Page 39 of More Than Words

If Kristine wasn’t so meticulous about putting things into our shared calendar, I would have been lost this past week. I didn’t like that I was letting a man distract me from my professional life, but I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him. Adrian was slowly endearing himself to me when we were alone, although I still had a hard time trusting that he was being sincere. This all seemed too easy to be real.

“I thought maybe that glass of wine would relax you,” he murmured, and I felt his fingertips brush against the back of my shoulder blade. “But maybe you need something else.”

“Stop,” I whispered, trying to focus my attention on the words on his screen. I’d looked over the shared document on the server earlier, before my shower, so I knew what was already noted, but all my brain could focus on was the deep, gravelly sound of his voice when he whispered that close to my ear. “Just pay attention to the document, not me.”

“It’s hard to concentrate with the potent scent of your shampoo. It smells almost as sweet as the taste of something else on my lips.”

“Adrian.“ My voice was exasperated as I leaned forward, trying to calm my racing heart.

“Fine, I’ll stop,” he coaxed, his palm settling between my shoulder blades, and causing my arms to break out in goosebumps. Still not helping. “Sit up. Please.”

Clenching my eyes closed, I counted to ten in my head, willing my body to relax. It wasn’t his fault my thoughts kept drifting to the way I’d fundamentally changed things between us. As much as I wanted to displace the blame, I was the one who’d come onto him. I was the one who’d touched him first. I was the one who started this slow descent into madness after our brief tryst.

I was also the one who’d reconstructed the boundaries after everything that happened, somehow expecting them to keep my feelings from changing.

“I know you’ve seen all these, but I wanted to make sure you were good with the changes I’d suggested after this went through Sam and Kristine. She had some solid suggestions on word usage and the impact of the way Evan had phrased some things. Are you alright with this going back to him next week?”

“You mean her comments about the use of phallic nouns?” He smirked, but didn’t respond. Kristine had suggested Evan start coming up with other words than dick in one of the sex scenes. Scanning the side margin to double-check that Adrian hadn’t added any additional notes since I’d studied them earlier. “What do you think about the changes they’ve made to the rough draft so far? I know you’ve gone through and made your own notes, but most of them were technical in nature.”

“It’s better. I’m still not convinced it needs this much detail, but the scenes in question do flow better.”

I knew most of his authors glossed over spicy material, so writing explicitly was likely new to him, but he wasn’t exactly a prude.

“You can call them sex scenes, Ad. It won’t diminish your author to have a little spice in his novel. I think in this case it helps draw the reader into the relationship between the two characters. Adds some suspense and conflict,” I noted. “And Kallie’s job is sexual in nature, so including detailed interactions is keeping in line with her backstory. She uses her sexuality to exert control on the rest of her life.”

Adrian tensed beside me. “Evan’s achieved suspense and conflict just fine without a romantic subplot before.”

“And with a little help, he’s done it just fine here.” Just because there was an angry couch fucking didn’t diminish the suspense of the book. It added a little more excitement.

“I guess.” Adrian nodded, glancing over at me, his posture still tense. I could tell this was pulling him out of his comfort zone.

“Quit being so dismissive,” I teased, pushing my shoulder into his side. “You realize sex is part of the human experience. People fuck. Seeing it on the page shouldn’t be shameful or dirty.”

“Well,” he smiled, a little bit of his bravado returning. “I agree with the shameful part, but being a little dirty is the fun part of sex.”

And there was the teasing again. Even if hearing it made my heart skip a beat.

“Was that an admission that maybe I’m right?” I gasped, dramatically placing my hand in the center of my chest. His eyes narrowed in on the action, the neckline of my sweater dipping dangerously low.

“Don’t look so smug. Chase helped him get this into shape, but I told you the bones were good.” His voice still held an edge of vulnerability, but I knew he was trying to defend his author. I’d never doubted the quality of Evan’s work, and I knew I was sensitive when people criticized my authors.

“It was just the actual boning that was terrible.” A slightly obnoxious laugh escaped before I clamped my bottom lip between my teeth, sensing Adrian wasn’t quite as amused with my comeback.

“Why is everyone in the romance genre so sex obsessed?” He had a point, but like I’d told him. Sex was a part of real life too. Sure, sometimes fictional characters had a bit more of it in frequency and intensity, but despite my own personal dry spell, people fucked.

“Maybe because sexuality is something you shouldn’t be ashamed of. Every level of spice is relevant in romance, but there’s a huge market for spicy reads. That’s why Chase has built up such a following. If you haven’t noticed, there are plenty of women out there who aren’t ashamed to own that they like reading about sex.”

“You mean Evan’s novel isn’t a really spicy read?” he asked, a little wrinkle forming between his dark eyebrows.

“Hardly.” I was trying to tone down my amusement, but he really was clueless when it came down to what was popular right now. He’d been off in his mystery bubble, not realizing that while his authors were successful, mine were as well. He may have thought the revenue from his projects kept my department afloat, but in most fiscal quarters, it was the other way around. “It’s maybe midlevel spicy, but you clearly didn’t read the books you sent Evan.”

“Why would I read a romance novel?” he frowned. I knew I’d given the marketing department specific books to send up to him, but I hadn’t realized he’d not looked at any of them before forwarding them on to Evan.

“You might learn a thing or two.”

We were treading back into dangerous waters by continuing down this path, but I was enjoying putting him in his place too much and him being the uncomfortable one for once.

“I think I’m competent in the sex department. I don’t need to be taking notes from some desperate single woman’s erotic fantasies,” he snipped, reaching forward to place his open laptop on the coffee table. When he sat back, he shifted away from me, his hands tense on his thighs.

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