Page 105 of Foreplay on Words

“He?” Now she sounded angry. “Is this guy you’re seeing trying to use you to get his book published? I thought you were smarter than this...”

“Oh, thanks for having faith in me,” I scoffed. “Trust me, Is. He needs no help from me to get published.”

Silence filled the line before she gasped loud enough Evan likely heard it despite his firmly fixed earbuds.

“Holy shit, Chase! Really?”

“What?” My heart started beating faster as I waited for her to respond.

“Is it Evan? Are you sleeping with Evan?”

Fuck. She really did have me all figured out. “Um...”

“Adrian has been making my life hell since his golden boy dropped off the grid. The two of you aren’t very good at the cloak and dagger routine.”

I’m sure he’s been giving you a really hard time. Emphasis on the hard...

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” she insisted. “You’re being secretive while Evan’s gone radio silent.”

“I’ll call you later, Is. Something has come up! Bye!” Panicking, I hung up on her and turned off my phone, throwing it on the coffee table. My heart pounded as I leaned forward on the couch cushion with my head in my hands. I took several deep breaths to calm myself down, but it didn’t help. This project was messing with me. I wasn’t ashamed of it nor afraid of Is finding out the truth, but I’d become consumed. Maybe she was right that this would implode my career.

“Hey. You alright?” Evan sat on the couch beside me and pulled me into his arms. “Who was on the phone?”

“Isobel.”

“About your deadline?” he asked as he ran his hand down my back, combing through the loose hair. “Authors miss deadlines all the time. She needs to give you some slack.”

“Yes,” I whispered into his neck. “And no.”

“If you need me to take point on this and write the first draft, I can,” he offered as he hugged me to his chest a little tighter. “The outline is solid and we can always change things during editing if you aren’t happy with it.”

“No—no,” I immediately disagreed. “I want to be doing this with you. I’m just overwhelmed.” As my chest tightened with every breath, I could empathize with Evan regularly dealing with this kind of anxiety.

He nodded and squeezed me closer, his lips on my temple.

“She knows we’re sleeping together,” I whispered, waiting for him to inevitably freak out.

“Oh.” He tensed up, holding me tighter. Was this the moment he finally ran?

“I didn’t tell her,” I insisted. “She guessed. I’ve never been able to keep secrets from her. She’s like an FBI profiler, she’s always two steps ahead of me.”

“It’s okay,” he assured quietly. “I’m not mad, don’t worry about me. I don’t want to jeopardize your career because I’m interfering with your working relationship with your editor.”

“I just panicked when she figured it out and I hung up on her and turned off my phone.” Nodding to the offending piece of technology I’d abandoned on the coffee table, the tightness in my chest started to ease.

He laughed and kissed the side of my head. “She was going to find out we’re together eventually. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

“I know. I wasn’t hiding it, but I don’t like letting her down. I feel like I’m disappointing her by not fulfilling my obligations.”

“Baby,” he sighed, pulling me up to look into my eyes. “I’m sure you’re not letting her down. She deals with writers all the time. She knows the words don’t always come according to some contract.”

“I know, but...” Panic was building inside me as I thought about what this meant for my career. This was the first time I would miss a contract deadline. I felt like a failure. In the last few years, I’d finally felt like my career was finding its footing. Evan didn’t understand what it was like to fight for every reader.

“Just relax, take deep breaths, focus on my voice,” he encouraged, and I gave him a shaky nod. “What can I do to help?”

“Take me home?” My voice was quiet and vulnerable, but for once, I didn’t feel safe staying in the city. I needed him to take me back home.

He kissed me gently and leaned back into me, rubbing his hand down the back of my head and tucking my face into his neck. “Right now?”

---