Page 22 of Total Creative Control
“We could do with Aaron at Safehaven,” he said idly. “He’s fantastic at brainstorming.”
Toni brightened. “You’re right. Let’s take him with us.”
“No!” Lewis said, horrified. “I mean—that is, I didn’t mean he shouldactuallycome.”
Toni frowned. “Why not? It’ll be good for him—and for you. I’ve taken Jason before. And like you say, Aaron’s invaluable on script development. He knows the characters better than anyone. Plus, he can run interference between you and Charlie. You know how irritated you become, and Aaron’s great at noticing when you’re getting annoyed and stepping in without making it obvious.”
Lewis blinked, faintly galled that she’d noticed that.
“So what’s the problem?” Toni pressed.
Lewis chewed his lip. He couldn’t think of one goddamned thing he could say to excuse his reluctance. The truth was that taking Aaron on work trips was just one of those things that he made a point of never doing —like going for drinks after work or following Aaron on social media. It was all part of the buffer zone Lewis kept in place between them, a sort of intangible area of personal space that, by silent mutual consent, they did not breach.
Toni was frowning now. “You know, you can’t keep holding him back forever. He’s got a lot of potential.”
“I know that!” Lewis said, stung. “I would never hold him back.”
“But you don’t exactly nurture his development, do you?”
“Of course I do.”
Toni raised a single brow. “Then why isn’t he trying for the script development role onBow Street?”
“Because he doesn’t want it,” Lewis blurted, but his chest felt tight. “He’s happy where he is.”
“Are you sure? I’d have thought a historical would be right up his street. Maybe if I had a word with him—”
“Absolutely not.” Lewis glared at her. “Stop trying to poach him.”
Toni studied him over the rims of her glasses. “You can’t keep him forever, Lewis. I’m not the only one who sees his potential.”
He could, Lewis thought savagely, and he would. But he didn’t say that to Toni. He just pointed at her, narrowed his eyes and hissed, “Hands. Off.”
She chuckled. “All right. On condition you bring him to Safehaven.”
Lewis scowled at her. “Fine,” he gritted out.
But it wasn’t fine. The prospect of spending a weekend with Aaron outside of the office was almost as alarming as the prospect of Toni poaching Aaron from under his nose.
Both left him feeling unsettled and out-of-sorts.
He brooded on that as he walked back down the corridor to his own office. And then, for some reason, he found himself thinking about that moment when Mason had plastered himself to Aaron’s side and the weird fury that had stirred in Lewis’s gut at the sight. A fury that had absolutely nothing to do with Mason and everything to do with Aaron.
Lewis shook his head, frustrated at himself. It was Mason’s fucking fault, pawing at Aaron like that. He’d made Lewis look at Aaron in that way that Lewis tried so very hard to avoid—as a man. A desirable man. SomeoneLewisdesired.
The trouble was, there was just something so veryappealingabout Aaron. Not in the glossy, impossibly beautiful Mason sort of way, but in a way all his own. While Mason spent a fortune on his sexy ‘just got out of bed’ hair, Aaron achieved the same result by simply never having time for a proper haircut. And while Mason enhanced the beauty of his green eyes by having his eyebrows threaded and his eyelashes dyed, Aaron’s eyes needed no artificial assistance—they were bright and warm and mischievous in a way no one else’s were. When Aaron looked at him, Lewis felt moreseenthan by anyone else. He felt like Aaron noticed everything about him. No, more than that, he felt like Aaron wasinterestedin everything about him. As if he found Lewis endlessly fascinating. Probably everyone felt like that around Aaron, but even so, it made Lewis feel good. As did Aaron’s kindness, because yes, Aaron wasn’t just hot, he was a lovely, kind guy. A people person. Naturally generous. And those were qualities that were always attractive, even to a misanthrope like Lewis.
But attractive or not, Lewis couldn’t allow himself to dwell on Aaron’s charms.
For all the obvious reasons.
“Er, do you need something?”
Lewis blinked, only then realising that at some point he must have started walking again because he was now standing right in front of Aaron’s desk.
Aaron watched him, fingers paused mid-type, eyebrows raised. “Because you’re just sort of … lurking.”
Feeling stupidly flustered, Lewis said, “I wasthinking.” He waved his hand airily, to convey that it was a writerly thing. “But now that you ask—”