Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
He’d kissed the top of her forehead—way too far away from her damn lonely mouth—and told her she had thirty minutes to get ready for the party and maybe she should spend that on her new project.
He was on the edge, and it bugged the crap out of her that she had no clue what was going on in that gorgeous head of his.
It was making her cranky when she needed to be penitent. After everything she’d seen with Josh and Jared and the others, she’d wondered if some apologies should be made. She’d talked to Josh about it and he’d decided she needed some email therapy.
Dear JR Ward,
Please forgive me for my last email. You should write as quickly or slowly as your muse leads you, and you probably know your characters better than I do. So forget that small threat about Butch and V. I didn’t really mean it. You know who best they should be mated with, not me. No one’s coming for you in the middle of the night and while I do know your address, I promise to respect boundaries.
That was good, right? Nothing creepy about that.
“Writing some emails?” Barry asked as he entered the lounge.
Most everyone had changed into street clothes in anticipation of the party. Everyone except Subby Sue, who claimed street clothes gave her the hives. The closest anyone could get her to wear was leather short shorts and a bikini top. Her Dom had to force shoes on her feet when they went “formal,” as they called it.
Funny, Josh hadn’t come back out yet. He’d set her up, given her instructions that she was to write apology letters to at least three of the authors on her list, and went to take a shower.
“I like to call it my grand apology tour,” she replied with a smile. “Apparently I’ve been hard on some people.”
Barry sat down beside her. “Hard on them? Sometimes tough love is the best kind.”
“I might have sent many emails with suggestions on how some of my favorite authors could…change things.”
“Things?”
How to explain? “Like plot things that maybe didn’t feel right to me. You know—constructive criticism. I also might have given them examples of things that could help to boost their efforts and productivity.”
Barry took a sip of the coffee he was drinking. “Do I want to know what these examples are?”
“Just simple motivational stuff.” Like hey, I could show up on your doorstep and help out. No problem. I know all about floggers and pain as motivation.
When she thought about it, she should have been more positive. More cheerleader like. Go author, go! That would probably be better. Looking back, she could maybe see how someone could construe her innocent comments as vaguely threatening.
If she was super sweet in her apology email, maybe Kristen Ashley would rescind that whole restraining-order thing.
“You must really like this lady’s books,” he said. “Have you thought that maybe you get too involved?”
“Oh, all the time, but honestly, when I was a double agent for the CIA and they had me posted in China, I was bored out of my mind. Turns out the Chinese government isn’t hot on erotic romance and the books that do get through there are mostly political treatises on how the government should serve the people and vice versa. Yeah, total fiction but boring, too. No sex. No romance. When I got back, I might have binged like crazy. After you read fourteen books in someone’s world, you kind of find yourself forgetting it’s not real. You start talking like the characters, talking to the characters. Yeah, I’m lucky Damon didn’t lock me up. I spent a lot of time in conferences explaining to him what I thought Wrath would do.”
Barry frowned, but didn’t ask. “Well, I just wanted to come and tell you that I think it’s wonderful you and Josh are getting along. It’s about time that young man found some peace.”
“We’re getting along quite well.” Too well. After he’d made love to her the night before, she’d sat up forever, her soul torn between doing what was right for Josh and her family in London.
“But? I hear a but in there somewhere.”
She flipped the laptop closed. “He still doesn’t talk to me about his past. He knows a ton about mine. He knows some classified shit that could get us all in trouble. You know, I really wasn’t cut out to be an operative. I like to talk too much. It was okay when I was embedded with MSS. They were all kind of dicks there.”
It was surprising her sister had turned out so well. The kind of training and torture the Chinese put their agents through didn’t typically kick out loving, kind individuals. Of course, she herself hadn’t gotten the full Agency training either.