“I hate you.” Standing, I stomped over tothe doorway and picked up my pen cap. “I’ve been talking to Tristan. I haven’tbeen hiding from what I want. That’s how I got in this mess to begin with.”
Well, that and staying up too late andforgetting to set my alarm, again…and whining about how long it was taking himto decide to let me come.
It’d been a long few days and he was tryingto kill me with denial.
Jonah giggled again. “Suuure, talking tohim is what got you so turned on you can’t focus?”
I sighed and went back over to flop in my chair.“So maybe I complained…just a bit…but he didn’t appreciate that since I’dalready not followed the rules.”
“How much? Like stretching them a bit forattention or completely obliterating them?” When all I did was sigh at hisquestion, he laughed again.
“Okay, that explains why you’re so hornyyou can’t think.” He cocked his head. “Did you get anything done today?”
I shrugged. “I murdered three people. Thatpoison you found is fun and gives all kinds of crazy side effects while they’redying. They were robbing a house and picked up what they thought were potbrownies on the counter just to be assholes. But the chocolate hid the tasteand the pot made sure they weren’t thinking clearly enough to realize what washappening.”
Jonah laughed. “You’re evil when you’rehorny.”
“Well, it’s not like I could give them anorgy.” I rolled my eyes when he started to laugh again. “And I got my wordcount in for the day. I just have to weave that scene into the plot I have sofar.”
It was going to be good, but just a littlemore gruesome than my readers were used to, so I might have to tone it down abit…once I wasn’t distracted.
And I still had to figure out who wassupposed to have gotten poisoned to begin with.
Jonah shook his head, but instead offussing or teasing he just started tinkering with the computer and puttingthings away. “I made a lot of headway with the beta read for Rose’s book. Thereare a few things I think you need to work on before it goes to your editor. Oh,and he sent the edits for the first few chapters of the other book. So far Ilike some of the changes he suggested.”
Then he gave a small sigh. “Just not all ofthem. The new guy hasn’t read enough of your stuff to get the side charactersright. He kept changing the yappy dog in apartment three to a cat for somereason. She’s never owned a cat in any of the books. He’s got some commentabout a cat feeling more right for the character. It’s ridiculous and you needto talk to someone about the idiot wasting time on weird shit. But some of theother things he pointed out might work.”
Aside from the issues with the new editor,Jonah always had a good feeling for what would drive my publisher nuts, so I’dstopped arguing with him and just redid things when he told me to. It’d saved alot of time over the past year alone, but we were both having to get used tothe new editor. “Okay, once you're done with Rose’s, we’ll go over the notesfor the other one and when he’s done I’ll make some calls.”
The mysteries had so many layers to them, Iknew I couldn’t obsessively defend every decision, but he couldn’t just changeanimals mid-series because he didn’t think that crazy old bat was a dog person.
Actual plot issues were another issuealtogether. Sometimes what felt right in the moment left a plot hole Jonahcould drive a truck through. That was one of the reasons I loved my romance anderotica books. I just knew the characters and there was only so much I couldfuck up.
My biggest problem with those was makingsure someone still didn’t have his pants on after they’d made love. My biggestproblem with the mysteries was the wrong person getting killed. Just a littlebit of a difference there.
“Great. I think I’m done for the day, but Ishould have everything done by the end of the week.” His statement had melooking toward the clock. Where had the afternoon gone?
“Okay, that’s perfect. Thanks.” I must havebeen too agreeable or just paying too much attention because he straightenedand looked at me like I’d done something curious. “What?”
He grinned. “Tristan’s coming back tonight,isn’t he?”
Groaning, I tried to ignore the question,but he just kept poking at it. “Is he staying the night or just coming to playfor a while? I bet he’s sexy when he’s driving you crazy.”
I snorted, trying to change the subject sohe didn’t figure out that Tristan and I hadn’t exactly had sex yet. “Do yourMasters know you talk like that?”
“If they don’t, they haven’t been payingenough attention.” Jonah stood, putting his laptop in his bag. “So fess up,what’s going on? You’ve been avoiding talking about him.”
That clearly wasn’t going to work anylonger. I just wasn’t sure how to explain what was happening between us. Thesubmission was wonderful and he loved driving me insane but he’d kept thingsfocused on me and I wasn’t sure how to change that. “Because I don’t knowwhat’s going on.”
Standing, I started pacing slowly aroundthe room. “I like being around him and he’s sexy as fuck. He’s great at his joband even seems to truly enjoy managing me. But I’m just worried I’m taking advantageof him or something.”
And those conflicted emotions were probablywhy he’d been telling me we were going to take the full sex side of thingsslow.
Painfully slow.
Jonah snorted. “That man does not feel likehe’s being taken advantage of.”
The first time they’d both worked on thesame day, Jonah had gotten in a few minutes earlier than usual just to ogleTristan. He hadn’t even made an attempt to hide it. He’d just introducedhimself again and started pumping the guy for information. Tristan had taken itvery well. I had a feeling he’d liked how possessive Jonah was about me.
