I’d never had to bring up any kind of unconventional desire with a partner before. How the hell did people even introduce this stuff when they had to ask for it?

I said, “Lucas Steel obviously doesn’t have any trouble telling people what he wants, but most of your clients must. How do they trust a stranger like that and open up to them?”

Asking for a friend…

“A rock-solid NDA goes a long way to reassuring most clients.”

I laughed. “I have NDAs with lots of people and still don’t trust that I can be even a little bit open with them.”

“Your situation is different than most.” Her eyes flicked up and held mine. “It must be lonely.”

Just like that she’d stripped back all the bullshit and hit right at the heart of it. “It is. I guess you’re never lonely. Constantly connecting with people like this.”

Her eyes shuttered, but all she said was, “You’d be surprised.”

We stared at each other for just a second longer. The spark of something deeper than physical attraction flared between us and left me shaken.

She stood and dusted off her pants, clearly ready to change the subject. “We don’t have much time. Let’s walk through the scenes in the first act and talk about his baseline motivations and emotional charge for each so you can be thinking about that as we keep doing lessons. Grab your script.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

She glared. “Ugh, ma’am? Really? Am I your school teacher?”

“Sorry. It’s how I was raised. I’ll try not to do it again.”

We pulled our scripts out and she slid her hands lovingly over hers.

“Why does this book mean so much to you?” I asked.

She looked surprised. “It’s hard to explain. I fell in love with books because reading let me live in someone else’s head for a while. I fell in love with psychology for the same reason. It was other people’s stories, but I would get to be part of their journey and maybe ease their path a little. The dungeon was that on steroids. It was like getting access to the hidden romance section that my hometown librarian tried to keep people away from lest it corrupt our minds. Crown of Swords feels like it gave a whole bunch of people keys to that hidden section, like it opened something in their minds. I don’t care what anyone says about it, there’s power to that and I love seeing how it’s impacted people.”

I laughed. “No pressure. I hope I can live up to that with the film.”

Her lips quirked. “Don’t fuck it up, Mr. Chase.”

12

Elena

“How does this look?” I asked Ophelia, modeling a black pencil skirt, striped blouse, and stilettos sharp enough to eviscerate someone.

She considered me for a moment from where she lay sprawled across my bed. “Perfect. Classy. Like a sexy assassin librarian.”