This sounds like such a fun book! Where did you get the initial idea? ~ Lisabet
To tell the truth, I got the initial idea from a short story I’d just written for a writing contest for the Hampton Roads Writers’ conference. The short story involved a young lady who was bound and determined to marry a gentleman that she met once and fell in love with, but for whom her father had a great dislike. So to get her own way, she arranged for the gentleman to sneak into her bedroom and compromise her so that her father would have to let them marry.
Sound familiar?
But as I was writing the short story, I got one of those “what if” moments. What if the lady tried to get herself compromised, but she sneaked into the gentleman’s room, got compromised, then discovered it was the wrong man? I was so enthusiastic about the idea that as soon as the short story was done, I started writing As Long As You’re Mine.
Mind you, the title is one of the few things that’s remained the same through draft after draft of this book, as is the name of the hero, Rafael Beauregard. But the heroine’s name and a lot of her character have changed over the years. I began writing this book in 2012, but after initial queries got me nowhere, I went on to other books over the years. But I’ve always thought about ALAYM and have had a real fondness for the work.
So much so that after the past year, when I broke my shoulder and couldn’t write at all for more than six months, I thought about ALAYM. It was a perfectly good romance—well, not perfect as my editor pointed out in a very long conversation about what I needed to do to fix it—but my shoulder was better, I could write for short stretches at least, and the book was already written for all intents and purposes. All I had to do was edit it.
And because I wanted to have at least one book published within the year, I brushed it off, took all my editor’s advice, and finally published As Long As You’re Mine on March 31 of this year. Don’t you love it when a wild and crazy idea turns out to be a good one also?
Blurb
A scandalous mistake…or a wicked way to happiness?
Hoping to compromise herself, Lady Amantha Easton sneaks into the bedroom of her would-be suitor only to find a total stranger there—a totally handsome, charming stranger to be sure—but not at all the man she plans to marry. She leaves his room with her reputation intact—barely—only to fall victim to the gentleman’s charms in a public place. Now Amantha must face the fate she’s tried to avoid—marriage to a man who will never love her.
All Rafael Beauregard wanted was a warm bed and a good night’s sleep…but what he got was an unexpected romp with a beautiful vixen and a fiery kiss that left him wanting more. An excellent trade, except now he’s got to marry Lady Amantha, one of the most willful women he’s ever met. So Rafe’s challenge is to persuade her that marriage to him might be the best thing for them both…once he convinces himself.
Excerpt
“Oh, Raif!” She could scarcely breathe now. “That…feels…so good.”
“I thought it might. You’re awful sweet.” His low, sleepy voice sounded odd under the covers. On the verge of asking if he was well, she lost the thought when he lifted his head from her breast and crushed his lips to hers.
All else forgotten, she wouldn’t have cared if the house burned down around them. His lips were hot, insistent. Then he plied the seam with his tongue, softly urged it to part for him. She had no desire to resist and soon he had buried his tongue deep in her mouth. A tentative stroke of her own brought a growl of encouragement, and she abandoned herself to explore his willing mouth. She did things she’d never dreamed she’d do, with Raif or anyone else. And she only wanted more. “Oh, Raif. I never thought it could be like this.”
He chuckled. “How soon you forget, Jenny.”
“Jenny?” Amantha froze, her blood turning to ice in her veins. “Who’s Jenny?” Sudden anger lit a fire in her, and she pushed him away. “How many women were you expecting in your bed tonight, Raif?”
“What?” The sleepiness had flown from his voice. “You’re not Jenny?”
“You expected me to be?” This was a nightmare. They weren’t even married and Raif was being unfaithful to her.
“I didn’t expect anyone in my bed.” He threw off the covers and fumbled at the bedside table.
“What do you mean you didn’t expect me? We had planned this, Raif.” What the devil was the man playing at?
“We?” A match flared as he lit the lamp, the sudden light after the darkness almost blinding her. She put her hand up to shield her eyes.
“What do you mean, we?” He sat up in the bed, rubbing his eyes. “Who are you, sweetheart?”
The voice, now unmuffled, certainly did not have the superior tone of Raiford Tolbert. Slowly Amantha lowered her hand to find a man with dark hair she’d never seen before peering at her.
Dear God, what had she done?
About the Author
Jenna Jaxon is a best-selling author of historical romance, writing in a variety of time periods because she believes that passion is timeless. She has been reading and writing historical romance since she was a teenager. A romantic herself, Jenna has always loved a dark side to the genre, a twist, suspense, a surprise. She tries to incorporate all these elements into her own stories.
She lives in Virginia with her family and a small menagerie of pets--including Olive, an almost silent cat, Earl Grey, a very curious bunny, and a Shar-pei mix dog named Frenchie.
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