Cravings

  “Another publisher? But we love our publisher . . .” Maeve said.

  Alice held up her hand. “Please, no whining, Maeve. I have a splitting headache,” she said, sitting back down in her chair. “This is business.”

  Maeve was intrigued by Alice’s reaction to Chef’s death. She was a mess. Maeve didn’t know they had been close at all.

  “Well, I’m sorry,” Maeve said. “But we already have a relationship there.”

  “Yes. But don’t for a moment imagine they would be interested in you or your projects if you weren’t selling so well. Bottom line. You’ve made them money. Do they think you can make them more without Chef? What might save your ass is that while we’ve not quite signed off on the contracts, your sponsors have. Airlines. Hotels. Embassies. Food companies. And so on. Done deal for them. So it will take some time for them to round up the general consensus.”

  “And in the meantime?” Jackson said.

  Alice bit her lip. “My suggestion is we proceed with our plans. We have meetings set up over the next few days with travel consultants, embassies, and so on. Let’s keep on it, until we hear otherwise. And show up for the meetings,” she said, looking directly at Jackson, who raised his eyebrows and looked at a smirking Maeve.

  Maeve had never been so glad to leave Alice’s office in her life. Between the news of Paul’s death and Alice’s reaction to it, the awry book deal, and her sexy-but-pain-in-the-ass partner, she felt as if she’d been through some kind of intense therapy. So now they were proceeding with their plans, but they were constantly fluctuating. And that drove Maeve a bit bonkers.

  Also, now that they were proceeding, she and Jackson were getting different “aphrodisiacs” shipped to them to start things off. Saffron was supposed to arrive in Jackson’s mail tomorrow and they would try it out together at her place, which presented problems. It wasn’t as if she thought the saffron would make her get all horny and lose her mind over Jackson. It was that she thought she did not need an aphrodisiac to get horny over Jackson. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but he was just the kind of guy she liked to have in her life—successful, gorgeous, and wanting only sex. That’s why she liked Mark. It was never complicated with him. He didn’t get possessive at all—and that’s exactly how she liked it. Who said all women were after a wedding ring? She certainly wasn’t. In fact, the whole idea of marriage scared and annoyed her—because every woman she’d known who’d gotten married had slipped into a backward drive when it came to her career. Not for her.

  When Maeve slid her key into her apartment doorknob, it opened too quickly. There was no click. No struggle to get the damned thing open. Had she forgotten to lock it? She opened the door slowly, an eerie feeling coming over her. Damn, the apartment was cold. One sweeping eye search of her tiny studio apartment told her there was nothing amiss—except the window was wide open. Odd. She didn’t remember opening it that morning, though she sometimes did, especially when she was cooking.

  Her phone rang. She turned to reach for it, finding it wasn’t in the cradle. Had she left it in the bathroom again? It rang again. No. It was in the kitchenette, next to the stove.

  “Hello,” she said into the phone.

  Nothing but silence. And tonight, the silence sent shivers through her.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  LIZ EVERLY is a passionate cook, writer, and traveler. While home in Charlottesville, Virginia, she gardens, reads, cooks, and tends her children and a multitude of pets. Exploring food and romance in Saffron Nights, Liz combines her lifelong love of action-packed romance with her culinary expertise.

  Liz loves to interact with readers. Please follow her on Twitter

  @LizEverly1, check out her website at www.lizeverly@wordpress.com . You can also find her on Facebook.

  eKENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2013 Liz Everly

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  eKENSINGTON and the k logo are Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  First Electronic Edition: November 2013

  ISBN: 978-1-6018-3011-1

  ISBN-13: 978-1-60183-134-7

  ISBN -10: 1-60183-134-X