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Mills & Boon Tender

Check out the Behind the Scenes story of Her Unexpected Baby...

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"Her Unexpected Baby"

"The pregnancy surprise!

Adam Donovan’s good looks and charm may win over every other woman in the world, but divorced mother Dana Taylor is immune. Or so she thinks until the night Adam poses as her date…and the pretence is so real that they become close…

Now she’s thrilled to discover she’s pregnant! But she’s also wary. She’s been through one difficult marriage, and has had enough emotional trauma to last a lifetime. What will it take for her to believe Adam is different – that he can bring her the happiness she deserves...?

For more books like this one go to my Harlequin Romance page

     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.

After the trauma and crisis of confidence involved with second-book-syndrome in Her Real-Life Hero, karma then balanced out my writing career with Her Unexpected Baby - the book that wrote itself in six weeks flat and sailed through with virtually no revisions!!!

While working on Jack and Tara's story, Jack's sister Dana pretty much stayed in the background - for reasons that didn't become clear to me until I began to tell her story. If it had been left to Dana I might not even have written it - it wasn't like she had stood up and demanded I tell her story next... No, the reason this book was written was nothing to do with the heroine calling to me - it had everything to do with Jack's business partner Adam, and the way that during Her Real-Life Hero he came across as such a bad-boy! He came out with a few one liners that just demanded a match be found for him - he needed to be taught a lesson or two...and it took a Dana to do that...

The Romance line is supposed to be primarily the heroine's story - and don't get me wrong, this is Dana's story - but for me, it was all about Adam!

From the opening line of Chapter One where it stated:  'Adam Donovan had the most amazing effect on women.' he drove the story... Everyone loves Adam - he's practically irresistible. To everyone except Dana that is...She reckons she has the measure of him, and the fact that she drives him crazy is an added bonus... At no point when I was writing this did I ever have to worry about the characters or the motivation or the conflict. It was just there. I have no idea where it came from, I wish I did! Cos if I could figure out where the magic in this one came from, I would tap into it every darn time!!! But frankly, someone could have been channelling this one through me for all I know. Most probably Adam...

But then I guess, as a child of the Moonlighting series era, I was always going to have an incredibly soft spot for a lovable rogue and the feisty woman who fights him off. Adam is gor-ge-ous, he's smart, he's cheeky, he's sexy as get out... who could honestly blame Dana for caving in to one night of fantasy??? I'd have caved... And it was only when she did that her story started to unfold... I guess I have Adam to thank for that one too...

Locations for this book:

Everything in this book was about different world's - the way that Adam and Dana lived their lives at complete polar opposite ends of the scale. If it weren't for the fact that at 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!

So where Adam's apartment was cool and modern and yelled affluence - a true bachelor pad, Dana's house was homely and chaotic and more than a little run down - a place for a family...

But every day they were forced together in the office, which made Her Unexpected Baby my first office romance! To make things even more difficult, I made the office one large room where they both worked, day after day, in a confined space, with someone they couldn't stand... It was obvious they'd end up having a baby together under those circumstances really...

Soundtrack playing: 

Nope - still didn't have a specific music *thing* at this stage... I think that started with The Wedding Surprise to be honest...

*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.

"...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 -   Cheshire, England

"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

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