Sunday Smooch with Kandy Shepherd

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from BEST MAN AND THE RUNAWAY BRIDE but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Juanita


Can you please contact 
Michelle (at) Michelle - Douglas (dot) com 
to receive your copy of Reunited by a Baby Secret


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Best Man and the Runaway Bride by Kandy Shepherd

Scandal at a society wedding!

Can he resist the runaway bride?

After helping Nikki Lucas flee her high-society wedding, privacy-loving best man Max Conway never expected to be accused of having an affair with the bride! As the media scandal dies down, he escapes to a remote island—and comes face-to-face with Nikki! Their connection is undeniable but she’s completely off-limits. Yet as the sun sets in paradise, both are struggling to resist…

Scene set-up: Nikki escapes the scandal of running away from her wedding in the arms of best man, international tennis star Max, to a tiny Indonesian island near Bali without telling anyone where she’s gone. Six months later, by coincidence, Max arrives on the island. They’re crazily attracted to each other but the last thing they need is another media scandal so they keep at arm’s length and strictly hands off. (Not that it’s easy!) When this scene starts they are heading for a beachside restaurant to catch the fabulous sunset and sneakily review the menu for her hotelier friends, while incognito pretending to be a tourist couple. They’ve shared a very brief kiss earlier, red hot and fiery, as Max had just accidentally eaten a very hot chilli pepper. Now, they’ve been transported to the sunset restaurant in the back of a taxi truck. During the ride, they’ve kept studiously apart.

Smooch: Nikki called a ‘thank you’ to [the driver] then went to get off the back of the truck. Max jumped down first. ‘I’m here if you need help,’ he said.

‘Of course I don’t need help,’ she said as she prepared to jump. ‘I’ve done this lots of times and—oh!’ She stumbled a little on the uneven ground and landed heavily against him.

‘Whoa,’ he said as he caught her and steadied her with his hands on her upper arms.

‘Th...thank you,’ she stuttered.

‘You okay?’ He looked down into her face.

‘Fine,’ she said. And feeling finer every second he kept his hands on her arms. His tennis-player calluses felt pleasingly rough against her sensitised bare skin, his fingers strong and firm.

When she didn’t move away he pulled her closer, so close she could sense the hammering of his heart, breathe in the exciting maleness of his scent, thrill at the warm strength of his body. She slid her arms around his waist and looked up at him, feeling nervous, excited, uncertain, on the brink of something unexpected. His eyes seemed a deeper shade of blue in the waning light and the intensity of his expression made her breath come short. For a very long moment their gazes locked in what seemed a series of unspoken questions with only one answer. Yes.

The world had shrunk to her and Max. Her lips parted in anticipation and she murmured her pleasure when he kissed her. His mouth was firm and warm against hers, his beard surprisingly soft against her skin. She tilted her head so she could more easily kiss him back.

‘Is this because we’re pretending to be a couple,’ she murmured against his mouth.

‘No, it’s because I want to kiss you,’ he said.

“I want to kiss you too.’ She licked along the seam of his mouth with the tip of her tongue. ‘No chilli this time. You’re naturally hot.’

‘You think so?’

‘Oh, yes.’ She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, deepening the kiss. What had started as tender very quickly escalated into something intense, demanding, passionate, so all-consuming all she could think about was Max and the heat they were generating. Desire burned through her. She pressed her body to his as lips and tongues became more demanding.

This. Him. Max. She wanted him.

She didn’t know how much longer they would have stood there in the middle of the narrow lane kissing, oblivious to their surroundings, if another truck hadn’t driven up to deposit visitors to the restaurant. At the sound of its blaring horn, she came plummeting back to reality. Reluctantly she pulled away, immediately had to hold onto Max’s arm to steady herself on legs that had turned to jelly. She blinked with bewilderment.

‘What happened?’ She choked out the words.

Max looked equally shaken. He took in a deep, shuddering breath. ‘The inevitable,’ he said.

Nikki didn’t have to ask what he meant. No matter how she’d tried to deny it, they’d been heading towards this.

‘The...the question is where do we go from here?’ She knew her voice sounded strained and uncertain. 

Max reached out and gently smoothed the strands of her hair that had come loose back off her face. She stood very still, briefly closed her eyes at the pleasure of his touch on her skin. ‘Wherever it leads us,’ he said. 

Best Man and the Runaway Bride is a July release from Harlequin Romance in North America, Mills & Boon Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand, and Mills & Boon True Love in the UK

Author Photo and question: Have you ever bumped into someone, quite by coincidence, somewhere you’d never expect to see them? Do you enjoy a runaway bride story? Sportsman heroes—yes or no? 

I’d love to read your thoughts. Leave a comment below to be in the draw for a signed paperback copy of Best Man and the Runaway Bride (mailed internationally.)

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Annie West will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

get moving

I'm not giving anything away by letting on that the heroine in my latest book - RESCUING THE ROYAL RUNAWAY BRIDE - is a runaway bride ;). She literally jumps out of a ground floor window of a castle and runs across hill and dale in a pretty huge pink wedding dress in order to avoid marrying...well, a gorgeous prince, actually.  (But that's another story...)

I’ve never been a runner.  Or a jumper.  I have bad knees.  And low willpower when it comes to purposely inflicting discomfort upon myself. So apart from a strange aberration at the age of 10, I’ve never been a runner.  A lap swimmer.  Or a bicycler. Cyclist?  See I don’t’ even know the terminology.

The reason for my bad knees is years of dancing when I was a kid.  Because I looooove to dance.  In a club.  At a wedding.  Or in my kitchen with Bruno Mars slipping me some Uptown Funk.

I did Physical Culture (now Physie) for fifteen odd years.  I took Highland Dancing classes for three.  I was a gymnast (avoiding vault with everything I had, for its nothing but running and jumping and therefore the ultimate evil).

"Go Team Go!"

One of my first jobs was as a professional cheerleader. There was some jumping involved but the dance portion, and the pure fun, made up for it.  My team won a lot which helped.  And we got to travel – all the way to the USA one year.  So I coped.

Funnily, I never tried ballet until a couple of years ago - ballet slippers, legwarmers, the lot!  The flexibility and strength required, even from that first lesson, was mind-boggling.  It was truly hard. But those years of dance training as a kid stick so picking up the routines was doable.  And immensely satisfying.  My muscles thanked me for putting them through the wringer, even as they wept.

It's all about the outfit.

My favourite part of dancing was always the part where you stretch at the beginning and the end.  (The least runny/jumpy parts 😊.)

Imagine my state of pure bliss the first time I tried yoga.  Yoga is now my thing.  My bliss.  My time out.  My mental break.  No running.  No jumping.  Just lots of gorgeous stretching and stretching and more stretching. And then you get to lie down at the end for a really long time!

Yoga is the kind of purposeful infliction of discomfort I understand.  Not huffing and puffing and getting lactic acid itches in your legs and stitches in your side.  The kind where you feel your spine unfolding and your muscles sighing.  Where afterwards you feel an inch taller, and like you’re floating just a little off the ground.  Where you can feel oodles of sanctimony for having moved your body while at the same time sending “your positive energy out to your love ones and the whole world”!

Run as far and fast as you like, kids, no track coach will ever give you that 😉.

How about you?  What’s your favourite way to get moving? Do you love exercise or believe its the work of the devil?

(For those who are concerned about the fate of the gorgeous prince left at the altar by the runaway bride in RESCUING THE RUNAWAY BRIDE, do not fret!  He gets his own happy ever after in AMBER AND THE ROGUE PRINCE.)

Sunday Smooch with Kandy Shepherd

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from Kandy Shepherd but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is... LynLill Williams!



Can you please contact Melanie Milburne at

melaniemilburne (at) gmail (dot) com 

to receive your copy of Unwrapping His Convenient Fiancée

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Greek Tycoon's Mistletoe Proposal

A proposal of convenience! 

When billionaire Lukas Christophedes finds maid Ashleigh gatecrashing his mansion, he strikes a bargain: if Ashleigh acts as Lukas's girlfriend to help him close a deal, she can stay until the New Year! 

For newly single Ashleigh, agreeing to keep hearts off the table sounds easy…until the line between what's real and what's for show starts to blur! And as Christmas approaches, all Ashleigh is wishing for is a different, much more heartfelt, proposal…

Scene set-up

When Aussie runaway bride and temporary maid Ashleigh Murphy has an accommodation crisis in London at Christmas time, she decides to squat in the Chelsea townhouse of Greek billionaire Lukas Christophedes. Lukas is furious when he discovers her. Reluctantly she agrees to be his pretend girlfriend to help him close a deal, after a  Pretty Woman type makeover. But the deal doesn't close easily. Ashleigh is thrown more into Lukas's company than she bargained for - and the more time she spends with them the more attracted she is to him. Lukas is beguiled by lovely Ashleigh but he has his reasons for holding back from the enchanting intruder. Trouble is, all that fake flirting and pretend kissing means the sensual tension between them is building. Finally they face each other after a dinner party where they've been pretending to be a loving couple...

Smooch 
It was as if all Ashleigh’s fantasies had come to life. As soon as she and Lukas reached the pavement outside Tina’s apartment, he turned her to him, looked deep into her face. She thrilled to the intensity of his eyes, the way they narrowed as he searched her face, the sensual half curve of his mouth. Then, without a word, he pulled her close to him.

Finally, the truth—no words required. His quickened breathing told her all she needed to know. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. Her gasp of impatience, of want, no doubt sent the same message to him.

Then his mouth was on hers, hard, warm, exciting, demanding a response. She parted her lips, welcomed him, kissed him back. It felt as if she’d waited all her life for this. For him.

It hadn’t started sweet and gentle and went straight to deep and demanding—an urgent meeting of mouths and tongues, of bodies straining hard against each other. His overcoat was open. She splayed her hands on his hard chest and pushed him to the wall behind him. At last. This. Lukas. Her heart thudded loud and fast. He slid his hands inside her coat, to pull her close—as close as she could be to his body through layers of winter clothes. Her nipples tightened as desire pulsed through her in a wave that demanded more. He held her so close to his body she felt his response, hard and insistent, which further inflamed her. She wanted him.

‘Lukas,’ she moaned. ‘Why did we wait so long for this?’

He stilled. She knew immediately she’d said the wrong thing. ‘We didn’t,’ he said, his voice hoarse and strained. ‘I’ve only known you a week.’

‘That’s long enough,’ she said, her voice raspy with desire.

‘For what?’

‘For this,’ she said, lifting her face to his, hungry for his mouth to possess hers again.

Greek Tycoon's Mistletoe Proposal is my November release from Harlequin Romance (Cherish in the UK, Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand).

Greek Tycoon's Mistletoe Proposal is the second in the Maids Under the Mistletoe mini series from Harlequin Romance . Four friends who have fallen on difficult times work for Maids in Chelsea, an upmarket employment agency, and find love. Each book about the Christmas Cinderellas stands alone but are linked. There's also a fifth story, written by me, Claiming His Christmas Bride which is the free, online read at harlequin.com right now! Clio Caldwell, the owner of the agency, meets up again with former fiancée, sizzling Spaniard Enrique di Costa. Will the chance meeting lead them up the aisle as a Christmas bride? 

I love writing Christmas stories and these two were particularly fun as they were set in London in winter - a different experience for folk from Down Under who have a summer  Christmas.

Do you have a Christmas tradition that you maintain no matter where you are, summer or winter, during the festive season?
Leave your comment for a chance to win a signed copy of Greek Tycoon's Mistletoe Proposal (all regions).

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Yvonne Lindsay will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

Sunday Smooch with Yvonne Lindsay

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  Yvonne Lindsay but first 


... the  winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Laura Russell!


Can you please contact Michelle via michelle (a) michelle-douglas (dot) com to receive your prize!


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Wedding Bargain (book 6 in the Master Vintners series) which is being released through Harlequin Desire on 1 March 2015.

A runaway bride finds herself rescued, seduced—and pregnant!—in this tale from USA TODAY bestseller Yvonne Lindsay.

Who would dare object when Shanal Peat is about to say I do in a church full of wedding guests? The bride herself, that’s who. Shanal just can’t go through with the bargain she’s made. She’ll have to save her destitute parents without an arranged marriage.

Australian billionaire Raif Masters delights in rescuing the runaway bride from his nemesis. But when hiding out on a riverboat leads to passion—and when passion leads to pregnancy—Raif must prove he’s in it for love, not vengeance.

[Scene set-up: After rescuing her from her wedding, Raif has taken Shanal on a river boat up the Murray River to give her time to come to terms with her decision to run away from her fiance. Raif's fought a crush on this 'older woman' ever since he was in his mid teens and he's trying to do the right thing by her now--it's what his absent cousin would expect. But a playful challenge over who is going to make lunch becomes a whole lot more serious when it seems Shanal has been fighting her own attraction to Raif and--after all these years--she's ready to act on it.]

   Shanal had one foot on the gangplank to the boat, then another, and was about to turn and relish her success when a pair of strong arms wrapped around her and lifted her clean off her feet. She squealed again, this time in surprise, as Raif spun her a full 180 degrees.

   “I win!” he crowed as he set foot on the deck and slowly lowered her down, laughing in the face of her frustration.

   “And you say I cheated?” Shanal said through gasps of air, turning to him in disgust.

   “Hey, you forget. I’ve seen how you can run,” he teased, obviously alluding to her bolt from the church yesterday. “I had to use every advantage I had. Besides, I like to win.”

   “That’s not fair,” she protested. Was it only a day ago? It felt like forever. Or did she just wish it was?

   “All’s fair in love and war.” He smiled back cheekily.

   “You may live to regret that statement,” she warned. “Remember, I can’t cook.”

   Raif shrugged. “I also like to live dangerously, don’t you?”

   She looked at him and felt a tug that pulled from her core. It had nothing to do with her labored breathing and everything to do with the fact that he still had her in the circle of his arms. Her heart was already pumping hard, her senses heightened, and all she could think of was how snugly she fit against him, how close his lips were to hers. How, if she just flexed her hips a little, she’d be nestled in the cradle of his pelvis.

   But did she dare?

   She did.

   Shanal lifted her hands to his head and tugged it down toward her. “I haven’t had much cause to live dangerously so far, but I’m willing to give it a try.”

   And then she kissed him.

   She felt the shock roll through his body as her lips touched his. He was unresponsive for a second, then two. She began to wonder if she’d been foolish to do this, to act on the impulse that had overridden her usually careful and considered way of approaching things.

   But then his lips began to move over hers, and his arms tightened, pulling her even closer against his body, against his solid strength. Her fingers furrowed through his short dark hair, holding him in place. Not wanting to let him go for a second, because if she did, she’d have to face the questions that would no doubt be in his eyes. Questions she didn’t know the answer to herself.

   All she knew was that she suddenly realized just how deeply she longed for this. For this man, for his kiss. She slid her tongue softly along his lower lip, felt the shudder that racked his body, felt him harden against her.

   This was how it was meant to be between a man and a woman. Need, desire, want. Not a cold clinical agreement. Not the feeling of being a possession, to be shaped and molded to someone else’s taste. Just the need to possess and be possessed in return. She moaned as Raif’s tongue touched hers, as a flame of heat speared through her body. She pressed against him, aching for him to fill that emptiness that echoed inside her. Desperate for him to ease the pounding demand that throbbed through her veins.

   His hands slid under the sweater she was wearing, his sweater, and the heat of his touch burned through the thin T-shirt that acted as a barrier between his skin and hers. She wanted more. She wanted Raif. Her fingers clenched in his hair and she kissed him more fiercely, her tongue now dueling with his. Advance, retreat, advance again. The taste of him was intoxicating, another sensation to fill her mind and overwhelm her senses.

   She felt her nipples tighten into aching buds, and she pressed against him, the movement sending tiny shafts of pleasure to rocket through her body. She’d never felt anything quite like this before. This level of total abandonment, this depth of need.

   The sound of the ferry horn echoed across the water—a stark and sudden reminder of where they were, of what they were doing. Shanal let her hands drop to Raif’s shoulders as she pulled back. Her entire body thrummed with energy and anticipation, but as she came back to awareness of her surroundings once more, the strength leached from her body, leaving her feeling empty, limp.

   “I—” she started.

   Raif pressed a short and all too sweet kiss to her lips. “Don’t say a word. It’s okay. To the winner, the spoils, right?”

Do you remember your first kiss with your significant other? Or do you have a favourite memory from a wedding (either yours or someone else's?) Share it with us here on the blog and one comment will be drawn as a winner of a signed copy of THE WEDDING BARGAIN.

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from the lovely Sue Mackay will be posted!