Free Starting from Scratch by Marie Ferrarella Page A

within. Leaning forward, he placed the book on her desk. “All right, here it is.”
    She eyed the offering, wondering if he expected her to bow down before it. “Your first draft?”
    â€œMy only draft.”
    Shivers raced down her back. They weren’t the kind she had once welcomed. These were meant to warn her and keep her alive.

CHAPTER 10
    I t wasn’t until well after lunch that Rocky ventured to stick first his head, then the rest of his lanky body, into her office. There was a hesitant expression on his face, as if he doubted the wisdom of even asking, but knew he had to.
    â€œSo.” The single word hung in the air as he eased the door closed behind him, never taking his eyes off her face. Or possibly it was her hands that he was watching warily. Milo had thrown something at him before tendering his resignation. “I didn’t hear any wild screams or robust cursing this morning. How did it go?”
    As soon as Ryan had left, Elisha had barricaded herself in her office, determined to read his book from first page to last. She had initially wanted to just get a flavor for what he had written, but editing was second nature to her and the pencil had found its way into her hand by the time she had gotten to page ten.
    She raised her eyes from the manuscript. “I’m surprised you had the nerve to show your face in my office.”
    Rocky frowned, looking mournful. “That bad, huh?”
    As far as first official meetings went, she’d had better. Any one of her first meetings had been better. Ryan Sutherland made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Working with him was going to be a challenge.
    â€œThe man doesn’t need an editor, Rocky, he needs a lion tamer. Ryan Sutherland gives new meaning to the word hubris. ” She realized she wasn’t saying anything new. Everyone who knew the man probably thought that. Except the bimbos he occasionally squired and only because they probably didn’t know the meaning of the word. She sighed, indicating the manuscript she was working on. “Too bad he’s talented as hell.”
    A spark entered Rocky’s brown eyes. “Is that his latest book?”
    Elisha nodded in response. “That’s it.”
    There was nothing but sheer admiration and gratitude in Rocky’s voice. She knew if the meeting had gone badly, Sutherland would have taken his manuscript back home with him, a bartering chip to be used in his demand for another editor. Rocky had to be congratulating himself for pairing them up.
    â€œWell, you got more out of him than Paula did, that’s for sure. When she asked to see the first few chapters, he refused to show them to her.”
    â€œBut she was his editor, not to mention probably his type.” The woman under discussion was tall, leggy and endowed. All the things she had once aspired to be herself, before things like that had taken on a lesser importance in deference to deadlines. And gravity.
    â€œI don’t know about his type, but he’d said something about her being more suited to parade around before the judges of a Miss America beauty contest than to touching, much less offering, a comment about one of his manuscripts.”
    Elisha sighed. “Sounds like the dear man.” She shook her head. “I’m surprised she didn’t threaten to sue him and Randolph & Sons for sexual harassment.”
    â€œShe wanted to,” he admitted, perching for a moment on the side of her desk like a sparrow ready to take flight at the first sign of danger. “And it was touch-and-go for a while. But I pulled a few strings and got her a job at Arlington Press—at slightly more pay. The executive editor there owes me a favor.”
    â€œAnd now you owe him one.”
    He shrugged, his thin shoulders rising and falling like a marionette whose strings had suddenly been pulled then dropped.
    â€œIt’s what makes the world go around.”