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five
Georgia
I gaspedand gaped and made all sorts of dramatic sounds before I found my voice. “Have I heard of Mara Skye?”
“That’s what I asked. Yes.” He raised a brow, lips pursed as those dark brown eyes drilled into me.
“Is the sky blue? Is Mrs. Runither an old horndog?” I threw my free hand in the air, trying to think of an even better example. “Are you a stubborn, infuriating man?”
He barked out a laugh. An actual laugh. It was almost more shocking than the question he’d just asked me.
“Well, I don’t know who the fuck Mrs. Runither is, but I’m guessing she’s a horndog. What’s your point, Tink?”
I liked the nickname that he called me. It was cute, and it meant he was getting comfortable with me, even if his moods were giving me whiplash.
“Mara Skye is the most brilliant author I’ve ever read. She’s my unicorn. A definite one-click author for me.”
“I don’t know what any of that means, but it sounds good. How would you like to take a look at the first three chapters of an unread manuscript that was submitted to us?”
I started walking in circles and taking deep breaths because if you had told me three weeks ago that I’d be here, I would never have believed it. I was going to read the unread chapters of Mara Skye? What universe was I living in? It wasn’t that long ago that I was in a bar fighting with my psychotic ex, who was singing there with his band, as he refused to tell me where my car was.
And now… I was working at Lancaster Press as the personal assistant to the sexiest, most annoying man on the planet, and he was going to let me read these secret chapters.
Hells to the yes.
“I would love to read them.” I came to a stop, my legs a little wobbly from all the turning, but I let out a long sigh.
His lips turned up in the corners just the slightest bit, which I’d come to learn was as much of a smile from Maddox Lancaster as you’d ever get. “I just emailed it to you. But, this is for your eyes only. You can’t share this with anyone. And Nadia is looking at it now, as well, and she won’t be thrilled to know I let my admin see it, so you only report back to me. Got it?”
“Got it, Bossman. You won’t regret this. I will give you detailed feedback.” I saluted him with my free hand.
“I’m sure you will.”
I hurried out of his office and raced over to my desk, setting his empty mug beside me. I pulled up the manuscript and started reading.
And just like that, I was in Ireland, and it was 1933.
This woman was the most captivating writer I’d ever read. I was enthralled. I wanted more.
And hello, Captain Jory Walker.
Her heroes were always a little bit alpha with a side of chivalry and a heavy splash of dirty talk.
I typed up my notes, reread them three times, and then sent them to Maddox.
The rest of the morning flew by, and I hurried downstairs for my twenty-minute championship ping-pong game. The defending champion always played the new contender each day, and so far, I’d stayed at the top of the list since my first day working here.
Thanks to my über-competitive siblings, I could handle the pressure. When we played games, we played to the death, and I didn’t scare easily.
I went back and forth with Freddy, one of the marketing guys, for a very short time, and I beat him so quickly that everyone was giving him a hard time.
“Sorry, Freddy. I was just on my A game today.” I winced.
“Don’t apologize, Georgia. You swear you haven’t played competitively?” he asked, and everyone laughed.
I loved the office environment. It was a lot of fun. Of course, you had your office buzzkills, as every company did. Nadia Wright being at the top of that list. She was in her mid-sixties, had a really wicked case of resting sourpuss face, and she wasn’t a fan of the games or the laughter going on during our lunch break—or anything, really.
“Nope. But I do think the pickleball competitions prepared me for our ping-pong tournaments,” I said over my laughter.
