Page 14 of Wolfish Player (Steamy Latte Reads Collection #2)

THE CEO

ADRIAN

I ’m avoiding Heather at all costs today. I don’t want to see her face, her lips, or hear another word from her smart-ass mouth.

Settling in my chair, I try to focus while reading over this week’s highest contracts.

Heather would look even better bent over this desk…

“Adrian, we have a problem.” Theresa suddenly storms into my office without knocking. “We need to talk.”

“Is part of my building on fire?”

“No.”

“Has someone stolen money from our accounts?”

“No, Adrian.” She groans. “That’s not it.”

“Then we don’t have an emergency.” I uncap a pen. “Hold your breath and tell me whatever it is later.”

“Another one of Allyson Harmony’s books is climbing the charts.” She ignores my tone. “Well, one of her series rather.”

“Still sounds like a non-emergency.” I underline a clause. “Get out.”

“The series is taking off and it looks like it’ll be just as popular or even more popular than the office romance series.”

“Did you lose your hearing in the last twenty seconds?”

“I’m sure other publishers will be reaching out to her about it.” She keeps talking. “I think we should beat them to the punch while we can.”

“Maybe we’ll make enough back to cover what she owes us on the first advance,” I say, relenting somewhat. “Look into securing the rights from her agent.”

“Even if we did, it would create an entirely different problem.” She moves closer to my desk. “Hence, the emergency.”

I set down my pen and look up.

“What could possibly be the problem, Theresa?”

“She never actually finished the series,” she says. “There are two books left, and the last one ends on a really brutal cliffhanger.”

“So, you want me to consider signing one of our most unreliable authors to a competitive two-book deal without any sense of a release date?” I arch a brow. “While we still don’t have a release date for the other book she owes us?”

She nods, shifting on her feet.

“The books have been sitting at number seven and number eight in the Kindle store for two weeks…” she says softly. “I think it’s worth the investment…”

“On a scale of one to ten, how brutal is the cliffhanger?”

“One hundred.”