Blackjack & Moonlight Tour Stop!

A super-sexy judge has to declare his love for the lawyer of his dreams before he’s even met her.

Jack “Blackjack” McIntyre, Philly’s superhero judge, meets his match when Elise Carroll appears. Trouble is, she’s a lawyer in his courtroom. Stating his feelings for the court record isn’t the way to start a relationship… particularly with a woman who thinks “love at first sight” is as real as the tooth fairy.

Elise wants nothing to do with Blackjack’s potent charm and alleged romantic feelings. Still, men leave when they’ve gotten what they want… and they all want sex. So she offers to skip the candlelit dinners and go straight upstairs to unwrap him like a birthday present.

Jack and Elise negotiate a deal—they’ll alternate his romantic dates with her “sex only” dates. The contract works… until both of them get more than they bargained for. As Jack puts it, “falling in love isn’t for the faint of heart!” Can two legal eagles make this relationship work?

Oh I hate to admit this, but when I saw the cover for this book I groaned and thought great another romance, going to be the typical story.  OMG was I wrong, so terribly wrong.  I fell in love with this story and with Blackjack in chapter one.  I still can’t put my finger on what it was that made me just ADORE this couple and their story, I wish I could but trust me, it is one of my favorite books EVER. 

This isn’t a love story with tons of hot sex; this is a real story of love.  Jack knows he has fallen in love the first second he sees Elise in his court room.  Being a new judge he is bound by the ethics of the system and has to make a decision and declaration right then.  This knocks Elise off her feet and the story begins.  Where Jack is used to getting what he wants, he has come to feel the obligation to earn what he has beginning as a teenager.  This is where he is going to struggle with Elise, he wants her but he feels he needs to earn her love and trust. 

Elise had a messed up childhood, most of the early years she can’t remember.  Although she is a forceful and successful attorney now, she has mother issues and fears of people leaving her so trusting Jack the sexy playboy judge is never going to happen.  When a crisis happens in her life she is forced to look at her past head on and figure out what it is she is most afraid of. 

I just LOVE the way these two interact with each other.  I am so in love with Jack it isn’t even funny.  Yes he has been pushed to my top three fictional boyfriends.  At times I wanted to be angry at Elise for keeping Jack at a distance but the author did such a fantastic job at showing us the true woman and broken child inside of Elise I couldn’t be angry at her.  Jack is just the gentleman that all women swoon over even though the media cast him in a playboy light; he is so far from that it is crazy.  

This was one of those books I couldn’t put down, even when I was forced to do the daily chores of life or try to sleep; I found my mind going back to those two.  They are seriously people I wish I had in my real life they were just so perfect, even with their fears and flaws; they would make the real world a much better place.  I will certainly be following this author and grabbing her next book.  I am actually having a book hangover from Jack and Elise………..sigh. 

Elise shoved her notes and the motion papers in her bag, squared her shoulders and followed Tony along the hallway to judge’s chambers. When she got there, Blackjack—she really had to stop thinking of him like that—Judge McIntyre was hanging up his robe.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” he asked her. “Brenda might have some cookies…?”
“No.” She held her briefcase with both hands as if it were a shield. If anything, he looked even taller without the black robe. She added hastily, “But thank you.”
She forced her shoulders to relax. “Could you explain to me what just happened in there? Because we both know that you don’t—that you aren’t—”
“In love with you? I suspect I am. In any event I would like to explore the possibility of a personal relationship. Clearly I can’t do that as long as you appear before me as counsel.”
Possibility? There was no possibility here. He had to be insane. She looked up. He was gazing at her steadily, calm and relaxed.
Then he smiled at her. Really smiled. Even his eyes crinkled.
Oh, God. He was so freaking gorgeous. Warm and friendly and—where had Judge Freeze-Dried gone? If he’d smiled at her like that in court, her backbone would have given out.
She shouldn’t be surprised. She’d seen the coverage of his prosecutions. Hell, he’d been the darling of the media all the time he’d been the US Attorney. Nothing—not the local news coverage, the photos in the newspaper, the quick TV interviews in front of the courthouse—none of it prepared Elise for the sheer power of his smile in person. She prided herself on her immunity to a shimmering-white smile and laughing eyes. On Blackjack, though, that hot man magic was other-worldly. She could feel it weakening her resolve. Which just made her madder.
She sat up straight. “You simply can’t be in—” She refused to utter the L-word. Bad tactics to give his delusion validity. “You don’t know me.”
He nodded. “Obviously I’d like to change that. Dinner this evening, perhaps?”
“No.” She shook her head for emphasis. She had work to do, a deposition to prep for, hours to bill, a partnership to snag. Kim’s home to save. She didn’t have time for some man to push romance at her like it was the secret to happiness.
He moved toward her. He smelled nice, something slightly spicy. The scent of a man’s skin just out of the shower. Damn him for putting that image in her head. She clenched her teeth and took a step closer to the door. She clutched the back of the chair, keeping it between her and the judge. She looked down—it was too heavy to lift for that lion tamer move.
She let go of the chair, picked up her briefcase and held out her hand.
“It’s been very interesting meeting you, Judge McIntyre. Congratulations on your elevation to the bench. I’m sure it’s my loss that I won’t be appearing again in your courtroom.” There. Neatly done.
He just laughed. “Oh, I’m certain we’ll meet again soon.” They shook hands. He released her immediately. Good. She was relieved, of course she was, that he didn’t try to use their handshake as an opportunity to touch her a bit longer. She ignored the lingering feel of his warm fingers on her skin.
He edged a tiny bit closer. His scent pulled at her—it wasn’t just an aftershave, it was his pheromones, wasn’t it? No woman could be immune to that smell. She bet female defendants lined up to confess when Blackjack walked in the room.
Elise steeled herself. That was his Blackjack superpower. She couldn’t get involved with anyone like that—it would be like putting jet fuel in a compact car. She went for the let’s-have-a-few-dates-and-some-fun guys, not legal celebrities who owned their own tuxedos. She had to leave before his good looks and charm worked their evil magic on her. Once she was gone, his delusion would lift, he’d shake his head at his own zany notion, and find a lanky brunette to take to the next charity ball.

After pairing up lawyers romantically in her head for fifteen years, Magdalen Braden traded in her job as an attorney to set her inner matchmaker free. Today she draws on her past adventures in a Philadelphia law office to write her sexy contemporary romance series, The Blackjack Quartet. Blackjack & Moonlight, the third installment in the series, was a finalist in the prestigious Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® contest in 2012. All four books contain love, romance, and a solid dose of legal humor. Magdalen connects with readers at her local satellite of the Lady Jane's Salon® reading series, and with fellow writers at her Romance Writers of America® chapter. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her crossword-loving husband, their Rhody-mix dog, and two omnipresent cats in the Endless Mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania.

 

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