by Tawna Fenske
Instead, she smiled. “That’s impressive. I worked on a documentary about dyslexia a long time ago. The people we interviewed talked about being made to feel stupid or lazy.” She smiled, and Jonah’s heart twisted. “I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone who spends more than five minutes with you that you’re neither of those things.”
Jonah swallowed hard and wondered if she knew she was saying exactly what he needed to hear. He wasn’t sure why he’d volunteered that information in the first place, considering he didn’t know Kate all that well.
But there was something empowering about being the one to share it. About telling the story on his own terms, in his own way.
Or maybe it was just Kate. There was something about her that made him want to open up his chest and his brain and the whole big mess of himself and let her have a look at whatever might be in there.
“Right,” he said, feeling a little sheepish. “Opening a bookstore had been my goal for a long time. I didn’t have the balls to do it until things started winding down in my marriage.”
“It’s pretty admirable,” she said. “Talk about confronting your fears.”
Jonah smiled. “Yeah. Anyway, besides the dyslexia, I’m forgetful as hell. It’s partly an ADD thing, partly just me being—well, me.”
The way she looked at him with eyes flooded by admiration made Jonah’s chest ache.
“That’s the you people fell in love with in the books, Jonah,” she said. “The guy who’s self-aware and eager to fight his own demons.”
“Thanks,” he said, his heart snagging a little on the word love.
Kate looked at him for a while, leaning back against the counter. Then she nodded. “I hear where you’re coming from,” she said. “For what it’s worth, if you agree to do the show, I’ll do my best to make sure you’re portrayed in the best light.”
He stood up, feeling dumb for sitting on his ass while she was on her feet. She was probably itching to go. Waiting for him to ask more questions about the TV show or to give her an answer or something. She hadn’t come here to make idle chit-chat.
He stepped into the space next to her and rested a hand on the counter, making a gray-and-white cat growl from the center of a round pet bed he’d set there. “Thank you for coming here tonight,” he said. “For sharing everything you’ve shared this evening. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
Kate looked at him, her gaze holding steady. “Do you have any more questions about the show?”
He shook his head, captivated by her eyes. Had he noticed before how many colors they held? Copper, cinnamon, something that almost looked like amber.
“Are you—leaning one way or another?” Kate asked. “About the show?”
“I think so.” Jonah didn’t say anything else. He knew what he wanted to do. What he needed to do. He’d take a night or two to think about it, maybe look at some contracts or something. But the money alone was enough to consider it. And even without the money, getting to work with Kate—
No. Don’t think that way. You already know what a mess it is to do this sort of work with a woman you’re sleeping with.
That was the wrong thought to have. The idea of sleeping with Kate, touching her and holding her and sliding into her—
Jesus Christ, knock it off.
Kate’s gaze was still locked with his, and Jonah wondered if she’d blinked at all in the last few seconds. She was standing close enough for him to feel her breath against his skin. For him to reach out and slide an arm around her waist if he wanted to, which he did want, but he couldn’t, and he really ought to stop thinking about—
Suddenly, she was kissing him. Or he was kissing her. No, she was definitely kissing him, but he was kissing back, and they were all tangled up with fingers and tongues and breath and little sighs of pleasure that Jonah wasn’t sure were coming from him or her or one of the cats.
He slid his hand up into the curve of her waist and she leaned into him like she craved his touch as much as he craved this—all of this. He heard a soft purr behind him, or maybe it was coming from Kate. She was soft all over and tasted like something spicy and warm.
“Jonah,” she murmured as he broke the kiss to place a trail of kisses down her throat and across one collarbone. Her hands cupped his ass and he could feel her nails digging in. Is this what it would be like to have her? So much dizziness and passion and forbidden heat?
Forbidden.
The word stuck in his brain. Jonah froze. He drew back slowly, his body screaming at him to keep going while his brain screamed at him to knock it the hell off.
He looked Kate in the eye and swallowed. “We can’t do this. Not if we’re going to be working together.”
Kate blinked. “We’re going to be working together?”
“I—”
“Did you just say yes?”
He hadn’t meant to. Or hell, maybe he had. He was a little mind whacked with Kate still pressed up against him like this. Jonah took a breath.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess I did.”
Kate broke into a grin. She gave a delighted little bounce and let go of his ass to place her hands on his shoulders.
“Oh my God, Jonah! I’m so excited.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, already slipping back into Average Joe mode as he thought about his raging erection. “You and me both.”
Lucky for him, Kate seemed to miss the crude joke. Or maybe she was too polite to say anything, which was probably just as well. He’d meant what he said. There was no place for screwing around if they were going to be working together, along with his ex-wife.
Like magic, Jonah’s hard-on went down.
But Kate was still bouncing like a giddy kid, so he had to feel at least a trace of her enthusiasm.
“This is going to be great,” she said. “You’ll see. I promise to do my best to portray you as a multifaceted guy with dignity and wisdom.”
“Owl.”
Jonah tore his eyes off Kate to see Marilyn eyeing him from the windowsill with a look of silent distaste.
Well, not so silent. “Owl,” the cat insisted, standing up and stretching. She hopped down off the sill and padded over to him. She sat down at his feet and looked up at him for a moment, then butted her head against his shin.
“I think she likes you,” Kate said.
“Yeah, I could tell from the head-butting.” Of course, he knew enough about cat psychology to recognize it was probably true. Cats bumped heads against anyone or anything they saw as their own. As a member of their tribe or a possession to be claimed.
Something warm spread through Jonah’s chest as he looked down at that weird little whiskered face and those judgmental brows.
“Marilyn,” he said, testing it out. He liked the way it sounded.
Apparently, so did the cat. A low rumble sounded in her chest, and she rubbed her face on the leg of his jeans as she continued to purr.
“Do you ever end up adopting the cats you have here?” Kate asked.
“I never have. Yet.” He thought about what his sister had said the other day about Viv being the reason behind his pet-free life. Did Jossy have a point?
“I think this cat is trying to tell you something,” Kate said.
Jonah studied Marilyn, mostly because he couldn’t bear to look at Kate with her flushed cheeks and kiss-stung lips.
“Marilyn,” he said again. “Would you like to come home with me?”
The cat narrowed her eyes, unimpressed by the offer. Then she head-butted him again, the queen of mixed messages.
“Typical woman,” he muttered, tearing his eyes off the cat to meet Kate’s gaze again. “Not you; the cat. Though I guess if I’m doing the Average Joe thing again, here’s where I call you a cock-tease and suggest you get your sweet ass home unless you want me to grab it again.”
Her eyes widened. She licked her lips, and he got the sense she didn’t find his piggish behavior nearly as offensive as he did.
“Is it wrong to admit I
kinda want that?” she asked.
“Go on,” he said. “You should get out of here.”
“I suppose so.”
She seemed to hesitate, and he watched her open her mouth like she wanted to say something else. Instead, she closed it.
“And we probably shouldn’t do that again,” he said.
“The kissing?”
“Yeah. Not a good idea, under the circumstances.”
“Okay.” Kate pressed her lips together. “Thank you, Jonah.”
“For the pizza you hardly touched?”
“For saying yes to the show. I promise you won’t regret it.”
He looked at her, fighting the urge to tell her that a small part of him already regretted it. That he’d been fueled by regret for most of his adult life.
“Don’t mention it,” he said, then bent down to pick up his cat.
CHAPTER SIX
With her heels clicking on the black maple floor, Kate strode across the front of the hotel conference room, handing out printed packets. She kept her eyes averted from Jonah’s, remembering Amy’s words about the chemistry between them.
It wasn’t true, obviously.
Even so, she couldn’t afford for it to look obvious to any of the studio reps and network execs who’d shown up for today’s pre-production meeting.
“What’s this?” Jonah asked as Kate handed him his packet, and she fought the urge to strangle him. Clearly he didn’t share her intent to avoid direct conversation between them.
Kate let her gaze skim the room, skipping eye contact with Jonah in favor of directing her response to the dozen other people in the room. “These packets contain basic information about the pilot episode,” she said. “Shot lists, intro and outro materials, that sort of thing.”
“Are the patients in there, too?” On the opposite side of the conference table, Viv accepted her packet from Amy and began flipping through it. Her dark hair was held back by a polished ebony clip, and her flowy peasant blouse made her look effortlessly chic. “I’d like to get started learning about who we’ll be helping.”
“Profiles of the proposed subjects are at the back of the packet,” Kate said. She ran a hand down the front of her slim black skirt and wished she’d taken a few extra minutes that morning to wear contacts instead of her glasses.
Then she cursed herself for giving a damn what she looked like. This was a business meeting, not a dating show.
“We’ve identified five couples with strong potential to be featured in the pilot episode,” Kate continued as she scooted past Amy to make her way to the other end of the table. “You’ll see all the details spelled out there about the struggles they’re facing and what we think is going to resonate best with our viewers.”
“These are real couples,” Amy pointed out to Viv as she performed an expert sideways dodge to avoid the grabby hands of some dickhead network producer. Kate made a mental note to keep an eye on the guy. “We pre-screened them all with an eye on what we think will play well with our audiences,” Amy continued. “First and foremost was relatability. A sense of genuineness. These are real people, not actors.”
“Well, some of them are actors,” Kate amended. “This is show biz, after all, and a lot of these folks are coming from LA. Everyone’s an actor.”
“True enough,” Amy acknowledged. “Which does help with the vetting process as far as making sure everyone’s comfortable being on camera.”
“But we plan to do most of the filming in Seattle, of course,” Kate said with a quick smile at Viv. “That keeps us out of hot water as far as where Dr. Brandt is licensed to practice, plus we’ll catch audience interest with the fresh setting.”
“Thank God,” muttered a network exec to Kate’s right. “If I have to watch one more reality TV show set in LA or New York City, I’m going to stab my eyeballs with a fork.”
Kate glanced at Viv, hoping she hadn’t heard the reality-TV remark. Viv had already flipped to the section of the packet with the profiles of the couples they’d pre-screened for the pilot episode. She was reading with a serene, thoughtful expression, and Kate breathed a sigh of relief.
It was a good sign. One of 684 reasons she’d always loved Vivienne Brandt was that her desire to help people was genuine. That shone through in her books, and Kate felt certain it would come through on camera, too.
She glanced away from Viv and let her gaze drift around the room.
Don’t look at Jonah, Kate willed herself. Don’t think about how hot he looks in that red shirt. Or how hot he looked the other day with no shirt. Or how his lips feel when he brushes them across your—
“Jeez, you guys aren’t messing around.” Jonah whistled low under his breath, and Kate felt her gaze swivel his direction without her consent.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“This first couple—Sam and Elena?”
“Those are their real names,” Amy interjected. “They’ve already signed confidentiality agreements.”
“I hope they signed a prenuptial agreement, too,” Jonah said. “They don’t have kids, but they have two mortgages on a four-thousand-square-foot home, and she hasn’t held a job the entire twelve years they’ve been married?”
“It says here she’s been in school,” Vivienne pointed out as she slid a fingertip down her own page. “Working on her PhD in philosophy.”
“To do what?” Jonah asked, flipping through the pages like he might have missed something.
“It doesn’t say,” Viv said. “But is that even the point? She’s working to expand her mind, to broaden her horizons, to—”
“Avoid reality?” Jonah turned to the next page, and Kate watched him nudge his glasses back up his nose. “How did these people have the wherewithal to plan a ninety-thousand-dollar destination wedding with three hundred guests, but not to have a simple conversation about their expectations for careers and money?”
“Judgment, Jonah,” Viv murmured in a sing-song tone that told Kate this was a familiar refrain. “We’re here to help them, not scold them.”
“They need more help than we could give them in a thirty-minute reality show,” Jonah muttered.
“Unscripted television,” Viv corrected. “And we’re just giving them the tools they need to find their way.”
Jonah snorted. “Judging from what I’m seeing here, these two couldn’t find their asses with a map and a flashlight.”
“Perfect!”
All eyes swiveled to the head of the table, where Empire TV’s executive director clapped his hands together and looked pleased. “This is excellent,” Chase Whitfield added. “I love the dynamic already!”
“I agree,” murmured Luke Sheehan, one of the high-level execs from the studio. Kate had already forgotten his job title, though it clearly involved agreeing with everything the Empire TV team had to say.
“They’re very fiery together,” added another Empire TV exec, almost as though Viv and Jonah were two actors in another room instead of two ex-spouses sitting right here in this one.
“This is some solid-gold shit right here.” Chase Whitfield whacked the packet with the back of his hand, and Kate tried to tamp down the irritation she’d always felt around him. He was one of the biggest names in the business, and they were lucky he’d taken an interest in the show.
That didn’t mean she had to like him.
“You know,” Chase continued, “it’s actually so much better having them divorced.”
“Amen to that,” Jonah muttered as he continued to the next section in his packet and adjusted his glasses again.
“There’s something we can agree on.” Viv crossed her legs, exposing one bare knee as her red silk skirt rode up. Kate wondered if Jonah noticed. At what point did you stop being affected by the bared body parts of someone you’d once loved?
“You see this quote on page two-sixteen from the husband?” Viv continued. “The one where he says, ‘the feelings just aren’t there anymore.’”
Jonah glanced at the pag
e and grunted before looking up at Viv. “So he’s boning someone else.”
“That’s typically what it means,” she mused. Then she frowned and looked at Kate. “Wait, is he allowed to say boning?”
Kate folded her hands in front of her and glanced quickly at Chase. “It’s ultimately up to the network, but there’s usually more leeway with cable television,” she said. “A few appropriately timed curse words are usually acceptable.”
“Define appropriately timed.” Jonah looked at Kate. “If someone is being a fucking dumbass and I tell him so—”
“In a spirit of love and compassion,” Viv interjected.
“Sure,” Jonah agreed. “If I tell him in a spirit of love and compassion that he’s being a fucking dumbass, is that appropriate?”
Across the table, Amy was trying—and failing—to keep a straight face. “I suppose it depends on the circumstances.”
Jonah raised one eyebrow. “How about if he’s being a fucking dumbass?”
“I suppose that would be appropriate circumstances,” Amy agreed.
“I think we’re getting off track here,” Viv said. “How about we take a look at the second couple?”
There was a rustling of pages, and Kate flipped forward in her own packet. She stole a quick glance at Jonah and wondered what he felt like being here now. Did working with an ex feel awkward, or was he able to see Viv as just another body in the room?
There were no cameras rolling, which had been Viv’s idea. She wanted to ease him in slowly, despite the Empire TV team’s desire to start test shooting right away. From what Kate could see, Jonah would look fantastic in front of a camera. Whether he’d enjoy it was another matter.
“Did you find out if we can get Pete Waller as the lead cameraman?” Chase asked.
“If we’re able to start filming right away, he’s available,” Amy said.
“We’ve had a terrific working relationship with him in the past,” Kate said. “He’s very talented.”
“And he’s got that whole teddy-bear vibe about him,” Amy added. “That’ll help put all the couples at ease.”
“He knows how to get the dirt, too.” Chase grinned, and Kate tried not to cringe.