SCINTILLATE - Book #1 of The Light Key Trilogy

Bonus Scene! Fogging Up - Mari & Dun's First Kiss

In SCINTILLATE, book 1 of The Light Key Trilogy, Cora Sandoval discovers a pivotal clue in the California redwoods. Meanwhile, her best friends, Mari and Dun, are alone in the car as they wait for her. These precious moments alone might be the opportunity to act on feelings they've harbored for each other for too long. Enjoy this steamy bonus scene inspired by SCINTILLATE.

Fogging Up

A Mari & Dun Moment

"I don't know if I agree with what you said to Cora..." Dun said, as he opened the back door of the car and stepped out into the rain-drenched afternoon. Mari waited impatiently for the rest of his dissenting thought for the whole five seconds it took for him to open the shotgun door and slide back in the car. "...about love being like lightning that strikes sudden and hot. Not always, anyway."

            Mari flipped down the visor to see how badly the rain had smudged her kohl eyeliner. "Do tell," she said in that open-mouthed way that girls did when they were messing with their makeup but that only made it hard for Dun not to think about the soft bit of tongue he could see against the pad of her bottom lip.

            "It's not a well thought-out theory," he murmured, suddenly shy and taking the opportunity to stare out the window at the redwood forest, soaked in rain. Cora was out there, for a reason that perplexed both of them, but not enough to tramp out into the wet forest to find out what it was.

This was a golden opportunity to be alone.

Mari snapped the visor shut and fixed her dark eyes on Dun. "Tell me something scandalous."

"When people ask questions like that, it means they want to tell something scandalous. It's purely psychological," he said, tapping his temple. When Mari raised her eyebrow in a very 'I mean business' way, he surrendered. He'd always surrender to Mari. Except when he wouldn't.

A girl like Mari needed both.

"The first time I ever," Dun suddenly made a show of tracing the trajectory of raindrops on the window. "The first time I—um—gave myself over to the decadent art that is self-pleasure," he felt the heat rising up his neck. "I was thinking about you."

She grinned and turned sideways in her seat. Her knee bent over Dun's thigh, sealing heat against his skin. "Excellent," she said.  "And the second time?"

"To that Pixies, Surfer Rose album cover you showed me."

"Right? It was totally hot. Did it for me, too." She reveled in the surprise in Dun's eyes. "Hey," she shrugged. "Sexy is sexy."

"Tell me something else," she said. "Something PG."

"I want to live on my grandma's property someday, and fix up her old house, and I want to keep bees."

Mari's chin dipped and her eyes darkened with an emotion that was a blend of mischief and delight. "I'd like to have some of your honey," she said in a voice that dripped with it.

            Dun curled and uncurled his hands on his thighs, trying to think of a way to initiate the first of what he hoped would be thousands of kisses. Every kind. The soft, slow, exploratory ones. The quick pecks on the way to and from class. The kiss on the temple while watching a movie. The surprise kiss to shut her up when she was being mouthy. There would be lots of those. The kiss that lights a fuse burning to every part of your body—some parts more than others.

While he was busy thinking of the menu of kisses he'd like to have, Mari turned up the radio, blasting whatever was on, and reached into his hair. She was forever touching his hair. But this time, she wound it tightly in her fist and his fuse was lit before he knew what she'd do next.

She tugged on the clump in her hand and pulled his head forward.

            Mari kissed like she lived—razor tipped feathers. Heart and blade.

            She softened his bottom lip, taking it into her mouth with a gentle draw before biting it. Her hands held both sides of his face and he knew she was the wave he'd slip under if he didn't come up for air and start kicking. He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her off balance, tipping her toward him. Not one to be outdone, she slung her leg over his, straddled his lap, and with a tug at something next to his right hip, his seat flew back and suddenly Mari Sandoval was looking down on him. Victory was raspberry lips, pressed together in a smile as she rolled her hips forward to press against his and bent over to kiss his mouth. Over and over again, she crashed on his shores.

"I think Cora's coming back," she said, swiping a bit of fog from the window and peering through. She scooted off Dun's lap and smoothed her hair.

Dun couldn't stop looking at her and wondering if nothing changed or, if everything had. "I'm yours. You know that, right?"

She answered with soft eyes and a soft voice he hadn't often heard from her. "Yes. You're my best friend and I love you and if I were going to be anybody's, I'd be yours. I think the way it works is, I've gotta be mine first."

            The rear door opened swirling cool, wet air into the car as Cora got back in looking muddy, crazed, and furtive, like she was holding a secret as big as the towering redwoods surrounding them. A secret so powerful, that it seemed to them, it'd be better off kept because their best friend looked like she was already half swallowed up by it.

Anyway, they had their own secret.