had put their souls into the effort. “Okay…can I have it?” she said with a teasing tone of voice when Lana maintained her white knuckled grip on the manuscript.
Lana desperately wanted to hold back, knowing this would be published, that everyone would read it and see into her personal love life. And there was no way she could get around the fact that it really was her love life. She was madly in love with Victor.
But she was a romance writer, she told herself. She’d always used her experiences for her novels. This was no different than all her other stories, she tried to convince herself. The intimate details of her love life were just as relevant for her stories as buying a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, as long as everything pushed the plot along.
“Yes,” Lana said decisively and handed over both versions to her editor quickly before she changed her mind and ran out of the office.
Nancy brightened, taking the manuscripts with relief. “Good! I thought something was holding you back. I can’t wait to get this set up. And read the last few chapters which you’ve selfishly been holding out on, haven’t you?” she said with a teasing voice.
Lana looked away, outside Nancy’s office, clasping her hands in her lap to keep them from reaching for the pages back. It was then that she felt the electricity swoop through her body. The feeling was exactly the way she felt each time Victor entered a room and she looked around, confused.
Then she saw him. “Victor?” she whispered, looking towards the conference room where a group of men and women were talking with Victor who was patiently answering their questions as he walked down the hallway.
Nancy heard her and looked down the hallway. “Yep. That’s the man in the flesh, so to speak,” she laughed. “That’s Victor Davenport, our new owner. He’s the man responsible for all the changes around here.” She chuckled softly, before saying, “But you can’t be mad at him for the changes like you were two months ago. This is honestly the best writing you’ve ever done and if he hadn’t eliminated the previous line you were writing for, you’d never have excelled so dramatically.”
Lana felt as if her world was starting to spin out of control. Victor was the publisher? No, that wasn’t right. He owned a cosmetics company. But weren’t there other companies Victor owned? He’d mentioned that his previous friend had tried to attack “one of his companies” which meant that there were more than one and definitely more than a cosmetic giant under the conglomerate. Did he own the publishing company as well? Or maybe just controlling stock in it? That made more sense. But how could she have missed that? And why hadn’t he told her?
His eyes locked with hers and she saw the smile form on his face. The look he gave her froze her insides and she looked away. In that same instant, her eyes fell on the manuscript still in Nancy’s arms. The book!
Her eyes moved from the manuscript back to Victor and all the pieces fell into place. He was the new owner of the publishing company. And he wanted more sex in the books. She was one of the writers, hence he’d do anything to increase sales. Including showing a poor, dumb writer how to add a little sex to the mix.
Lana finally understood, all the lessons, all the sweet gifts. They were all ways he could increase the sales of his books. It wasn’t about her and forming a relationship with Lana. To Victor, it was all about the bottom line.
The shock must have shown on her face because Victor’s expression mirrored the horror she was feeling inside. He took a step toward her and she took a step back, unable to get close to him under the circumstances.
She finally tore her gaze away from him and looked around, her eyes frantically searching for an escape. She had to get away, she had to hide and think. Rushing out of Nancy’s office, she tore down the hallway, ignoring the surprised and indignant expressions on the other people in the office as she brushed by them, desperately trying to make it to the elevator before she broke down in tears. She’d done that already and it was the main reason she was here in this situation. She would not repeat that humiliation, especially since Victor was bearing down on her with his long