by Jae
Then Claire was back. She slid into bed—again without even seeming to notice the clothes on the floor—pressed her cool, naked body against Lana’s, and offered her a bottle of water. “What’s that smile for?”
“You.” Lana took the bottle, but instead of drinking, she set it down on the bedside table and kissed her.
That water would have to wait for a while.
Just when they had finally fallen asleep after hours of exploring each other, the ringing of her cell phone wrenched Claire from a deep, satiated sleep. Groggily, she slid one arm out from beneath the covers and, with her eyes closed, felt around for the phone on her bedside table.
“Phone,” Lana mumbled against Claire’s shoulder blade.
God, she’s cute. “I know. Go back to sleep.” Claire finally found the phone and squinted at the display. Oh shit.
It was Bridget Huge.
For a moment, Claire was tempted to reject the call, but it would only postpone the inevitable. Not wanting to disentangle herself from Lana’s warm, soft body that was cuddled against her back, she stayed where she was and accepted the call. “Good morning, Bridget,” she said, her voice low so she wouldn’t disturb Lana too much.
“I hope I’m not waking you, but I just read your email. What’s going on, Claire? If you’ve got a problem with any of the clauses in the contract, we can talk about it and maybe negotiate a compromise. That’s no reason to—”
“It’s not that.” Claire pressed the hand resting on her belly more firmly against her. “It’s…personal.”
“Personal? Like a sickness in your family or something? If we need to push back the publication date for any reason, we could. That’s not a deal breaker.”
“No, nothing like that.” Claire sighed. How could she explain without blurting out the entire embarrassing story? “It’s…”
“Tell her you’ll take the book deal,” Lana whispered into her ear.
Her warm breath in her ear made Claire shiver. Her body apparently didn’t care that this was a business call. She rolled over, their legs still tangled, and caressed Lana’s pillow-lined face with her fingertips. “No,” she whispered back. “I don’t want you or our relationship to be a marketing tool.”
“So you’ll just put your manuscript into the shredder?” Lana shook her head. “I won’t have that.”
“So I’ll self-publish,” Claire said, even though she hadn’t given that idea a fleeting thought so far.
“But you said you wanted the prestige of a traditional publishing house.”
Claire shrugged. “Prestige is overrated. I had my priorities all wrong with Abby, and I don’t want to make the same mistakes with you. You mean too much to me.”
Lana’s gaze softened. “You mean the world to me too. But wouldn’t self-publishing mean you’d have to invest your free time into getting your book out instead of being able to spend time with me?”
Damn. Claire hadn’t taken that into consideration. Now that she had Lana in her life, she didn’t want to go back to working around the clock.
“Claire? You still there?”
Shit. She’d forgotten that Bridget was still on the line. “Um, yeah. Bad connection. I, um…”
“Tell her you’ll sign,” Lana whispered. “I don’t need you to reject the book deal to prove your love.”
“But you said—”
“I know what I said.” Lana took an audible breath. “But I trust you. I trust us.”
Claire searched her eyes and found nothing but determination. “Okay.” Into the phone, she said, “Bridget? I’m sorry for the back-and-forth. I’ll do it. I’ll sign. But I have one condition.”
Lana tensed next to her.
“Name it,” Bridget said carefully.
“I want one modification to the contract. I want to have final say in the choice of narrator for the audiobook.”
Bridget paused. “That’s highly unusual, but I guess we could do that—provided it’s someone qualified. Do you have someone in mind?”
Claire glanced at Lana. “Yes, I do. She’s very qualified.”
“All right,” Bridget said. “Let’s talk about the details later.”
Claire apologized again, said goodbye, and ended the call. She studied Lana. “Are you sure you’re okay with me signing the contract?”
The corners of Lana’s mouth curled into a smile. “Well, you seem to have a lucky streak with the contracts you sign lately, so…” Then she sobered. “You were willing to give up the book deal that you worked so hard to get—for me. For us. That’s big. It occurred to me that I need to take a page from your book too—quite literally.”
Claire cuddled against her, enjoying the slide of warm skin against her own. “What do you mean?”
“One of the chapters I read on the plane was chapter six—the one on trust. I can either make you—make us—suffer for something my ex and my mother did, or I can move forward and trust you.”
“Wow.” Claire searched for the right words without much success. Instead, she leaned forward and joined their lips in a tender kiss. When it ended, she tucked a strand of hair behind Lana’s ear and grinned. “If chapter six got you to reconsider, maybe I’m a more brilliant writer than I thought.”
“Yeah—and a modest one too.” Lana reached out and tickled her. Then her tickling became a caress. She trailed her fingertips over Claire’s hip and down the outside of her thigh.
Claire held on to the threads of her self-control to keep a halfway intelligent conversation going. “So, could I talk a certain talented actress into narrating the audiobook when the time comes?”
Lana’s hand paused on Claire’s thigh. “You mean…me?”
“No, I was thinking about having them hire Grace Durand.” Claire nudged Lana’s nose with her own. “Of course I mean you. Interested?”
Lana wrapped her arms around Claire and slid her leg between her thighs. “Very, very interested.” She started nibbling on Claire’s throat.
“I was talking about the audio… Oh yes!” Claire threaded her fingers through Lana’s hair.
They could talk about the book later. Much later.
Epilogue
One year later
Claire swished the water around in her glass and forced herself to keep her back to the noises coming from the dining room, where the caterer was putting the last touches to the buffet table.
Soft footsteps approached, and then Lana slipped her arms around her from behind. “Hey. I didn’t think I’d find you in the kitchen. I thought you’d be out there with the caterer, making sure everything is perfect.”
Claire put down the glass and melted against her. Every bit of tension drained from her body as she settled her arms over Lana’s. “I’m engaged to you. Everything is already perfect.”
Lana’s breathing hitched, and her arms around Claire tightened. “Yes, it is,” she whispered. She buried her nose in Claire’s hair, making her shiver as Lana’s breath brushed along the rim of her ear. “You smell good—and you look spectacular.”
The heat in her voice made Claire flush all over. “You look great too.”
Lana chuckled, and the sound vibrated through Claire’s body. “You haven’t even turned around to take a look at my dress.”
Claire would in a second, but for now, she didn’t want to move an inch. “Doesn’t matter. You would look fantastic, even if you were wearing sweatpants and that abs are great, but have you tried chocolate-chip cookies T-shirt.”
“You might think so, but I doubt your parents would agree.”
Claire snorted. “They wouldn’t let me get away with it, but you probably could. They adore you.”
Lana nestled her cheek alongside Claire’s. “As long as their daughter adores me too…”
“Oh yeah, I know Steph is pretty fond of you.”
Growling, Lana nippe
d Claire’s ear.
An erotic tingle shot straight between Claire’s thighs. With a moan, she turned around in Lana’s arms, letting their bodies brush all along their lengths, and kissed her.
Lana’s mouth met hers eagerly in a long kiss that made heat swirl through Claire’s body.
She looped her arms around Lana’s neck, while Lana tightened her hold on Claire’s hips, pushed her backward, and pinned her against the counter with her body, all without breaking the kiss.
Claire gasped into her mouth. Her hands played over the soft material of Lana’s top as their tongues slid against each other.
The ringing of the doorbell startled them apart.
Damn. Our guests.
Drawing in much-needed oxygen, they leaned against each other. “We need to open the door before they start thinking there’s another called-off engagement,” Claire said but couldn’t bring herself to move away from Lana. “What is it with you and kitchens?”
Lana smiled, her lips only a fraction of an inch from Claire’s. “It’s not the kitchen. It’s the woman. Although I wouldn’t mind another encounter of the chapter five kind.” Passion sparked in her hazel eyes.
Claire chuckled at the old joke between them. “You narrated the book. You know there’s no sex in chapter five.”
“Hmm, there should be.” Lana whispered a kiss onto the corner of Claire’s mouth.
The doorbell rang again.
“Yeah. Yeah. We’re coming.” Reluctantly, Claire slid out from between Lana and the counter. “I bet that’s Vanessa. She always has to be the first.”
“Well, if it’s her, at least you can show off your author copies before the other guests arrive.”
Claire took Lana’s hand and kissed her fingers. Her lips skimmed the feather ring that Lana was once again wearing. Her own finger now displayed a ring with the same type of stone, but a more traditional band. “I’d rather show off my fiancée.”
“Charmer.”
They walked to the door together. About to open it, Claire paused and trailed her gaze over Lana, taking in the flowing, eggplant-colored skirt and the ivory-colored wrap top that framed her generous cleavage. “I was right. You do look stunning.”
She had been right about something else too: with Lana by her side, life was pretty much perfect.
When Claire swung open the door, it wasn’t her colleague Vanessa who stood in front of her. Instead, Jill held out a bottle of wine, while Crash waited half a step behind her.
“Hey, it’s our favorite maid of honor,” Lana greeted her.
“I bet you say that to Claire’s sister too,” Jill playfully grumbled. “But once you hear my news, I really will be your favorite maid of honor.”
The two entered, and Claire closed the door behind them before hugging each woman in turn.
Jill seemed to vibrate with excitement. “I have a job offer for you,” she said to Lana. “Grace is branching out from acting to producing, and I’ve shown her the web series you did a few months ago. She liked what she saw, so she’s offering you the lead role in her first movie.”
Lana stood stock-still, her eyes wide.
Claire squeezed her hand. “That’s fantastic, isn’t it?” In the past year, Lana had managed to work steadily as an actress, but she’d only had supporting roles so far.
“The lead role?” Lana gave a little bounce. “Wow. What kind of movie is it?”
“It’s a romantic comedy about a relationship that starts out as fake, but quickly grows into true love.” Jill cocked her head. “Think you can play that part?”
Lana and Claire looked at each other and laughed.
“You could say the role is tailor-made for me,” Lana said, her eyes twinkling.
With a tiny wrinkle between her brows, Jill looked back and forth between them. “So you’ve played a role like that before?”
“Um, you could say that.”
A year ago, they’d had a long discussion and had finally decided not to tell their friends about how their relationship had really begun. They didn’t want to hurt their feelings or make them feel as if they didn’t trust them enough to tell them the truth from the start. They’d told Claire’s collegues that Lana wasn’t really a lawyer; she was an actress who’d been preparing for a role as an attorney when they had first met her.
“Were you any good?” Crash asked with a grin.
Claire wrapped both arms around Lana and leaned in to her. “She was perfect. Simply perfect.”
If you enjoyed Just for Show, you might want to check out Jae’s Hollywood series, especially Just Physical, the novel in which Lana’s friend Jill meets stuntwoman Crash and falls in love with her.
About Jae
Jae grew up amidst the vineyards of southern Germany. She spent her childhood with her nose buried in a book, earning her the nickname professor. The writing bug bit her at the age of eleven. Since 2006, she has been writing mostly in English.
She used to work as a psychologist but gave up her day job in 2013 to become a full-time writer and a part-time editor. As far as she’s concerned, it’s the best job in the world.
When she’s not writing, she likes to spend her time reading, indulging her ice cream and office supply addictions, and watching way too many crime shows.
CONNECT WITH JAE
E-mail her at: [email protected]
Visit her website: jae-fiction.com
Like her on Facebook: facebook.com/JaeAuthor
Follow her on Twitter: @jaefiction
Other Books from Ylva Publishing
www.ylva-publishing.com
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-794-0 (mobi), 978-3-95533-795-7 (epub)
Length: 108,000 words (302 pages)
This is a second, revised edition of Jae’s award-winning lesbian romance Something in the Wine. It includes the sexy follow-up short story “Seduction for Beginners” as a bonus.
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Only their common goal to take revenge on Jake unites them. But what starts as a table-turning game soon turns Annie’s and Drew’s lives upside down as the lines between pretending and reality begin to blur.
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