“Twenty-four hours with no screaming fans. Let’s get something to eat, then you can catch up on some sleep.”
She jumped down from my truck, and I met her around thefront. “You really know how to show a girl a good time.”
I scoffed as I opened the café door. “It’s not my job to entertain you, Darling.”
“So you do it for free? How thoughtful.” She slid her sunglasses onto the top of her head and batted her eyes at me.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. This migraine in human form was funny. I was still smiling as we slid into a booth. “Oh, the man actually knows how to smile. I’ll have to add that to my character notes.”
I changed my smile to a scowl. “No character notes today. You need to take a break. Rule six.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Hayes, how are you?” Rose, who had been waiting tables at Pepper’s since I was a kid, stepped up to our table with a pot of coffee in one hand. “What can I get you, hunny?”
I let her fill my cup with hot black coffee and ordered the special.
“And who’s your pretty little friend?”
“Rose, this is my client and current headache, Luna.”
Rose bumped my shoulder with her hip. “Be nice to the lady. You aren’t too old to be taken over my knee, you know?”
Luna placed her order before bursting out laughing.
I waited for her to finish, which took longer than I’d imagined. When she finally settled down, she was taking deep cleansing breaths and wiping tears from her eyes.
“Are you done?”
“For now, the idea of that woman, who looks like everyone’s grandmother, kicking your ass for being rude is just hilarious.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, yeah, keep laughing, and I’ll take you over my knee.”
She froze with her drink halfway to her mouthand set it down without taking a sip.
I smirked at her expression. “Don’t act like you don’t love the idea of beingmanhandleda little.”
“You read some of my story, I take it,” she said, not a hint of embarrassment on her face.
I sipped my coffee, but that was enough of an answer.
“What did you think?”
“I think I shouldn’t have read it.”
She frowned. “Why not?”
“Because it’s giving me ideas that I can’t act on.”
She blushed now. “Oh.” She looked down at her hands. “I have those ideas too, you know, obviously. The inspiration for that scene is exactly what you think it is.”
My nostrils flared, and I set my cup down. “You shouldn’t write about me, Luna.”
“Kind of too late for that, don’t you think?”
“Nothing can happen. Putting it out there and thinking about it, it’s just torturing us both. When this week is over, you’ll go back to Canada or Vegas or wherever your next book is set, and I’ll move on to my next assignment.”
“What if my next book is set in Texas? Cowboy bodyguard series, remember?”
