A kiss from the past year, in honor of V Day

My favorite kiss of the past year takes place on page 185 of The Demon's Covenant, by Sarah Rees Brennan--it's the kiss that made me melt the most of just about any fictional kiss I've read. But knowing now a little more of that story I can't feel quite as I once did about it....it seems that those two kissers are not Meant to Be. So instead, here's a kiss that comes earlier in the book:

"Alan curled his fingers around the demon's neck and pulled her closer.

Then he let her go. They stood in the electric air with eyes locked instead of mouths.

"What price would I have to pay," Liannan whispered, "for you to let me out?"

"If I loved you," Alan said, "I'd do it for free."

"And what does it take to make you love someone?"

Alan smiled then, a small, rueful smile. "I don't know," he said. "Nobody's ever tried." (page 154)

Oh poor dear sweet Alan, taking on the burden of loving Nick all on his own, and (from what S.R.B. has let fall) facing Cruel Tortures in the next book....I almost wouldn't mind (well, I'd mind less than I might otherwise) if he died in book three, as long as he truly knew he was loved back (and got to kiss someone he really loves).

Changing books now--here's my favorite kiss that never happened.

My mind has kept returning to my V. Day post from 1999, and, because I love this book and want others too as well, and in the past two years I've gotten lots of new readers, here's part of what I wrote back then:

Here, taken from page 218 of The Cygnet and the Firebird, by Patricia McKillip (1993), is the fictional romance that frustrates me most, because I can't stand that there isn't any more of it. The first speaker is a prince caught by an enchantment that transforms him each day into a firebird. The second speaker is a young woman with the most insatiably curious mind for magic of any heroine I know, who is determined to break the spell.

"You used to look like a mage."

"What does a mage look like?"

"Like a closed book full of strange and marvellous things. Like the closed door to a room full of peculiar noises, lights that seep out under the door. Like a beautiful jar made of thick, colored glass that holds something glowing inside that you can't quite see, no matter how you turn the jar."

"And now?" she whispered. He came close; the light at their feet cast hollows of shadow across his eyes, drew the precise lines of his mouth clear.

"Now," he said softly, "you aren't closed. You're letting me see."

He slid his hand beneath her hair, around her neck. She watched light tremble in a drop of water near the corner of his mouth. He bent his head. The light leaped from star to star across his face, and then vanished. She closed her eyes and he was gone..."

Oh, I was so hopeful when this book, and its prequel (The Sorceress and the Cygnet), were recently republished as one volume (entitled Cygnet). It must, I told myself, mean that a third book is coming out, and they will actually get their kiss....but no joy yet.

Anyone else have a favorite frustrating fictional romance?