Excerpt
She tilted her head a barely visible inch. ‘Have we started the
honesty thing now?’
He nodded.
She mirrored the movement. ‘Yes, we’ve managed to not get to know each other,
but that’s maybe got something to do with the fact that we don’t exactly get
on.’
He considered her words, his eyes still on her face. ‘Maybe because until the
reunion night we’d never tried.’
She grimaced. ‘Oh yeah, and look where that got us.’
‘Alright so that’s not a good example,’ The smile remained. ‘But maybe it was
just easier for us to argue the whole time than it was to try actually talking
to each other.’
Her heart thumped a loud beat against her ribs. She glanced away from his
addictive smile and studied the contents of her mug intently. ‘And why do you
think that is?’
Adam thought his answer through carefully. ‘Because isn’t that what most people
do, hide behind something or other?’
She glanced up from beneath long lashes. ‘You hide?’
His eyes searched the room for a second as he shrugged again. ‘I guess.’
‘Rather than make an attachment with someone?’
Was
that what he did? The question caught him off guard, but after a moment’s
thought he realized that she was right. It was exactly what he did. Because he
liked the uncomplicated simplicity of single life, liked the lack of
attachments. He could go where he wanted to go, see who he wanted to see. He was
free as a bird. But as he looked back into Dana’s too blue eyes and felt the
newly familiar tug towards her, he wondered for the first time if it wasn’t just
the littlest bit lonely.
He shook his head at the thought.
She raised her eyebrow again. ‘Is that a no?’
He managed a downward smile at the contents of his mug. ‘No, it’s not a no. I’ve
just never thought about it that way. You’re right.’
‘Why?’
The low tone of her voice drew his attention back to her face. He watched as she
tried to hide her eyes from him with a downward glance and a sip of her tea. He
watched her small fingers curl around the mug, saw her throat move as she
swallowed and then her eyes looked back into his.
He blinked. ‘I just never thought it was for me.’
She looked away again, unreasonably disappointed
by his answer. But she’d known it already, really, hadn’t she? So there was no
surprise. She tried to hide behind a smile as she looked back at him,
‘The everlasting bachelor, huh?’
‘Something like that.’
She nodded and continued to smile.
After a moment Adam actually managed to look away from her face. It was quite an
achievement, considering how gorgeous she looked. It had to be that
pregnant glow he’d heard so much about. He cleared his throat. ‘So what about
you?’
‘You already told me. I’m prickly.’
‘Because of Jim?’ His eyes shot back to her face as the question jumped out.
She nodded before taking another sip of tea. ‘Among other things, I guess.’
‘Did he break your heart?’
Had he? She frowned for a moment as she thought about her answer, keeping her
eyes lowered and hidden. It irritated her immensely when her voice shook on the
words. ‘When you love someone enough to marry them you want it to work. You want
them to love you as much as you try to love them. It’s hard to let go of that I
guess. But I think the failure broke my heart more than anything else.’
Adam frowned inwardly at her words. He wondered if she still regretted it
hadn’t worked, if there was a chance would she try again? He discovered his
honesty only stretched so far, choosing to state the obvious instead, ‘Because
you like to be in control and it was taken from you.’
Her eyes shot to his. ‘What did you do Adam, take a degree in some psycho-babble
at some point so you can pinpoint the reasons behind a prospective customer
being defensive?’
His green eyes remained steady. ‘Prickly.’
She glared at him.
‘I’m right, aren’t I?’ He made his voice soothing,
leaning his upper body a little closer as he spoke. ‘It’s why you’re so anally
retentive in work and in the way you look outside of this house. You like to be
in control. Because if you’re in control you feel safe.’
She blinked and felt her eyes well up again.
He set his cup down beside him and held her gaze. ‘But here, inside this house
you get to be you. A little chaotic, more disorganized and you let yourself look
all soft and feminine and relaxed. When someone walks through that front door
it’s like they’re walking straight into a little piece of you. You know that,
right?’
She felt her heart beat faster at his words and nodded.
He moved across the divide and sat on the sofa beside her. ‘And since we’re
being honest I have to confess I like this you better, the one that’s slightly
less in control.’
She managed a small smile. ‘As opposed to the one that completely lost
control on reunion night?’
One large hand reached out and removed the cup from her hand, setting it down on
the table before he sat close enough to touch his shoulder to hers. ‘No.’ His
voice was pure seduction. ‘I kinda liked that one too.’
She watched, mesmerized as he reached out to smooth her hair from her cheek,
warm fingertips trailing against her skin. Her eyelids grew heavy. ‘What are we
doing, Adam?’
He took a deep breath. ‘I haven’t the faintest idea.’
The temptation to lean herself into his side was immense. It would be so easy.
She could just lean a little bit and he would take the weight. She could feel
his warmth beside her, could feel the hard strength of his body. For just a tiny
moment she could lean. Just this once.
Adam felt her weight increase slightly against his side. Without thinking or
reasoning or fighting the sensation he allowed his arm to snake around her
slight shoulders and pulled her closer. His other hand reached for her chin and
tilted her head up so he could get lost in her eyes again.
She, in turn, dutifully raised those eyes and looked up at him, blinking slowly.
His chest grew tight. Good God, he was in trouble.
Her mouth curved into a slow smile. ‘It’s okay, Adam.’ Her voice was soft,
almost but not quite a whisper. ‘I know this isn’t anything to you. I just
needed to lean for a little minute, I guess. It’s a moment of weakness, it’ll go
away. You don’t have to kiss me or anything.’
He smiled a slow smile in reply, wondering if the fear had actually shown in his
eyes. ‘Are we still doing the honesty thing?’
She allowed her traitorous fingers to move up and
smooth his thick fringe back from his forehead, 'Yep.'
It was suddenly amazing to him how that one movement, motherly in one way, could
be so damned sexy in another. His hand turned, cupped her chin, his thumb moving
up to touch the corner of her mouth. ‘Thing is, Dana, I want to kiss
you.’
As her mouth formed a silent ‘oh’ he leaned down and pressed his mouth to it. He
waited a second for her to struggle or protest, but instead she moved her lips
to fit his and let a little breath out. He smiled, then tilted his head and
moved with her, slowly, softly. So different from the night they’d made love
when everything they’d done had been hot, heavy and desperate. It entered his
mind how each time he kissed her he seemed to be kissing someone different. It
was fascinating. It was sexy as hell.
She reached a hand up and placed it flat against his face, moving her thumb
against his cheek. When she felt his thumb move at the corner of her mouth, so
close to where their lips were joined, she automatically moved her thumb to the
same place on his face. She mimicked his movements, echoed them like a
reflection in a mirror.
Eventually his head raised and he looked down at her flushed face, his thumb
remaining against the edge of her swollen lips. She opened her eyes and looked
up at him. He swallowed hard. ‘You need to tell me to stop now.’
She nodded slowly at the sense in his words. ‘Yes, I do. Because there’s no
point. This isn’t going anywhere.’
His thumb brushed across her lower lip. ‘You’re right.’
Her thumb echoed the movement and she watched it with dark eyes. ‘Because we
both lead very different lives.’
He
nodded. ‘Yes, we do.’
Her head tilted slightly towards his neck. ‘The only
thing we have in common is this baby.’
‘Yes.’
‘And work.’
He lowered his head towards her again. ‘Uh huh.’
‘I know you’re not interested in long-term attachment.’
‘Correct.’ He brushed his mouth across hers. ‘And you’re not interested in an
affair with me because you hate losing control. Because your life is already
complicated enough with Jim in the picture.’
She repeated the small kiss. ‘Maybe, but with you it would seem I do lose
control.’
His body tightened at her words. Big, big, big trouble. Huge. The trap
was closing in and he couldn’t move away. He turned the small kisses into
something firmer and stronger and immediately he felt the transformation. The
other Dana appeared, the one from reunion night. She pushed closer to him and
moved her mouth hungrily, opening her lips to his searching tongue. Adam
groaned. Trouble.
The back door slammed with such force that the house almost shook. ‘Mum I’m
home. Where are you? Is Adam here?’
They jumped apart like two teenagers discovered by parents. As Adam looked
across at her he grinned, then whispered, ‘You know, one of these days there’s
not going to be someone to interrupt us.’
Dana sent a silent prayer that she would find some common sense before that
happened.
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Text Copyright © 2005 by
Trish Wylie Cover Art Copyright ©
2005
by Harlequin Enterprises LimitedPermission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A. Cover art used
by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ® and ™
are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated
companies, used under license.
Behind The Scenes
After the crisis of
confidence involved with second-book-syndrome in Her Real-Life Hero
I can't say I approached my
third book with any degree of optimism it would be less painful. Thankfully Her Unexpected Baby
was a better behaved child, practically wrote
itself in six weeks flat and sailed through editorial with virtually no revisions.
Phew!
While working on Jack and
Tara's story, Jack's sister Dana stayed very much in the background for reasons
which didn't become clear to
me until I began to tell her story. If it had been left to Dana I might not
have written it at all. She most certainly wasn't one of those characters who
stood up and demanded their story was told.
The reason it
was had more to do with Jack's business partner...
From the opening line-'Adam Donovan had
the most amazing effect on women'-the hero of this book drove the
story. Everyone
loves Adam. He's irresistible. To everyone except Dana that
is. As far as she's concerned the fact she drives him crazy is the only good
thing about sharing an office with him. Put these two on a page together and
sparks flew. At no point when I was writing did I have
to worry about the characters or their motivation or the conflict. It was just
there. I have no idea where it came from-I wish I did-because if I could figure
out where the magic came from I would tap into it every darn
time. As it was, when those first words appeared on a blank screen, nothing was
stopping this story being told.
As a child
of the Moonlighting TV series era, I should have known I would have a
soft spot for a lovable rogue and the feisty woman who fights him off. Adam has
confidence by the bucket. He's smart, irreverent-all told he's sexy as get out.
Who could blame the usually ultra-cautious Dana for surrendering to one night of fantasy
with him? (Heaven knows I'd have waved a white flag!) When she let
her guard down
I finally started to understand Dana's side of the story; why her surprise
pregnancy meant so much to her, even if the father of her baby was the last man
on earth she envisaged having a baby with.
As for Adam's
reaction to impending fatherhood? Well let's just say I had a lot of fun writing
this one.
Location, Location,
Location
Everything in this book was about different
world's and the way Adam and Dana lived their lives at opposite ends of the scale
in every way possible. Where Adam's apartment was cool and modern and
yelled affluence in true bachelor pad style, Dana's house was warm and homely and chaotic
the way so many family homes can be. If it weren't for the fact that by
the end of Jack and Tara's story they had been thrown together in a working
environment, I doubt they would ever have got together. It
certainly
wouldn't have occurred to either
of them at the start of their story.
But being 'trapped' in a one room
office every day didn't guarantee they would get a glimpse into each other's
lives-people seldom do-and even their connection through Dana's brother hadn't
been enough in the past to encourage either of them to see past their
pre-conceived opinions of each other. What that meant was taking them both out
of the their usual environments
and
comfort zones to somewhere they might open their eyes.
Despite that I still consider Her Unexpected Baby my
first office romance. The pregnancy wasn't initially part of the plot, but once
they had their one fantasy night together it just kind of... happened... Next
thing I knew my confirmed bachelor's world was being turned upside down and
Dana's began to change as he did. Hence, by the end of the story they have a new
beginning in a new home and are sharing the same world.
*All Photographs are used to
give a visible representation of the Authors 'view' and are in no way
representative of the people or places in real life beyond the realms of the
Authors imagination.
Reviews
"...an unputdownable story featuring richly drawn characters, heart-stopping romance,
intensely emotional scenes and a sprinkling of humour which will keep you glued
to the pages of this fabulous story right till the very end!"
Julie Bonello -
Cataromance
"If you love romance, you'll love this!
Charming characters and a believeable story line go a long way to making this
one of the best HMB romances I've read to date."
Diorit - Amazon
Listmania
"I wanted to let you know how much I really
enjoyed your latest book, Her Unexpected Baby. I've just finished it and feel
like Dana and Adam are people I want to stay in touch with. I really loved it
and can honestly say that I haven't read a Mills & Boon that enjoyable since
sometime back in the eighties. Thank you for writing it."
Mena - Kinsale, Ireland
