Page 125 of Foreplay on Words

“Maybe you need to be cut off.” He smirked as he ran his thumb along my hip, covered only by the thin material of my dress.

“You wouldn’t even last to the party.” He huffed at my eye roll, but I knew I was right. Evan had turned out to be a very affectionate partner.

“Hmm. The winner gets to pick the subject of our next book.” I let out a heavy breath, and he looked down at me with concern. “You okay?”

“We’re going to write another one?” I had a hard time keeping the excitement out of my voice.

“I mean, it’s fine if you don’t want to, but I really liked wor—” His words cut off when I gripped the sides of his face and planted one on him.

“And they’re making out again. I think we’re gonna need a hose.” I could practically hear Kristine’s eyes rolling back in her head.

“I think it’s great,” Sam whispered.

“Of course you do. You’re probably hoping for live-action porn.”

“Oh, stop it. I’ve never seen him like this.” Sam’s voice held a little bit of awe. Apparently, everyone else could see the changes in Evan as well.

“Are you going soft on me? Watching too many Lifetime movies?”

“Since when has anything on me ever been soft?” Sam’s voice had a bit of a seductive edge, but Kristine shot right back in her usual unaffected sarcasm.

“You think quite highly of yourself, don’t you?”

“You didn’t seem to mind me taking my shirt off at the gym the other day. I saw you watching,” Sam taunted.

Evan broke the kiss and silently laughed against my lips. The next few weeks were certainly going to be entertaining.

“Should we interrupt them?” I asked as I looked up into his much more relaxed eyes.

“I think Kristine’s head will explode if we don’t go in there.” He nodded at the door.

“I guess we should go act like professionals.”

“Do we have to?” he whined.

“Put on your big boy panties, and let’s do this.”

I stepped around him and crossed toward the open conference room door. He gripped my hips and pulled me back into his chest, pressing himself into the back of my dress.

“Who said I’m wearing any? These pants are very snug.” Wow. I’d clearly created a monster...or maybe that was only what was in his pants. Evan’s game had upped significantly in the past few weeks. I felt like a proud mentor that he was such a quick study in innuendo.

“I’ll have to inspect that situation later. Let’s do this.” I reached behind me and grasped his hand, tugging him after me into the conference room where the public relations representative going with us on tour was waiting.

“Hello all,” Diana, our new public relations specialist, chirped from the front of the room. I loved working with her. She was unflappable. Always polite and classy.

When things went wrong or off schedule, she firmly handled business and got you back on track. It was impressive to watch her maneuver in a room full of the press without being pushy or rude.

“Let’s ensure we’re keeping to the itineraries in your daily briefing packets.” She’d compiled folders detailing everything we’d be doing over the next several weeks. From hotel reservations to scheduled breaks, it was all in there.

“See. I told you she’s keeping us on a tight leash,” Kristine told Sam quietly as they leaned toward each other in the seats to our right.

“She’s keeping them on the leashes,” Sam whispered, nodding in our direction.

“Pretty sure they keep each other on leashes,” she muttered.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing at her snarky comments.

“We could probably go MIA for an afternoon, and they wouldn’t notice,” he coaxed.

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