by CM Albert
“Yeah, things got a little heated.”
“Definitely my hero,” she said in awe. Her phone buzzed and she glanced down, then squealed. “Well, if this isn’t perfect timing!”
She flashed her phone in front of me for a millisecond before opening our daily horoscopes. She read them and raised her eyebrows. “Hmm” was all she said, not giving anything away.
“Well?” I demanded at her not-so-subtle, cryptic hmm.
“Just the possibility of a marriage proposal,” she said, shimmying her shoulders like Shaquille O’Neal.
“That better be for you,” I snarled.
She laughed. “Most definitely. Want me to read yours or send it to you?”
I sighed. “Send it to me, please. I need to get back to my edits anyway.”
“Sent,” she said, heading for the door. “Want any company for lunch today?”
“Can’t. I have to power through this. It’s my most important edit left this year.”
“Okay. Good luck!” she said. Then she paused at the door before turning back to me. “Brynn, don’t get in your head over this. I know how deep and emotional you can get sometimes. Wait to see what he has to say later. You never know. He could surprise you.”
I harrumphed, feeling salty about the whole thing.
“Read the horoscope too. I mean it,” she said before disappearing. I opened the link from Lindy’s text, picked up my now-cold coffee, and read.
Scorpio
Your Daily Horoscope for
Monday, November 1
Feeling the burn yet, Scorpio? As with most things you take on, this fiery new passion you’re fueling is shrouded in sexual intensity, charm, and a dash of mystery. Don’t forget to lean on your intuition and intelligence. Not everything is as straightforward as it seems—but your protective nature will soon help you determine where your loyalty lies.
While your career may feel at a stalemate, things are just heating up! Get ready to get creative, and be sure to use your cleverness, wisdom, and natural magnetism to maneuver the sticky situation you’re now in.
But don’t forget! What goes around comes back around. Ask yourself—is it better to be consumed by the flame or keep your heart protected? Which path will you choose when push comes to shove and a second chance at love comes knocking at your door?
As with all matters, the answers are already written in the stars.
I buzzed Lindy right away. “What is this bullshit? Mystery, things coming back around, loyalty? I can’t with all this cloak-and-dagger crap! Why doesn’t someone just write a horoscope that says something like ‘Today you’ll win a million bucks. The guy at the coffee shop has a crush on you. Oh, and don’t take the L today.’ Now, shit like that, I would pay for!”
“That’s called a psychic, Brynn. Two totally different things. Want me to take you to mine?”
Even though she could see me, I shook my head. I had enough of a mess on my hands without someone else confusing things even more.
“No,” I said with a sigh. “But I’m done with my horoscope. I can’t make heads or tails of it today.”
“Guess what I found out, though,” Lindy piped in, ever the optimist to my broody nature.
“Lay it on me,” I said, rolling my eyes as I picked up the manuscript I was working on.
I was only half listening when I heard Lindy say, “He’s a Leo, you know.”
“Who’s a Leo?” I asked. My computer notification went off, so I clicked open my email inbox and scrolled as Lindy started reading again.
“Well, according to LiveAbout, they say that Leos and Scorpios are legendary lovers,” she said. “And I quote: ‘Where passion meets fierce loyalty and spikes in fiery conflict. Leo in love is proud, generous, and demanding. Scorpio in love is power-wise and enveloping… The Leo and Scorpio alliance is about stirring the creative cauldron, for self-expression and manifesting all they desire.’ End quote,” she said, clearly proud of her discovery.
“Sorry, Linds. Who’s a Leo?”
“Oh my god, were you not even listening? Pierce Abrams—that’s who!”
“Aren’t Leos fire signs, though?”
“Yes! But they’re also romantic and creative. They’re the heroes,” she said dramatically.
“Do I need a hero? Because I’m fairly sure I don’t.”
“Okay, fine. So I enjoy the hero. But they’re also ambitious, loyal, generous—”
“Egotistical, stubborn, domineering,” I reminded her.
“Domineering can be good,” she said. “I didn’t hear you complaining after this weekend.”
“Touché,” I said, laughing. “But it doesn’t matter anyway, Linds. He’s my boss.”
“Boss-schmoss,” she said dismissively. “He’s fucking gorgeous, Brynn.”
I groaned. She didn’t need to tell me that. I remembered every inch of his chiseled form. He was bigger than men I’d dated in the past—muscle-wise, obviously. Well, and that, too, if I was being honest. His back was sculpted in a gym, with muscles I didn’t know existed. And his biceps. Dear god, he was able to pick me up and fling me around like I weighed next to nothing. Okay. So maybe a little domineering wasn’t so bad.
“I need to stop thinking about how gorgeous he is and figure out how I’m going to get out of this mess!” I hissed.
My computer dinged again. It was another incoming message from an agency whose name I didn’t recognize.
“Look, I gotta go,” I said. “My emails are backing up, and I’ve reread this same paragraph about ten times now.”
“Fine. Work, then,” she said, as if that wasn’t what we were actually being paid to do. I forgot sometimes that her work ethic and personal ambition weren’t quite as driven as mine.
I clicked open the email and started reading, confused. I skipped down to the end of the message and gasped when I saw the signature line.
Noah Chance.
Shivers raced up my arms as if I’d seen a ghost. And I practically had.
Why was my best friend from childhood—the boy I’d once promised to marry—contacting me after nearly eighteen years of silence?
Only one way to find out.
CHAPTER TEN
I READ THE email again for a third time. My hands shook as I scrolled down the screen and nearly memorized each word.
Dear Brynn,
Hello, old friend. It’s been a while. Sorry to contact you this way, after so many years of silence. But when I saw that you, too, were in the publishing field, and at the exact firm I needed to get in touch with—well, it felt like fate, to say the least.
Business first, then pleasure.
Our agency, Chance and Chambers Creative, is looking for representation for one of our best-selling authors. You may have heard of her. She has a series of well-known young adult dystopian romance novels that have been optioned for film rights. She is currently writing a modern-day series based on the zodiac signs—charming, right? While her dystopian novels are a sure-fire sell, publishers in the UK are skeptical about the crossover and backing her new contemporary romance series.
I, however, believe in Eve Donohue, with every fiber of my being. Based on her initial proposal, I know this series has massive reach and sales potential. I’m taking a chance and am reaching out to you because I’ve seen Sterling and Masters’s track record, and I’m confident Eve Donohue would be an asset to your portfolio.
I’d like to share not only her full twelve-book Written in the Stars series proposal with you but also the completed first book in the collection—Diamond in the Rough, a rags-to-riches story about an Aries celebrity who rises to fame too quickly. It’s a second-chance romance—and who doesn’t love those?
I know Carlisa Mayhew is the editorial executive at Sterling and Masters, but I have it on good authority that she is heading on maternity leave soon. It was a stroke o
f good luck that the contemporary romance editor is none other than my long-lost fiancée from childhood.
I would love to hear from you on both a professional and personal level. Which brings me to the pleasure part of my correspondence.
I will be in Charlotte the week of 8 November. You may remember my grandmother, Loula Belle Darling, from when we were kids. When we moved to the UK, my parents never settled her estate back in Charlotte. However, they left me with quite the mess a few years ago when they both died.
If you recall, the property is a historic home in Dilworth. I’m headed to Charlotte to handle the estate sale and get her house on the market. It breaks my heart to part with a family home, but it doesn’t make sense for me to hold on to it with me being in London.
I know it has been a good many years since we’ve seen one another, Brynn. And I know we were just children when we were friends. But I have held the memory of you with me all these years. I still remember frogging with you in the summers, water skiing at my parents’ lake house, and slaying dragons together. Even then, you were a fierce, independent badass who would go to the ends of the earth to protect your friends. It was something I always loved about you. You were also the best tree climber I’d ever laid eyes on. Those are important things to a twelve-year-old boy.
Well, that, and the fact that you were my first kiss.
A guy can’t just forget something like that, pigtails.
I hope you still hold our time together fondly in your heart and are open to seeing me again when I’m back in town.
I will have my personal assistant contact you this week to set up a time for us to meet professionally. Please feel free to invite whoever needs to be at that meeting with you to make a decision. We have four other agencies we are visiting whilst in the States, but I wanted to give Sterling and Masters first rights of refusal on this special series, given our history together.
Please find attached the entire proposal as well as a PDF file of book one for your reading pleasure. I think you’ll find the lead character’s story arc compelling and her relationships deeply romantic. Some might say fated even.
Perhaps like our own story. Wouldn’t that be something after all these years and all these miles between us? I look forward to finding out soon, Brynn Hartley.
Cheers!
Yours sincerely,
Noah Chance
I picked up my phone and texted Lindy to come back to my office ASAP. Two minutes later, the door opened, and Lindy flopped down into one of my guest chairs.
“Just can’t live without me, can you?”
“Of course I can’t, sweet cheeks,” I said, grinning at her. She looked adorable today with her new shorter hairstyle pin straight. She was wearing a black, open-collared V-neck jumper that looked like a man’s business suit but with flared pant legs and short, flared white sleeves. Her heels were nude, and she had on large silver hoops.
“You look cute today, by the way,” I said. I felt bad that my own drama had overtaken any focus on Lindy this morning. “How did Walter like your, um, red leather surprise Saturday night?”
“I was wondering how long it was going to take you to ask that,” she teased. “Let’s just say it was a huge hit. And, it might’ve had a matching collar and leash that I added back to the ensemble when we got home.”
“Lindy!” I said, genuinely shocked.
“What?” She shrugged. “Can’t a girl like to be walked by her daddy?”
“On a leash, though?” I gaped at her.
“Don’t knock it till you try it,” she said, winking.
I suddenly had a vision of myself in a black leather Peter Pan collar with a golden chain attached. In my fantasy, I was crawling along the conference room table, Pierce holding the other end of the lead.
I swallowed, suddenly seeing the appeal.
“Okay, then,” I said and made a mental note. “But back to why I texted. You are never going to believe who I heard from today.”
I proceeded to fill her in on everything, then showed her the email so she could read it word for word. “Well?” I asked, gnawing at the skin near my thumbnail.
“Well what? I assume you’re going to catch up with him, right?”
“I don’t know. I mean—should I?”
“Are you taking the business meeting?”
I thought about it for about point two seconds. “Of course I am. Hello! It’s Eve fucking Donohue! Even I know who that is. It would be foolish not to read her manuscript.”
“So that has nothing to do with the handsome literary agent presenting it, then? It’s just strictly professional?”
“Who said he was handsome?”
Lindy shrugged. “I just assumed if you kissed him, he was probably at least cute when he was a kid.”
I nodded, remembering the adorable towheaded boy next door. “I haven’t seen him in eighteen years, Lindy. That’s a long time to change.”
“Have you looked him up?”
“No!” I said, exasperated. “I literally texted you the minute I was done reading his email!”
“Okay, okay… no need to get huffy. Let’s find him, shall we?”
“Why have I never thought to do this before?” I asked.
“Because you never enlisted my help,” she said. “Well, hello, Noah Chance,” she said, biting the corner of her mouth.
“For fuck’s sake, he can’t be that cute,” I insisted.
She sent me a link, which I immediately opened. I swallowed hard. “Well, hello, Noah Chance,” I said. “I’ll be damned.”
The cute twelve-year-old kid I’d kissed was no longer the skinny, freckle-faced boy I remembered. He’d somehow morphed into the love child of David Beckham, Logan Macrae, and Jack Butland. And holy hell… all I could think of now was a foursome with those three delicious men. What in the world had gotten into me?
“If you don’t meet with him, I will,” Lindy offered.
“You’re not even in the romance department,” I reminded her.
“I meant for the personal portion of his letter,” she teased.
“Lindy! You’re practically married,” I pointed out.
She waved her hand. “Then he better put a ring on it.”
I laughed. “Don’t let Dan hear you say that. He’d be devastated if you ditched Walter and didn’t immediately call him up.”
“What can I say?” she said, shrugging. “I’m into blonds.”
My mouth hung open. “Walter’s blond?”
“Oh, shut up!” she said with a laugh. “He’s not that old.”
“I’m just kidding,” I teased. Kind of. “So, seriously. What do I say? I mean, I’m in a little bit of a pickle here already with Pierce. Can you just imagine if I bring him into a meeting with my childhood crush? Talk about awkward overload!”
“Well, neither really has to know, right?”
I considered that for a moment. I wasn’t dating either of the guys, I just had history with them both. And it seemed as if they’d both be in my future to some degree now. That is, if the book deal went through. This could get complicated quickly.
One step at a time.
I took a deep breath. “I don’t even know if I’ll have a job after today, Brynn. I mean, Pierce could fire me.”
“No, he can’t,” she insisted. “You could sue Sterling and Masters if he did. Neither of you knew he was going to be your boss. He can’t hold that against you.”
“How in the world am I going to do this, though?” I asked her earnestly. “This weekend with Pierce was… mind-blowing. To say the least. You know I’m not shy about sex, Lindy. I mean, hello! I love everything about it. But Pierce. He is next level. There’s just something so magnetic about him. It was like I was being drawn to him and was completely helpless to any other outcome. From the first time he kissed me, I knew I was a goner. I me
an, I seriously could have fucked him right there in Founders Hall. Does that make any sense?”
“Yeah,” she said, sighing. “That’s how I feel about Walter. I know he doesn’t make sense to everyone, and he might not look like Pierce, but that’s exactly how I feel about him. It’s like he has my pussy on this invisible string, and all he does is flick it and I’m at his feet asking him what position he wants me in.”
I laughed. Now that was an image I’d never be able to unsee.
“I get it,” I said. And I really did after this weekend. “I let that man do things to my body I never even let Nick do, Lindy. It’s not that I didn’t love Nick, or that we didn’t have amazing sex. Well, I guess toward the end it wasn’t so amazing. But you know what I mean.”
“I know exactly what you mean. You wouldn’t believe the things I let Walter do to me. It reminds me of a quote from a book I read once by Nora Roberts. I know she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I personally adore her. I mean, she writes romance just as easily as she does blood and gore. What’s not to love?”
“Lindy!” I practically yelled. “Get on with it.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry!” she said, laughing. “So, I can’t remember the name of the book or the exact quote,” she said, and I rolled my eyes. “Hear me out. The main character says something that stuck with me over the years. It was about how when a woman truly tumbles with a man in bed, giving herself over completely while doing things so sinful they make her tremble, she can’t help but want more, ‘even as she pants to do them again’ in the light of day.”
“That’s exactly how I feel,” I said quietly, thinking of the way Pierce touched me. Licked me. Bit me, for heaven sake.
Lindy laughed as she watched me. “Yeah, you’ve got it bad. You’re panting to do them again, all right.”
“I don’t know exactly what it is about him, Linds. I mean, sure. He’s hot as all get-out. But my god. I think we fucked about seven times in less than twenty-four hours. And,” I whispered, looking around even though we were completely alone, “I had anal for the first time.”
