I Love You--Maybe

Y’all you’ll have to excuse me today. My sixth Konigsburg, Don’t Forget Me, came out yesterday and I’m still a little spaced. The run up to a release is always hectic, but this one was a little more hectic than usual, what with damaged files and my being more or less incommunicado for a few days at the end of November. Now I can relax (sort of) and talk about the book.

My other books all featured heroes and heroines who’d never met before and who gradually fell for each other after their first, usually favorable, impressions. Even Wedding Bell Blues, where the hero and heroine weren’t terribly impressed with each other at the start, had the two of them falling fairly soon. But Don’t Forget Me is different. The H/H are former lovers who parted bitterly. They’re not favorably disposed toward each other except at the, shall we say, gonadal level. In fact, they’re both sort of angry and definitely wary about getting involved again.

This was different territory for me. I’m not used to having a hero and heroine who don’t like each other. I think it’s fairly easy to develop a normal relationship in a romance, judging just how long it takes for two people to decide, Yeah, he’s/she’s definitely The One. But how long does it take for two estranged lovers to get over it? That’s tougher. You can’t make it too soon or the breakup seems trivial. But you can’t draw it out too long or you risk alienating readers who get tired of waiting for the characters to get back together.

For me, it helped that the two characters both still ached a little. I had a scene where Nando saw Kit from a distance and was blown away. I realized that I needed a similar scene for Kit. There’s never any doubt that they Have Feelings, as they say. It’s just a matter of weighing those feelings against hurt pride and suspicion.

So finally my H/H get back together, but they’re still a little nervous about it. It takes a crisis to make those final barriers drop. Rest assured, there’s HEA. This is Konigsburg, after all, where the men are smart, the women are way smarter, and happy endings are required for everybody.

Here’s the blurb:

Once they said goodbye forever. Now they want to walk it back.

Konigsburg, Texas, Book 6

Eighteen months ago, Kit Maldonado was so over Nando Avrogado, she left Konigsburg without a backward glance. With the family restaurant in San Antonio sold out from under her, though, she’s back to manage The Rose, an exclusive resort eatery outside town.

Dealing with a stingy boss, an amorous head chef, an understaffed dining room and planning her aunt’s wedding should have kept her hands full. But she realizes she might not be as over Nando as she thought.

As the town’s new assistant chief of police, Nando’s got enough trouble without sexy Kit fanning embers he thought had long ago turned to ashes. Every time he turns around, she’s there—and it doesn’t help that everyone in town wants to see them back together.

One incendiary kiss, and there’s no denying the force of their attraction. But there’s a mysterious and oddly familiar burglar who’s been lurking around Konigsburg, someone who isn’t above a little mayhem—maybe even violence—to cover his tracks.

Product Warnings

Contains hot makeup sex, wedding madness, a hot chef, vengeful burglars, and unlawful abuse of a wedding cake.

And a short excerpt where (of course) they share a dance.

Her own arm went around his neck almost automatically, and their bodies were pressed together, shoulder to knee. He took her hand in his, folding their arms against his chest, then started to move forward slowly, his thighs pushing against her legs. She found herself moving with him, staring up into his face. His beautiful face.

“And anyone can tell, you think you know me well.” The voice echoed over the PA system. “But you don't know me.”

Oh god, oh god, oh god. But she did know him well, better than she knew a lot of the people in her own family. That’s why she was here again in his arms, not that there had ever really been any question it would come to this eventually. Not with all there had once been between them. Not when she’d never really gotten over him.

Had he gotten over her? Would he be here if he had?

Part of her wanted to move back, put some space between them again, but somehow she couldn’t manage it. Instead, his arm coaxed her closer still until she felt the hard muscles of his chest against her breasts, the silver belt buckle brushing against her stomach, the swell of his arousal pressing hard against her own aching flesh. She took a deep breath, smelling his familiar scent again, that mixture of soap and sweat and Nando, and she was lost.

And a buy link:

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/dont-forget-p-6561.html

And a contest:

Drop a comment at my blog, http://megbenj1.wordpress.com/, to be entered in a drawing for a copy of Don't Forget Me.