Page 126 of Foreplay on Words

“And why would I want to run off somewhere with you?”

“I’m sure I could convince you to let your hair down a little,” he shrugged.

“My hair already is down, ya doofus.”

He sighed loudly and crossed his arms on his chest. “God, you’re impossible.”

“Yet you still keep following me around.”

She’d obviously upset him with all the brushoffs. His voice was cold as he responded. “We work in the same office.”

“So that’s why you’re always conveniently within earshot.” Kristine shot back with a sardonic laugh.

“Yeah. They won’t even last to Denver at this rate,” Evan whispered, his warm breath tickling my neck.

“I thought we liked to banter as foreplay,” I giggled as I watched Sam and Kristine square off. It was like they couldn’t help themselves.

“They take their whole love/hate relationship very seriously.” He nodded as he looked around me toward the two of them.

“If she hated him, she’d ignore him. I think she likes him riling her up,” I told him quietly.

“I know you like it when I rile you up,” he teased as his hand covered my knee underneath the table.

“What can I say? I’m a sucker for a mouthy guy.” I could see his chest shaking from the corner of my eye.

“And we both know I like having my mouth all over you.”

Diana was still talking to us, but I don’t think any of us were paying attention. “Okay, I think that covers about everything. Does anyone have any questions?”

All four of us slowly shook our heads as she smiled from the front of the room.

“Don’t worry. I know you weren’t paying attention to me. All the information I went over is in the front of the folders for Chicago,” Diana laughed as she held up a folder. “I’m old school and would rather have everything in writing, printed out, than rely on you to pay attention to emails.”

“But you’re still sending us a digital copy, right?” Kristine asked anxiously. She was permanently attached to her phone, so I couldn’t see her getting on board with something as archaic as a paper-filled folder.

“Yes, Kristine. I understand I’m a dinosaur. You’ll get PDFs the night before with the next day’s information,” Diana sighed. “I’m sure I’ll see all of you tonight. Congratulations, Chase and Evan.”

“Thank you,” I smiled and then apologized. “Sorry, we’re a bit distracted.”

“Not a problem. I’m used to much worse,” she smiled widely.

“Thank you, Diana. It was nice to meet you.” Evan was talking to someone voluntarily; that spoke volumes about how approachable she was.

“Likewise,” she nodded and was out the door, meaning we had an hour left to kill before we had to return to the hotel for our stylists.

“Nice job, Kristine. Diana is already annoyed with us.” I pinned her down with a scathing look. Diana could make the next few weeks easy or hard, and I wouldn’t risk Evan’s first book tour in years for a moody intern.

“Hey, why is this my fault?” Kristine protested. “You two weren’t exactly concentrating on what she was saying either.” She pointed at Sam with her thumb. “And he has a mouth too.”

“That I do.” Sam rolled his eyes.

“Smartass.” She rolled her eyes back and gathered her laptop and bag. “I’m going to do my job before I’m forced to babysit you for the next three weeks. See you tonight.”

She stopped on her way out the door and pointed straight at Evan and me. “You better not get distracted and show up late tonight. I’d like to actually enjoy myself at one of these things and not get stuck being Is’ errand girl.”

“Got it,” I confirmed with a nod. “Don’t worry. The alarm is set on my phone.”

“Uh, good to see you guys. Guess I should check in with Adrian. I’m not sure he can survive three weeks on his own.” Sam smiled as he gathered his things and stood up from the table.

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