by Katie Dowe
The secretary who had been running the multimedia nodded eagerly. “She came in a few minutes ago.”
“I need to speak to her as soon as I am finished here.”
*****
Caitlin closed her eyes and listened to the woman trying to explain why she had decided to go in another direction with the series. She had called Viola and asked her to come in so that they could meet and talk about the changes that needed to be made, but the woman had told her that she was in Vienna taking a well-needed sabbatical and one where she needed to recharge her mind. “I have been writing for the past ten years without a break and I need to have some time for myself. Besides, I have not had sex for the past six months and I need to take care of that. I cannot very well write love scenes if I am not in touch with my sexuality now, can I?”
Caitlin bit off the retort she had been about to make and said instead, “How soon will you be back?”
“By the middle of next week. Are you really saying that I need to rewrite a number of pages?” she demanded.
“That is exactly what I am saying,” Caitlin told her firmly. “The main female character went from being edgy to downright sappy and the readers are going to notice a drastic change like that.”
“She is in love.”
“That does not give credence to her talking as if she swallowed a love dictionary,” Caitlin said impatiently. She tapped her manicured fingers on her desk. “Look, Viola, I know that you are a talented writer-“
“You would do well to remember that!”
Caitlin pressed her lips together and counted to ten before continuing. “We want you to continue being that talented writer. You cannot change the character’s personality after getting the readers used to her after so many years. It is not going to work.”
Caitlin waited patiently for the woman to respond and lifted her eyes to the doorway as Michael Vern’s secretary beckoned to her. She waved her away, but the woman stood there waiting. “Viola?”
“Okay, fine!” she said grumpily. “I will call you as soon as I land.”
“Thank you,” she said simply and hung up the phone.
“You are being summoned,” Eve said as she came into the room.
“I take it that Mr. Zeng is already here?”
“And making a lot of waves. Michael is pissing his pants,” she said with an unrepentant grin.
Caitlin gave her a wry look. She and Eve had started basically the same time and had become friends over the years. “What should I expect?”
“You should expect to cream your panties when you see him. The man is damned hot!”
“And that is completely inappropriate.” Caitlin gathered up her iPod and moved from around her desk. “I don’t cream my panties that easily.”
Chapter 2
Caitlin stood in the doorway of the conference room and felt her heart slam inside her chest! She had seen his pictures in the papers often whenever he was donating something to a museum or opening another gallery he had taken over, but up close he was more than she had expected and for the first time in her life she felt the surge of sexual longing inside her body! His head was bent over his device and his thick dark hair was falling down over his forehead. He was dressed in a business suit but was wearing a thin rust-colored sweater over khaki pants. She took a deep breath and walked further into the room. He looked up then and his piercing dark eyes met hers sending her blood pressure spiking some more! Dammit, she thought in panic! If this continues she was going to make a fool of herself!
“Ms. Sharpe, please have a seat.” He indicated a chair opposite to him. “I have been going over the list of books you are responsible for bringing in and I am impressed. You are working with the author Viola on the latest in the crime series?”
Just get right to the heart of it, why don’t you? Caitlin thought wryly as she took her seat as he suggested. She had a feeling that the very sexy Matthias Zeng did not spare time for small talk but got right to the matter at hand! She wondered if she should point out that he had not really greeted her as polite behavior dictated but decided against it. She really needed to keep this business because of the way she was feeling anyway!
“I am having a bit of difficulty with the last book, but I will be sorting it out as soon as she gets back to the States.”
“What sort of difficulty?” His dark eyes unnerved her and almost made her fidget in her seat which was something she never did!
“Before we go into all that, would you mind bringing me up to speed as to what is going on here?” she demanded.
He leaned back in the chair and stared at her for a moment. “I think I should leave that up to Michael Vern to tell you.”
“You are here and so am I and I would like to think that there is no time like the present.” She put away all form of pretense as she leaned against the table and look at him. “I want to know the future of the place I have invested my time in, Mr. Zeng, and I would like to know what you are doing here. Is my job safe? Or should I be updating my resume?”
He removed the glasses he had been wearing and placed them onto the table next to the device, giving her his full attention. Caitlin felt the feelings churning inside her and she had to force herself to keep her eyes on his. “You are right,” he said with a nod as he leaned back in his chair. “I have every intention of making a statement in the form of a staff meeting at a later date, but I am just meeting with some key people before that is done. The takeover will not be in effect until the end of June and I can assure you that Worldwide Publishing will be better than it has ever been. Does that clear things up for you?”
“You still have not told me if I will still have a job?” she pointed out.
His lips quirked in amusement. “What do you think?”
“I prefer not to assume.”
“Your imprint has been the one that has been holding the publishing house together for the past two years. I would be a fool to get rid of someone like you.” He put his glasses back on and she realized that the sharing moment had passed. “Now tell me about the latest book in the crime series.”
In the hour they spent together, Caitlin realized that Matthias Zeng knew more than a thing or two about publishing and the guidelines that came with it. He made several suggestions that Caitlin jotted down. He was a perfectionist and she liked that, making suggestions instead of dictating terms. She was so engrossed in the meeting that she had no idea that the time had passed! It was when he glanced at the simple expensive watch on his wrist that she had an idea that they had gone past the time he had allotted for her. “I will be in and out for the next several weeks that I am in town, and during that time, I would like to meet with you again.” He got to his feet and held out a hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to working with you, Ms. Sharpe.”
“Please, call me Caitlin.” She felt the shock of his skin on hers as she shook his hand and let go immediately, trying not to appear flustered!
“And you can call me Matthias.”
She nodded and made to leave, but his voice stopped her at the doorway. “You are very good at what you do, Caitlin.”
She turned and stared at him. “Thank you.”
*****
“The son of a bitch had the nerve to tell me that I have not been doing a very good job!” Michael Vern paced the length of his large office restlessly. Matthias had left for the day and he had called Caitlin into his office to find out what had transpired between the two of them.
“You did make some bad judgement calls, Michael,” she told him bluntly, impatient to get back to her work. She had signed a new author, a teenage girl with a flair for the dramatic, and one that showed an incredible amount of talent. She was talking to the girl’s mother who was trying to demand more than they were willing to pay for the advance. She was in the process of doing up the contract, but she had no intention of allowing the damned woman to use her daughter’s talent to extort money from them. She was going to set her straight! “The Penis Bible? The Ri
ght to Demand a Second Chance? Those are just two of the worst decisions you have ever made! And I completely forgot the Lakeshore Love Affair that your mistress wrote and passed off as good reading material! You used your position as publisher and made some pretty bad decisions, even when I told you not to. I read all of those and I am going to loosely call them novels! I read them and knew from the very first pages that they were crap and the worst kind of crap.”
He stared at her mutinously. “I was the one who gave you the imprint.”
“And I am eternally grateful for that,” she told him mildly, wishing that he would stop bringing that up every chance he got! When she had started at the publishing house, he had tried to get her to stay late with the pretext of going over manuscripts with him but in reality had wanted to get her to sleep with him. She had told him in no uncertain terms that she did not sleep with married men who happened to be her boss! She was not that hard up for a job and furthermore if he approached her again in that capacity, she would sue him and the publishing house for sexual harassment. He had stayed away from her after that, only approaching her on a professional level. They had butted heads frequently because Caitlin had a tendency of saying the first thing that came to her mind and not one to pretty things up! She did not sugarcoat anything and was known for her sword-like tongue and her fiery temper whenever something was not quite right!
“I am leaving at the end of the month! The son of a bitch told me that there is no room for me here. He is going to take over my job and I get to go home and do what exactly?”
“You could take up fishing or even write your own book,” Caitlin said airily.
Michael stared at her balefully, his light blue eyes taking in the way the flesh colored stockings she had on highlighted her beautiful legs. He had had to rein in his lust where she was concerned, but after the first attempt to get her to sleep with him, he had been afraid to approach her again, even though he had wanted to! “So I guess you will not be shedding any tears when I am gone?”
“Maybe a few,” she said with a slight smile. “Who else will be getting on my nerves when you are gone?”
“Zeng will not be as tolerant as I have been,” he told her coldly. “You will soon find yourself out of a job if you continue to behave the way you do.”
Caitlin got to her feet. “Is that all? Because I have work to do.”
He waved her away rudely and sat back down at his desk. Caitlin made her way out and closed the door behind her. A glance at the glass walls showed him with his shoulders slumped wearily and his hands on the desk. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
She passed Eve on her way back to her office and the woman quickly left her position at her desk to follow her.
She closed the door and took a seat as soon as Caitlin went behind her desk. “It is not yet noon, Eve, and I really don’t have time to gossip.”
“You usually make time.” Eve was not in the least bit put off. “Michael is on his way out.”
“I already knew that.”
“But I am staying,” she said triumphantly.
Caitlin looked at her curiously. “How do you know that?”
“I received the memo just now. Apparently, I am one of those who have been performing. The book designer, who made such a mess of several of our book covers, will also be getting the boot.”
“He deserves it,” Caitlin said unsympathetically. “Now, Eve, I really have work to do.”
The woman got to her feet. “We will talk later.”
Caitlin nodded and reached for her phone as it started to ring.
*****
Caitlin could barely conceal her dislike for the woman seated across from her. She had opted to do lunch instead of having her come to the publishing house and she had almost told her an emphatic no when she had suggested that they meet without her daughter present. The fifteen-year-old was a sweet child and not anything like her very grasping and greedy mother and maybe that was the main reason she was fighting to make it work!
“This is very fancy!” Gillian Butterfield gushed as she looked around the trendy restaurant. She had ordered the most expensive thing on the menu and Caitlin had stifled her retort. “I bet you get to come to these places all the time, don’t you?” she asked, leaning forward to stare at the beautifully composed woman opposite from her. Gillian had been thrilled when her daughter had gotten the call from the huge publishing house, saying that her manuscript had been accepted and they would like to publish it. Gillian had no idea where her daughter had gotten her writing skills from as she was just a simple woman who cleaned people’s houses for a living and her husband was just a carpenter and not a very good one at that! She was determined to make the most of this opportunity and had told her daughter firmly that she would be the one doing the negotiating!
“For business reasons.” Caitlin waited until their meals were served before she began. “Mrs. Butterfield-“
“Please, call me Gillian,” the woman said, waving a chubby hand in the air as she tackled her lobster quiche. “After all, we are almost business partners.”
Caitlin stifled her sarcastic comment again. “Gillian, as I explained to you over the phone several times, the publishing house will not be able to offer more than the advance we have already offered.”
“And why is that?” the woman demanded.
“Because it is the standard rate we offer to all first time authors and it is more than a generous amount. Gracie’s manuscript is very good and we are expecting that this is not a one-time thing for her. She has a talent that should be nurtured and will serve her well in the years to come. We at Worldwide and especially Young Blood would like to nurture that talent and hope to have a very lucrative and long-term relationship. But we simply cannot offer more than what we already did.”
“I asked a lawyer to read the contract.” Her mouth was full of the food she had stuffed inside it as if she was fearful that it would disappear if she did not consume it fast enough! “I clean house for a lawyer and I asked her to read it. She said I should ask for more and that is what I am doing.”
Caitlin finished her meal in silence for a moment before responding. “We are not prepared to offer more; as a matter of fact, we cannot offer more so if there is somewhere else you want to try, it is entirely up to you.”
“Wait a minute! We have a contract!”
“A contract that has not been signed by you or your daughter,” Caitlin pointed out smoothly, enjoying the look of confusion and panic on the woman’s florid face. “And an unsigned contract is not effective.”
Gillian sulked a moment as she finished eating. “I need time to think about it.”
“Take all the time you need,” Caitlin said airily. “But know that the more time you take means that your daughter’s book will be delayed in being published.”
The woman cleaned her plate. “I will get back to you by tomorrow.” She looked hopefully at Caitlin. “Are you sure we cannot get some more money?”
“Positive.”
“Okay,” she said grumpily. “I will get back to you.”
Before they left the restaurant the woman had ordered the chocolate mousse, a steak meal to go, and some mashed potatoes, a whole bowl of it! Caitlin had interpreted Jeremy’s (the waiter who served them) expression and hid a smile. She had gone back to the publishing house with success written all over her!
*****
Caitlin prepared the bath carefully, adding bath salts, ones that she had bought online a week ago and had not taken advantage of yet and an aromatherapy body wash that she often used. She poured her glass of wine and put it on the edge of the bath before slipping off the robe; she stepped into the swirling bubbles and sank down into it with a sigh. She had decided to leave work early and come home to soak in her bath and for once had not taken home work with her. She did not get to relax often but when she did she went all out. Music was playing in the background, setting the ambience, and the water was beginning to work the kinks out of her knotted muscles.
Ever since she was a little girl, she had enjoyed the written word and had spent time reading voraciously, anything she could get her hands on. She had sat in her parents’ large library and while her dad graded papers and did his research, she would sit on one of the deep cushioned chairs and read to her heart’s content. She had been fascinated by books, not just the contents of them but the covers and had learned how to differentiate a really crappy writer from the very good ones who held your interest and had you enthralled from the first page! She had been in high school when she knew that she wanted to go into publishing and had gone to college with that in mind. She had a double major: one in literature and the other in English, and had studied the works of Shakespeare where she had done her paper on when she was in college. She had gotten a job straight out of college at Worldwide Publishing and had worked hard to get her own imprint. She had been determined to work herself up to the top and hoped to one day be in charge of the entire operation. She still had that hope even though the publishing house was changing hands! She reached for her wine and her mind drifted to her meeting with Matthias Zeng. She had chalked down her violent reaction to him as a normal one for an extremely attractive man and had left it at that. She had been without a male companion for years now and it was starting to take its toll. That was it! That was the reason for the racing of her heart and the heat inside her even now as she thought about him. She closed her eyes as she remembered how well the beard looked on his face, the ripple of muscles as he moved his shoulders, and those eyes! Caitlin gulped the wine to quell the heat inside her. This was ridiculous, she thought sharply. She was going to have to get her feelings in check before she saw him again!
*****
Matthias was really excited at the prospect of branching out into publishing! He had deliberately decided to move up the meetings with the key people at the publishing house so that he could get a feel of what he was stepping into and what should be done that was not being done there. He had done his research before he had gone there though as he did with the other companies he took over and had seen the incredible potential it held! The underutilized tools that he was going to put in play as soon as the negotiation and the sales had gone through. Worldwide Book stores that carried their titles exclusively as well as provisions for online readers. Book clubs with celebrities putting their stamps of approval on titles that they had actually read! The possibility was endless and he already knew that Caitlin Sharpe was on board. He had watched her as they talked and had seen the enthusiasm that she had not been afraid to show. She was committed to the publishing house and it showed. She cared for her authors and that was what he wanted. It was going to be interesting working with her to bring the place around. He sipped his cognac moodily as his thoughts turned to the problem at the top of his mind, a problem that had been there for some time. He needed to find someone to bear his children and she had to be a perfect match. He was lonely and even when he was with the women he had been seeing he still felt like something was missing, a vital something. He had grown up with Chinese parents who had come here from China when they were in their early thirties and had established themselves soon after they arrived and he had been conceived shortly after. He had gone back to mainland China for visits but not often as his grandparents whom he had never known had died right after his parents had migrated. He had yearned for siblings when he was growing up and had even expressed the wish for them, but he had been told that he was going to be an only child as they wanted to give him the best of everything and that could only happen if he remained an only child. Now he was all alone in the world and he wanted nothing more than to surround himself with children who came from him. He had been doing his research on IVF and fertility drugs and was well armed with the information needed to make his wishes come true. All he needed now was the woman to get into agreement with him. His birthday was in August and he would be thirty-two, he would very much like to have everything started by then. He downed the rest of his drink and got to his feet. He had to go to Spain and Italy for a week and then he would be going back to the publishing house to sit in on meetings. He had ignored a call from Sylvia and the messages she had left on his voicemail. He did not want to see her right now and he doubted that he wanted to see her again. He was going to have to tell her it was over. He had a mission to accomplish and he was going to have to start now!