Freelance Love (6 page)

Morgan, feeling the intimate invasion, felt her heart rate zoom
into the danger zone. She smelled the woodsy scent of Ian’s cologne, liking the
smell. She felt his arms go around her back, his hands roaming over her back,
hips, sides and under her breasts. Feeling the touches, she felt her desire for
him ratchet up.

Ian, feeling her ready response, leaned into Morgan, pushing her
back onto the sofa cushions. His legs tangled with hers as they continued to
kiss intimately.

Morgan’s arms went around Ian’s neck, bringing him even closer.
She followed her body’s instincts and allowed her tongue to tangle with his,
imitating the thrusts and parries of lovemaking. As her tongue played with his,
she felt his physical response – his penis began pressing hard into her thigh,
growing and pressing for her secret place. She moaned . . .

 . . . And jumped. What was that sound? She blushed, realizing
she had really moaned as her fantasy grew ever hotter. Blushing, she got up and
went to look at herself in her bathroom mirror. Wow! Her eyes were so . . .
bright and her cheeks were flushed.
Get
a grip on yourself, girl. He’s your editor, not your lover.
Repeating
this to herself, she turned the cold water and splashed it over her wrists.
Returning to her computer, she forced herself to focus on her work.

In his office, Ian was having similar difficulties. He kept
thinking of the next week’s editing meeting and his red pen slipped out of his
hand. Shaking his head, he got up and grabbed a bottle of chilled water,
scolding himself silently.
You
damned idiot, she’s a colleague, not your girlfriend.
Still, he found it
difficult to concentrate on the editing he had scheduled for the day. His thoughts
kept straying to Morgan – her large eyes, her shapely, petite form and her
long, pepper-and-salt hair. Finally, throwing his pen against the wall, he
swore under his breath, went to the bathroom and stripped down – for a long,
ice-cold shower.

Ian, feeling nervous, called Morgan.

“Hey, I’m just calling to set up our meeting for this week. I’m
free on Tuesday, any time between 9:30 and noon. What works for you?” Ian asked
Morgan.

“Let me check . . . okay, I have a meeting with two magazine
clients tomorrow and Wednesday, so Tuesday’s perfect. How about 9:30? I can
make breakfast.”

“Excellent. Remember - coffee cake,” said Ian softly. And,
preferably you, Morgan, dressed only in a sexy red teddy. I’d prefer to . . .
edit in your bedroom, on your bed. Once we’re done, I’ll start making hot love
to you.

“Uh, coffee cake, it is.” After hanging up, Morgan grimaced,
knowing she’d need to go through her cookbooks to find a streusel coffee cake
recipe. She decided that ham-and-cheese omelets would be a good choice, along
with strong coffee. She scribbled a note to herself to find a recipe and buy
the needed ingredients.

On Tuesday morning, Morgan got up earlier than usual and took a
little more care with her appearance than she normally did. In the kitchen, she
flipped her cookbook open to the recipe she had chosen and started working on
the coffee cake. One hour later, she sniffed in appreciation, knowing she had
made a good choice. She mixed the spices and brown sugar for the streusel
topping and set it aside. Straightening out her living room and kitchen, she
heard the timer ding. After checking the coffee cake, she placed it on a trivet
to cool down.

Ian drove up to Morgan’s house just before 9:30. Before getting
out of his car, he warned himself to behave around his star client. Running his
shaking fingers through his hair, he exhaled nervously.

Morgan heard the doorbell chime. Willing her heart to behave, she
opened the door and smiled brightly at her editor.

“Come in! Hope you’re hungry – I’m making omelets and the coffee
cake is ready. Would you like some coffee?”

“Yes, thanks. Do you need help in the kitchen?”

“No, thanks – I have it under control. Just need to add the
onions and ham to the omelet, then sprinkle it with cheese. I do hope you’re
hungry.”

Ian thought to himself that he was hungry for more than mere
food, then chastised himself for the wayward direction of his thoughts.

As they ate, they talked about their respective weeks. Morgan had
just learned that she was going to be getting additional monthly assignments
from, not only
Las
Cruces Lifestyles,
but  a second magazine client. She smiled happily at
Ian, knowing that her financial picture was slowly improving.

Ian reported that he had just landed two new editing clients, one
local.

“I’m charging the same as I charge you – $1.50 per page, and
they’re telling me that the shortest assignments I’ll be getting from them will
be about 300 pages! They’re sending me three articles a month, so that’s not
too shabby for an editor!”

Morgan gave Ian a quick high-five, then got up and served the
still-warm coffee cake.

“More coffee?”

“Please. Last night was a late night due to . . . distractions
and sleeplessness. I need the caffeine jolt,” Ian confessed, not wanting to
admit that the distractions came from his fantasies of him and Morgan in bed,
together. “Once we’ve finished in here, I’ll help you clean up, then we can
move to the living room to work.”

Morgan nodded, remembering that her fantasy had taken place in
the living room.

With the kitchen clean and dishes stacked in the dishwasher, the
two moved to Morgan’s sofa, where they began working on her current articles.
Ian questioned several of Morgan’s phrases and agreed with all but two of them.
As they discussed those phrases, Morgan agreed that they would sound better
using Ian’s wording, so she typed quick notes on her laptop. Finally, when they
had finished with the work, Ian took the laptop, closed it and placed it on the
coffee table. Turning to Morgan, he said, “We’ve really got to talk.”

“Oh? About . . .?”

“Us. We’ve been working together now since you became a
freelancer, and that entire time, I’ve felt an attraction to you.  I’ve tried
to ignore it, but I can’t any more. It’s getting stronger and stronger the more
and more I get to know of you, not only as a writer, but as a woman. I’d like
to pursue a relationship with you.”

“Oh!” Morgan got up, feeling restless. “Can I have some time to
think about this? I . . . think you’re attractive. That is, I find you
attractive, too, but I want to make sure that changing our personal
relationship won’t endanger our working relationship.”

Ian thought for a few minutes. Rubbing a forefinger against his
well-shaped lip, he nodded. “Fair enough. I need to go now, but first . . .”
Taking Morgan into his arms, he lowered his head to hers and kissed her gently
and sensuously. Morgan, feeling the touch of his soft lips on hers, realized
that the dream hadn’t come close to reality.
God,
he’s a good kisser!

Ian brought her back to her sofa, where they continued to kiss.
He lifted her to his lap, where she felt the clear evidence of his arousal
against her butt. Ian gently lowered her to the sofa cushion, where they
continued to kiss.

***

Morgan finally came to her senses and began to push against Ian’s
shoulders.

“Ian! I’m not ready to take it to the next level. She pushed
harder against Ian’s shoulders. “I’m sorry – I need to make sure this is the
right thing for me. I promise you, I’ll think about it, because I do find you
attractive.”
God, I
want to take you to my room right now!

Ian heard Morgan dimly through the roaring of the blood in his
hears. Feeling the palms of her hands against his shoulders, his mind put the
two messages together and he broke the kiss. Raising himself slightly, he
looked at Morgan.

“Okay. You said you’d think about an ‘us?’ I’m holding you to
that,” Ian said in a throaty growl, made lower by the desire he felt for this
woman. He stood and pulled Morgan to her feet. “Call me when you’re ready to
talk. And, while you’re thinking, keep this in mind – a romantic relationship
shouldn’t impact our ability to work together. We’re relatively sane and adult
freelancers,” said Ian with a devilish twinkle in his eyes.

Two hours later, Morgan had managed to get herself back to
normal, although her mind kept escaping and returning to their necking session
on her sofa. She sighed in frustration and grabbed a bottle of chilled tea from
her refrigerator. Drinking deeply, she gave herself a mental shake and
determined that she was going to return to her articles and either finish or
hit a specific word count. Sitting back down at her computer, she looked at her
article and immediately found several embarrassing mistakes. Printing the
document out, she redlined the mistakes and began making corrections.
Forty-five minutes later, she stopped writing and read what she had re-done.
Finding a few small errors, she corrected these. Finally, satisfied with the
first article, she saved it to her flash drive and moved to her second magazine
article. Just before she started typing, her cell phone rang. Looking at the
caller I.D. readout, she saw Rick Devins’ office number and grabbed the phone.

“Hello, Rick? How are you? Do you have an update?”

Rick laughed. “My daughter does the same thing to me! I’m fine and
yes, I have some potentially good news for you.”

Morgan blushed. “I’m sorry, Rick. I’m just so tired of John’s
shit. He approached me at The Shed this week while Ian and I were working on my
articles. Began harassing me. I was going to call you, but I got so busy.”

“Really? Did you call the police?”

“Yes, and two units responded. They took a report and one of the
officers talked to John. Told him that what he was doing counted as harassment.
I may need something that legally requires John to stay away from me.”

“Consider it done. I’ll have an order drafted and filed by week’s
end. Now, here’s my news – Mack is beginning to crumble. His approaching you
may have been one last gasp of bravado. He’s beginning to question everything
I’m telling him. He’s spoken to an attorney of his own, but hasn’t hired him –
I saw him at the courthouse when I was there on another case. They didn’t see
me, so I got a little closer and the gist of Mack’s questions, basically, were
whether you had a good case.”

“And?”

“The attorney he was talking to asked him several questions and
said that, yes, you do have an excellent case for defamation of character. Mack
asked him what that meant and what it could mean for him. The attorney told him
what defamation does to you, then said you have ‘several’ remedies available
that help you get your good reputation back. You should have seen Mack! If he
could have started crying, he would have.! He looked like a little boy who’d
just lost his favorite truck – his face got red, everything. I really had
to fight keep from laughing out loud,” said Rick with a smile in his voice.

“Wow! Did he hire that attorney?”

“You kidding me? If he’s looking for one, he’s shopping for one
who thinks
he
stands a good chance of winning! I’m just keeping an eye out for any
communications from any of my colleagues, saying they’re representing him. What
did you say to him at the restaurant?”

“He poo-pooed the lawsuit as being nothing, then went back to his
old refrain of, ‘What you’re doing isn’t work. You have to leave your house and
work somewhere for it to count. Then, he said something like, ‘If I’d just come
back to my senses, I’d have a guaranteed regular paycheck.’ Ian told him to
leave me alone, then the restaurant manager asked if we needed the police. They
were there ten minutes later.”

“Okay, good, you didn’t say anything.”

“Rick, I was too damn pissed. I would have said something that,
likely, would have gotten me arrested.”

“Okay, I’ll let you get back to work – and yes, what you’re doing
is work – now. I’ll get that order drafted and filed. If he wants to risk
arrest, he’ll ignore that order and contact you,” Rick predicted. “I’ll let you
know if Mack hires an attorney.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll let you go now,” Morgan said.

For the rest of the day, Morgan worked on her current
assignments. When she had gotten as far as she could, she stopped writing and
turned her attention to her new assignments, reading their scope. She emailed
Mia to let her know she’d have more work for her and suggested their next
meeting date.

Near the end of her workday, Morgan got another call from Rick.

“Hey, Rick, what’s up?”

“I’ve just received paperwork that indicates Mack has lawyered
up. He’s got a damn good attorney, too, but he’s going to have to work pretty
goddamn hard to disprove what you’ve said. I want to meet with you and go over
everything you have. I’ll also need to talk to all your clients – get a picture
of your character as a professional writer.”

“Wow. Okay, when would be convenient for you?”

“Actually, I do have several time slots, but I’d rather call your
clients myself, go talk to them and get this done. Would you be okay with
that?”

“Yes, definitely,” Morgan said.

“Okay, then, I’ll need the names and phone numbers of the
managing editors or whoever you worked most closely with.”

Morgan gave him all the information he needed. After they
disconnected their call, she thought for a few minutes. The news that John had
“lawyered up” was disquieting. After worrying about this news for several
minutes, she decided that the best thing she could do would be to allow Rick to
do his best work.

Morgan had managed, finally, to relax sufficiently that, after
her workday had ended, she was watching one of her favorite movies on DVD. The
movie, a romance, had her crying and wiping tears from her cheeks. She had just
swiped a tissue over her cheeks when her cell phone rang. Looking at the
number, she recognized Ian’s number. Feeling her heartbeat ratchet up, she
hesitated for a few seconds to pick the phone up. Finally, she decided the call
would do no harm – after all, it might be about business, she reasoned.