Aloha to Nancy Lee Badger and SECRET LOVE MATCH

TENNIS ANYONE? 

By Nancy Lee Badger 

By the time you read this, the Olympics will be nearly over and the Tennis finals will be in full swing. As an American, I will be watching the talented U.S. Olympic Tennis Team. Can we expect continued success in 2012? They have always fielded a group of talented players, and this year is special. They are playing tennis on the hallowed courts of Wimbledon for the first time since 1908. Unless you are living under a rock, everyone has heard of England’s grand grass tennis courts.

This year’s competition includes 64-player draws for both men’s and women’s singles, and 32-team draws for men’s and women’s doubles. Mixed doubles will make its return to the Olympics for the first time since 1924. Why the delay? I hope the TV analysts will answer that age-old question. I love to see men and women playing side by side, unlike how my characters meet. In the beginning of my book they play across from each other with disastrous results.

Speaking of TV, let me tell you a little bit about the hero in Secret Love Match. I am in love with Taylor Adams. You see, he is a 40ish former TV star- kind of like William Shatner from STAR TREK. He has grown tired of Sci-Fi conventions and inactivity ever since his show went off the air. He made his fortune, but he wants to star in movies. Enter his old producer friend, who happens to have a lovely young daughter. Though sparks fly when they meet, Becca Delacourt has her life all planned. She has trained to earn a spot on the US Olympic team, and she has no time for men. Besides, her dad would have a fit about her having fun with an older man. So, she and Taylor plan to stay unromantically involved while keeping their sexual relationship a secret. Ha! When will people learn that the heart wants what it wants? 

EXCERPT

“Hi,” he said. Taylor stopped opposite the low bench, not intruding on her space. His hands lay motionless at his sides. One fist gripped the borrowed tennis racket against shorts that suddenly grew tight. He slid his other hand into his front pocket before taking a slow, steady breath.

“Hi, yourself.”

“Could I challenge you to a set?” Taylor kept his voice calm while his chest pounded from a sudden desire to run the other way. What the heck was going on? Where had his macho Hollywood persona, built to perfection during cattle calls and late night parties, gone?

With another deep breath, he watched her thinking. He could almost detect her mind as it quickly evaluated the man standing in front of her.

“I see you’re considering my request before answering.” He hoped he wasn’t out of his league, here. Yes, he might be twice her age, but he kept his body trim and healthy with daily workouts. He jogged wherever he happened to be, no matter where he traveled. He’d cut out smoking long before it was in vogue to do so and had slowly cut out the drinking. His friends might not agree with that statement.

Yeah, I still have a way to go with that problem.

He hadn’t joined Alcoholics Anonymous. He didn’t follow their teachings. He’d take a drink now and then, but he no longer drank to excess.

He towered over her. Her eyes flashed with desire as she checked him out. Is she staring at my hair?

During his show’s run, the studio added white-blonde highlights. He’d detested the look, but the fans loved it. Gray hairs had so far refused to make an appearance.

Her gaze settled uneasily on his face. Supermarket tabloids touted his eyes as his best feature. They described them as “The deep blue of the night sky just before sunset.”

Get real!

He fought the urge to laugh aloud. Contacts kept his vision going strong. The blue-tinted lenses made the color even more intense, but he didn’t wear tinted ones due to vanity. In all honesty, they were easier to find when he dropped one.

He took pride in how his skin pulled tight across his jaw and he still had all his hair. His slightly crooked grin was legendary due to the show. His smile, perfected on his television show, had turned women’s heads for years. He hoped it worked on this cute blonde.

“I was going to have lunch with my parents, but…”

Why did she hesitate? Listening intently, he waited to see how she’d finish her sentence. Surely playing with him would make better use of her time than a family get-together. Maybe the little beauty is hungry.

Hopefully she is hungry for more than just food.

He didn’t want her to starve, but he could certainly persuade her to get to know him better. After that, who knows where they may end up?

“Could you delay fifteen minutes or so? Won’t they wait? It’s such a lovely afternoon. My host is attending to business. I came here to play tennis, but if my partner-in-crime doesn’t show up soon, I’ll have to leave without my exercise. Please?”

“Okay. I can give you one set. Then I have to eat before I leave for an afternoon appointment.” Her bright smile flashed a heated spark straight to his groin. She set her water bottle back down on the bench and grabbed two tennis balls. She tossed them his way and Taylor caught both then stuffed the balls in the back pockets of his tennis shorts. She grabbed two more.

“As a guest of the country club, why don’t you serve?”

“How do you know I’m not a member?” he asked. “Am I wearing some kind of sign across my chest?”

“You mentioned your host is off somewhere.” Dropping her gaze to his waist, she walked to her side of the net. Was she admiring how he filled out his shorts? Their cut left little to the imagination. Only fair since he had quite the imagination concerning her. As he made his way to the service line, he smiled at her quick deduction that he didn’t belong here. Nodding to her, he bounced the ball twice, set his feet by the right-hand serve box, and swung the racket. Relief flooded his body when the ball made it over the net and landed on his opponent’s court. It wouldn’t do to embarrass himself in front of her so early in their relationship.

They hadn’t even exchanged names, yet.

In a flash, she flew across the court and the return volley sailed past his racket. He watched as the bouncing bit of yellow hit the court inches inside the fault line.

She got me. 

More about Me

Secret Love Match was my first published book, and I am sharing it with my readers today because of the Olympics. It is available in ebook format from several locations and might be listed by either Nancy Lee Badger or my former ‘pen name’ Nancy Lennea. Either way, the book is the same. After growing up in Huntington, New York, and raising two handsome sons in New Hampshire, I moved to North Carolina to write full-time. I am a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, and the Celtic Heart Romance Writers.

Website nancyleebadger.com

Blog nancyleebadger.blogspot.com

Twitter @NLBadger

Facebook www.facebook.com/nancy.l.badger 

Title: SECRET LOVE MATCH

Author: Nancy Lee Badger/Nancy Lennea

Genre: Contemporary

Size: full-length

Ebook ISBN 978-1-60435-731-8

Where can you buy the Ebook?

Red Rose Publishing at this link.

AMAZON at this link.

NOOK at this link.

All Romance EBooks at this link.

Fictionwise at this link.

CONTEST: One lucky person will win a FREE e-copy of SECRET LOVE MATCH. Simply answer this question:

What is your favorite Olympic sport?

Mahalo, Nancy, for joining us today!   The contest is open to all readers.  Comments are open through Saturday, August 11, 10 pm in Hawaii.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, August 12.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii