Page 25 of Player For Hire
“Shut up.” She bent to one of the lower cabinets and found a pot. “I usually eat take out, but sometimes I crave a damn bagel with all of the butter. I have very good ones in the freezer, by the way.”
“Good to know. Speaking of, we should probably figure out groceries now that we’re living together.”
We laughed around the mundane topics of best places to shop, picking out food we both liked, and owning up to what we’d actually cook while we scarfed down pasta. After we ate, we took our wine glasses into the living room and put on our emotional support TV show for background noise.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your book, Nay.”
I leaned my head back. “You aren’t just saying you were enjoying it to make me feel better, are you?”
“God, no. If it sucked, I’d?—”
“Lie to me?”
“No.” She toasted me with her glass. “I’d encourage you to find a job and keep working at it.” She laughed. “I swear, it’s really good.”
Still unconvinced, I tried not to get my hopes up. “I was only gone for five minutes. You couldn’t have read much.”
“You’d be surprised. I have limited time for reading and consume fast.” She grinned behind her glass before she took a sip. “That Prince Novak dude sounds hot. Tell me why Kierra isn’t climbing into his bed at every spare chance. The sexual tension is like whoa.”
I scrunched down on the couch, resting the glass on my midriff. “Tension is easy. Ruins the story if they get laid.”
Lies.
All of the lies.
Iona sat up and set her glass down. “So it’s gonna happen at the end? How far did you get?” She padded back into our small dining area and came back with my laptop.
“Hey.”
She gave me a bland stare and opened the laptop.
“How did you get into my laptop, anyway?”
“You always use the same password,” she said absently as she scrolled.
Clearly, I’d have to rectify that.
I brought my glass with me as I moved over to the couch with her. I needed my emotional support wine to go with the FBI special agent explaining the gruesome serial killer they were tracking. I wasn’t sure what was so soothing about Spencer Reid’s voice, but it instantly relaxed me.
I needed it as Iona scrolled through my novel. It was only seventy percent done. I’d been re-reading it all day and found myself fussing and editing as I went, but not nearly as much as I’d expected to. I’d been swallowed into my fantasy world of dragon shifters, kingdoms, and war between regions.
“If they’re so worried about their race dying out, they obviously need to be making babies.” Iona glanced at me, then she narrowed her eyes, glanced down at the document then back at me. “I’m at the what…eighty-three thousand mark and no one is naked.”
I gulped. “Slow burn?”
“Is it going to be three books?”
I took a bigger sip of my wine. Oops, I’d finished. I popped up and went back for a refill.
“Nay?” She set the laptop aside and followed me. “I know exactly what you read since we swap book recommendations. You definitely aren’t afraid of sexy books. In fact, that’s all you really send me, you hussy.”
I ducked my head—and my flaming face—into the fridge. “Do you have something chocolate in here?”
“In the freezer.”
I moved to the other half of the side-by-side doors. Bingo, gelato. It didn’t really go with wine, but I didn’t care. I needed something cold for my throat. “Want?”
“Yes, but don’t change the subject.”