“Well, I’m bored, so tell me,” I whispered back throatily. He put his mouth close to my ear again, and his warm breath made me shiver as he continued lightly tracing paths of hot and cool sensation up and down my spine.
“I’ll start by undressing you slowly, until I can see and touch and taste every inch of you. Then I’ll lay you down on the bed. I’ve imagined so many times how beautiful you’ll look lying there waiting for me.”
“Okay, don’t tell me,” I said, swallowing hard and feeling my skin becoming flushed.
Tony raised his glass and toasted all of the authors who ‘got Roxanne hot and kept them up all night.’ How sweet.
“I’ll bet you didn’t know I got Roxanne hot,” I joked, nervously.
“Roxanne and I have something in common,” he replied in a sultry voice that almost melted my pretty little black lace panties.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to keep you up all night too,” I said with a flirtatious smile.
“I hope you don’t have to walk anywhere tomorrow,” he teased and I felt dizzy.
“I was planning just to stay in bed,” I teased back. Being Lilah Alden was a hell of a lot of fun, incidentally. Sexy flirting was something Lily Adler, law librarian, didn’t get to do all that much. “Did you say your ribs were sensitive?” I slid my hand under his jacket and dragged my fingers along his side.
“Ah! Yes,” he said, taking a deep breath and gently removing my hand. “Okay, I promise that later you can touch me anywhere you want, but for right now let’s not cause me to get into an embarrassing state.”
We were invited to go and find our tables at that point. I saw that someone had made a place card with my author name and the cover to my latest book Touch. At this party, the fans would be bringing their own copies. I just had to sit and sign them. Adam and I went over and took a seat at my table as the doors were opened to the readers.
For the next hour I greeted people, smiled, and signed books. The atmosphere got much less Transylvania-like as the room filled up. Frankly, I was surprised by how many people came to my table. It still didn’t quite sink in that I had actual fans. Adam, of course, couldn’t just sit there and be quiet.
“Would you mind if I asked you a question, Ms. Alden?” one reader asked hesitantly. She and her friend looked like they were in their early twenties, and they both seemed kind of shy.
“Not at all, go right ahead.”
“Well, it’s kind of embarrassing.,” she glanced quickly at Adam and blushed, “but we were wondering, do you actually research the erotic stuff, or do you just make it up?” She giggled a little and blushed even more, glancing at her friend who looked just as uncomfortably curious. Before I could answer, Adam jumped in.
“I’m Ms. Alden’s research assistant, and I can assure you that hours and hours of in-depth study go into the making of each and every erotic scene in her books. We spare no detail. For example, every sexual position is thoroughly tested and approved for such factors as balance, flexibility, and pleasure potential.”
I kicked him under the table as my shy fans looked at each other and giggled hysterically, both turning a shade sort of resembling puce. That was just the beginning, though. Ten minutes later, a crowd was gathered around my table.
“Yeah, the shower scenes are really tricky. You have to make sure that you have the positioning just right, or you could be injured,” he explained to the ten women or so, who were listening raptly as I sat there, caught between being amused and pissed off. “And you know, it’s hard for her to get the details down, because obviously, you can’t have electronics in there, and the paper gets wet, you know?” I rolled my eyes.
“You’re such a bullshitter.” I laughed when there was finally a lull at what had become the most popular table in the place.
“Hey, I fully intend to help you make sure that all of the sexual details in your books are accurate. It’s the least I can do.”
“How kind of you.”
“I can see how important your books are to you by how you light up when you talk about them.” His comment took me by surprise and I was even more pleased when he reached out and took my hand, gently rubbing it with his thumb.
“I love writing. It’s one of the most important things in the world to me. You were an English major in college, weren’t you?” I looked up at him through my lashes, feeling almost bashful myself for a moment, although I’m not really sure why.
“Yeah, I figured I spoke it pretty well,” he joked.
“Quote something you like for me and I’ll see if I can guess what it’s from.”
He looked up for a minute and I could see he was thinking. Then he looked back at me and stared deeply into my eyes.
“Here I am back and still smoldering with passion, like wine smoking. Not a passion any longer for flesh, but a complete hunger for you, a devouring hunger,” he said without hesitation.
“Letter from Henry Miller to Anais Nin,” I said, feeling a lump form in my throat. Even though I knew Adam was a lot deeper than he let on, it always surprised me when he let me see it. Just then Tony and Roxanne made their way to our table.
“Ms. Alden, I’m huge fan,” Roxanne gushed. Up close I could see she was probably in her mid to late thirties, but her make-up was very skillfully applied, so you would never know it if you just glanced at her. I noticed because she was staring at me intently. Actually, she was staring so intently it was kind of making me uncomfortable. I tried to make conversation so I would feel less awkward.
“Did you have a favorite book of mine?”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly, looking excited. “I liked your second book, Fire. The one where the girl in her twenties is seduced by the older woman.” She gave me a significant look. I had to wonder … nah … she was a gangster’s moll. The gangster in question was busy checking out one of the waitresses.
“Fire, huh? What a shocker,” I muttered. “I could mail you a signed copy of …”
“I have it at my place. Maybe you could come by sometime,” she said in a husky voice and ran her tongue over her lips suggestively. Uh huh. Alrighty then.
“Well, uh, I don’t know if that would be possible, but I could send you another one if you want to, um, give me your address.” I had no intention of stopping by, but I would send her a signed copy. What the hell. No pun intended.