Recently, I was talking to a fan, and we both agreed, that we wished we had a boyfriend like Ryan Hunter at High School. It was a simple comment, but it made me think, and finally I had to say that I did have my Hunter… Want to get the full story? Not in a book, of course, but I can tell you now.

I was seventeen when the ultimate romance happened to me. I lived in Vienna, went to school there and all, but every summer, I spent two months at my grandparents’ house in Upper Austria. (Beautiful place, very green and far away from any city bustle.)

It was before my last year at High School, that I came to this place again, and my best friend and me spent the days outside – from the early morning till late at night. I had to suck in as much nature as I could to live from it later when I had to go back to the city, which I hated. However, one afternoon, we were just playing some lay-tennis in the street in front of my grandparents’ house, when this super sexy car drove by. It was a dark cherry with some really cool features. The guy had to slow down, because we were blocking the street, and the tennis ball rolled toward his front tire. I went to get it and that was when I looked at his face…and immediately fell in love.

I know that some of you don’t like instant love in a romance book, because you think it’s cliché. But if I ever use it, I do because I know how fast it can happen in real life. He looked every bit like Ryan Hunter, except his hair wasn’t black but blond.

So, when he was gone, I turned to my friend and with only one look she knew, it had gotten me bad. The cool thing was that she knew this guy. Not personally, but she’d heard her older sister talk about him and his car before. Apparently, he was nineteen, lived in this small town only some 500 meters away from my house…and he was a playboy.

Really, I thought. How would that work with me? I had just turned seventeen, had never been kissed, and was the shyest girl in all Austria.

Are you thinking now that we would have made a stunning match? I thought so, too, LOL. The only problem was I had no idea how to get close to him. I didn’t know any of his friends. I didn’t use to go out so I could have met him in a café, bar, club, whatever. And I had no sexy car that would have caught his attention. Heck, I didn’t even have a driving license back then, because in Austria, you have to be eighteen to get it.

So, as the silly chicks that my friend and I had been, we started hanging out somewhere close to his place in the town’s center. There was this one shop right underneath his apartment, and it had a cool ledge that you could sit on like on a bench. We did just that. We sat there for hours every weekend (I soon learned that he wasn’t home during the week because he just had to do this military service that every guy in Austria has to do for eight months at age 18+) trying to catch a glimpse at him when he came home or just randomly drove around, which he loved to do.

The good thing was I saw him quite often. The sad thing was I saw him with several girls. It was enough for me to turn tail and give up hope. I would never be brave enough and walk over to start an easy flirt with him which all those other chicks seemed to be totally cool with. I envied them for being so chilled around him. Like I said, I was a shy one. Too bad…

But then one day, and I even remember the date (August 15th, 1997), my friend and I were hanging out in front of my house, just chilling in the sun, when something happened, that I won’t forget for the rest of my life. This guy drove past my house again, quite slowly. He turned his head to my side, and one corner of his mouth tilted up. (Know now why all the heroes in my books do this time and time again? )

My heart did a somersault. Literally! I was totally stunned and couldn’t believe he really just did that. It was such a personal thing between him and me that I knew, with all the hanging out close to his place, I must have caught his attention. And it felt like an invitation. What for…? I didn’t know yet. But with all the excitement boiling in my chest, I just had to see him again. So my friend and I went to that shop and slumped down on the window sill like we’d used to do so often. It only took a few minutes until he showed up and parked across the street. I tried not to, but I couldn’t stop looking at him when he was talking to a friend for some minutes. Suddenly, that friend came over to us. I’d seen him before, because he was the boyfriend of someone I knew. His name was Jay, but I’d never talked to him before. He asked us if we’d be up to some cruising around with the two of them.

I cast an offended look at the blond guy again and thought, Seriously? You—playboy—are sending your friend to ask? It somehow hurt my pride, so I told his friend no. Not unless the blond would ask personally. Jay went back and passed on the message. What happened next was just so sexy that it still makes me smile when I think back to it today. The blond laughed, cut a glance to the sky, shook his head in disbelief, probably rolled his eyes, then he smiled, looked my way, and called across the street, “All right…come on!”

My friend was totally up for it, because while I was in love with him, she was in love with his car. Okay, I was in love with his car, too, but he came first. LOL

So with this lovely invitation, I couldn’t refuse any longer, and I was totally shaky, excited, nervous, and all, as we ambled across the street toward him. He was leaning against the hood of his car, with his arms folded over his chest and his legs crossed at the ankles. He slightly cocked is head. “Up for a ride?”

“Only if I can sit in the front,” I answered.

That sexy half-smile played on his lips again. “Fine with me.”

I was just about to get into the passenger seat, when my friend suddenly protested with a sullen pout, “Hey, why do you get to sit in the front?”

Of course it would have meant a lot to her to sit in the front in the car of her dreams. But it meant more to me to sit right next to the guy of my dreams. But I couldn’t say that out loud, so I replied playfully, “Because I’m older than you.”

And then the blond stepped behind me, really close, and told my friend by drawling into my ear, “And because I don’t want her to sit in the back.”

You may imagine how that made me happy.

We cruised around for about an hour, getting to know each other just a little. I found out his name—which started with an H. And I just loved listening to his voice. It was the sexiest sound I’d ever heard.

When he stopped where he’d picked us up, we got out and talked for a while, but then it was getting close to five, and that was the time, when my Gran usually wanted me to come home for dinner. My grandparents were cool. I didn’t have to show up often, just for meal times, so my friend and I told the guys we had to go home.

“Will you come back later?” he asked me.

I smiled because he sounded every bit like he wanted me to. “Maybe.”

“You better do.”

“So? Why?”

He leaned in a little closer and purred in my ear, “Because I know where you live.”

That is the stuff that still makes the hair at the back if my neck stand on end. Sorry, guys, I didn’t intend to make this post so long. I’ll stop here. Just so much for closing, I met him again that same evening and it was really nice. But he was a playboy—don’t you forget that—and I decided I didn’t want to be just someone on his list of bad reputation. I made him wait one year and a half until I let him kiss me for the first time.

And just yesterday he told me in our bedroom that I was totally worth the wait…