When the villain turns your head

On the weekend over at Word Wenches, Loretta Chase sparked a lively discussion about villains and how some have a knack of turning up in subsequent books playing the lovestruck hero. I was too late to reply to her post—getting paid to write nonfiction all day long has really put a dent in my blog surfing, not to mention my creative writing time—but I'm curious to hear whether other writers have had an experience similar to mine.

Many years ago I set out to write a story wherein the heroine is pursued by two beaux: one a blond, blue-eyed beta male with a heart of gold; the other a dark, sinister alpha male driven to possess, conquer, and pillage if not rape. Naturally, beta boy was expected to win the buxom bride. But a startling thing happened. The scenes featuring the villain of the piece proved the choicest bits by far: the dialogue sparkled, the man showed far more wit and spunk than his pale adversary, and the heroine's heart (not to mention her nether regions) gradually softened. To top it all off, Mr. Alpha Male then began to demonstrate a vulnerable side, ever so slowly, by degrees. He won us over. Both of us, heroine and author both.

That novel has been rewritten. No trace of the blue-eyed boy remains. It's all about dark, silvery-eyed Montgomery and his conquest of his lady love.

Now, tell me, has this experience ever befallen you? Has a character so completely taken over the story that he/she transformed it before your very eyes? (And, I wonder, is that a good thing? Who is the master of the piece, after all?)