Page 14 of Total Creative Control

Quite the opposite of Aaron, who’d been unremarkable his whole life: unremarkable school career, unremarkable history degree, unremarkable working life. The only place where he’d ever stood out, where he’d ever shone, was in the secret world ofLeechesfanfiction. A hidden, precious space that Aaron couldn’t live without.

A place that nobody at work could ever discover.

While he waited for Outlook to boot up, he said, “Lewis, I’ll put in a half-hour catch-up for us after your meeting with Toni, so we can go through everything you’ll need for the weekend. I think we have our ducks in a row—most of them, anyway—so no need to panic.”

“I’m not panicking.”

Aaron raised an eyebrow. “All right then.”

“I’m not panicking,” Lewis repeated. “I’m just pissed off that Charlie fucking Alexander thinks we all dance to his bloody tune. TheLeechespitch has been in the diary for months. Who the fuck does he think he is, pulling it forward by three weeks?”

“I assume he thinks he’s Head of Global TV at Telopix Entertainment.”

Lewis glowered. “He’s a wanker.”

“That too.” With Outlook finally open, Aaron started calling up calendars and shuffling meetings. “Was there anything else you needed me for this morning?”

“Yes, I need you in the story lining meeting with Ryan. Did you read his pitch for episode ten?”

“Of course.” Reading aboutLeechesstorylines wasn’t exactly work. “I thought it was okay. I did love the idea of using the Highgate Vampire myth.” Something he’d actually used himself inBleeding Hearts and Dry Bones, one of his firstLeechesfics.

“Yes!” Lewis levelled a finger at him. “That’s the best part.”

Aaron couldn’t help preening, even if Lewis would never know why. “I wasn’t sure about Skye essentially using Faolán as bait, though,” he admitted. “It feels out of character.”

Which was putting it mildly. Of course, if Aaron was writing it, Skye would rip the throat out of the Highgate Vamp before letting him within ten feet of his beloved Faolán.

“That whole idea is bollocks,” Lewis agreed, taking a slurp of his hot chocolate. It left him with a whipped cream moustache, which he licked off. “Skye values Faolán way too much to risk him like that.”

Aaron glanced at him in surprise, then bent his head to hide the smile that curved his mouth, because those were words that would warm the heart of any Skylán shipper. Trying to temper his fannish enthusiasm back to something resembling professionalism, he said, “You would write it better.”

“Yeah?” Lewis smiled, with a slow, almost-flirtatious grin that lit his blue eyes and set Aaron’s pulse spiking. “Maybe I will.”

“Maybe you should.”

For a moment, they just smiled at each other. Then Jason cleared his throat and said, “Do me a favour, Aaron, and get the budget up on the big screen in Lewis’s office?”

The weird moment of connection popped like a balloon.

Aaron took a gulp of coffee and slipped out from behind his desk. “No problem. I’ll do it now, before Lewis takes out everyone’s Wi-Fi.”

Jason snorted from behind his screen.

“Hey,” Lewis objected as Aaron squeezed past him into his office. “That was one time.”

Aaron gave a strained laugh as his arm brushed Lewis’s chest, stupidly aware of the heat radiating from Lewis’s body and the fresh scent of his Neroli Sun aftershave.

His face heated, goosebumps rising along his arms.

Almost more dangerous than the risk of accidentally exposing his fanfiction habit was the risk of accidentally exposing his ridiculous lust for Lewis, a lust that had his brain melting at the slightest contact. Christ, it was mortifying.

Aaron crossed to Lewis’s desk and reached for his laptop.

Jason was right. It was definitely going to be a day.

Chapter Four

Aaron