Manwich

Chapter One “Valerie Martin needs you to finish writing Between Two Captains for her, s*x scenes and all.” Lauren Danner’s statement cut through the air in her office. She drummed her neatly manicured nails on the desk, waiting for Kayla’s response. Kayla, however, couldn’t speak just yet for the golf-ball-sized lump that had formed in her throat. Lauren Danner, literary agent, had just offered to let her, Kayla Morgan, ghostwrite for Valerie Martin, rising star in the world of romance writing. Kayla’s elation was marred only by the reason for the offer in the first place. Valerie Martin had been in a terrible car accident and was in a complete body cast. The accident was all over the news. She was in no condition to write and wouldn’t be for weeks to come. But the woman was incredibly organized and had a whole system set up, so as not to miss any deadlines. Lauren raised an eyebrow. “Well?” She sighed. “I hate to pressure you about this but as you know, Ms. Martin is launching her name into the erotic romance venue. You know, covering all the bases? Burlington’s Desires line wants her for their premiere and the deadline is in exactly one month. She has forty K written so far, out of seventy-five total.” Kayla swallowed hard. Forty thousand words written for a seventy-five-K manuscript. Thirty-five thousand more was a lot of work when you weren’t on a roll. Her grip tightened on the arms of the Empire-style chair. City traffic on the street below blared in the background of her consciousness. Her stomach veered as if she were about to descend the highest hill on the roller coaster. “I’ll do it.” She spat the words out before she could lose her nerve. Lauren exhaled sharply. “Good. I’ll give you a disk of the work in progress so you can catch up with the story. Now, about the upcoming scenes. There’s going to be a ménage à trois between the heroine, the hero and, well, the second hero. You can refer to the plot outline, so you’ll know how Valerie intends to introduce the second hero and create the circumstances that lead up to this love scene. Of course, once you have the experience yourself, you’ll be able to write firsthand about it, emotions, actions and all. At this point, she can only surmise—” “Wait a second, what did you say?” Kayla’s listening had stopped at the words have the experience yourself. Everything after that sounded like the wha-wha-wha of Charlie Brown’s grown-ups. In other words, verbal blobs. “At this point, she can only surmise how the story would end.” The sudden tension in Lauren’s voice showed her determination to finish her phrase. Kayla blinked. “No, not that part. The first part.” Understanding flickered across Lauren’s face. “Oh, you meant the part about ‘once you have the experience yourself’. Am I correct?” Kayla nodded slowly. Lauren furrowed her brow. “Don’t you remember? Ms. Martin has never written a scene that she has not experienced. It’s what makes her what she is as a romance writer.” She picked up her coffee mug from the desk and took a sip. “Which is why she’s my top client.” Which was why Kayla considered her prime achievement in the seven years since graduating college to be the very position she was in now. She scratched an imaginary itch on her cheek, wondering why she was so shocked. Lauren had already made clear to her Valerie Martin’s policy on writing from experience. Kayla had read all of her books and well, Martin’s scenes were powerful. Whether the hero was climbing a mountain or the heroine was giving the hero a shoulder rub, she brought the readers in as if they were actually there. Oh, yeah. She remembered why she was so shocked. A ménage à trois. With two men. Real experience. One Kayla did not already have. And she had to finish the book in less than a month. Hmm. She drew in a deep breath, suppressing the urge to ask Lauren in a tone of poignant sarcasm where she would find two such men. Even if she’d had a boyfriend at this point in time, she could hardly imagine approaching him and asking about it. “What if… What if I were married, or something? I wouldn’t be able to…you know…” Lauren blinked, as if the possibility had never occurred to her. “Well, we would have to move to the next person on our list until we found someone who could do it.” She leaned forward in her chair. “Your card says you’re single. If there’s a problem, of course, we can’t ask you to do this.” Kayla’s heart lurched. The situation would have made her laugh hysterically had it not been about her career. She couldn’t let this opportunity just slide from her grasp, could she? She hoped one day not to have to work at the café and to be able to make her living from writing. Lauren was offering her an easy way out, if she felt she couldn’t provide the experience. Her mind pawed through the possibilities. She could lie. She could use the best of her imagination and make up a scene, right? After all, she wasn’t exactly a virgin, even if her last s****l experience was…well…a really long time ago. Two years and three months, but who was counting? She chewed on her lower lip. Bad idea. What if they found out she’d lied? What if the scene just didn’t pass muster, authenticity-wise? What a disaster that would be, both for Valerie Martin and for herself! Plus, in addition to having alienated a major star in the publishing world and getting herself blacklisted in the romance industry, she would have to live with knowing she’d been deceptive. Reality check. Lauren was talking about making love with two men at the same time, not sacrificing her firstborn. How bad could it be? Like choosing between eating pizza or ice cream, she imagined. Either way, it was delicious. In spite of the tension of the moment, her body began to respond to the possibility. Heat tingled in the crevice between her thighs. She cleared her throat, her decision made. “No. There’s no problem. I’m honored to have this opportunity.” Lauren nodded, all business and pushed a piece of paper forward on the surface of her desk. “All right. Sign this form. It says you agree to do this project, that all the details and circumstances have been clearly explained to you and that you understand all that’s expected of you. No surprises.” Kayla took the pen offered and scanned the paper. It explained all that Lauren had just said. She scrawled her signature and set the pen down, wiping her moist palm on her skirt. When Lauren had called her in this morning to discuss an opportunity, Kayla had never imagined what was in store. “Very good.” Lauren took back the paper and picked up her mug. She sipped and set it down. “You’ll just have to continue the physical descriptions of the characters. That much doesn’t need to be from actual life.” Kayla nodded. “I understand.” Her stomach tightened like a trebuchet being pulled back to fling a boulder. “Now, do you have any questions?” Lauren straightened her blazer, efficiently brushing off lint that Kayla couldn’t see. Kayla sighed. Of course she had questions. Like, for one, where would she find two willing guys to take part in her reality scene? Her question must have showed on her face, for Lauren cleared her throat and pulled what looked like a business card out of a desk drawer. When she looked at Kayla again, her face had softened. “Now, to the nuts and bolts. Here’s a card with a service. My agency is willing to cover the costs of hiring the necessary male persons for your…needs.” She slid the card across the desk blotter. “There’s no shame in it whatsoever.” Lauren smiled. “Suffer for your art, right?” Kayla stared at the card, barely registering the words Knight for a Night, Male Escorts printed in small letters. Hesitantly, she picked it up. “Thanks.” With her mind reeling the way it was, there really wasn’t anything else to say. “If you have any problems, concerns, questions, feel free to call me anytime. You can now use the direct line to my office.” That last statement brought home exactly the exalted status Kayla had just achieved. She nodded. “Thank you, I will.” All she knew was that she had to get home, sort out this whole thing and decide how to go about…suffering for her art. “Good. Oh and I forgot to tell you, once this is done and Valerie has recovered, she’s willing to give you a complete manuscript critique for free. And, well, I might just decide to represent your work, if that’s something you want.” Whoa! This was too wild. Kayla wondered briefly if she had actually woken up this morning on a different plane of existence. That is, one in which all dreams came true. If that were the case, she’d have to conjure up the courage somewhere inside herself to actually write her own manuscript. The ideas were there, churning in her imagination. However, there was this little…hump to get over first. She stifled a giggle at her bad inner pun. “Um, wow, thanks.” She stood up, balancing herself with a hand on the clunky, carved arm of the chair. “And check in with me at least once every few days to let me know your progress. As you know, this project is of utmost importance, both to Valerie and to Burlington.” Kayla nodded wordlessly, clutching her purse against her. She imagined that business card burning a hole right through the microsuede material. Once out of Lauren’s office, Kayla drew a deep breath. Waiting for the elevator, she sagged against the wall, her eyes closed. This shouldn’t be a big deal, she told herself several times in succession. After all, she’d had a couple of serious boyfriends. She had forayed into the world of adult sexuality. But somehow this seemed different. More erotic than the one-on-one thing. Highly…well…weird? And yet the prospect, now that she’d had a few minutes to get over the shock, did start her tingling in the desire department. The elevator door opened and she stepped in. A young blond man in a business suit smiled politely at her, then looked away, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. He carried a nice briefcase and had that attorney-fresh-out-of-law-school appearance, or something to that effect. She suppressed a nervous giggle. Tightening her hand around the shoulder strap of her purse, she hunched over a bit, reminding herself he couldn’t possibly know about the conversation she’d just had with Lauren Danner, literary agent. Geez, maybe if he did know, he’d be willing to help out. Kayla scolded herself silently and stepped out of the elevator as soon as the doors parted on the ground floor. Her only thought now was getting back to her apartment and sorting out her mess of thoughts and feelings over what had just happened. And what was about to happen. That is, when she found the willing partners she needed to help her…suffer for her art.