Kirsten Osbourne took the opportunity to answer this Valentine’s Questionnaire in a way that would best suit her Valentino! She put her man on the spot in a head to head with a sassy reporter who doesn’t let go until she gets all the dirt. Ms. Josie Smith did my job and better than me but Tino Hayes still got the last word!
Tino Hayes walked into the newspaper office nervously, wondering why he’d been pulled away from his ranch work to be interviewed. He had a long arduous day of mending fences ahead of him, and it was Valentine’s Day. He needed to do something special for his monstrously pregnant wife, Cassie. He knew he needed to get her some chocolate, because it’s all she’d wanted since she’d conceived, but he was thinking maybe something frilly as well.
He walked into the room indicated for him, and perched nervously on the edge of a stool. The young woman in front of him had dark hair that was pinned severely into a bun at the back of her neck. There were spectacles perched at the end of her nose.
“Do you know why you were chosen to be here today, Valentino?” she asked.
“Please, call me ‘Tino,'” he said automatically. Valentino was such a mouthful. “I have no idea why I’m here.”
“All right, Tino. I’m Josephine Smith. Everyone calls me, Josie.” She studied him for a moment before continuing. “I asked you to come in so I could interview you about love. Who could possibly know more about love than a recently married man named Valentino?”
Just about everyone, Tino thought. “I don’t know. Tell me, and I’ll go talk to him. I’ve got a pregnant wife, and she’s a bit moody right now. I could use some advice!”
Josie raised an eyebrow at him. “May I quote you on that?”
Tino felt a moment of panic. “Oh, please don’t. I love my wife, and I don’t want to lose her!”
Josie simply nodded. “Are you ready for the interview?”
Tino nodded, realizing he should have found out exactly why he was being interviewed before he’d left the ranch. What had he been thinking? “I guess.”
Josie smiled, and her smile sent a shiver down Tino’s spine. Why did he feel like the woman was out to get him? “Define Romance.”
Tino sighed. These were going to be tough questions. He had no idea how he was going to be able to handle them. If his answers were cataclysmically bad, he’d just make sure that Cassie never saw a copy of the paper. “Romance is the act of making someone else the most important person in your world and showing them in every way possible. Romance is walking her to her door at the end of the night, but it’s also the glance you exchange over a campfire, or the brush of your fingers when you’re in the presence of others. It’s rubbing her feet because they’re swollen. It’s showing her with a glance that you still think she’s the most beautiful woman alive.”
Josie gave no response, simply moving on with the next question. “Describe your idea of the perfect relationship.”
“No relationship is perfect, of course, but I have one of the best possible. My sweet wife, Cassie,
struggled through her morning sickness to cook me breakfast every morning. I rush home at the end of the day and tell her how much I care about her. We work together to build up our ranch into something we can be proud of. I’m married to my best friend, the woman who makes me feel like no other. It’s not perfect, but it’s as close as a man can get.”
Josie quirked an eyebrow, but again made no real response. “When a woman is with a man, what should he be thinking about?” she asked.
“What should he be thinking about? How am I supposed to know that? I know what he shouldn’t be thinking about, and that’s other women. He should be focused on her when he can. While courting, he should be focused on her every moment they’re together. After marriage, that’s a bit harder, but I focus on her as much as I can. Truly, she’s the most important thing in my entire world, and I work on letting her know it as much as I possibly can. I won’t say every minute that we’re together, because in the evenings, I sometimes need to do paperwork, and she needs to work on her knitting for the baby. As much as I can is all I can say.”
Josie nodded. “Another variation on the same question. When a man is with a woman, what should she be thinking about?”
Tino frowned. “How am I supposed to know that? I’m not a woman! I do not now, nor will I ever, claim to understand the workings of a woman’s mind. I refuse to answer that. Next question.”
“You’re not even going to try to answer that?” she asked. At his vehement head-shaking, she glanced at her notebook. “Have you ever broken a heart so badly that you felt you may be a bad man?”
Tino thought about that one. He’d not been in many relationships because he’d spent years searching for his brother. Finally, he came up with a suitable answer from his past. “I knew a woman once who fancied herself in love with me. She was sweet, but I was so focused on looking for my brother that I didn’t even notice her until I found her naked in my bed. I asked her to leave. I guess that wasn’t the best way to handle things.” He shrugged. He hadn’t been about to take advantage of her either. “Please don’t print that. Change my answer on that one to ‘no.'” He could only imagine how Cassie would feel if she got hold of that answer.
She frowned. “Your first answer was better. Why not let me print it?”
“Because I love my wife with all my heart. It would hurt her.” Tino couldn’t believe she even had to ask him that.
She noted something down before looking at him again. “Fine. Would you rather with a good girl or a bad girl?”
Tino shrugged. “Well, I prefer women to girls, but I’d say a good girl. I’m partial to a woman who puts others first. Bad girls tend to only think of the good time they can have. Good girls? They care about everyone around them. What could be more attractive than that?”
She made some notes and then smiled an enigmatic smile. “Define sex.”
Tino’s jaw dropped. “I can’t answer that for a newspaper! You can’t print that word, can you?” The woman was crazy.
Josie shrugged. “I can if I want to. Define sex.”
Tino turned red and fidgeted in his chair. The woman was brazen! ” The physical aspect of romance,” he said quickly. “Next question!”
She seemed to enjoy his discomfort, but moved on as he asked. “Describe your idea of the perfect woman.”
“My wife.”
When he said nothing else, she sighed. “Describe your wife then.”
Tino thought about it for a moment. “She’s a strong, independent woman who puts others before herself. She’s attractive, but she doesn’t realize just how beautiful she is. I don’t like a woman who is too confident. I know that sounds strange, but if she’s so sure of herself and everything she can do, why would she need me? Cassie is independent, but she knows how to lean on me as well. How could she be more perfect?”
Josie made notes, before looking up and giving him a look that was positively gleeful. “A dirty mind or an innocent smile?”
Tino stared at her, wondering how he was supposed to answer that question without stuttering. “An innocent smile.”
“Nothing else to say on the topic?” she asked.
“No, ma’am.” He wouldn’t expound on that answer for anything in the world.
“How should a real man kiss?” she asked after another glance at her notes.
“With everything inside him. He should be striving to show every bit of emotion he feels for the woman through his lips and tongue. He shouldn’t grab a woman unless he knows she wants it. Stroking her back just to be affectionate wouldn’t be amiss, though.”
She nodded and made note of his answer. “In what three words might a woman describe you when you are in bed?”
Tino blinked a few times. “Can you repeat the question?”
“In what three words might a woman describe you when you are in bed?”
Tino shook his head. Who wrote these questions? What kind of man did they think he was? “Asleep, snoring, and horizontal. Next questions.”
“Tino, I don’t think you quite understood my question,” she said with a teasing smile.
“I understood it just fine. My answer remains the same.” He wasn’t going to talk about his private life with Cassie. That was none of anyone’s business.
“When you are making love to a woman, what are you thinking?”
Tino stood. “This interview is over. Your questions are rude and intrusive.” He moved toward the door.
“Please, Tino. Give me another chance.” Josie sighed. “There are only two questions left. We’ll skip that one.”
Tino glared at her. “I’ll only answer what I feel is appropriate. My private life with my wife is no one’s business but my own.”
Josie nodded. “I can accept that.” She consulted her notepad. “What is your wildest dream involving a woman?”
“To have one I can keep forever. I want marriage and children, the whole nine yards. I’ve drifted too much in my life not to want the stability that a good marriage and family will bring to me.” He thought for a moment about the brouhaha back in New York when he’d returned the bus. He’d had to go see Mr. Dare and show him with his fists how not to treat a lady and fifteen orphaned girls. He hoped there would be no repercussions from that, but it had been over ten months, and no one had come looking for him, so he was probably safe.
Josie’s eyes met his. “One last question. Define love.”
“You do realize that’s a statement not a question, right?”
“Close enough. Would it really be too much to ask if you responded to my statement? It wouldn’t be cataclysmic for you, would it?”
He shrugged. “I guess not. Love is being married to your best friend, the woman you want to spend every day of your life with. Love is what you feel when she walks into a room and smiles at you. Love is spending the rest of eternity with the only woman alive who makes you want to spend forever with her.” He stood. “I’ve got fences to mend and chocolates to buy. Have a nice day, Josie.” He tipped his black cowboy hat at her as he walked out of the room.
Join the Release party on Thursday or the Twitter party on Wednesday 2/11/2015
Call Me Valentino Synopsis:
Fall in love this Valentine’s Day as USA Today and Amazon Best Selling authors come together to bring you one sexy hero written in five different genres. Call Me Valentino uses the same hero set in five different worlds. Your new book boyfriend is a cowboy, an FBI agent, A Highland Laird, a real estate developer and even a vampire. Which Valentino will be your favorite?
Purchase Call Me Valentino:
Valentino’s Stories:
The Matron by Kirsten Osbourne:
Since being widowed, Cassie Morgan had devoted her life to the orphans in the orphanage she’d managed. When a new church took over the orphanage and decided to turn it into a boys’ home, she was both frightened and unsure about how she would make things work for the girls. Being told she had to take fifteen young ladies all the way to Texas from New York didn’t make her feel better.
Valentino Hayes had spend his entire adult life searching for the younger brother he vaguely remembered. Just after finding a lead that would send him to Fort Worth, he was offered the job of driving a bus full of orphans to Texas. He jumped at the chance, knowing he needed to not only find his brother, but work while he was searching. He didn’t plan on Mrs. Morgan’s love for the children to turn his head. Could he convince her to travel with him? And how was he going to provide for a wife while he was still searching for his brother?
Undercovers by Jamie Lee Scott:
When FBI agent Valentino “Vin” Jackson’s undercover sting operation goes bad, he teams up with Special Agent Ellis Boyd of the DEA, who has some special talents of her own, to take down a drug ring working for the Mexican cartels.
The Brute and the Blogger by Olivia Gaines:
Tino Boehner was up to his ears with Ebony Miller’s pot shots at him on her blog. Just as he was trying to figure out how to turn the tables, fate dumped her in his lap. Seizing the opportunity, he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse; come work by his side for a month.
A month can be a lifetime, or just enough time to make a man want to change his brutish ways.
Highlander, The Archer by Hildie McQueen:
Valent made an oath to protect the McLeod clan after they rescued him as a foundling. However, after years of mistreatments at the Lairds hands, he questions his obligation to uphold his promise.
When a rival clan attacks and kills her brothers, Ariana McLeod’s world is turned upside down. That she’s fallen in love with the handsome archer, Valent, is a complication and a blessing at once. Amidst battles, revelations and treachery, is it possible to expect their love to triumph?
A Vampire’s Penance by Jordan K. Rose:
The chain of events set in motion when Rafe Valentino tries to stop his brother from making the stupidest decision of his life borders on deadly. Rafe goes from being one of the most terrifying creatures to walk the earth to requiring around the clock nursing care. As if being physically injured wasn’t enough, the senior member of The Vampire Guard has no choice but to reveal the heinous secret of his past in order to protect nurse Maddie Van Kool from throwing away her life on him.
Meet Kirsten Osbourne:
Kirsten Osbourne hails from the state of Wisconsin, but has lived in Texas for almost thirty years. She is a mother, a writer, and a wife. Married to the love of her life for fifteen years, she knows that true love exists and wants to share her vision of love with the world. Writing is something she has always loved and plans on doing for a long time into the future. As Kirsten Osbourne, she writes contemporary romance as well as historical. As Morganna Mayfair, she ventures into the realm of paranormal romance. She invites you to join her in her world of fantasy and make believe where there is always a happily ever after at the end.
Kirsten Osbourne’s Web Tracks:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Pinterest
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