Jasmine (11 page)

“Could be they’re making that up.
I’d call Drew when you’re done and see what he has to say. HBO may have
contacted the other lawyer with a date and he didn’t tell them you had fired
him.”

 She wrote it on the pad of paper
she always had on her. She tossed the paper on the counter as she dug into her
food. She was just eating the last sliced ham he’d fried for her when her phone
rang. Nathan answered it as he walked by it from the refrigerator.

“Yes, she’s here. I’m not sure,
but I can ask… No, that won’t be… Yes, I’m sure you are, but that doesn’t… Yes.
Hang on, let me find out.” He winked at her before he put the phone on mute. “You’re
going to be very popular, it seems. The ladies club at the library wants to
know if you’ll do them the honor of coming to their luncheon tomorrow. They
want to talk to you about your writing career.”

She groaned. “This is why I never
wanted anyone to find out. No, I don’t want to do lunch with those old biddies.
They wouldn’t even let me have a library card when I was a kid because my
father, and I quote, ‘wouldn’t have the money to pay for the books I wouldn’t
return.’ Like I was going to steal the books from them or something.” She
glared at him again when he laughed.

“Look, you knew this was going to
happen. You had to know that people were going to change their minds about how
they treated you. I have the same thing. Now that Alyssa and I are close, it
seems that everyone I partied with before now thinks I’m as rich as her. I’m
not.” He handed her the phone. “You can be famous and gracious or you can be
famous and a bitch. Up to you. I’ll love you either way.”

She felt her heart rate leap. They’d
sort of not talked about what he’d said to her in the restaurant yesterday. She
took the phone and stuck her tongue out at him.

She ended up agreeing to go. She
also agreed that she’d sign books that any of them wanted to bring in as well. The
phone rang as soon as she hung up. It was the bookstore in town. Could she see
her way to come in and do a book signing soon? They would have all her books on
display by the following Monday. Could she see her way to come in on Friday? She
had to go to her office and pull up her calendar to see. By the time she’d made
arrangements for that gig, her phone rang twice more while she was marking the
date. She let the first one go to voicemail and the second she answered.

“So you were going to call me
today and tell me, right?” Gracie said in way of greeting. “My own sister is
some famous smut writer and I have to read about it online. Shame on you for
not sharing.”

“Oh like you aren’t famous. And I
write. I don’t design these incredible clothes that actresses and queens beg
you for. Didn’t I see one of your creations on a Golden Globe winner a few
weeks back?’ Jazzie smiled when her sister snorted.

“So? You know I do that. I,
however, did not know about you. Why is that, I wonder? And it says in this
article that you and a certain man are fucking like bunnies.” Jazzie sat up
quickly in her chair and didn’t realize her sister was joking until she nearly
killed herself trying to find the paper. “So, you going to tell me about him or
do I have to read between the lines?”

She sighed. She and Gracie were
close. They being the only singles in their family, they’d bonded like none of
the others needed them to. Quinn and Cain had that special twin bond that was
freaky and Sin and Lilliane were identical twins that seemed to be able to read
each other without speaking. Gracie and she had had to rely on spoken words and
each other. They had protected each other as kids.

“It’s Nathan Howard, Alyssa’s
brother. And before you ask, I’m not giving you details about our sex life.” Jazzie
laughed at her sister’s cussing. “You’ll have to read about them in the next
books. He’s very good at sex.”

They talked for another ten
minutes before Jazzie had to go and see Nathan off. He’d cleaned up the kitchen
while she’d been busy on the phone. She enjoyed him holding her, enjoyed him
just being there.

“I was wondering if you’d like to
have dinner with me tonight?” he asked. “I want us to have more than just sex. Not
that I won’t molest you under the table, but we could also have something to
eat while we do it. Besides, it’s been a dream of mine to make you come in a
room full of people.”

She felt her pussy drench. When he
leaned in and took her mouth she moaned at his touch. This man could make her
go from zero to ninety in less than a heartbeat. He turned them around and
pressed her against the counter. He rocked into her and she moaned again. When
he pulled away she whimpered.

“You are making me hard, woman. What
the hell am I going to do to you to make you behave?”

“Fuck me?” she asked hopefully. “I
know you have to go to work, but know that I’m writing two scenes in two
different books today and I’m going to think of you when I do them. I love the
way your cock moves inside of me, Nathan.”

He growled at her and swatted her
ass. Who would have ever thought that something so painful could feel so
delicious? She walked him to the door and kissed him again before he went to
his car. She nearly had the door closed when he came back. She was pulled to
him so quickly that she nearly fell. His kiss was hungry and demanding and she
gave as much as he took.

“Come by the office. I want to lay
you over my desk and taste you. Then I want to take you hard and fast with the
door unlocked.” He kissed her again and, before she could speak, he was gone.

Her phone rang all day. She
finally had to turn the ringer off and send a text message to her family. She
told them if they needed her to call her cell phone, that she wasn’t taking
anymore calls. Drew texted her ten minutes later. And she called him right
back.

“HBO did contact the other
lawyer,” he informed her after he asked if she had time to talk for a bit. “I
have it cleared up now. And you will be meeting with them sometime tomorrow. By
the way, can you hook me up to your personal calendar so that we don't overlap
each other in schedules? Nathan was in my office and told me about the library
thing. Also, you’ll need to hire someone to answer phones for you. Got anyone
in mind?”

It was moving too fast. She’d gone
from weird sister to famous author in less than two days and her head was
spinning. She laid her head on her desk and took several deep breaths before
she answered, Drew’s concerned calling of her name. “I’m here. I’m not sure… What
would I ask of someone? And I don’t even have an office. I don’t even… Drew,
I’m freaking out here.” His laughter made her smile. “I’m a little overwhelmed
here.”

“I can hear that. How about I look
into an office for you? Alyssa has three buildings downtown and I could maybe
get one of the simple offices for you. You could go there once a week or have
whoever answers the phones to courier them to you. It would also be a great
place to have meetings like the one I’m setting up for HBO to come to.”

She marked her list of things to
do and wondered how the hell she was supposed to do all this and write. She
said as much to him.

“That’s why you need help. I’ll
get someone from our staff to fill in until you find someone. There are a few
contract things I’d like to ask you about before we go into this other deal.”

“I want you to meet my publisher. I
called her this morning and she is willing to meet you anytime.” She hit send
on her calendar that she’d made him administrator on. “You should have full
access to my events thing. Also, just set things up whenever you think, but not
on the dates that are in pink. Those are the days that I go to the shelter for
Alyssa.”

“Got it. Not very full, but I
expect that to change before long.” She groaned. He laughed. “I promise this
will get better.”

“I hope so because not having time
to write could make me very crazy. Just make sure that you don’t book me
anything too much. I’m not…I’m not a very good people person.”

He told her he’d take care of her.
Then he brought up her contacts with Chastity Midland of Midland World
Publishing. He asked her to send them to him so he could go over them. She told
him she was happy with Chastity, but he assured her that he only wanted to see
what they said. She sent them to him as well.

“Okay, darling. If you’re out and
about today, come by my office. I want you to see what the offices I have in
mind for you look like and then we’ll set you up with a couple of people
working here. You should be able to find someone, even if it’s only for the
short term.”

Chapter 11

Guinevere waited for Ginny to show
up the next morning. She’d had enough and wanted to know where the money had
come from and what she was planning to do with it. She had an idea that it was
for making her family pay, but there were things they could be doing with that
much money and it was just sitting under the mattress. Then she picked up the
paper again.

There was no way that her stupid
daughter could be the person they were making her out to be. The girl could
barely pay attention. How on earth did they think that she could string a bunch
of words together enough to make a story? And especially not the kind of story
that these people at the paper were saying that she wrote, whatever the hell
contemporary
romance
was.

It also said she had an office to
be opened soon in one of the Howard buildings. That money-grubbing whore was
supplying stupid Jasmine Zinnia with an office in one of her precious buildings,
but she couldn’t spare a bigger place for her mother-in-law? She needed to talk
with Cain. This had been going on long enough.

“I agree. What do you think we’ve
been working on now for the past three years? Do you think this has been a
blast for me to plan, all this while you sit back and be the good girl?” Guinevere
looked up in the reflection to see Ginny. “And going to talk to Cain will be a
total waste of your time. Let me go.”

“You’d only get him pissed again.
It was hard enough getting him to calm down after you went in to see about your
foot. He said you made a pass at him.” Guinevere had been mortified when Cain
had told her that he didn’t appreciate her acting like that and that if she did
anything like it again, he’d refuse to see her. “He was mad enough that he said
he’d cut us off. He told her that mothers did not act like that to their sons. He
was really pissed off. You have to leave him alone.” Ginny only snorted. Guinevere
held up the paper so she could see it. “Do you believe that this is Jasmine Zinnia?
I certainly don’t. The girl just managed to graduate high school for all her
daydreaming. And now they expect us to believe she’s this famous author. Not
fucking likely.”

“Maybe she has one of those ghost
writers. You know, this other person writes the stories and Jazzie takes all
the credit. I read about it in one of the magazines at the end of the rack. The
real writer sued the bitch for all her money and won. I think we should look
into that for the future. Could be you could claim to be the real author and we
could take more of her estate when she’s dead.”

Guinevere doubted that she’d be able
to pull it off, but didn’t say anything. She tossed one of the bags of money on
the floor and glared at Ginny. She was determined not to be the one who asked
questions, but have Ginny explain herself. The other woman simply glared back.

“You should know that I found it a
few days ago and hoped you’d explain it to me without me having to ask.” Ginny
still didn’t speak. “I don’t like that you’re withholding things from me. And I
want to know where you got all this money.”

The smile was scary. “From the whore,
of course. I found someone to help me at her office who is skimming big bucks
off her. The bitch doesn’t even have a clue that it’s happening. And when she
figures it out, she’ll think it’s that fucking drunk brother of hers. Never saw
a more useless person than him.” Ginny smiled again. “Of course it helps that
the person in Atlanta has more of a drug and drink problem than her fucktard
brother.”

Guinevere nodded, still not
understanding, but she didn’t want to appear stupid again. But she did wonder
how they were ending up with the money if the person at the other end of the
United States was stealing it. She was ready to ask when Ginny spoke again.

“The guy owes me a favor. And with
my connections I’ve been able to set him up with a higher grade coke than what
he can get on his own. Kinda like he scratches my back and I feed his habit.” Ginny
laughed again. “The brother, the druggy, lets the accounting department know
what he spends on that project that Whore gave him to play with and he keeps
all the receipts. Once he sends them to the Atlanta firm for processing, my boy
down there makes some…let’s call them creative, adjustments on them. Then he
sends me the difference.”

Guinevere was impressed. She told
Ginny so. She wished at times she could think things through like that,
something clever, but all she’d be able to do would be to get caught. But she
did have a question. “How are you cashing the checks? There has to be some way
for them to trace them back to you, right?” Ginny was shaking her head. “He surely
doesn’t send you cash, does he?”

“Yeah. He thinks if he sends me a
check I’d only have to save a copy to get his ass in trouble if something
happens. Thing is, he thinks he’s got me ‘cause of the post office box I use. They
aren’t going to find anything there because I have several of them. And each
one of them has someone who collects it and mails it to the next and then the
next until it’s been all over the place before it gets to me. He’s got no
clue.”

“So you have a post office box in
other places and they simply forward it on to you from there?” Ginny nodded. Guinevere
was impressed again, but didn’t say so. Giving Ginny a big head would be a
mistake. She’d only lord it over Guinevere for months how much smarter she was
than Guinevere and that just wouldn’t do.