“I need to be honest, here.” He rakes a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure this book is gonna help me grow. I was expecting something a little more soft-core. I mean, the guy is screwing this chick, with blindfolds and spanking and stuff. Is that standard?” He shrugs. “It’s cool and all, but that’s not really what I need help with.”
“No shit.”
He turns to me. “Your advice didn’t work for me, Carrie—I read the book, but I’m not seeing the value there.”
“Well, obviously, if all you focus on are the sex scenes, then yeah.” I suppress a sigh. “I guess you missed all the stuff where the characters grow, their feelings develop—that kind of thing.”
He nods slowly. “Right! I’m such a dumbass. It looks like Idoneed your help with this, after all.”
I flick him the finger. “Burn in hell.”
“Personally, I loved it!” Eleanor interjects. “The way Dylan lures Samantha into his world like that…”
I tune out, glaring at Donovan’s profile. I’m so mad he actually had the balls to just barge on in here, when he doesn’t give a shit about our book club. All he wants is to push me over the edge.But why me?
“Especially chapter eleven,” Eleanor is saying. “I was expecting it to get all clichéd. Definitely didn’t see that twist coming.”
Lynn and Amanda nod eagerly.
Donovan flicks through the pages, a thoughtful hand pressed over his mouth.
“Wait a minute,” I start.
I grab his book—mybook—and flip to the middle, my eyes widening as I realize what he’s done.You can’t throttle him, Carrie. Not here, not now. There are witnesses!
“You have got to be kidding me.” I glance up at him. “You highlighted sections?”
“Yeah, I color-coded it—yellow for funny parts, pink when it starts heating up, blue—”
“Who the hell does that to someone else’s book?!”
Color-coding? He hasgotto be kidding me. I peer at the page. He’s gone pretty heavy on the pink.He was looking for sex scenes. No wonder it kept him up all night…
He frowns. “What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal?” I ruffle my ponytail and jab a finger at him with all the vehemence I can muster. “Consider yourselfofficiallybanned.”
He laughs—laughs—and suddenly I just want to slap him.
“Banned,” I repeat for good measure.
Lynn leans into him and whispers, “She doesn’t mean it.”
“Oh, she definitelydoes.He even dog-eared pages!” I gasp, blanching. “Ever heard of a little thing called respect?”
I swing the book at him. He destroyed it anyway—might as well sacrifice it to beat some sense into this jerk. Unfortunately, I fail tocause any meaningful injury, and he catches my weapon with insulting ease.
“Did Dylan feel authentic to you, Donovan?” Shelby asks, ignoring my tantrum.
“In the first half, I thought he was great. But I was disappointed when he fell in love with Sam overnight. That U-turn didn’t make sense to me.”
I snort.
“I totally agree.”
Same here, Shelby. But there’s no way I’m admitting that.
The next hour and a half seems to drag on and on. I can’t focus on the discussion; I’m too busy wondering what the hell a guy like Donovan Wolinski is doing in a place like this. Tracking me down is one thing—but I didn’t expect him to get so deep into the debate.
