Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I’m so excited Deb invited me to visit with you all today and share my first kiss from The Bachelor’s Baby. I suppose we can call it a Blarney Stone kiss because they certainly get lucky after!
The Bachelor’s Baby is Book Three in Montana Born’s Bachelor Auction series. Fun Fact: It’s also Book Three in my own series for Montana Born. That’s why my giveaway includes a print copy of the Homecoming series. My first Montana Born novella, Hometown Hero was part of that series. (Blame The Mistletoe is second.)
Another Fun Fact: My grandmother used to find four leaf clovers while she was gardening. I thought you had to spend hours on the lawn to find one—I never have—but my daughter inherited her talent times a million. She’s one of those people who wanders along for a minute or two then plucks one up with a casual, “Here’s one.”
Have you ever found one? Did it bring you luck? Leave a comment telling me about your four-leaf clover experience to be entered for the giveaway draw.
THE BACHELOR’S BABY
by Dani Collins
Your date with Bachelor #3 includes champagne and chocolate in the limo that collects you, a helicopter tour or Marietta and the surrounding mountains and valleys, and dinner at a five star restaurant in Great Falls. While oil baron Linc Brady wines and dines you, a maid service will completely clean your home.
Who could resist this tempting offer? Meg Canon plans to do just that. She’s only home to clean out her childhood bedroom for her brother’s new step-daughter, then she’s outta her childhood small town and back to her life in Chicago. Then she meets the sexy, renegade millionaire while she’s stuck in the snow. Sparks fly and Meg is tempted to stay a little longer.
Linc Brady is new in town and happy to help a kid in need, but a bachelor auction? Technically he doesn’t owe Meg a damned thing after she sets him up for the auction, then bids on him, but her high-class city polish is his fatal weakness and makes her impossible to forget. When she agrees to come home with him, he makes it clear he’s a confirmed bachelor. This is a one-night thing.
One night that turns into nine months and maybe…a lifetime?
He shifted to face her, leaning his wrist on her seatback so he edged into her space. “C’mere,” he invited.
“What.” A grin tugged at her mouth, but wicked, sexual reactions took her at the same time. Her nipples prickled and her breathing changed. “You want to kiss me?” She wanted him to. Rather badly.
“I do.”
“Is it a test?” She turned her head, aware of how close he was, how he smelled faintly of aftershave and clean Montana air.
“Little bit,” he murmured.
“Gonna leave me here if I don’t pass?” she challenged, trying to sound urbane when she actually felt girlish and shy.
His fingertips played gently against the ends of her hair, coaxing her to lean a fraction closer toward him. “I’m the one making the pass, sweetheart.”
He closed in. Warm male lips brushed hers, giving her a moment to savor the sensation of smooth, sensitive skin rubbing lightly against her own. Then he pressed with more purpose, enticed her into parting her lips and playing her mouth against his in delicious rubs as he gradually settled into the kiss. He stole over her so skillfully, she was caught and held before she realized how completely he owned her.
She thought—
Actually, there were no thoughts in her head. Just his scent and the warm dampness of his strong mouth exploring hers. The tip of his tongue briefly tagged her inner lip. Their breaths hissed quietly as their breathing changed. His cheek was smooth enough not to snag her knit gloves, making her want to pull them off so she could run her fingers into his hair.
She slanted her head, encouraging him to deepen the kiss. Pressing the back of his skull to encourage more pressure.
His free hand settled on the side of her neck, thumb stroking deliciously under her throat while he pulled at her bottom lip, his flagrant sucking making arousal bloom down her front, spiking her nipples into sharper peaks and spearing hot need between her thighs. Oh man did she want to go home with him.
And he was drawing back, making her primal core weep.
“What do you think?” he asked in a voice that was like a velvety summer breeze caressing her naked skin.
She made herself sit straight, breath unsteady and way too revealing of his effect on her. Her fingertips pressed her buzzing lips, trying to calm the rest of her.
“I didn’t realize it was that kind of test,” she said, voice papery.
“It’s not. Come over for a drink if you just want to throw off the shackles for a while. I wasn’t trying to see if you put out. But if we were going to fizzle, I figured here was a better place for it.”
Fizzle? She choked on a laugh, mildly horrified by that phrase ‘put out,’ and even more horrified by how disappointed she would be if he left her here instead of taking her to his place.
“Do you think we fizzled?”
“Ha! No,” he said firmly, making her tuck a grin into her collar.
It was gratifying and flattering, but…
“You do this a lot, don’t you?” she asked in a voice that came out smaller than she meant it to. “Pick up women, I mean.” Silence as he eased back into his own seat, then he sighed. “I’m not good at relationships, Meg. A lot of it was the nature of my job, but the truth is, I’ve never seen myself married with kids and the whole nine yards. But I like women and I like sex.” His jacket shifted as he shrugged and made himself more comfortable behind the wheel. “What do you want me to say? That I’ve never taken a woman home? You’d be the first here. Does that help?”
“I’ve never done it,” she said, then hurried to add, “I mean, I’ve had relationships. Just not, um, such a brief one.”
Somewhere along the way, maybe because she had friends that she respected who sometimes had one-night stands, she had developed a sense that they could be empowering. She didn’t feel embolded, though. She felt insecure. Longing gripped her, like she was wishing for something she would never get.
“That’s not the sort of first I’d like to be for a woman,” he said dryly. “Don’t change your values for me, Meg. Call me the next time you’re in town and we’ll do lunch in Great Falls.” He put the truck into drive.
“No, wait—” She covered his gloved hand with her own, could sense the strength in his firm grip of the stick. This evening couldn’t end with her packing and nursing What If. “I’m really attracted to you, Linc. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t go home with you.”
He studied her in the blue gloom off the dash for a long moment.
“Sure?”
“I am.”
He reversed back onto the road.
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Canadian Dani Collins spent twenty-five years dreaming of becoming a romance author, made her first sale in 2012, and promptly won a Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times. Best known for her Harlequin Presents, she has also published a romantic comedy, a medieval fantasy romance, two erotic romances and The Bachelor’s Baby is the third of four novellas for Montana Born. Married to her high school sweetheart, Dani has two mostly-grown children (one of each) and doesn’t have any hobbies. She’s too busy writing.
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I have great memories of wasting hours on beautiful summer days searching for four-leaf clovers with my friends in South Dakota (where I grew up). Thanks for reminding me. And thanks for the fun FIRST KISS! Decisions, decisions!!!
Deb
I used to look for 4 leaf clovers when I was a kid, but I don’t think I ever found one.
Makes you wonder how rare are they? I may have to make time to look today. Things are very green around here right now.
I have yet to find a four leaf clover, but I will never give up trying! 🙂
I like your spirit, Lisa! Luck happens!
I haven’t looked for one in years and I don’t recall ever finding one. I hope the people who are also are buying lottery tickets.. Oh and I want my cut for the suggestion!! LOL
LOL. That sounds fair! Let’s see who complies. 😉
Remember as kids, my brother and I hunting for them 🙂 Yes we would find them and we felt they brought good luck 🙂 They did bring happy memories 🙂
I’m enjoying all these great memories. Thanks, Patty.
When I was little I do remember spending hours in the yard looking for four leaf clovers. I found one when I was about 7. I stepped on a bee shortly after that and gave up the search. My daughter loves to search for them too!
Dang, Brandy, stepping on a bee would have been the end of my searching, too. I was scared of bees as a child because I associated bees with death. My best friend’s daddy took a stinger out of my hand and then he was killed in a car accident a short while later. My little girl brain connected the two things for many, many years.
I’ve never found one, but my great grandmother used to swear by them. Said it always brought her luck.
My grandmother and mom both found them all the time. And they considered them lucky, too.
ouch to the bee, Brandy!! I once had one fly into my mouth. That’s what you get for running around screaming at a family reunion, lol!
And yes, please keep the memories coming. This is fun!
~ Dani
This was a brilliant question, Dani. I’m enjoying this so much!
I have so many great memories of visiting my grandparents in the country for the summer every year. I would always search for 4 lreaf clovers. I was lucky enough to find one once. I have so many great memories of visits to my grandparents county home including stepping on bees and getting covered with poison ivy. They are not great memories though, just childhood memories. Great memories are baking with my grandmother and swimming in the creek there.
NICE, Deanne. I hope my granddaughters will remember those sorts of fun times, too.
While I have never found a four leaf clover I clearly remember my dad keeping one in his wallet that he found!
I can picture one pressed and being carried around for year until it fell apart. How sweet!
My grandfather carried one that was sealed in circular plastic. It was his good luck charm. He let me rub it when I was anxious about something.
That is so sweet, Rosemary. I love the image. Thanks for sharing.
As kids we’d all search until we found one. I have once 🙂 All I got out of it was tickled so they could have it for awhile LOL
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You made me smile, Dee. Kids will be kids! Good luck in the drawing.
I had one in a book when I went off to college but lost it 🙁
But my brother-in-law finds them all the time!
Hi, Cheryl. It’s sweet how we all have a tender spot in our hearts for these little green gems.
As kids we always searched among the clover in our backyard. There are 4 of us. My older sister was the only one who ever found them. I think she found 4 of them, I think, over the years. She still has them pressed in a book. I’m still searching 🙂
How touching, Lisa! Thanks for commenting. Good luck in your search–and the drawing.
It’s certainly a universal pastime, isn’t it Debra? I love the tickle fight, Dee! lol, I can picture a bunch of kids rolling around on the lawn…good fun 🙂
Dani, I love The Bachelor’s Baby as I read it over the weekend. I’ve never found a four-leaf clover. I do have fond memories of looking for them with friends or with my brother. Passed on the fun to my kids.
I used to find them often, especially at my maternal grandmother’s farm, but I can’t remember any grand good luck they brought. LOL
I’m looking forward to reading your book, Dani. 🙂
I bet they did, Marcy.
I was and am, one of the UNLUCKY! I’ve NEVER found a four-leafed clover…not in my 37 years on this Earth. In fact, the closest I’ve ever come–is when I’d pluck a 3-leafed clover…and tear one of the tiny, green, heart-shaped leaves in half! ♧
Way to improvise, Candice!
Have never found a four leaf clover. As a child spent many afternoons looking for them
I wonder if our parents invented the concept just to keep the kids busy? 😉
I found a four leaf clover when I was a kid. It was lucky because later that day I won a free box of popsicles.
What a great reward on a hot summer day! Thanks for commenting, Catherine.
one time, visiting at a relatives house, my brothers and I found a ton of them in the clover. not sure it ever brought us luck, but the relatives were impressed with our find.
As well they should be!
**relative’s house (I know, this is online, but I do try to watch my grammar)
No worries. But thanks for keeping it literate.
A box of popsicles! Nice Catherine!
Deb, I’m so thrilled you’ve had so many great comments on this. I can’t wait to do the draw on Sunday and find out who wins 🙂
d
Fun, fun stuff, Dani. I’ve enjoyed this a lot.
And the winner is…. Eileen Aberman Wells! Congratulations!
I just messaged you on GooglePlus Eileen, but if you email me through my website with your postal address, I’ll get the parcel out to you this week.
Thank you again everyone for your wonderful memories about four leaf clovers! And a HUGE thank you to Debra for hosting me! TuleGirlsRule!! 😉
Yeah, Eileen. I’ll post this on FB, too. Thanks for offering this great prize AND making such an interesting question that led us all down memory lane. Wishing you much luck with book–please come back with another book soon, Dani!