Make Mine a Bad Boy (40 page)
Dear Reader,
I have a confession to make—I am totally addicted to dark, brooding, tortured heroes with complicated pasts! I blame
Jane Eyre.
This is still one of my all-time favorite books, and I first came across it when I was ten or eleven years old. It was a battered, old paperback copy from a box of books from a garage sale, and I stayed up all night reading it. I was shocked by the wife in the attic! And when I had finished, I started reading it all over again. I then snatched up every Gothic romance I could find. I guess I’ve never gotten over the “Mr. Rochester thing.”
When I started writing the second book in The Daughters of Erin series, DUCHESS OF SIN, I had planned for Sir Grant Dunmore to be part of a love triangle in the story, who would probably die in the end. But as I wrote his scenes, he showed me that he was much more complicated than that. His scenes with Caroline seemed to take on a life of their own, and I wanted to find out more about him. I wanted to see what would happen between Grant and Caroline and where their unexpected attraction would take them. The answer became LADY OF SEDUCTION. And their passion for each other caused a
lot
of trouble for them, and fun for me!
I’ve loved spending time with the Blacknall sisters and their heroes, and I’m sorry to say good-bye to them in this book. But I’m very happy they’ve all found their happy-ever-afters. For excerpts, behind-the-book information on the history of this era, and some fun extras, you can visit my website at
http://laurelmckee.net
.
And if you’d like to put together your own Irish feast, here is a recipe for one of my favorite dishes—Shepherd’s Pie! (The first two books featured Irish Soda Bread and Sticky Toffee Pudding, all great when served with a Guinness…)
• 1½ lbs ground round beef
• 1 onion chopped
• 1–2 cups vegetables—chopped carrots, corn, peas
• 1½–2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
• ½ cup beef broth
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice
1
Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).
2
While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 tablespoons butter (½ a stick) in large frying pan.
3
Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked.
4
Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add Worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.
5
Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.
6
Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.
7
Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.
Serves four.
Enjoy!
Dear Reader,
There’s something about a bad boy that’s irresistible, something about a man who lives on the edge and plays by his own rules. And whether it was the time you caught the teenage rebel checking you out in your new
Christmas sweater—or the time the tatted biker sent you a blatantly sexual look as he cruised by on his custom bike—a run-in with a bad boy is like taking a ride on the world’s biggest roller coaster; long after the ride’s over, you’re still shaky, breathless, and begging for more.
No doubt a portion of the blame lies with our mothers. (It’s so easy to blame Mom.) Maternal warnings always include the things that turn out to be the most fun—wild parties, fast cars, and naughty boys. (All of which got me in plenty of trouble.) But I think most of our infatuation has to do with our desire to take a break from being the perfect daughter, the hardworking employee, the dependable wife, and the super mom. For one brief moment, we want to release our inner bad girl and jerk up that sweater Aunt Sally gave us and flash some cleavage. Or hop on that throbbing piece of machinery and take a ride on the wild side.
Even if it’s only in our fantasies—or possibly a steamy romance novel—we want to throw caution to the wind and fearlessly proclaim…
MAKE MINE A BAD BOY.
A Preview of
Going Cowboy Crazy
Going Cowboy Crazy
Going Cowboy Crazy
“Sexy, sassy fun!”
—Susan Andersen,
New York Times
bestselling author of Burning Up
“Katie Lane is a wonderful new voice in Western romance fiction.”
—Joan Johnston,
New York Times
bestselling author of the Bitter Creek and Hawk’s Way series
“Katie Lane creates handsome cowboys with hearts as big as Texas.”
—Lori Wilde,
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Welcome Home Garden Club
“Sexy Texas cowboys are Katie Lane’s gift to her readers.”
—R.C. Ryan,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Montana Glory
“A sparkling debut filled with Texas warmth and humor.”
—Jane Graves, author of
Tall Tales and Wedding Veils
“Don’t miss Katie Lane. You’re gonna love her!”
Copyright—Christie Craig, author of
Don’t Mess with Texas
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Cathleen Smith
Excerpt from
Going Cowboy Crazy
copyright © 2011 by Cathleen Smith
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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First eBook Edition: June 2011