I had such a great time writing Taming the Tycoon and bringing Addie and Nathaniel’s story to life. I had particular fun with Addie being a maths genius. It led to some amusing scenes especially when Nate first finds out he’s been judging a book by its rather unconventional cover!

Poor Nate – she has him bamboozled right from the getgo!

“That’s not a challenge,” she said. “Working them out in your head is a challenge. I’m pretty good at math. I can help if you like? Throw me a sum.”

Nathaniel chuckled at her offer. He was learning not to underestimate her but she’d need to be a bloody genius to work this stuff out without some kind of electronic aid or at least a paper and pen. “I’m good.”

“No, really,” she insisted.

Nathaniel sighed. He didn’t want her help, but he was beginning to recognize that determined little jut to her chin. “I’m pretty damn good at math, too, but multiplying and dividing eight figured numbers off the top off my head with any sort of accuracy is not something to mess with.”

Her gaze didn’t waver as she said, “Try me.”

Nathaniel met it for a long moment then returned his attention to the sums he’d been working on and prattled off four seven-figured numbers that had to be multiplied and then divided by a five-figured number with two decimal points.

It took her less than ten seconds to shoot him an answer. “Okay,” he said, amused at her dead pan delivery as he wrote the number down. “And how do I know it’s right?”

She didn’t even blink. “It’s right.”

“If you say so.”

“Get your phone and check.”

Nathaniel reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. He scrolled to the calculator application and did the sum, hitting the equals button. The answer blinked back at him and he stared dumbfounded as it matched the one she’d given him.

He looked up and shot her another sum, doing it on the calculator as he dictated it to her. A dozen sums later, he was staring at her, completely gobsmacked.

She was a genius.

Who owned a crystal shop.

And lived on a boat.

“Addie, Addie, Addie...” he murmured. “When are you going to stop surprising me?”

Another scene I had fun writing was the reaction when Nate’s mother and grandmother are exposed to Addie’s talent.

“I’m not sure we’ll have enough fairy lights,” Delphine fretted.

“How many have you got?” Nathaniel asked.

“Heavens, I don’t know. Thirty-two strings of twelve point eight meters each-”

“Four hundred and nine point six meters,” Addie interrupted. “There’s usually five lights per meter, which will give you two thousand and forty-eight lights. Oodles, I’d say.”

Silence descended upon the table as three sets of eyes blinked at her.

“Oh yeah,” Nathaniel murmured, forgetting for a moment that he was going to spend all day stringing almost half a kilometer of lights. “She does that.”

“Wow,” Eunice murmured.

“Impressive,” Delphine agreed.

Addie shrugged. “Sorry, I forget how much it freaks people out.”

“Not at all,” Eunice said, patting her hand. “Just remind me not to play cards with you.”

As you can see, Addie has everyone transfixed. Nate seriously does not know what’s about to hit him!

Doncha just love it when a big powerful man is bought to his knees by a woman?


This blog first appeared on Stitch Read Cook http://www.stitchreadcook.com/