Cake. Lauren Dane

story is interesting. Will there be sex scenes?”

      She shook her head, smiling. “Maybe.”

      “She’s very sarcastic. I wonder where you get all the material for her.”

      She snickered. “I’m really only at five or six on the sarcasm scale when I come to see you. You should see me when I’m not working.”

      He should. He got the feeling it would be a hell of a lot of fun to see Wren Davis when she wasn’t on duty.

      “You don’t need company manners here with me.”

      “Oh, don’t worry, these aren’t my company manners. I’d never tell any of my other clients to stop fucking their crazy ex-wives.”

      He nearly choked on his coffee. “I think I’m flattered by that. Give me a while to really be sure though. I might have some contacts. Publishing ones, I mean.”

      She shook her head, reaching for the pad, which he kept because he wasn’t done looking.

      “No. It’s okay. I can do this on my own.”

      “Of course you can. But why not let a friend help you? Do you think this business isn’t rife with connections and networking? Isn’t that part of why you told me you went to school? The connections?”

      “I appreciate the offer, but for now, I’m fine.”

      “Other people would jump at that offer.” Was his help so terrible?

      “I’m not other people, Gregori. I’m not your ex-wife. I’m not a hanger-on. I’m not a groupie.”

      He was quiet a while as he continued to look through her work. Yes, she was most definitely not other people. Which fascinated him even as he knew he should be wary.

      “I’ll offer again, when you’re closer to sending the project out. In the time between now and then, I want you to think on accepting help when it’s offered. If I wasn’t genuinely interested, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

      She sighed. “I’ll think on it. Thank you.”

      “Good. If only you always agreed with everything I said, imagine how much easier things would be.” He winked, his bad mood long gone. “I’m having a show next week. Friday night. I meant to ask if you wanted tickets when you were here last but I forgot.” He got up and grabbed the envelope. “I have four but I can easily get more.”

      “I’d only need two. That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

      He handed them her way. “Only two? Will you bring a date then?”

      “Do you recommend it? A date to this show?” Her smile was lopsided and he couldn’t tear his eyes from the dimple there on the right side of her mouth. Why hadn’t he noticed it before?

      “I don’t know. If it’s just you, or you and your roommate, you could always come out with me afterward. To Fixe. There will be a party there.” He shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant when he suddenly felt anything but. “I mean with a group. There will be others along. I think you’d like many of them.”

      He’d invited her to one other after-party, but he’d seen her there for all of five minutes and when he’d looked up again she’d been gone.