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Harlequin Romance

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"The Bridal Bet"

The biggest gamble of his life!

Ryan Callaghan and Molly O’Brien have been best friends for ever. But a childhood game turns serious when Ryan dares Molly to pretend they’re dating and she accepts!

Ryan’s quick to point out that pretend couples have to do a lot of very real kissing. And, as old friends become brand-new lovers, Molly realizes that the stakes for this bet are far higher than she had first thought.

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

Their heads snapped upwards in unison as Ryan’s shadow fell over them. For a moment Molly didn’t recognize him any quicker than she had recognized the tone of his voice. His face was dark, threatening almost and for a split second she was shell-shocked. It was a side to him she didn’t see very often. Her conscious mind never having identified him as an ‘alpha male’.

“Ryan, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Nick quickly removed his hand from Molly’s arm and stood up, “I was just saying how great Molly looks in a swimsuit.”

Ryan stepped closer to Nick, water running off his body in long, silvery rivulets. He ran his hand across his face to remove some of the water and then lowered his voice, “So I saw Scallon. The next time you decide to compliment her with your hands you’ll have me to deal with, do you understand?”

Molly jumped to her feet and stood between them, facing Ryan, “Have you gone nuts? Apologize to Nick this minute.”

Nick smiled smoothly, his eyes warming for Molly, “It’s okay Molly, I understand,” His eyes swept back towards Ryan, “Ryan obviously feels the need to stake his claim. I get the message.”

Ryan nodded tersely, “Just make sure you do.”

Molly gaped at the two men, “Oh you two can’t be for real.”

Ignoring Nick for a moment, Ryan frowned at Molly,  “This guy was touching you, are you telling me that’s ok with you? Because sure as hell it isn’t okay with me!”

Without hesitating she grabbed his hand and tugged him away from Nick and towards the trees at the back of the shoreline, “We need to talk, now.”

By the time they reached the trees Ryan was smiling at her, “Wow, you can drag me into the trees anytime Moll. Did you see the looks we got out there?”

“What the hell were you doing out there?”

She was mad, really really mad, he could tell. Her green eyes sparked angrily and her face was flushed. He thought she looked amazing.

“We’re supposed to be a couple, right? Well I sure as hell am not going to stand by while some other man runs his hands all over my girlfriend now am I?”

Molly shook her head, “Even as my boyfriend or for that matter as my lover, you wouldn’t go around acting like Neanderthal man without my going crazy about it. Don’t you know that?” She glared at him, “What the heck kinda women have you been dating over the years?”

He actually had the grace to look apologetic, “I’m sorry. I just, well, I guess I didn’t like it much as a friend or as a boyfriend.”

Realizing she still held his hand he squeezed her fingers, “I guess we’ve both got some learning to do if we’re going to pull this off.”

Calmer, she looked up into his eyes and smiled wryly, “They’re all standing out there watching these trees aren’t they?”

“Yup.”

“So what’ll we do, wait for a minute?”

Ryan took a deep breath, “They’ll probably expect us to kiss and make up first.”

“Oh.”

He stepped towards her, “And we should probably practice that kissing thing again before we try it out in public, right? After all, they’ll expect you to come out of here looking like you’ve just been thoroughly kissed and the best way I know to make you look like that is..”

Molly interrupted him, suddenly terribly aware of how little clothing he was wearing. Her mouth was dry, “I get the gist Callaghan, so you’d better just shut up and kiss me then.”

“And they say romance is dead.”

This time Molly was ready for his kiss, she even moistened her lips automatically before his head lowered. It’s only Ryan, only Ryan, only Ryan. She echoed it over and over in her head but after a moment it was hard to concentrate.

When he felt her kiss him back it shocked him. He didn’t know what he’d expected but he certainly wasn’t ready for how hot she felt, how easily their mouths fit together. With a kiss there was always that initial moment of hesitation as the two parties felt for the correct ‘fit’ before they deepened the kiss. But not this time. This was right from the first touch.

Moving instinctively she loosened her hand and wound her arms around his neck, reaching up to pull herself closer to his damp body.

Ryan’s arms in turn circled her waist to hold her there. Her curved body fitting along the full length of his, curling in and touching him everywhere.

The minute his tongue touched hers she was lost and stopped thinking at all. Her entire life, she couldn’t remember being kissed so thoroughly, and by Ryan of all people!

By Ryan. She froze. Oh, no, this couldn’t be happening, she couldn’t possibly be enjoying kissing Ryan. It wasn’t something that was supposed to happen when you kissed a friend.

The moment she went still he knew they’d gone too far. Whatever was happening was too much. He carefully pulled away and stepped back, taking a moment before he could look at her.

Molly, in turn, was staring at him with large unblinking eyes, as if she’d never seen him before. Her lips were red and swollen, her cheeks flushed. She was beautiful.  When had she got so beautiful? All of a sudden he realized that’s what was different about her since she’d been home. She’d grown and matured into a very beautiful woman and he hadn’t allowed himself to realize it. Until then.

He smiled softly at her, “I think they’ll know what we’ve been doing when we go out there.”

Turning away from him Molly found her voice, “Well thank goodness someone knows what we’re doing.”

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The Bridal Bet! was, quite simply, my lucky charm!!!

When I started writing at eighteen this book was the first I ever wrote all the way to those magical words 'The End' - and I wrote it long hand, with a good fountain pen and reams of paper... naive yes, starry eyed yes... but that one story would stay in my head long after I lost that original copy of it - so that when I came back to writing a decade later, it was the one I chose to start telling all over again...

Write what you know they say - and they're right I think. It was set in the real life village of Boyle in Co. Roscommon where I used to spend long, lazy summers as a child, so every place mentioned in it really exists - the forest park, the lake, the castle on an island where they have their picnic...even down to the harbour where Molly pushes Ryan into the Lough... And having such strong memories of the place helped me to create a world that Molly and Ryan could really have lived in... I even went to one of those Rat Race nights as a child!!! So I was definitely writing what I knew best...

Maybe it was part of the magic of the place that rubbed off on the book?

In those early days I didn't cast my hero's - but in the back of my mind I think Ryan Callaghan reminded me a lot of a young Harrison Ford as Han Solo (that kiss in The Empire Strikes Back was the first time I can remember ever being swept away by a love story...) Tall, dark and gorgeously handsome with a wicked lop-sided smile, melted chocolate brown eyes and a cheeky sense of humour... that was Harrison as Han - it was also my Ryan... Funny how I'd never really thought about that before. But I knew you lot would ask me!!! So this pic would have been close-ish - though the US Cover of the book pretty much has both Ryan and Molly exactly as I saw them in my mind!!!

From a writing perspective you might be interested to know that in the first draft of The Bridal Bet there wasn't any of the back-story. Which is an amazing thought now as it's such a huuugggeee part of the book! That addition came about because of a friend of mine who was reading the story as I wrote it. She made a comment that she would have liked to know more about their friendship before the story started - and hence the back-story flashbacks that filter through the book were added in in the final draft...

The Bridal Bet - or Home At Last as I knew it, was my very first submission to a publisher... I sent my partial off in November - had a request for a full on Christmas Eve (I still maintain Santa brought it) and after two sets of revisions IT SOLD!!! A year later the book went to print and two years after that, when it went to The States, it won my very first major award!!!! A lot of firsts...

I owe everything to this one little book...

*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.

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