"Let's call it a draw," he suggested, lowering his head.
Her hand shot out, wedged between them. "There can be no mouth on mouth. This is not permitted."
"Kisses are illegal in your world?"
"A kiss is a gift."
Now it was she who was breathless, from the press of his body, from the knowledge that his lips were nearly upon hers.
"One given in promise between those who mate."
A World Apart
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By KoS - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1280529
In early human societies, it is believed mothers weaned their babies by chewing up their food and then passing it to their babies by lip-to-lip contact. Evolutionary biologists suggest that erotic kissing is a so-called relic gesture, passed down through cultures from these early practices of the mother’s deep kissing and the infant’s searching tongue movements.
“If young lovers exploring each other’s mouths with their tongues feel the ancient comfort of parental mouth feeding, this may help them to increase their mutual trust and thereby their pair-bonding,”
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She rubbed her lips together, experimenting. His taste was still there-his flesh, yes-
but it was more. His mouth, the intimacy of the kiss that had been like- feeding each other.
She hadn't known such matters could have such heat, and yet be tender.
She had never known tenderness, nor had she believed she required it.
Small wonder that in the world she knew, a mouth kiss was reserved for lifemates and
was part of the sacred vows that stretched for all time.
A World Apart