s, at the center and the hospital.” He still wasn’t making eye contact.
Sara touched his knee and he nearly jumped out of his chair again. She smiled. She was no dummy. She had a master’s degree in psychology and was a licensed social worker. She studied people. She’d watched the two people she knew best—her sister, Jessica, and her brother, Sam—fall in love with their spouses. She’d seen the effect that intense attraction had on people and how they acted until they admitted the attraction and did something about it.
“I’m talking about naked, you and me.”
“Of course not,” he answered quickly. Too quickly. He was scowling again. “You’re a kid, like a sister to me.”
He was lying. He had to be lying. Before she could think it out any further and potentially chicken out, Sara slid from her chair to Mac’s lap, cupped the back of his head in both hands and kissed him with all she had.

Mac realized he should have seen this coming. But a man could only be expected to be so intelligent when most of his brain cells were saying things like yes and take her and recalling all of the ways he had imagined her hands on him. And vice versa.


Just For Fun, the Bradfords, book four

Dooley took a deep breath. He was on vacation. For the first time in years. With the sexiest woman he’d ever met.
He was going to make the most of this.
He strode toward her, coming up on her side opposite of where she was looking.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, just before he sank his fingers into the glorious ginger hair at the base of her skull, tipped her head and kissed her.
She wasn’t surprised for more than three seconds. She dropped her purse, took the front of his T-shirt in both hands, rose on tiptoe and kissed him back.
It felt like he’d been waiting his entire life to kiss her, and he took advantage.


Just A Kiss, the Bradfords, book five

Buy the bookKevin moved around the kitchen island quickly, before he could think better of it, grasped her by the upper arms and pulled her up onto her tiptoes.
“Thank you, Eve.”
Then he kissed her.
It was a sweet, affectionate kiss for exactly five seconds.  Then it turned hot.  It was still plenty sweet though.  The candy store analogy fit even better when he fully tasted her, tongue on tongue, breath to breath.  Not like jelly beans.  They were hard and cold.  This was more like hot fudge.
He loved hot fudge.

The first four Bradford books are out now and Just A Kiss is coming October 30th!


Let's Chat:
Thanks for stopping by today and chatting!  Now it’s time to hear from you!  Share your favorite first kiss story—real life, book, movie, whatever!