Chapter 7

Annie Leon had let me start work on a Wednesday so now I only had Friday to get through before two glorious days off where I wouldn't have to see Noah. I would also try not to think about him but I wasn't sure how well I would do at that. I had a meal with my family tonight then I was due to spend tomorrow with Liv, so I was in a better mood.

I decided I'd walk in to work to start the day off as best I could.

It was a glorious crisp and sunny autumn morning and I picked up an iced coffee from Starbucks to romanticise the start of the day as much as I possibly could. I was also excited because I was going to be working on Deborah Day's new book and I'd stayed up late to finish it, and I thought it was bloody brilliant. I was absolutely invested in helping make it a bestseller even if my colleagues had warned me she was a diva. I often thought women who knew what they wanted were labelled as such so I wasn't too worried. I bet she was frustrated her books weren't being found like they used to be. And rightly so if this one was anything to go by. I'd downloaded the rest of her books I hadn't read to my Kindle and I was looking forward to spending my Sunday reading as much as I could.

When I arrived, Gita was leaning against Emily's desk talking to her.

‘I had to work at home all evening to send everything Noah asked for,' Gita said with a sigh. ‘And all I got was a curt thank you email this morning.'

‘Ugh,' Emily said with a grimace. ‘But at least you're still running the editorial department. I can't believe they got rid of Annie, and now The Shark is running our team.'

‘You definitely have it worse.'

‘Stevie, poor thing, will have to work closely with him.' They both looked at me as I sat down at my desk. ‘I don't know how you'll get through it,' Emily added.

‘Why does he have such poor people skills, that's what I want to know,' Gita said. ‘Woman troubles?'

‘Did you see that article about him being an eligible bachelor?' Emily asked. I nodded along with Gita. ‘He's fit, don't get me wrong, but I doubt he ever cracks a smile. And the barking of instructions. Although actually maybe I'd like that in the bedroom.'

Gita snorted.

My cheeks flamed instantly because my mind went to being in bed with Noah. He'd been extremely good at telling me what to do in there, and I'd loved every minute of it. He'd never been bossy outside of it though.

I blamed Noah for my weakness over alpha males in romance books. Every instruction from them had me remembering the way he used to take control with me. And God, I missed it. Every sexual encounter after Noah had felt vanilla in comparison. I made myself cough then to cover the fact I must have had a trance-like expression on my face. Bloody hell. I needed to stop thinking about sex at work. And with my boss too!

‘Well, if it's not woman troubles, maybe it's just because our jobs are on the line,' Emily continued, unaware of my inappropriate thoughts.

‘I think he has a lot to prove to his family too,' I mused as I shrugged off my blazer.

‘Why?' Gita asked.

‘Well, his dad is his boss. That dynamic is never easy and if we think Noah is a bad boss, I heard that Mr Matthews…'

‘Wait,' Gita said. ‘Are you saying Noah's dad is Mr Matthews?'

‘As in Matthews Wood Publishing?' Emily asked. ‘The vultures who took us over?'

I swallowed. It seemed like no one had worked out the Anderson/Matthews connection. I assumed that would have been rumbled already.

‘That's right,' I said, wondering whether to feel bad. But Noah had lied to me for a year about that, so why should I let him carry that lie on now? ‘He worked for his father in New York and now he's running things for him here.'

‘Nepotism.' Gita tutted. ‘You'd think he'd be more grateful then instead of grumpy.'

‘I heard Mr Matthews is terrifying so maybe you're right,' Emily said to me. ‘He has to prove himself to his father.'

The doors opened and we fell silent, turning to watch as Noah walked in. He looked over and I knew he knew we'd been talking about him.

‘Stevie, shall we have that meeting about Deborah Day?' he called over, his expression unchanged. ‘Say half an hour, okay?'

‘Sure,' I said back, hoping I sounded just as chill. He continued the walk to his office and I leaned back in my office chair with a sigh. ‘I hope he isn't too demanding in this meeting.'

‘Take him one of those,' Emily suggested, pointing to my coffee. ‘Paul said he was inhaling caffeine in their meeting.'

I nodded. ‘Yeah, we always joked that we'd both like to be hooked up to a coffee IV someday,' I said as I logged on to my computer. Gita and Emily stared at me. I realised what I'd said. Shit. ‘I mean, we joked yesterday.'

‘Noah jokes?' Emily asked, her eyebrows raised so high they disappeared into her hair.

I stared at her, unsure what to say.

Gita crossed her arms. ‘You know more than you're letting on, Stevie, and we will find it out, I warn you now. There's nothing that happens here that me and Emily don't find out about.'

I tried not to panic. ‘Um…'

‘Gita, where are the edits for James Archer?' Noah barked out then, peering around his office door, making the three of us jump. Gita hurried over and I let out a sigh of relief that Noah had inadvertently saved me from a grilling. I had a sinking feeling though that they weren't going to let it go.

I nipped out of the office and went across the road to Starbucks and picked up two coffees. I went full autumn and got two pumpkin spice lattes, with cream on top, of course.

As I walked back across the open-plan floor, Gita gave me a thumbs-up and Emily did a slit-throat mime, which made me snort, earning me a few curious glances.

Noah's door was open so I went in and kicked it closed behind me.

‘Okay, I have the fuel so let's do this,' I said, waving the coffees in the tray.

Noah's eyes widened. ‘What are they?'

‘The autumn drink of dreams, and if you don't drink it all, I'll never bring you a coffee again,' I said, sitting down in the chair behind his desk. I slid his coffee over to him and waited while he took a tentative sip through the straw.

‘Could this be any sweeter?' he asked, wincing.

‘You need all the sweetness you can get,' I replied and took a long gulp of mine. I sighed contently. ‘One of the best bits about the best season. Yes, I am a basic bitch about autumn and I don't care.'

‘Well, it will certainly keep me alert today. I'll be bouncing off the walls after it,' Noah said, putting his coffee down, ignoring my comment about him needing more sweetness. He pushed back the sleeves of his shirt. ‘So, I finished Deborah's book. Did you?'

I reached into my bag and pulled out my Kindle and a notebook. ‘Of course. I made some notes last night but basically, I loved it. I think it's…' I realised Noah was staring at my Kindle. ‘What's wrong?'

‘I just never thought I'd see you reading on one of those,' Noah said. ‘You said you were always hardbacks until you die.'

We looked at one another. It was the second time he was bringing up knowing me after noticing my tattoo. And yes, I was probably going to count every time he did it. It proved that I hadn't imagined the whole year I'd spent with him, which sometimes after he'd gone I'd felt like I had.

I was the one to look away first.

‘Well, my flat has no room for my book collection. They're all at my parents' house. Until I have enough space, my reading is all done on here.' I tapped my Kindle.

‘Oh, I see. Where is your flat?'

‘Islington. Do you still have yours by the river?' I had assumed when Noah left for New York he'd got rid of his flat, but his concierge phoned me once to say a parcel for me had arrived there by mistake a few weeks after and had kindly sent it on to me, but I had no idea if Noah had kept it after that.

‘I'm back living there,' he confirmed. We looked at one another. I couldn't help but wonder if he ever thought about the nights we had stayed there together.

Noah cleared his throat. ‘So, you liked Bitten?'

I was relieved we were getting back to business. ‘I did and I was surprised how current it felt. Like I said, I haven't picked up a new book of Deborah's for a long time. I've been missing out so I think many of her readers have been missing out too.'

‘I agree. It felt very on trend despite what the team said about her being outdated. It made me wonder if they had really read it or just gone with the brief from editorial. I know people are busy and we can't read every book but it's a shame. I feel like you do – that romance readers would love this. We just have to make sure they know about it.'

‘You think it's on trend?' I asked, wondering how Noah knew what was popular in romantic fiction. Just by keeping an eye on the bestseller list, I assumed, and information gleaned from what people who worked for him told him.

‘It reminded me of these.' Noah reached behind him and put a stack of books on his desk for me to see. ‘I think readers of these would love it and they are who we should target. But what do you think? No one knows the genre better than you.' He said it matter-of-factly like he said everything, but I couldn't help it – I glowed at his praise.

‘Hang on,' I said, looking at the books then at Noah. He was right. They were exactly the books I would sit Bitten alongside. ‘You've read these?' They weren't Matthews Wood Publishing books.

‘Yes,' he said, oblivious to my widened eyes. He gestured to the publicity plan in front of him. ‘And these are the readers we need to target. We can't just rely on her existing fanbase. Looking at the current publicity plan, they are promoting her books the same way they always have and so not reaching younger readers.'

‘I agree,' I said, still taken aback he'd read all those romance books. He had been mainly a thriller and non-fiction reader when we'd been together. Business motivation and murder were his go-to's, not pink-covered love stories. What had changed? ‘It's such a shame she's been overlooked. I feel bad because I haven't read her books for years. Although that could be because they are just not visible enough. If we can get the word out, I think it could really sell.'

‘This is why I thought we'd make a good team on this. We can do something different. And not get stuck in the "let's do what we always do" mentality that I feel the team here have been in.'

I tried not to dwell on the words ‘good team' too much.

‘Well, they are missing an effective social media strategy, for sure, and they haven't been targeting fans of authors like these books you have here. They also seem to be missing the author herself.'

‘What do you mean?'

I waved my hand over the plan. ‘There's no promotion involving Deborah, like an event, a signing, a talk, a reading. Why?'

Noah leaned back in his chair. ‘The team did say they thought she was difficult.'

‘Ugh, probably because she's a woman who knows what she wants.'

His mouth twitched again. ‘Well, perhaps. I'm guessing they didn't want to have to do an event as they don't get on with her. Which is a poor excuse. It doesn't matter if personality-wise it's not a match; if it sells her book, we should do it. I think we need to meet Ms Day and see what she thinks about it all.'

‘You think you can cope with her?' I said, my lips curving into a smile. I hoped Ms Day would be difficult for Noah to deal with.

‘If not, we have you to diffuse any tension. You were always good at that. Who can be bad tempered with you in the room?'

Noah began to shuffle papers then seemed to realise what he'd said and froze, lifting his eyes cautiously to meet mine.

I stared at him, unsure how to respond to that. Noah was complimenting me. Reminding me why we'd made such a good team in the past. Telling me he'd read some of my favourite books. Supporting me in trying to promote a romance book when everyone else had dismissed it. I needed to remind myself that he hadn't thought that much of me when he moved to New York, and quickly.

‘Stevie…' Noah said so softly that I held my breath to hear what he was about to say.

The phone on his desk rang out shrilly, making us both jump.

I scrambled to my feet. ‘Well, I'll set up a meeting with the author and I'll email you some ideas that we could suggest to her,' I said as I grabbed my things. When I had everything, I finally looked at Noah.

He was watching me with an unreadable expression.

He waited a moment before nodding. ‘Thank you,' he finally said then he answered his phone.

I left in a hurry, but I knew my mind would replay Noah's words over and over for days.