Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
But I wouldn’t spoil what felt like friendship for the sake of a one-sided infatuation.
Autumn had been mild for this far north. However, this morning we’d woken up to an early November winter. Our cars sat in my driveway, the windshields crusted in ice, and the floorboards were freezing beneath our bare feet. The bungalow had central heating, but I hadn’t switched it up high enough, so the house was taking a while to heat up. Thankfully, we had the fire in the living room.
I searched Theo’s profile, the strong, straight nose, the hard angle of his jaw, the slightly sharp cheekbones and the contrast of all that masculinity against the pout of his mouth. My belly fluttered and I dragged my eyes off him to follow his gaze.
The mountains across Gairloch Loch were snow-dusted, and the icy pale gray of the sky made the loch look like it had a layer of frost over the top. Puffy clouds reflected in the water. The naked trees were touched with frost, the roads and grass and plants too. Not quite as still as ice but glittery and magical. It was beautiful here. I’d never spent much time in Gairloch in winter, but I was never more grateful for the bungalow.
“I was up during the night working on another scene.” Theo wrenched his eyes from the stunning view. “Perhaps you could look at it before you start your chapter?”
Surprised he’d been working through the night, I wanted to ask him why but knew he’d probably just fob me off with a vague, dry answer.
“Sure.” I walked past him to the desk and settled in.
Theo followed, resting his mug of tea next to mine before he dragged his chair over to my desk. Our legs and shoulders brushed as he sat, and a prickle of awareness shivered down my neck.
I must have made some kind of movement because Theo frowned. He was so close I could see the silver striations in his pale gray-blue eyes. His aftershave tickled my senses with its spicy, woodsy masculine scent. “Are you still cold?”
Clasping my mug in my hands, I nodded without looking at him, fighting back the pink that wanted to bloom on my cheeks. Think of cold soup, period cramps, of Harry Renfrew whose tongue felt like an out-of-control slug in your mouth. I sipped at my tea, the thoughts doing the trick.
“The fire should warm up the room soon,” Theo murmured, seeming to shift unconsciously closer to me as he opened his laptop.
So far, our work on the script had gone more seamlessly than I could have hoped. Theo was a bit of a control freak when it came to his writing, but he’d proven a willing listener if I had a difference of opinion. That didn’t mean he didn’t wield sarcasm like a blade, but I was used to him now and didn’t take his personality personally. In fact, I got the impression he quite liked it when I jabbed back.
Half an hour later, Theo’s proximity was no longer forefront of my mind as I got lost in our discussion about the script.
“You need to add the sex scene here. It’s the perfect transition between the scene where she’s emotional and exhausted by the dead end she’s met on the case, and then the scene after the intimate interlude, where she’s compartmentalizing and being strong. The sex scene fits perfectly between those two moments.”
Theo rubbed his eyebrow in thought. “I think it’s gratuitous. You don’t see that sex scene on the page in the book, Ms. Fade to Black. So why should we put it in the show?”
It was true I mostly didn’t write sex on the page, but I also didn’t always fade to black either. “But Juno thinks about the sex with Cameron as they’re changing afterward.” Cameron is Juno’s friend-with-benefits in book one. She’s a total commitment-phobe because of her past and her job. “She’s impatient to get away from him. It surprises me that you don’t understand what’s going on in this scene.”
Hearing my frustration, Theo quirked an eyebrow. “Well, explain it slowly, little mouse, so my feeble brain can comprehend.”
Ignoring his tone, I continued, “She thinks to herself how Cameron’s constantly asking her if this or that is getting her off, if she wants this, if she wants that, does she like this … it kills her desire.”
Theo frowned. “Later in book three or four, she has sex with that ex-criminal who is dominant and aggressive, and she gets off on it.”
“Exactly!” I was so into our discussion, it didn’t even occur to me to be embarrassed we were talking about sex. “She spends all day every day in this traditionally masculine role, being the boss, making decisions, carrying this tremendous weight of responsibility on her shoulders. Sex is the one place she doesn’t want to make decisions or think.”