Page 55 of His Reckoning

“It was a perfectly normal scene.”

“That woman had her mouth?—”

“Okay!” I interrupt quickly. “We don’t need to recap it.”

Sawyer exhales slowly. “I clearly misunderstood the genre.”

I try very hard not to laugh. “You thought romance novels were what?”

“Less … athletic.”

Now I am laughing. “Oh my God.”

“So, this is what you do for a living?”

“Yes.”

“You sit in my penthouse, writing scenes like that?”

I shrug. “Pretty much.”

Sawyer studies me for a moment.

He shakes his head. “I need to rethink several assumptions.”

“About what?”

“About you.”

That probably should concern me. Instead, it just makes me smile.

Sawyer leans back against the counter like he’s trying to regain control of the situation. I can practically see the gears turning in his head.

“So,” he says slowly, “you wrote this?”

I nod my head. “Yes.”

“And people buy it?”

“Quite a few people actually.”

His jaw tightens. He picks up the book that I just put back down like it’s a piece of evidence, then immediately sets it back down, like touching it might make things worse.

“I just want to be clear about something,” he says.

“Oh, this should be good.”

His eyes flick toward the page again before snapping back to me. “You researched this?”

I blink. “What?”

“The scene.” He waves loosely toward the book. “The … logistics seem very confident.”

I lean against the island across from him, folding my arms. “That’s because I’m good at my job.”

His mouth opens slightly, like he’s about to argue, but he closes it again. His fingers tap once against the counter. “You’re telling me you just … imagine it?”

“Pretty much.”