Romance and the Rugby World Cup

Reading: Serpent’s Kiss by Thea Harrison
Watching: Rugby World Cup
Listening to: Elmo songs
Making me smile: My little boy swimming in the pool

For the last few weeks my husband’s been hogging the TV to watch the Rugby World Cup. I don’t mind watching the odd game of football (of any type) but game after endless game gets a bit much! Hubby is an English American living in Australia…that means he has to watch the USA, England and the Australia games.


To survive the World Cup, I decided to put my romance writer hat on! I’ve been busy studying the players for potential heroes (to hubby’s horror, I found some potentials on the French team!) I’ve been noting down names that would work for future heroes -- how do you like Leonardo Senatore (Argentina) or Delon Armitage (England)? And I love watching teams that do a haka to start their games…it makes me wonder how I could get that into the plot of a story.


So, all-in-all I’ve been coping just fine watching the rugby with hubby. Next up will be a game that might divide the LoveCats – the Wallabies vs. the All Blacks! I might not love the rugby, but I’m still patriotic -- Go Wallabies!! And my little boy agrees (-:

Anyone else watching the World Cup? Are you a sports fan or someone who has their own tips for surviving watching sports with your other half?

Kate Walker Sunday Smooch!

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from The Return of the Stranger by Kate Walker, but first ...

The winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is --
Kylie!


Congratulations, Kylie! Please contact Rachel at

Rachel (at) RachelBailey (dot) com, and she'll send you a copy of Return of the Secret Heir.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Return of the Stranger by Kate Walker ...


Standing high on the windswept moors, the lone figure of Heath Montanha vows vengeance on the woman who destroyed the last fragments of his heart...
 
Lady Katherine Charlton has never forgotten the stablehand with dangerous fists and a troubled heart from her childhood. Now the rebel is back, his powerful anger concealed under a polished and commanding veneer.

When ten years of scandal and secrets are unleashed, with a passionate, furious kiss, Heath's deepest, darkest wish crystallises...

Revenge -- and Kat -- will be his!






[The set up...] Return of the Stranger was written as part of a special mini-series using classics of romantic fiction for inspiration and as a springboard to create a new, modern story. So it is the story of Heath Montanha and Katherine (Kat) Charlton.

When they were young, Katherine was the daughter of a local land owner and Heath, the orphaned foundling that her father found in Liverpool and gave home to where they both grew up. But when Kat’s father died, her brother Joe treated Heath appallingly and when Katherine became more involved with Arthur, the son of Lord Charlton, Heath walked out and left to make his fortune.

Now, ten years later he is back, looking for revenge on the man who treated him so cruelly and to see again the woman who had taken his heart and broken it into tiny pieces. He plans to take one look and the walk away, but finds he just can’t do that. As this extract reveals, he kisses her three times in the early part of the story – once in hungry demand, once deliberately seductive. . . . and now this kiss which changes everything.

And he was moving, she realised hazily. She hadn’t noticed him take action but he was coming closer, slowly, steadily, almost imperceptibly. He was taking one step and then another, and another . . .

She should back away, get out of his reach. She told herself that she wanted to back away, but her body refused to obey her, Instead she stayed exactly where she was, feet firmly rooted to the ground, her breathing fast and shallow, her heart thudding heavily inside her chest.

‘Now how shall we do this, namorada.’

‘We . . ? '

We won’t be doing it at all, she meant to say, but the single syllable was all she could manage. It seemed that as she spoke she took in the scent of him on the air, her mouth remembered the taste of him and wanted more.

‘We . . .’ she said again and it was just a sigh.

‘We . . .’ Heath agreed, nodding his dark head. ‘Because it is ‘we’, isn’t it, my lovely? It is the two of us. Not just you or me – but the two of us together , making more than ever apart. We.’

The last word was spoken as his head lowered to hers, his mouth taking hers so that she swayed against him, hunger weakening every limb so that she needed his strength to hold and support her as she melted into him.

Three kisses. They had shared only three kisses in all the time she had known him, and yet each kiss had been so very different, so unique, so totally unlike each other that Kat felt as if she had experienced a lifetime of caresses from this man.

The first, here in this hallway one the day he had come back into her life, his kiss had been like being in the eye of a burning storm. The flaring passion had taken her and dropped her right into the heart of an inferno where she had thought that she would be burned up to ashes before her heart could even take another beat. Then the slow, seduction of that second had melted her senses, leaving her half out of her mind with the sort of sensual awakening that had filled her whole body with hunger and yearning.

But this kiss was another new experience. And even as his mouth touched hers she knew that this was the kiss that had the potential to break her heart. It was the kiss she had dreamed of, longed for. The kiss she had been waiting for all her life.

Kissing Arthur - and being kissed by him – had been like kissing an enthusiastic boy, clumsy, endearing, excited, but somehow lacking in finesse. She had thought it was just the start of things. That it was bound to get better, but instead it had come to lack even more - but lacking what she had never known until now. She had taken the blame for it because she hadn’t known any better. Until that first kiss from Heath had shown her how it could be between a man and a woman.

How a man should kiss a woman.

This was a man’s kiss. And she received it as a woman, knowing that the feelings it stirred in her were the richest, deepest, most feminine emotions possible. It was a kiss that opened her mind and her senses to new sensations to heat of skin, the scent of his body, the strength of taut muscle, and the taste of his mouth on her, hard and soft in the same moment, moist and warm and totally personal.

The Return of the Stranger is available now in Australia and New Zealand as a Sexy and NA as a Presents Extra. To be in the draw to win a signed copy as well as two books from Kate Walker's backlist, just tell us which are your favourite classic romances?

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from Tempting the Negotiator by Zana Bell will be posted!

What do the Mills & Boon Loves... authors - and their pets - love?

My debut Harlequin/Mills & Boon Romance, Secrets & Speed Dating, is part of the Mills & Boon Loves... anthology, which is currently on the shelves in the UK. When I was in New York at the Romance Writers of America conference back in July, I was lucky enough to meet the other three anthology authors: Maisey Yates, Barbara Wallace and Aimee Carson - we even got a photo of us all together at the incomparable Harlequin Black & White Party:

Aimee, Maisey, Barb and me!

Aimee, Maisey and Barb have been kind enough to visit us today, and, as we all love our furry friends here at the LoveCats, to share a little bit about what their pets love, and also what they loved about their Mills & Boon Loves... story. Please make them welcome :)

Aimee Carson

The very gorgeous Akiko

Akiko loves . . . reprimanding her master when she doesn’t get her way!  She insists on her daily walk in the woods or she sends me evil looks—a very un-doggy like expression complete with a Clint Eastwood-esque eye squint. Once when I arrived back home from a hike which I’d taken without her, Akiko entered my walk-in shower where I was trying to relax under a stream of hot water. My dog stood in the corner of the stall with her back to me, giving me the evil eye over her shoulder, literally, for the entire time I was there.  

Aimee Carson loves . . . that there are little pieces of me, good and bad, in both my hero and heroine. Even though my childhood was rather idyllic, I’m still a fighter like Alyssa.  And Paulo’s belief in a healthy work-life balance is something I’ve advocated for years.  Now, I realize every character an author writes is in some way a reflection of their lives, but Secret History of a Good Girl is my debut book, so seeing these two in print is a real thrill!

Maisey Yates

Maisey's adorable kids

Aidric, Kian and Alani love...chaos! And this is why Maisey doesn't have any pets. ;) I call the two youngest 'team trouble'. They will work together if it means they can snag a jar of jam from the kitchen and eat it with their bare hands before I can find them! And the oldest is much smarter than the rest of us, which is its own complication! ;) (he's been reading since age two...)

Maisey Yates loves....I think the thing I love most about The Petrov Proposal is Aleksei's relationship with his late wife, and how it changed him. It's a strange thing to love, I guess, but I HURT for that man while I wrote him. He loved big, and he lost big. So when he falls for the heroine, she isn't his first love, but he's fallen in love before and he knows how much it costs. Even knowing that, he wants Maddy enough to risk it. (Fun fact, Aleks has made me cry more than any other hero so far. ;) I really fell for him!)

Barbara Wallace

Minion (best name ever!)

Minion (Age 5 months) loves….Keeping the world safe from tin foil balls; proving his superior intellect over the dog.

Minion, the one-eyed kitten, is the latest edition to the Wallace Space for Misfit Animals.  Our other pets include Squeak, who suffered brain damage after a parasitic infection and Chuckie, a four-year-old rescue dog with anxiety issues.  All are incredibly pampered and spoiled in their new home.  Minion – who had his eye removed at two months – has already made himself at home, even claiming the most coveted sleeping spot in the house, the head of the bed.  This spot is desired because not only are there pillows to sleep on, but you can look out the window while feeling the warm air coming from the baseboard heat.

Barbara Wallace loves….Hinckley, the three-legged cat from The Cinderella Bride. Hinckley lives on Gideon Kent’s boat and eventually takes over Mariah Kent’s hotel penthouse suite.  I based this cat on our dearly departed Hobart who we owned for nearly twenty years.  Like Hinckley, Hobart thought he was a human and demanded the best seats in the house.  Worst part was, the entire family catered to this belief.  My elderly uncle once sat on the floor during a family gathering because “the cat looked too comfortable on the sofa to move.”  Hinckley would approve.  By the way, although it’s never mentioned in the book, Hinckley is named after a type of luxury sailboat.  Gideon would have named him Morris (after the boat he sails) but felt it was redundant.

Leah Ashton

Luna... on my lap :)

Luna loves... Laps. As I write this blog, she is (as always) sitting on mine, although she is very generous and will share herself around. Her second favourite lap belongs to my husband, with any other visiting lap in equal third place. Over the past few months she has begun a campaign to lay on our rottweiller (do dogs have laps?). So far the plan consists of laying very very close to the rotti in front of the fire, poking the rotti as she sleeps (checking for comfiness levels, maybe?) and spending hours staring at the rotti with a rather calculating expression - while on my lap, of course!

Leah Ashton loves... the little bits of Croatia in Secrets & Speed Dating. My mum's family is Croatian, and while I'd never been until last year, the Croatian culture (and food!) has had a huge impact on my life. I announced the opening line to Secrets & Speed Dating at my regular family dinner at my Nana and Dida's house, and then began to write it while on holiday in Vela Luke, Korcula (Croatia), staying at my Nana's old cottage, right on the water. Then, I found out that my book would be published while visiting my Dida in hospital - he passed away at the age of 97 only two days later. So - the little glimpses of Croatia in my book (my hero is half Croatian, and Croatian food is mentioned more than once!) are a little part of me, and my family - and I love that they are in my debut novel.

Thanks for visiting the LoveCats Aimee, Maisey and Barb - and especially for bringing along your furry (and not so furry) friends!

So, what do you - or your furry friend - love?

Watching: Dolphins in our bay



Listening to: The splashes the dolphins make as they cruise around



Reading: Here Comes the Groom by Karina Bliss

Do you read Mills & Boon books? "No, but my mother does." Heard that one?

How about - "I used to when I was a teenager."

We've all heard the comments, right? With some people there's always been a stigma attached to admitting to reading these stories and yet they sell so well. I've heard tales of people finding boxes or cupboards full of HM&B books when they've gone to clear out a beloved mother or grandmother's home. Until then they hadn't known their relative read "those" books.

But how did these ladies buy our books without being seen? I have a friend who genuinely never reads them but went to buy my first book from a local store. She was quite open about it until, while standing in the checkout queue, someone she knew came up to her and said "I didn't know you read Mills and Boon". So my friend slid the book under whatever else she was holding and said in a throwaway tone, "Oh, I'm only buying this because I know the author."
At least she was buying it.
Of course, nowadays it is so much easier to be secretive about what you're reading, just download the book.

Is it this stigma that makes some authors write under another name? With that in mind, maybe they pick the name of someone they don't like. I'm kidding. I don't think that's the case at all, although in my pre-published days people did ask me if I would write under my name or use a pseudonym. When asked why I wouldn't want to use my own name they seemed surprised I'd admit to writing "those" books.

I love these stories, and I'm so proud to have sold to M&B that I'll shout it from the rooftop and anywhere else for that matter. I'd take out a full page ad in the local paper if I could afford it and thought it would send people to the shops to buy my books.

So, are you all open about the books you buy? Do you tell your friends you read HM&B stories?
I'd love to read your thoughts on this.




And: We have some winners here:
Eleni and Sonali, you have both won copies of "Cause Love".
Nas and Marybelle, you have won copies of the superromance 2:1.

Congratulations. Please can you provide addresses so we know where to send them.

Wedding Night Blues

by Emily May

I was pondering the virgin hero (the hero of my current book lost his virginity years ago, but I'd like to write a virgin hero one day) when I remembered the case of Effie Gray and John Ruskin. John Ruskin was a renowned Victorian art critic and Effie was his bride. John was handsome, Effie was beautiful ... but the marriage was never consummated. In fact, six years after they married, Effie filed a suit of nullity on the grounds of non-consummation.

According to Effie, her husband gave a number of reasons for not consummating the marriage (including dislike of children, religious motivations, and a desire to preserve her beauty) before finally revealing the truth:

"that he had imagined women were quite different to what he saw I was, and that the reason he did not make me his Wife was because he was disgusted with my person"

 This was confirmed by Ruskin himself during the annulment proceedings:

"It may be thought strange that I could abstain from a woman who to most people was so attractive. But though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion. On the contrary, there were certain circumstances in her person which completely checked it."

There has been much speculation about what those 'circumstances in her person' were. Menstrual blood, is one suggestion. Body odour is another. A third (and the one I think most likely) is that it was her pubic hair that revolted him.

John Ruskin was an art critic. He had seen countless paintings and sculptures of nude women -- but they were smooth and hairless creatures. If he'd only ever seen naked women in art, then it is entirely conceivable that he'd have been shocked and even disgusted by the sight of a real woman's body.

Poor Effie! Young and beautiful -- and rejected on her wedding night by her husband. Not what she would have been hoping for!

(And spare some pity for poor old Ruskin, who was a victim in this too. How upset he must have been to discover that real women didn't look like the ones he'd spent years admiring on canvas and carved out of marble!)

After six years of sexless marriage, Effie obtained an annulment and went on to marry the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, with whom she had eight children -- so clearly that marriage was consummated!

John Ruskin never married. In fact, his biographers haven't found evidence that he was sexually intimate with anyone. (Again, spare the man some pity.)

It's funny, I can imagine that a Regency heroine might be shocked by her first sight of a naked man, but I've never given much thought to how a Regency hero might react to his first ever sight of a naked woman. It never occurred to me that he'd be so horrified that he'd never have sex! It's safe to say that if I ever do write a virgin hero, he won't be appalled by the sight of his naked lover; on the contrary, he'll be eager to get rid of his virginity!

So, what do you think of virgin heroes??? Have you read any romances with virgin heroes, either historical or contemporary, that you can recommend?

Rachel Bailey Sunday Smooch

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from RETURN OF THE SECRET HEIR by Rachel Bailey, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is:

Amanda Gardener!

Congratulations, Amanda! Can you please contact Leah at
leah (at) leah-ashton (dot) com, and she'll send you a copy of SECRETS & SPEED DATING.


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from RETURN OF THE SECRET HEIR by Rachel Bailey ...




More than he bargained for...

He's returned for a fortune and is confronted by memories. Though tycoon JT Hartley is a success in his own right, he's set on claiming his share of his late father's legacy. But first he has to get past the estate executor - none other than Pia Baxter, a woman he's never forgotten.

Theirs had been a fast-and-furious union that ended all too suddenly. And though desire still courses between them, JT knows starting anything with Pia again is just asking for trouble. His future is set in stone. But even the best-laid plans are no match for true passion.

[Set up: Pia has agreed to JT's request for one meeting to lay some ground rules on how they will interact with each other while JT challenges his biological father's will, a will for which Pia has been appointed executor. After JT arrives at her apartment on his motorbike, they began with the basics, like JT agreeing not to visit Pia's office again, and Pia agreeing not to bias her clients against JT. But things have started to veer off track...]

She crossed her arms under her breasts, mirroring his pose, and his eyes followed the action, resting too intimately for her comfort level.

"Fair enough, princess," he said with a rasp in his voice.

Her heart missed a beat. "Don't call me princess."

"Is that a rule or a request?"

"A ground rule, JT."

"Sure," he said too casually. "If you stop saying my name like that."

She did a quick mental scan of how she'd been saying it, but couldn't see anything to give offence. "Like what?"

"Say it," he commanded in a low, seductive voice.

"JT," she said.

A lazy smile spread across his face. "Yeah, like that."

Pia stared at him, perplexed, but he didn't explain why simply saying his name could be a problem.

"And while we're at it," he said, "that chain has to go."

She glanced down at her necklace. A simple gold chain with a P that hung low. "I've always worn it."

"I know, and it's always driven me crazy. If you want our past off the table, then you need to remove it." He blinked slowly. "It sits in your cleavage and you don't want my mind going there any more than I can help."

His gaze locked on hers and didn't waver. Her pulse raced erratically. He'd cornered her with a few words and he knew it. If she refused, she'd be inviting his flirting and she was so close to doing that already that she couldn't take the risk of sending the wrong signals. With trembling fingers she slipped off the chain. As soon as he left, she could put it back on—he'd never know because she shouldn't be seeing him again. She dropped it on the coffee table.

"And," he said, seeming to warm to his subject, "you need to keep your feet covered."

Her mouth dropped open. "What?"

"You're not the Pia I remember. You're buttoned down and covered up. The only hint of my Pia is those brightly painted toe nails."

A delicious shiver zipped across her skin at the way he said my Pia, but she ignored it as she looked down at the hot pink she'd painted on yesterday while she'd been home sick. "It's just nail polish. Lots of women wear it."

"But they wear it somewhere people can see. I'm guessing you never wear it on your fingers. Only on your toes, and then you always wear closed-toe shoes at work. No one sees your polish, do they, Pia?" he said, voice low.

She lifted her chin, not happy with his assessment—or its accuracy. "It's not professional."

"Then don't flash your toes at me either."

She moistened her lips. This was becoming ridiculous. "You won't be in my house again to see," she said, but her voice wavered.

"Even so…" He left the thought hanging and her pulse hammered with the tension in the air.

"Then you keep your biceps covered," she blurted.

"My biceps?" he said, his eyes widening.

She waved a hand in the general direction of his arms, trying not to look. "You swagger in here in a T-shirt that stretches tight over your arms, and then have the gall to tell me to have my toes covered and take off a chain."

"My biceps?" he asked again, slowly, as if realizing that meant she'd noticed them. Awareness flashed in his eyes. "It sits better under the jacket if it's firm," he said absently.

Feeling edgy, she closed her teeth over a long index fingernail and watched him follow the move with his eyes.

He swallowed hard, then swallowed again. "And don't do that."

"Do what?" she whispered.

He took a step closer. "Touch your mouth."

She lost her breath. He was so close.

"Why?" she said, heart racing, knowing to ask was playing with fire, but nonetheless helpless not to say the words.

JT looked down at that lush mouth and was tempted beyond endurance. He closed the last inches that separated them and brought his mouth down, groaning when he could feel the moist softness of her lips. His arms reached out and snared her waist, pulling her sumptuous curves against his body. No woman had ever felt like Pia against him.

He touched his tongue to her lips and she hesitated for a moment, then he felt her throw caution to the wind and part them, granting him access to the heated depths. A tremor ran through her body and he held her tighter, feeling her hands reach to twine behind his neck, holding him in place. There was no need—he wasn't going anywhere. He hadn't planned on kissing her, but there was nothing he wanted more in this moment. Her mouth, with its taste of ambrosia, moved under his, and she rubbed seductively against him, inviting. As he nipped at her bottom lip, his hands roamed down from her waist, over the flare of her hips, wanting more.

RETURN OF THE SECRET HEIR is available now at eHarlequin and in US shops, and will be on sale in Australia & NZ in November. It's connected to AT THE BILLIONAIRE'S BECK & CALL? and MILLION-DOLLAR AMNESIA SCANDAL (the heroes in all three books are half-brothers) but each book stands alone.



Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from RETURN OF THE STRANGER by Kate Walker will be posted!