The Muse (15 page)

“Please don’t mistake my concern over your deadline with a desire to control your romantic life.” Erato put her hand on Kate’s knee before sliding it higher up her thigh. “You will have time for a great love affair in your life—
after
you finish this book.”

“Honestly, I’m not looking for some epic romance right now.” That was true enough, though she wouldn’t be devastated if she happened to find one. “I was just so inspired by our threesome with Olive, and when I ran into her today, it seemed like the universe was sending me some kind of sign. I can’t tell you how free and open I felt after our last time together. The words poured out of me like I was possessed. I guess I wondered if lightning might strike twice or if the first time was a fluke.” She paused, feigning a casualness she didn’t really feel. “Maybe it’s better to always wonder.”

Erato sighed. “Fine. Give me thirteen thousand more words, and we’ll talk about trying to arrange a playdate.”

Caught between the urge to clap in relief and groan at her new word-count goal, Kate opted to simply act casual. “I can do that.”

“I know you can.” The hand on her thigh slid higher still. “Does this mean you’re ready to go home and get back to work?”

Kate snorted. “Like I said before, you were right.” The drive had been a
really
good idea.

The new incentive worked its intended magic, as Kate went home and immediately sat down to write like a woman on a mission. Whatever thoughts she’d entertained of sharing a nice, leisurely lunch with Erato followed by raunchy sex vanished at the prospect of being able to ask Olive on another date. With only the slightly daunting word-count goal standing between her and the chance to recreate the single best sexual experience of her life, she had no problem dedicating all her energy to Rose, Molly, and their path to happily-ever-after.

Luckily, she’d left the story at a fairly crucial moment. Rose and Molly understood the complicated nature of their relationship, and although they’d tried to break up, they had just discovered that their undeniable chemistry wouldn’t make that so easy. Now it was time to show Rose being persistent about staying in Molly’s life and lay the groundwork for the story arc in which Rose repairs her strained relationship with her mother. Although she wasn’t entirely sure what the source of their familial tension was yet, she couldn’t let that hang her up. Not with Erato’s blessing for another date with Olive on the line. No, she would simply start writing and see where the scene and the characters took her. She had a feeling she would uncover the source of the challenging parent-child relationship as soon as Rose and her mother started talking.

Hours later, she was deep into a conversation between Rose and her mother—and nearly three thousand words closer to her goal—when her cell phone buzzed with an incoming message. At first she ignored it, determined not to become distracted, but then it occurred to her that not only did she have Olive’s number, Olive also had hers. The rest of the sentence she’d been composing in her mind vanished, the spell broken completely. Picking up the phone, she checked the display and then wiggled happily in her chair.

You looked beautiful today, too.

Glad that nobody was around to see her stupid grin, Kate leaned back and tried to decide how to reply to Olive’s flirtation. She could either keep things on a purely sexual level, as she’d assured Erato she would, or tread more lightly to leave room for the possibility of more. She wished she knew what Olive wanted. The night they’d spent together was meant to be a one-time thing—and it wasn’t as though she honestly had time for more than that, anyway. Her writing career was undeniably important to her, and now that it was finally back on track, it would be foolish to do anything to derail it again.

Playing it safe, Kate typed back.

Sorry we ambushed you in front of your father. I hope it wasn’t too awkward.

She stared at the ceiling and rotated her chair back and forth while she waited for a response. Incentive or not, at the moment, thoughts of Molly and Rose were firmly out of reach. She was entirely occupied with wondering what Olive might say. Tapping her foot impatiently, she let her gaze wander over her desk until it landed on the brown paper bag next to her monitor. The strawberry-rhubarb muffin. She snatched it up, taking her first bite just as her phone signaled another incoming text.

As much as she was anticipating the reply that awaited her, Kate went still and paid attention to the symphony of flavor playing out inside her mouth. The muffin was blissful. No other adjective did a better job of describing the way eating it made Kate feel. She took another bite—moaning at the exquisite tartness of the rhubarb, the sweetness of the strawberry—then grabbed her phone, already mentally composing the praises she planned to sing.

Olive’s reply made her smile.

I think it was mostly just awkward in my head. Dad said that you’re very pretty and wondered if I planned to ask you out. If he only knew…

So that meant Olive was open about her sexuality. Good. Kate shook her head to clear away the thought as soon as it occurred. It didn’t matter if Olive was out of the closet or not. The sex was incredible.
That
was what mattered. Anything else was just a distraction as long as her book remained unfinished. Determined to steer their conversation onto safer, more casual ground, Kate typed out a saucy response.

Knew what? That today wasn’t the first time I sampled your muffin?

The reply came quickly.

Scandal!

Kate laughed out loud, then typed again.

In all seriousness, your strawberry-rhubarb creation is the second best thing to happen to me today. You’re incredibly talented.

It took Olive a couple minutes to send a response.

Thank you. Is it lame to hope I also had something to do with the first best thing?

Her heart beat a little faster as she typed and retyped her next sentence a handful of times before gathering the courage to hit send.

You ARE the first best thing.

A soft knock on the office door startled Kate so badly she yelped and sent her phone clattering onto the floor. Scrambling to pick it up, she called out, “Come in!”

Erato opened the door partway, suspicion written all over her beautiful face. “Am I interrupting?”

Kate tossed her phone onto the desk, feigning carelessness, and shoved the rest of the muffin back into the paper bag. “Not at all. Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine. Are you writing?”

Kate tried not to let any of her instinctive defensiveness seep into her tone. “Yes.” Remembering that Erato had clearly seen that she hadn’t been pounding away at her keyboard, she amended her statement. “Well, I was, but I took a moment to try some of the muffin I bought from the farmers’ market. Would you like a bite? It’s delicious.”

Erato smiled. “Sure.” She swept into the room breezily, crossing to sit on Kate’s lap. “How’s it coming?”

“Great.” That wasn’t a lie, at least. “I’ve written about three thousand words, and the conflict between Rose and her mother is starting to come together in my head. Dear old mom is a bit homophobic.”

“Discovering that her favorite caregiver also loves the ladies will be a shock, then.”

Kate didn’t bother suppressing her evil grin. “Oh, yes. Especially the way I plan to write the discovery.”

“Excellent.” Erato kissed her on the temple, then reached inside the paper bag to break off a chunk of muffin. She took a bite, then closed her eyes, wiggling on Kate’s lap in a way that made it clear that she appreciated Olive’s baking prowess every bit as much as Kate did. “Oh, this
is
yummy.” She paused to chew and swallow, then opened her eyes to stare directly into Kate’s. “Olive really is something special, isn’t she?”

Afraid she was being tested, Kate said, “She makes a kick-ass muffin.”

Erato arched an eyebrow just as Kate’s cell phone buzzed twice, vibrating obnoxiously against the wooden surface of the desk. “Texting someone?”

The question sent her heart crashing into her stomach—or at least that’s how her writer’s mind tried to put her sinking dread into words. She’d employed similar turns of phrase more than once to describe characters in tense situations, but before that moment, she’d never personally experienced the sensation so keenly. It was unpleasant, to say the least. She felt caught. By whom, she wasn’t sure. Her girlfriend? Her writing coach?

She considered lying only briefly. That suggested she’d been doing something wrong. She wasn’t positive she had. Perhaps more importantly, to lie would be to confirm that Erato possessed some level of authority over her—which simply wasn’t true. No matter how helpful she’d been, or how much she’d done for her writing career, Erato wasn’t in charge of her life and had no real say in how she spent her time.

Besides, she reminded herself, Erato seemed to be able to read minds. Or at the very least, to read people. If she lied, Erato would most likely see right through her. So Kate nodded. “Olive gave me her number so I could text her my review of the muffin. It’s a new recipe and she wanted feedback.”

“Ah,” Erato murmured, and kissed Kate softly on the lips. “Let me guess, five stars?”

Kate smiled and kissed Erato back, struck anew by the softness of her lips and the happiness and creativity she brought with her every time she entered the room. The well-being she felt with Erato was
almost
enough to distract her from the fact that she had an unread message and that Olive was waiting for a reply. “Of course. Well deserved, don’t you think?”

“Absolutely.” Erato pulled back, and Kate realized that somehow she’d managed to grab the cell phone off the desk without her noticing. “In fact, I think I’ll send my own review.”

Kate forced herself not to react as Erato lowered her eyes to the screen and silently read their brief conversation. After a moment, Erato began typing a message of her own. Panicked, Kate craned her neck to read Olive’s most recent text, but Erato angled the screen away and pinned her with a disapproving frown. “Kate, do you want to finish this book?”

“Of course I do.” She tried not to lash out at such a ridiculous question. Of
course
she did. Finishing this book was integral to her career—not to mention her ability to pay her bills. If she
didn’t
finish this book, she would be forced to return to her full-time job. Writing would become even more difficult than it already was. And even if it didn’t always feel like it, she
loved
writing. So yes,
of course
she wanted to finish the goddamn book. “Erato, I wrote over three thousand words before taking a five-minute break to text Olive back after
she
texted
me
. You can’t possibly fault me for that
or
suggest that it indicates a lack of motivation.”

“I didn’t suggest that you lacked motivation.” Upon seeing Kate’s gaze drift again to the cell phone’s display, Erato turned it to rest facedown on her thigh. “I asked if you wanted to finish this book.”

“You know I do.”

Erato studied her for an uncomfortably long time before finally nodding. She dangled the phone between their faces, forcing Kate to summon all her willpower not to snatch it back. “Kate,
this
is a distraction. We both know it’s true, so please don’t pretend otherwise.”

She
did
know it was true. And she
did
want to finish the book. Still, the thought of having her phone taken away—or worse, having Erato text Olive and tell her to fuck off—made her feel desolate. Bereft. Her desire to be with Olive again had already produced three thousand words she probably wouldn’t have otherwise written, and she’d been confident that the next ten thousand would come just as quickly. If texting breaks spooked Erato into canceling the deal they’d struck, she was happy to lay off them. For now.

“All right, you win.” Kate put on her bravest smile, hoping Erato couldn’t sense how shaken she felt at the thought of jeopardizing whatever this thing was with Olive. “No more texting. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to get a head start on my reward. She really did ask me to send feedback on the muffin, so I thought I owed her that much. And she
did
text me first.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Erato looked at the phone’s display. “She wants to know if she can see you again.”

Kate battled the urge to react to the revelation with the joy it naturally provoked. “How about I tell her that I need to isolate myself completely until I write ten thousand more words? Then we can set up a date.”

Setting the phone down on the desk, Erato brought both hands up to cradle Kate’s face. She stared at her soberly. “Kate, why don’t we find some other way to reward you when you reach this goal? If you want another threesome, we can find a new girl. Hell, I could
hire
someone—a professional who will do
whatever
you want. Or
I
could do whatever you want.”

Kate’s stomach churned at the prospect of having the reward that had been dangled in front of her suddenly taken away. “We made an agreement, didn’t we? Why can’t we just stick to what we originally decided?”

Erato looked pointedly at the phone. “Because
this
wasn’t part of our arrangement. I can’t knowingly allow you to waste any more time, my darling. You’ve got less than six weeks left to deliver this manuscript to your publisher. It may be only a ten-minute break today, but believe me when I say it will quickly spiral out of control. Even if I take your phone away, I’m afraid thoughts of Miss Olive will hijack your creative energy. We can’t have that. Not at this point.”

Kate shook her head. “Won’t happen,” she said forcefully. “Let me prove you wrong. Our arrangement stands. You take away my phone
after
I respond to Olive and let her know that I need to focus right now, and I write my next ten thousand words
with
thoughts of Olive providing my primary motivation.”

For a moment, she was afraid Erato would refuse, and she desperately didn’t want them to come to an impasse. Though it was within her power to ask Erato to leave, she didn’t even want to consider doing something so drastic. She wasn’t sure she could. She
loved
Erato, in a way, even having only just met her. The woman had improved Kate’s life immeasurably in the short time she’d been a part of it. Hell, if not for her, Kate probably wouldn’t have met Olive. Asking her devoted muse to leave so she could have the chance, however slim, to pursue a relationship with Olive wasn’t an easy trade-off to consider. On the other hand, forgetting Olive would be equally impossible. She didn’t know what about Olive so intrigued her, but ignoring their mutual attraction hardly seemed like an option.