Hi guys, we have M.J. O’Shea popping in today with her upcoming release Marriage of Inconvience, we have a brilliant guest post, and a great excerpt, so check out the post and enjoy! <3 ~Pixie~

Marriage of Inconvenience

M.J. O’Shea

Lights, camera, lies.

Kerry Pickering has a problem. As a publicist for Hollywood bad boy Jericho Knox, it’s Kerry’s job to keep Jericho in the news. So far, Jericho’s partying and public escapades have made it easy. But Jericho has a secret, and when that secret is revealed in the most spectacularly disastrous way, it’s up to Kerry to spin it.

The team decides the best course of action is to make the public fall in love—with Jericho’s secret committed relationship. The one that doesn’t exist. Yet.

The team wants someone they can trust. Someone in the inner circle. That someone is Kerry. But what will happen when Kerry realizes that for him, the romance is no longer pretend? Can Jericho love him back, or is he just playing a role?

M.J. O’Shea!

MJ’S Five Favorite Hollywood Dreamboats

My newest book Marriage of Inconvenience takes place in one of the most glamorous and duplicitous places in the world…Hollywood. One of the leads, Jericho, is everything that seems to make the industry turn. He’s sexy and troubled, dark in an irresistible way, and tabloid fodder when he’d like to be taken seriously. I thought in honor of Jericho Knox, I’d name a few of my favorite movie and television stars — of course I don’t really know anything about them personally. I just like to look 😉

Luke Pasqualino — you’ll see that I have a thing for the dark-haired guys. Just check out the cover of the book haha. They managed to find a model that looked nearly exactly the way I pictured Jericho. And Luke…. well… the hair, the accent, the costume when he’s playing D’Artagnan. There’s nothing not to like.

Leo…of course — There can’t be a list without Leo. Ever since I was a kid. I don’t think Leo really needs an explanation haha.

Ben Whishaw — more tall and dark haired, also add brainy to that because I love that about his character Q. I think it’s the glasses. So adorable.

Santiago Cabrera — I think you’ll find that he has been very inspirational for a number of characters of mine 🙂 A perennial favorite. His incarnation as Aramis might be my favorite so far.

Jared Padalecki — it’s more Sam. I’ve always had a thing for Sam. He’s tall, he’s dark, he’s a bit nerdy but in a superhero kind of way. It works for me <3

Our fictional star Jericho has had a few… problems over the years. But his worst problem is that his team wants him to be someone he’s not. And it’s getting to the point where it’s no longer tolerable. Here’s a tiny bit from the beginning of Marriage of Inconvenience!

Excerpt

JERICHO had the same thought he’d had about a million times since the meeting yesterday. Was it worth it? Was any of it worth it? Sometimes he wondered what life would be like if he’d never left home, if he were a lawyer with his dad back in Charleston, stayed out of the spotlight, found a decent guy. Would that have been easier than doing what he loved but putting up with a ton of stuff he hated?

Probably.

But Jericho was an actor, and as much as he hated the rest of the shit that came along with it, he felt right when he was in front of the camera. It felt like a million years since he’d worked, and he supposed dating a girl for the tabloids was just another form of acting. It wasn’t like he was going to be the rainbow cop on the show— he’d play straight there too. Wasn’t that big of a deal to play straight in real life. Was it? Jericho wondered how long it would take to convince himself. 

He sure as hell didn’t feel okay. 

He felt like crap every time he saw his name in the tabloids linked to yet another girl. Every time he went home to visit his mom and she wondered when he’d settle down with a nice guy and give her a grandbaby or ten. He just… felt awful. But he had to do it. At least it was short-term, and soon enough he’d be off in the misty Pacific Northwest and hopefully free of stunts. Hopefully.

“Get a few years of the show under your belt, go for a leading man role, then maybe you and I can talk about coming out.” George had always said. “You know what reality looks like. You know it’s getting easier for gay actors to get cast as leading men once they’re out of the closet. You also know it’s not great yet out there. Especially when you’re still working on getting established.”

They’d had the same argument a million times. George wanted him to establish himself as more than a moody supporting actor. Jericho thought he was probably right. Still sucked like hell. So he kept his mouth shut, and he let George set him up with one more fake girlfriend. This time it would be more serious, more cute-couple shit, and he was determined to make sure this one knew he was gay. Right away. The last time he’d done a few PR dates, the girl hadn’t known about him, and she’d started thinking they were going to turn into something real, and then he had to tell them the truth about why it couldn’t, and then there was all the awkward paperwork binding them from leaking his sexuality to the public in any way and blah, blah, blah. It was a huge pain. Jericho never wanted that to happen again.

“So what now?”

“Now we set it up, take a break over the weekend, and then put the plan into place.”

Jericho sighed. “Fine. Plan away.”

He glanced over at the younger guy who’d been pretty quiet since he was introduced at the start of the meeting. He was exactly Jericho’s type. He really did like the little dark-haired ones. Kerry was a lot prettier than the guy he’d danced with last night at the club—Jericho shuddered at the memory of his near disaster with the pretty boy and the camera noise. Kerry’s skin was milk pale but dusted at the cheek with a soft rosy flush, and his hair was so black it shone nearly blue in the sun from the window. He was small and compact, but not skinny. Looked like he was hiding a nice ass under those khakis, and he had some muscle on his shoulders.

Gay? Jericho wondered if he’d be the type to indulge in a little bit of extracurricular fun. Probably not; looked a bit like a newbie corporate stiff, but he sure as hell was delectable.

“Can we be done for the day?” Jericho asked. “I have some errands to run.” He didn’t really, but he’d rather be anywhere than sitting in George’s office unless he was making out with the pretty underling, Kerry. And that wasn’t likely to happen.

~~~

That’s all from me!! Thanks for letting me stop by <3 I’m always around social media if anyone has any questions or just wants to say hi.

xoxo

MJ

About M.J.

I’m Mj O’Shea 🙂 I grew up, and still live, in sunny Washington state and while I love to visit other places, I can’t imagine calling anywhere else home.

I spent my childhood writing stories. Sometime in my early teens, the stories turned to romance. Most of those were about me, my friends, and our favorite movie and pop stars. Hopefully, I’ve come a long way since then.

When I’m not writing, I love to play the piano, dance, cook, paint pictures, and of course read! I like sparkly girly girl things, own at least twenty different colored headbands, and I have two little dogs who sit with me when I write. Sometimes they comes up with ideas for me too…when they’re not busy napping.

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