Page 6 of Foreplay on Words

“Do you have someone in mind?” I still didn’t trust his judgment, but I’d run out of options.

“We have a few candidates. I overnighted a box. I know you like to flag references, so I thought hard copies might be easier.”

“You sent me a box of erotic novels?” I asked dryly.

“They’re not all erotic—okay, some of them are. But it’ll give you an idea of the material they write.”

“What if I don’t like any of them?” I hadn’t had time to read for recreation in years. I wasn’t sure I had the attention span to sit through a whole box of books. I always had too many characters itching to get written to focus on reading.

“Those chapters need total rewrites. You need help or to get some hands-on experience to draw from,” he huffed. I knew I was becoming a source of frustration for him.

“I’m not going to go have rough sex with a random stranger.”

His deep laugh resonated through the speaker, and I was so glad he got amusement out of my situation. “Any sex with a stranger would probably help.”

“Dick,” I muttered.

“Yes, you supposedly have one. Go use it,” he laughed.

“How you are considered a grown professional is beyond me.”

“You love me,” he teased.

“No, I really don’t.”

“The package will be there later today. Put down the laptop and get reading. I need a name sooner rather than later.”

“Fine,” I sighed heavily.

“Good.”

“I’m hanging up on you now,” I threatened as my finger hovered over my phone screen.

“Have fun with your research!”

I pressed the little red button and pushed my phone across the table, eying the tablet next to it. A distraction was needed until the UPS man came in a few hours. That box was like an ax hanging over my head. I did not want help with this, but I obviously needed it. It had been a while, but it’s not like I was totally inexperienced. I had girlfriends in high school and college. And after… But trying to derive anything sexy from my last relationship would bring back too much trauma I’d tried to forget.

Although my younger self had been more confident and self-assured—with the help of alcohol. Before I second-guessed every other word out of my mouth.

On paper was easier than interacting with people. I could let my fingers fly, and eloquent words would fill the paper—or the screen. The things that came out of my mouth, not so much. I could be charming on paper when I was pretending to be someone else.

Switching out of incognito mode, I opened a new Chrome tab on my tablet to attempt to guess which authors he’d be sending me books from.

Vivid Publishing’s website had author bios listed by genre in a very easily accessible format. I clicked on the romance link and was overwhelmed by the listing of authors. There were a lot of them who wrote under pen names.

I had my own, but the romance writers had some flowery ones. One caught my eye, although it wasn’t so much the name as the picture thumbnail beside it.

Now I was aware of the makeup artists, stylists, and flattering lighting that went into taking a photo for a book jacket, but she was stunning. Chastity Rose. Hmm. The thoughts her image inspired were anything but chaste. The smirk on her full lips and the subtly concealed curves drew me in, and I knew I needed to investigate this reaction to her. For all I knew, she could be a horrible writer with a pretty face.

I tapped the link to see her books, and heat surged through me as the thumbnails of her book covers popped up.

‘Candace was still reeling from her divorce when her friends signed her up for an online dating website. Will young Marc help her get back out there?’

Looks like it from the cover. It showed a barely clothed, very muscular man embracing a woman who looked like she was in her forties. Damn.

‘Retired rodeo cowboy Luke settles down on a dude ranch as a horse trainer to escape after a devastating injury. Will the ranch owner’s daughter help him with his recovery?’

“Doesn’t seem too injured to me,” I muttered. This cover featured a shirtless cowboy bending a young woman in a cowboy hat backward over his arm.

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