It's All In 'The Kiss'!!!

Okay, so today I was writing a Kissy Kissy scene and I always find them EXTREMELY hard.

*The kiss* is one of the highlights of a romance book, it's the moment your hero and heroine finally show how in to each other they are. It's a BIG DEAL! The reader has probably waited 200 odd pages for this moment. 

Now when I'm writing 'the kiss' I have to constantly fight the desire to simply state: 'they kissed' and move swiftly on.

When I'm reading, I feel cheated if I don't get a bit more info than that! On the other hand, I don't really find an explanation of the mechanics of the thing very 'romantic'. In fact a lot of kiss scenes leave me gagging!

So I got to thinking: what IS it that I like to read?

After a bit of thought I came up with a list of what I like:

1.  I want to know how this moment makes them feel closer, not just physically but emotionally as well.
2. I want to see their relationship change. The kiss showed the truth about how they felt for each other, lets not kill the moment with a: it was *just* a kiss, remark.
3.  I like anticipation before my kiss, please don't hand it to me in the first few chapters. I like to work for my dose of kissy kissy; if I've had to wait, I'm more invested when it finally happens! (The second/third/etc book in a series can ignore this rule! ;-P)
4. Sweet gestures!!! The hero gets bonus points for gently caressing the heroines cheek or lifting her chin!
5. Build up! Not just throughout the book, but also in this moment. Holding hands, hugging, reassuring each other about something that has happened, it doesn't really matter. Just get me to question whether this will be 'The' moment.
6. When the heroine is embarrassed and the hero helps her to get over her nerves.
7. Non aggressive touchy feely. (Not to be confused with grabbing at bits and bobs!) This is 'the kiss', you're supposed to be proving that your love is pure! ;-P

And what I don't:

1. If I'm still reading, I already know the hero is hot, please don't feel the need to remind me at this delicate moment, it just makes the heroine look like a shallow bimbo.
2. Please, please, please don't mention tongues: It's as much of a mood killer as mentioning spit!!!
3.  Please don't throw this beautiful moment of trust in to the middle of an argument! I've waited forever for this, I want it to mean something! 'The kiss' is a gesture of affection, not an underhanded way to win an argument!
4. If the hero is kissing her, yet there are unresolved issues about whether or not they are free to do so. (i.e. do they have a not quite ex?)
5. No fighting! Either the hero is a rapist, or the kiss is by mutual consent.
6. Endless staring at each others mouths... this just gets creepy after a while.
7. Kissing a random person to make the hero/heroine jealous. Congratulations: your hero/heroine is a douchebag!
8. Do NOT tell me how innocent the heroine is and then turn her into an expert. I do not buy it!
9. Stop eating each other, if you're hungry get take out!

So, now it's your turn! What do you like? What don't you like? Comment below and tell me!

In the mean time, here are some of my favourite kiss/romantic scenes:

DeeDee. xxx