#Wicked #Amusing #Romance by Laura Strickland

WICKED WEDNESDAY

Please welcome today's guest, Laura Strickland, to a wickedly amusing first meeting. And if you have a story, be sure to leave her a comment...maybe your experience will spark some inspiration for her next novel!

Who among us has not gazed across the proverbial crowded room, set eyes on a stranger and felt that niggle of instant attraction? Who hasn’t subsequently (and perhaps subtly) maneuvered to get near that particular individual in order to start a conversation via some amazingly witty and scintillating line that will capture said individual’s attention? And who among us hasn’t bombed stupendously…

When it comes to meetings with the opposite sex, there are good beginnings, and some pretty wicked ones. A perfectly rehearsed intro turns to babbling gibberish when nerves enter the picture. An otherwise ordinary person can come off like a total fool or an arrogant lummox.

But I’ll wager few introductions have been worse than that between the hero and heroine of my latest release, Last Orders: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure.  When they meet, the hero (Brendan), a policeman, is answering a report of a woman (Ginny) shooting up a tavern with a steam cannon. Read on and see if you can imagine a more unfortunate beginning to a romance:

Ginny glared harder at the tall, strapping hunk of man—police officer—who stood before her. She supposed being a police officer didn’t exclude him from being a man, but at the moment she felt a little fuzzy about it. In any case, he was much too good-looking, well over six feet, with a good set of shoulders, reddish hair, and features that had been entirely too well carved. And those eyes—just look at those eyes: bright blue and snapping with rage.

She detested handsome men.

He had to be the most detestable she’d ever seen. And his voice! That Irish accent of his caressed his words the way his tongue might well caress a woman.

“I do not wish to be arrested. What blame fool would want to get arrested?”

“Then hand over your weapon. You can reclaim it tomorrow at the station.”

How professional he was. How well he kept his anger under control. But Ginny could feel it, and she wondered what it would take to make him lose that control. 

“I’ve had this steam cannon since I was fourteen years old.”

“Well, you and it are going to have to spend the rest of the night apart. Dennis?” The officer jerked his head at the second cop—at least Ginny thought there were two and she wasn’t just seeing double. The two of them closed in on her again, one from either side. She raised the weapon, dimly aware it was a stupid thing to do.

The cannon had now fully charged; she could kill someone. The detestable police officer moved too quickly for her, wrested the cannon away, and handed it to the second man. Yes, there were two of them.

Ginny saw red. While the tavern’s patrons hooted some more, she drew back her arm and punched the detestable police officer as hard as she could, right in the face.

The blow—surely one of the best she’d ever delivered—barely rocked him back on his heels. The crowd gasped as one.

“Now she’s done it,” someone cried.

But, you know, romance has its own way of finding a path through anything (sort of like water). And fate has a twisted sense of humor. And sometimes even an awkward greeting…or a punch in the face…can lead to something wickedly wonderful.

So, what’s your worst-meeting story?

Last Orders: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure blurb:

Buffalo Police Sergeant Brendan Fagan, investigating a series of grisly murders spurred by clashes between humans and automatons, only wants to save his city. The last thing he needs in his life is a rule-bending, steam-cannon-toting, unpredictable female like Ginny Landry, a woman who could possibly bring down his career and the one woman he quite likely can't resist.

Ginny means to settle the estate of her mother, an infamous madam, quickly and get out of town. She has no intention of becoming involved with any part of her inheritance or falling for Brendan. In fact, she makes it a point never to date handsome men. But when her rash behavior brings them together, the attraction can’t be denied.

And when the city erupts in chaos, forcing her to choose a moral side, can she deny what’s in her heart?

Buy links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKH5K3L/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524396794&sr=8-1&keywords=last+orders%3A+a+buffalo+steampunk+adventure

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/last-orders-laura-strickland/1128542971?ean=2940159072177

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/last-orders-a-buffalo-steampunk-adventure

Author web site: http://www.laurastricklandbooks.com