After the Kiss

by Lauren Layne

  After the Kiss is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  A Loveswept eBook Original

  Copyright © 2013 by Lauren LeDonne

  Excerpt from Trying to Score by Toni Aleo copyright © 2013 by Toni Aleo

  Excerpt from Long Simmering Spring by Elisabeth Barrett copyright © 2013 by Elisabeth Barrett

  Excerpt from The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers copyright © 2013 by Mary Ann Hudson

  All Rights Reserved.

  Published in the United States by Loveswept, an imprint of The Random House

  Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Loveswept and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Cover photograph: © Claudio Marinesco

  eISBN: 978-0-345-54725-5

  www.ReadLoveSwept.com

  v3.1

  For Anth. We did it.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  The Editor’s Corner

  Excerpt from Trying to Score

  Excerpt from Long Simmering Spring

  Excerpt from The Story Guy

  Chapter One

  Julie Greene had built a career out of falling in love. Staying in love? Not so much.

  Julie’s boss apparently hadn’t gotten the memo.

  “I’m confused,” Julie said slowly, leaning forward with a placating smile. “You want me to write what?”

  Translation: You’re confused. I don’t write that shit.

  Camille Bishop leaned back in her chair and studied Julie with puzzled eyes. “I’d have thought you’d be jumping at the chance to have such a simple assignment after last month.”

  Julie pursed her lips together and considered. Last month’s assignment had been exhausting. Documenting the seven kinds of first kisses had required a lot of research.

  Pleasant research.

  But this? A two-page spread, to be called “How to Take Relationships to the Next Level”?

  What was Camille thinking? This was Stiletto magazine, not Dr. Phil. Stiletto was sex and high heels, not companionship and freaking clogs.

  The rocky post-honeymoon period just wasn’t Julie’s scene. Which is not to say she didn’t have plenty of other skills.

  The first date? She had men begging for it.

  The first kiss? An art form she’d long since mastered.

  The first time you lost your panties in his sheets? Soooo not a problem.

  This wasn’t to say that Julie had perfected only the major, most obvious dating milestones, however. She also knew how to finesse the subtler moments—those key moments where the breath caught and you thought, Yes, this. Julie could explain every single nuance, from the toe-curling euphoria when his hand brushed yours to the tingle when eyes held for just a beat too long. And then there was her personal favorite moment: the bone-deep satisfaction when you made him laugh for the first time—a real laugh.

  Most women thought these moments just happened. Julie Greene knew better. These moments were created.

  As for what happened after all that good stuff?

  Julie couldn’t care less. She had no need for the first fight, no desire to meet the parents. No interest in finding dirty boxers in her hamper or making room in her bathroom for a man’s razor. That was all a one-way trip to Julie’s personal vision of hell: couples movie night.

  Julie had found that the women of New York City erroneously used movie night as a yardstick of how close to the altar he was. After all, if he was satisfied to spend a Friday night at home instead of at a strip club, he must be whipped, right?

  Wrong. So wrong.

  Movie night was just another way of saying that you didn’t want to bother dressing up for him and that he didn’t care. Julie lived in fear of the moment when fancy dinners and cocktail parties would be a thing of the past, and the highlight of the weekend would be lounging in yoga pants and watching car chases or beautiful people making out on-screen.

  The sexiest part of that scenario was the butter on the popcorn.

  She shuddered. Julie Greene didn’t do movie night.

  “Camille, look,” she tried again. “It’s not that I don’t respect your suggestions …”

  “Oh?” Camille tilted her head, making her chemically straightened bob sway ever so slightly, and Julie froze. Over the years, Julie had come to think of Camille’s usually immobile hair as her “tell”—when it moved, someone’s life was about to get really messy.

  Up until now, it had never been Julie’s life.

  In the six years that she’d been working for Camille as a full-time columnist, this was the first time Julie had received a direct order on a story topic. Even when Julie had been fresh out of college with nothing but a handful of internships under her belt, Camille had given her wide latitude on what to write about.

  Julie knew that Camille trusted her judgment. So what was with the sudden power trip?

  It didn’t make sense. Julie was one of Stiletto’s best columnists, and they both knew it. And Camille had always encouraged her writers to play to their strengths. Julie’s niche was the single readers with the dream of falling in love. After that, they were on their own.

  Julie sat up straighter. Wait, no. That wasn’t entirely true. Readers did have someplace to go once they got past the fun part of dating.

  Grace Brighton.

  “Why not have Grace do it?” Julie asked excitedly. “She’s your relationship guru.”

  “And here I thought you and Grace were both my relationship gurus.”

  “We are,” Julie agreed quickly. “It’s just that we each have our own expertise. Anything having to do with long-term relationships is Grace’s.”

  Camille pursed her lips, painted today in a rather shocking coral. “And how would you describe yourself?”

  Julie’s heel jittered beneath the desk in frustration. Camille knew full well what Julie’s expertise was. Everyone at the Stiletto office did. Heck, half the women in Manhattan knew Julie by name. Knew what she stood for. Stiletto was the magazine to work at. The Dating, Love, and Sex department was the department to work in. And Julie, Grace Brighton, and Riley McKenna were Dating, Love, and Sex, respectively.

  Julie answered slowly. “I’m all about butterflies, first kiss, getting him to call. You know, dating.”

  “Mm-hmm, and how is it that a woman goes from those giddy first few dates to the comfortable, committed stuff that Grace writes about?”

  Julie’s mind went blank. There was really no good way to tell the editor in chief of the country’s largest women’s magazine that you’d never bothered to think about what happened after. And sure, maybe some people might think Julie a little insubstantial. But she was willing to bet those same people were perpetually dateless. Or entrenched in yoga pants and movie nights.

  “Um, well … I guess it sort of evolves?” Julie replied finally.

  “How?”

  “With the right person, it just happens. That
’s the mystery of what makes true love so special.” Gawd, I almost made myself vomit.

  Camille shook her head. “Not good enough. You’ve seen the letters from our readers. They want to know the specifics. These are women who’ve already had the third date. They’ve even been on the seventh. But then what? How do they move forward?”

  Julie’s sleeveless Kate Spade turtleneck dress suddenly felt a little tight around her throat.

  “If not Grace, Riley could write it,” Julie said, grasping at straws. “You know, I actually think she’s been looking for a way to broaden her focus and take a break from the sex stuff for a while. Can’t you just see it? ‘Outside the Bedroom’ or something like that.”

  “Julie,” Camille said with a sigh, “Grace and Riley have their stories figured out for the next few issues. I’ve already okayed them.”

  “If you want a schedule of my future story ideas, I’d be happy to—”

  “My mind’s made up.”

  Okay, so Camille wasn’t going to be persuaded with reason. Time to go for the editor’s soft spot: Stiletto itself.

  “I’m not sure this is what’s best for the magazine,” Julie said demurely. “I just don’t have any experience with the … you know … long-term stuff.”

  But Camille wasn’t biting. “So? You think every writer in this office has personal experience with everything they write about?”

  I do, Julie thought. Or at least I did.

  “Julie, look around. What does this look like to you?”

  “Um, an office?” More accurately, a high-tech, state-of-the-art, killer corner office with a view of Central Park South.

  “Exactly. It’s an office of a magazine company. This is journalism, not your pink fuzzy diary,” Camille snapped. “If you haven’t been there yourself, talk to women who are going through that stage. Do what you always do—dive into our readers’ heads and answer the hard stuff for them.”

  Julie bit back a sigh, knowing the battle was lost. Temporarily. Camille was one of those scary women who had made her way to the top of the food chain by having steel ovaries and a penchant for making people cry. Julie had always figured that if they’d made a movie about Camille’s life she’d be played by either a stern Katharine Hepburn type or an intensely scary Robert De Niro on crack. She was about as soft as a hammerhead shark and half as friendly.

  Still, Camille was right about one thing: this article could be done with a little bit of strategic networking. A major in journalism from the University of Southern California had taught Julie that media was more about whom you knew than what you knew. But Julie had developed her own type of journalism over the years, one that involved a distinctly personal voice. And she hated the idea that she couldn’t speak personally to a topic.

  “So we’re good?” Camille asked, standing to indicate that the conversation was over.

  Not even close. “Definitely,” Julie replied with a confident smile.

  Camille had already picked up her cellphone and was yelling at her dry cleaner. Something about white stains on a black dress. Awwwwwwk-ward.

  Julie slipped out the door and was immediately surrounded by the sounds of Stiletto on a Friday afternoon. The mood in the Manhattan office was crackling even on a slow day, but by the end of the week the vibe was positively electric.

  The office staff was made up almost entirely of women, with a handful of fashion-forward men. Everywhere she looked, there were skinny hips perched on a colleague’s desk, gossip about evening plans, and lip gloss exchanges over cubicle walls as office makeup transitioned to happy-hour makeup.

  Normally Julie would be making the rounds, figuring out if anyone had heard of something happening that she hadn’t. It was more of a habit than anything else; Julie couldn’t think of a time when she’d been the last to hear about a party. Being at the top of Stiletto’s ladder also meant you were at the top of New York’s social ladder. The girls of the Dating, Love, and Sex department didn’t have to fish for an invitation.

  Julie made a detour into the kitchen, where Camille kept a few bottles of champagne stocked for celebrations and promotions.

  Today Julie had another need for it—therapy.

  If she had to write about taking things to the next level, she at least needed a drink first. And Riley and Grace were always game for a little in-office happy hour.

  “Oh, Julie, I’m glad you stopped by.”

  Julie made a silent gagging motion at the fridge. Kelli with a freaking i. Julie should have hit the bottle sooner. Much sooner.

  Julie had often marveled that fate had blessed her with a nemesis-free childhood. There was no schoolyard bully, no junior high rival, no high school drama. But all fate had really done was help her preserve her energy to deal with her adult nemesis: Kelli Kearns.

  Although Julie and Kelli’s sordid history belonged in the tabloids, for the most part they tried to keep it out of the office and ignore each other at all costs. But every now and then Kelli’s size negative-two body seemed incapable of containing all of its venom, and some spewed out—usually in Julie’s direction.

  “What’s up, Kelli?”

  “First of all,” Kelli said, holding up a skinny finger, “is that company wine? I was always under the impression that consumption had to be authorized by Camille.”

  Julie glanced down at the bottle in sham regret. “A valid point, Kelli. How about this: you go tell Camille my secrets, and I’ll tell her yours. Sound good?”

  Kelli’s lips pressed together in disdain, and Julie resisted the urge to gloat. Kelli wouldn’t breathe a peep about the champagne. Not that Camille would care, anyway. All she wanted from her employees was that they meet deadlines and keep their columns sassy and snappy, all while fitting the stylish Stiletto mold. Camille didn’t care if they needed a little wine to get there.

  “Was there something else?” Julie asked. “Other than your concern over my liver and company funds?”

  “Actually, yes,” Kelli said, flicking her long blond ponytail over one bony shoulder. “I’ve been asked to clean out the fridge—”

  “You know that you’d be a lot less on edge if you actually ate the food, right?”

  “—and as I was cleaning I noticed this funny-looking sandwich. It has your name on it.”

  Julie glanced down at the plastic-wrapped sandwich in Kelli’s hand. “Yup, mine from last week. I ate half and forgot about it.”

  Kelli shook her head in condescension. “It’s wasteful, Julie. And I think I speak for the entire office when I say we’re tired of you abusing your power.”

  “My power? What is it that I’m out to destroy with a half-eaten turkey sandwich? Thanksgiving?”

  Kelli sighed. “I’m not trying to be difficult.”

  My ass, you’re not.

  “I’m just saying we all have to share a kitchen space, and it would be nice if even the senior columnists could clean up after themselves,” Kelli said.

  “Okay,” Julie said, shoving the champagne bottle under her arm and snatching the sandwich from Kelli. She took a half step to the side and dropped it in the garbage. “We good? Is there a coffee mug I didn’t position just right, or a pen I left somewhere?” Maybe up your ass?

  Kelli snapped her fingers. “You know, I just thought of something else. I was wondering if maybe you could keep me updated on your notes for August’s article.”

  Julie snorted. “And why would I do that?” And why bother asking? We both know you just steal my notes when it suits you.

  Kelli’s eyes went wide. “Camille didn’t tell you?”

  Julie stilled. “Tell me what?”

  “Your assignment for August? The relationship story? Camille’s worried you might not be up for it.”

  “And this is your business because …?”

  Kelli gave a sweet smile. “I’m your alternate. If your story doesn’t cut it, Camille will print mine instead.”

  Oh, hell no.

  With a violent twist of her hands, Julie uncorked the
champagne and took a long swig as she marched out of the kitchen, her head reeling from Kelli’s bomb.

  There was only one thing worse than having to write this story.

  And that was having Kelli-with-an-i write it for her.

  Movie night, here I come.

  Chapter Two

  “She assigned me an alternate, Grace. An alternate.”

  Grace Brighton snagged two champagne flutes off a passing tray and handed one to Julie. “You say that like it’s a dirty word. What’s the big deal? She assigned me an alternate back in February. It’s just a precaution.”

  “She assigned you an alternate because you were having Lasik surgery one week before deadline, and she told everyone that your eyes were going to fall out. I am perfectly healthy.”

  “You do know that champagne isn’t meant to be taken as a shot, right?” Grace asked, watching Julie chug the sparkling wine.

  Julie lifted a shoulder, careful to suppress a small burp. “What can I say? We can’t all channel Jackie Kennedy.”

  But Grace could. Grace Brighton was class through and through. She had one of those effortlessly feminine bodies perfectly suited to cashmere cardigans and sundresses, with wide hazel eyes and long chestnut hair so shiny it could double as a mirror. It would have been easy to hate her, but Grace was so damned good that you couldn’t help but keep her close in hopes some of her perfection would rub off on you.

  “Have you seen Riley?” Grace asked, glancing around for the third member of their trio. “She said she’d meet us here ten minutes ago.”

  Here was the Museum of Modern Art, better known as MoMA. Frankly, it was the last place Julie wanted to be, but attending this type of fund-raiser was an unwritten part of the job description. Camille was fond of trotting her Date, Love, and Sex girls around like prize ponies, impressing potential advertisers and investors with their party tricks.

  New Yorkers loved talking about their sex lives almost more than they loved the sex itself, and their little threesome had made a name for themselves among the socialite set. As a result, most every evening was filled with some sort of social obligation where they were expected to appease advice-seeking women while warding off horny men who wanted to see if the women’s actions matched their articles.