Page 7 of A Billion Dollar Romance

Why was she here, at Verity? I hadn’t been lying when I told her I’d expected more from her–she was one of the few students that had stood out to me as having real talent. Literary merit. What had happened that she was working here?

I knew what she’d be doing just now: proofreading. The junior staff always drew the short straw on that task, somehow. She’d be at her desk, red pen in hand, carefully inspecting each line of a… a ghostwritten B-list celebrity memoir. A children’s book based on an off-brand tv franchise.

She was only a few floors below me–more than a few, if I were being completely honest.

Both too close for comfort, and much too far away. I wanted her not all those floors away, but the space of a breath away, our lips just parted as I pinned her underneath me on the bed.

The way she’d sighed last night…

“Lyle and Bridget here for your ten o’clock, sir.”

I started.

“Thanks, Alice,” I said, and I meant it. I couldn’t spend all day in my office reliving the events of last night, much as I wanted to. No, better to put them–her,Edie–out of my mind permanently.

“Boss,” Lyle said, pushing through the door.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Please, Lyle, don’t call me that,” I reminded him for the thousandth time. He nodded.

“Sure thing.” I’d remind him again tomorrow. He’d never stop. He was young, younger than me, and no matter how I tried to get him to address me as Mr. Martin, or sir–evenJames–he couldn’t break himself of the habit. I think he thought it was funny.

I glowered, and Bridget, at his side, grimaced.

“Hi, Bridget,” I added. “What do you have for me today?”

“We got the numbers in from sales yesterday, and what we suspected… Well, we were right.”

I sighed. This day had gone from bad to worse.

“How rough is it?” I asked, and she passed over her portfolio.

“See for yourself.”

Fourth quarter sales numbers: down. We’d made improvements in some departments, sure, but–

“Genre fiction is flagging, boss,” Lyle said, and I didn’t even have the capacity to scold him.

“Romance,” Bridget clarified.

Yeah, no shit,I thought. I’d been so busy here at the office, trying to revive Grandfather’s company, it had been an embarrassingly long time since I’d had a real date.Romance is flagging, indeed.

The vision of Edie blushing as she stepped into my apartment, swam before my eyes.That doesn’t count.

“We lost one of our big-name authors to a competitor this past year, and without her as a cornerstone, we’re down everywhere else.”

“By how much?” I asked, and she nodded at the portfolio. I checked the numbers, and my heart sank.

“Enough that investors would want to kill the department,” Lyle said.

“We don’t haveinvestors, Lyle,” I growled. “This is afamily-owned business.”Myfamily.Me.

“Not right now, no,” Bridget said, and for the first time since I’d known her, she looked nervous. “But you know a lot of publishing companies, even the big, established ones like ours, are getting bought out. The industry’s consolidating.”

I rubbed my hand over my face.

Ihateddoing business.

Butthisbusiness…