I can’t be the only one who finds Sheldon Cooper from the hit show The Big Bang Theory
kinda sexy, can I? While I generally find the behavior of the sitcom’s genius
main character infuriating, his social ineptitude—particularly in the romance
department—is also endearing. We forgive him the irritating speeches because we
know he just doesn’t get it (‘it’ often meaning other people). Viewers can
relate because all of us have been guilty of doing or saying the exact wrong
thing at the exact wrong time. The geniuses just seem to do it on a grander scale.
After publishing more than a dozen erotic romance stories, I was getting a
little tired of the dominating maverick rich guy hero (don’t worry, I’m mostly
recovered now). Still, restless writer me was saying at that time, there had to
be more than that guy to make a woman’s heart race. So I started thinking about
sorta hot, still pretty nerdy, Sheldon when I created the hero for my newest
erotic romance short novel, HOT FOR THE PROFESSOR. Like
Sheldon, Logan Sterne has been a misfit his whole life, a science whiz kid who
became a professor in his teens. No one in his life can relate to Logan, not
even the heroine Avery, who grew up next door, never imagining that the genius
kid next door was seriously falling for her.
So where does a misfit genius find out about romance? For Logan, it’s in romance
novels. He treats them as textbooks. He even talks like a textbook when he first
lets Avery know about his feelings, going on about her ‘estrogen features’ and
the unmistakable physical signs that she’s actually a little bit into him.
Estrogen features are a real thing but I first heard the phrase on the only two
minutes I’ve ever watched of Next Top Model so I had to research it.
Just like Logan would do. Some of Logan’s ridiculous social miscues are what
make him memorable to Avery. The genius-hero has a way of sticking in your head,
especially when he proposes to you on his eighteenth birthday, as Logan does to
Avery in the story.
I like writing the ‘return’ stories so the real action in HOT FOR THE PROFESSOR takes
place years after that awkward romance story-inspired proposal. Logan has grown
up, filled out and turned into an incredibly sexy man who wears glasses and
academic sweaters which Avery finds nearly irresistible. Because who’s hotter
than a man who isn’t afraid to show his smarts, right? Maturity has given Logan
confidence in every area that matters…except for romance. He’s still fixated on
Avery but she thinks their living (and sleeping) together is nothing more than
convenience and a strong chemical reaction. After numerous setbacks in her
personal life and career, she’s got her own baggage to deal with and she could
do without the challenges Logan offers to her stereotypical view of who and what
he should be.
Is part of what keeps my characters apart those clichés about nerds? It seems to
be a subtext in the story. God knows Avery’s faced her own battles against
stereotypes—being an artist, everyone expects her to be wild and promiscuous.
Oddly enough, because of his lifelong status as a misfit, it’s Logan who manages
to see past those easy assumptions and look at her as a whole, rounded person.
But the clichés can be overwhelming, can’t they? And they’re so very convenient
because they make thinking unnecessary. The challenge are those people who don’t
fit into categories. The hot nerd. The cautious artist. When you think about it,
no one truly fits into a neat box…except, of course, on television.
When Avery’s down and out, her embarrassing past with Logan forces her
into an educational—and very sexy—future.
Years ago, Avery’s neighbor Logan proposed to her on his eighteenth birthday.
She’d always known the genius next door was different. After all, he’d become a
professor in his teens. But that day, for the first time, she’d actually seen
him as a man and it had disturbed her, so much so that she’d avoided Logan for
years afterward.
Now Avery’s broken up with her employer and live-in boyfriend and she’s out of a
job and out on the street. As a last resort, she reaches out to Logan’s mother.
Big mistake. Logan gets involved and suddenly Avery is facing all the
accumulated history between them.
Logan is trying to help her get back on her feet, but Avery suspects he has an
ulterior motive. When it comes out that he’s still suffering from that old
teenage obsession with her, she severs the relationship, no matter how much it
hurts in the process.
After all, the two of them couldn’t possibly work out, could they?
Erotica | Romance Erotica
Sensual [Totally Bound Publishing, On Sale:
February 21, 2017, e-Book, ISBN: 9781786511331 / eISBN: 9781786511331]
Nan Comargue writes romance and erotic romance. She has written numerous
erotic stories published by Totally
Bound. She writes all the time, probably when she should be doing something
else, and blogs
occasionally.
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