Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“Oh my God, Gideon, that’s wonderful.”
“It’s pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted. It’s a top-level position in a listed company, with a high five-figure annual starting salary.”
The money didn’t matter, but the fact that they’d offered him that much was validation in itself.
“You’re taking it, right?”
“Yes.” He couldn’t say the word without grinning like a school boy.
“This is so exciting! I have to see this story.” She dug her phone out of the smaller purse she’d carried to dinner. “What’s the app?”
“You don’t have to look it up. It’s—”
“Fine, don’t tell me,” she interrupted him and Googled the story title which directed her to the app.
She downloaded it and a few minutes later she threw herself, stomach down, lengthwise across the bed and started reading.
“You’re seriously going to read that now?” Gideon asked, still perched on the edge of the bed. Beth had her phone clutched in both hands, her legs were crooked at the knee and crossed at the ankles and rhythmically swaying up and down.
The pretty, floaty party dress she was wearing had ridden up to her thighs. Her sexy arse was within touching distance and her head was on the far side of the bed from where he was sitting.
He threw himself down beside her, legs bent, and feet planted on the floor. Because he was on his back, he found himself staring up into her face while she focused on her phone.
Her gaze dropped to his face.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“I’m waiting.”
“For what?”
“You’ll see.” He folded one arm under his head, and the other was draped across his torso as he continued to stare at her while her attention went back to her phone.
“You have a freckle under your chin,” he observed sleepily.
“Ssh,” she hissed.
“You really don’t have to read it, you know.”
“Will you be quiet?”
He shut up. He didn’t know how he felt about her reading that novel, seeing the illustrations. And he for damned sure didn’t know how she was going to react to chapter three.
He couldn’t stop staring at her. Counting freckles, admiring the clarity of her moss green eyes, the sweet perfection of her soft, pretty features. She worried her plump, cushiony lower lip with her even white teeth and he ached to run a thumb over that beautiful lip. A thumb, followed by his tongue, then his teeth…after which he would suck that ripe, succulent treat into his mouth and eat her up like she was the sweetest dessert.
He was fantasizing about that, and more, when a soft gasp startled him out of his relaxed, dreamy, lazily aroused state.
“You didn’t,” she breathed, and he screwed up his face, not sure what to make of her reaction. He had expected a little more outrage mixed in with the shock and horror.
“Are you angry?” he asked warily.
“Am I angry?” she repeated, not taking her eyes off the screen. She was shaking her head in slow disbelief and he still couldn’t quite figure out what she was thinking. “She looks like me.”
“Aye, she does,” he agreed, pushing up to his elbows to stare at the character on her screen as well.
“She is me.”
“In a manner of speaking. Let’s just say when I first read the character, yours was the face that popped into my head.”
“But none of the other characters look like anybody we know.” She sounded confused. “Are there others in here who you—”
“No. Just that one.”
“She’s so—” Finally, she met his eyes and Gideon exhaled a shuddering sigh when he saw the excited sparkle in her gaze, the delighted smiled curling up the corners of her lips. “She’s so evil. I love her!”
“She’s a fantastic villain,” Gideon told her with a grin. “An evil mastermind with a twisted sense of humor. She’s my favorite character. Calla has had a lot of requests for her back story, because she’s intrigued so many readers. She’s thinking of doing a Greta Greyspawn spin off. And the publishers are fully on board with that idea.”
“Even her name is awesome.”
Gideon sank back down on the bed and watched as Beth refocused on the villain’s unforgettable introduction to the story. She couldn’t keep the wide smile from her lips and he enjoyed watching her discover the character that he had physically modelled after her. Calla had pretty much left him to decide on the concept art for the graphic novel. Calla did the words, Gideon did the art. That was the deal. Occasionally they would discuss character design, wardrobe, facial expressions but for the most part, Gideon had free reign.
His design for Greta Greyspawn had come into being about ten months ago, after another one of those volatile exchanges between him and Beth. He’d gone home, pissed off and frustrated, only to find Calla’s next chapter waiting in his inbox.
Greta’s fiendish introduction.
He’d gotten to work immediately and, only after he was done, had he realized how much the character resembled Beth. He’d changed her hair color to black with bright purple streaks and had given her eyes of matching purple. Greta was also taller and leaner than Beth, but there were enough similarities between the character and her real-life counterpart for his inspiration to be unmistakable.