"Your kisses aren't what they used to be," he told me.
I had been slipping aside or pulling away, reluctant to engage a full-on kiss, and he wanted to know what was going on.
"I like to give you kisses," I said. There were other people around ~ we were going to get interrupted ~ and I didn't know exactly what words would carry my meaning ....
The next time we met, we had a few moments alone.
"You still don't want to kiss?" he asked as we stood cheek to cheek.
"I like our kisses," I said, "but I don't like them taken for granted."
"That's why I waited this time."
"I noticed."
With his arms around me, we were nose to nose, and I breathed his essence, felt his ease with the moment and his delight to be sharing it with me ~ o sweetness! His delight sparks my delight and fires up a mutual delight spiral. I felt the energy between us mingle, and my lips tilted into his. Swirling, breath-taking, this was like our first kiss, with fireworks popping off and making me dizzy.
He was turned on, too.
I call them bubble up kisses, because they bubble up to the top when they are ready, like bubbles from the bottom of a pot of water warming on the stove. If you stir the pot when the bubbles on the bottom are tiny, you get tiny little pops at the top. But if you wait and let the heat build, let it take the time it needs, the bubbles on the bottom get bigger and bigger until their buoyancy makes them bubble up by themselves.
Or you could say they ripen. After you pick the first ripe mulberries of the season, you have to wait for the next ones. Impatience gets you pale, sour mulberries that aren't what they used to be. But if you wait, they become dark and sweet and soft and juicy ~ they melt in your mouth and you feel the buzz of the sun soak into your tongue. Birds aren't the only ones who get drunk on really ripe berries.
If you try to pick a mulberry that isn't ready yet, you need to pull it ~ it resists ~ but a fully ripe mulberry drops into your hand with just a touch, a suggestion.
And if you try to take a kiss that isn't ready, you need to hunt it and chase it and pull it from her lips ~ but a fully ripe kiss drops right into your mouth like it was always meant to be there.
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Image credit: Bubbles wallpaper 4787
