“Am not,” I said quickly, even as my belly started cartwheeling inside me. Love sounded way too serious and much, much too soon. “It’s just a trial. I’m not selling my place in Virginia.”
“Yeah, but you’re thinking about moving to another state for him!” Lucy said, her eyes bright. “I think it’s amazing. Like a romance novel. Instalove with an irritating but super-hot next-door neighbor.”
“And it’s perfect because you don’t have to give up your job or anything. The best happy ending,” Skye added.
“This is real life, not a book. It’s a lot more complicated,” I said, because it had to be more complicated. Otherwise nobody would be cheating on their spouse or getting divorced or crying their heart out over a broken relationship.
“How complicated can it be? He sounds like a decent guy,” Skye said.
“What do you mean, ‘sounds like’? I haven’t told you anything about him.”
“He cooks.” In her mind, any guy who cooked for a woman was a great catch.
“Well…yeah. He does cook. He also reads my books,” I said.
“Does he enjoy them?” Lucy asked.
“I think so.”
“Total winner! Is he better than Scott in bed?” Skye demanded.
“Scott who?” I didn’t have any ex named Scott. Neither did Skye or Lucy as far as I knew.
“Your hero from That Hot Night. His book has the best sex you’ve ever written,” she said. “And the hero was hung like a stallion, with endless stamina.”
Lucy nodded. “That’s true. In one romance group I’m in, he got voted ‘hero I’d most want to bone’ last year.”
I knew which one she was talking about. I’d been so flattered when the group admin emailed me a banner to put on my social media and website. And I put it up proudly.
“So. Better or worse?” Skye of the one-track mind asked.
“Better,” I said immediately. Scott was my imagination. Killian was not. And he was incredibly enthusiastic in bed. With great technique and raw power. And endurance.
Skye and Lucy let out loud squeals.
Lucy fanned herself. “You have to bring him to the signing!”
“Totally! I’ll pay for his airfare! And enough Xanax to chill him out!”
“A man who can give you better-than-Scott sex is totally worth going to Dallas for,” Lucy said. “He might even give you better-than-Scott romance, too!”
I laughed softly. I’d had similar thoughts about Killian. Optimism began to bloom.
I could totally give the relationship a few months. And if it was still good, then… Well, then it’d be love.
The door opened.
“I’m home!” Killian said brightly.
I perked up, but the need to end the call surged. I didn’t want Skye or Lucy to catch Killian in the background accidentally. Or recognize his voice. “Gotta go,” I said. “Dinner’s here.”
“Isn’t it a little early?” Skye said.
“Skipped lunch. See ya!”
“Don’t skip! Eat. Enjoy!” Lucy said.
“Happy early release day!” Skye said.
We hung up. Killian dropped something off in the kitchen, then came to the table with a cheese pizza and a bottle of Riesling. “Still in that shirt?”
He looked at the loose Axelrod shirt I’d filched from his closet a couple of days earlier. It was so large that I wore it like a mini dress.
“Didn’t get a chance to change,” I said with a shrug. Then I gave him a long, assessing look. “Want me to get out of it?”
“Yeah, totally. We shouldn’t wear clothes at home. Can we make that our relationship rule, like what the hero and heroine did in The Dating Rules?”
I laughed at his hopeful expression. Of course he’d remember that from the book and bring it up at the first opportunity. But it was partially my fault for not phrasing things correctly. My brain was foggy with the lack of sleep and food, but I was too wired to sleep. “I meant do you want me to put something else on?”
“Of course not. If I can’t have you naked, I’d rather have you in my shirt. Gets me super excited, like you’re all mine.”
Warm, tingling sensations moved through me and made me smile.
He kissed me. “Ready to rock and roll tomorrow?”
I nodded, then stretched my neck to relieve the tension. “Yeah. I checked off everything on my list.”
“Awesome.” He grinned. “And I brought us an early dinner, since you worked through lunch.” He frowned. “You shouldn’t do that.”
“I just lost track of time, Mom.”
“Hey, somebody’s gotta take care of you. Otherwise you’d eat nothing but crackers all day long.”
No point arguing that. Animal crackers and Hop Hop Hooray had sustained me last time I had a book out. Actually, they generally kept me going most of the time. But not for this book, because Killian was determined to make me eat like a responsible adult.
He set everything on the table, including two wine glasses, then sat down and opened the box. I stared at the steaming pizza. My brain said I needed the fuel, but my stomach said no. Not because I didn’t like pizza—I was a well-adjusted, normal human being—but because my belly felt tight and slightly acidic from not having eaten since breakfast.
“Come on,” he said, handing me a slice on a paper plate.
I took it, but instead of biting into it, I sipped some of the crisp wine. Killian took a piece and finished it in five big bites. I finally started nibbling on mine.
“Not in the mood for pizza?” he asked.
“No, it’s fine. I’m just… My stomach feels a little weird.”
“You need something?”
I shook my head. “It’s just stress. I shouldn’t be feeling it. I checked my to-do list three times. I’ve already scheduled everything, so my newsletters and social media updates should go out automatically over the next seven days.”
He nodded and squeezed my hand warmly. “There you go. So now it’s time to sit back and give yourself a break.”
I managed to chew and swallow a few more mouthfuls for his benefit, then had more wine, although I knew alcohol wouldn’t help much. It never did.
He watched me, his eyes dark with concern. Then, wiping his hands on a napkin, he got up and moved behind me. He slowly rubbed my neck and shoulders. I sighed as his fingers dug into my muscles, loosening kinks that were now a couple of days old.
“That feels really good,” I said after a moment.
“You’re really tense.”
“I’m always like this. Well, this time more so.”
“You have a lot riding on this one. I heard about the bet from your mother.”
“She told you?”
“Yeah.”
I sighed, wishing Mom hadn’t said anything. The wager was mortifying. Hell, the entire drama with my dad was humiliating. It was awful enough that Killian knew the situation with my dad’s affairs, but now he had to know what a bad father Dad was, too?
“He’s not going to win, Emily. Karma’s going to come bite him in the ass sooner or later.”
“I hope it’s sooner, for my sake,” I grumbled.