Читать книгу Twelve Hours of Temptation - Шома Нараянан - Страница 3

Dear Reader

This is my fifth book for Harlequin Mills and Boon^®, and I came up with the plot during a road trip from Mumbai to Goa. I scribbled out the outline while my husband drove and my kids dozed in the back seat. Then, three months later, with a deadline looming up ahead, I tried to make sense of the squiggles on the page. My laptop obligingly crashed when I was halfway through writing, and I finished the book on the trusty old laptop that I wrote my first book on. Zero battery life and clunky keyboard vs sleek lavender keys and flashing hieroglyphs where my manuscript used to be—well, the clunky laptop wins every time.

Melissa and Samir, the two lead characters in this book, are very different from each other. Melissa is pretty in an understated, elfin kind of way, and she has a wicked sense of humour. People often write her off as a quiet, rather mousy girl—it’s only when they get talking to her that they wonder why they’ve never noticed the mischief in her eyes, and her melting smile.

Samir, on the other hand, is strikingly good-looking, very successful, and perhaps just a little arrogant. He’s used to women chasing after him, and he’s had his share of relationships—still, he gives the impression of being cold and aloof. He’s instantly attracted to Melissa when he meets her, but he holds back so that she ends up making the first move. Both of them are carrying baggage from previous relationships, and it takes them a while for them to recognise that it’s more than sheer physical attraction holding them together.

I’ve set the book in two of my favourite places—Mumbai and Goa—and I hope I’ve managed to capture the essence of both. Now all I need to do is explain to my indignant kids why this book is dedicated ‘just to Papa’ …

Happy reading!

Shoma