Paula James

Inn the Mood Paula James

Publisher Marketing: The encounter that was to change two lives so completely started with a single erotic experience in a drafty hangar. Mattie Palmason and Dr. Michael Matthews consummated nothing but a confusing and dysfunctional meeting that would finally bind them together. With Mattie's looks, education and her father, Senator Bradley T. Palmason, she would appear to be the perfect catch. However, it had become her goal to dismiss men from her life. She had been hurt too many times to throw herself into another relationship. She was on the proverbial relationship wagon - at least until Michael Matthews appeared on the scene. His looks and background, as a National Security Agency psychologist, interviewer, and clandestine operative did not impress Mattie. He was simply another man to be avoided, even though she had found the hangar episode, to say the least, tempting. Michael, suffering from a rogue teenage hormone, can't shake his memory of the near sexual experience in the hangar. He pledges to become a one-woman-man and begins his energetic chase for Mattie's affection, the first woman in his life that represented anything more than sex. More entanglements ensue, from Mattie's obsessive hatred of her philandering father to her father's ideas of how to discourage men to stay away from his daughter. The senator hires a retired mercenary to keep Michael away. More complications arise when Dr. Michael Matthews receives two notes suggesting suicide and murder threats, possibly from one of his clients. The threats are implied and suggest sexual bribery. Mattie and Michael strive to consummate their intentions. The interruptions in their plans include the murder of a close family friend, the threats and kidnapping of Mattie by the mercenary named Big, and the senator's repulsive and forced involvement in their difficult lives. And that is just the beginning. Contributor Bio:  James, Paula Paula James is a lecturer in Classics for the Open University.