THE CRITIC (5 page)

Then his hand hit on the discolored envelope and he knew what was in it. He opened it up and took out a sheet of paper surprised to see that Toreas Rose had apologized. Then he realized a second sheet was stuck to it. He read the second sheet and laughed out loud.  This was what Toreas Rose thought was an apology? He looked again at the first apology, knowing she’d written it after she’d written what she’d really wanted to say. He wondered what would happen when she realized she’d mailed it with the one she’d obviously intended to send.

Jared knew it, had known it all along.  The woman had guts.  He didn’t know what had happened to her when she was on the show, but she was anything but the wimp he had first pegged her for.

He looked at the note and laughed again.  The paper looked as if it had probably belonged to her grandmother.  It was that yellow with age, nothing like the flowery stationary the other writers had sent. There was no personal header, nothing. He much preferred the note he knew he wasn’t supposed to see versus the note that read,
“‘I’m sorry for my bad behavior.’”

He read her words on the second sheet of paper carefully.  She was actually telling him the whole thing was his fault, something none of the others had had the guts to do. He happened to look up and noticed that Derrick was eyeing him with a question in his eyes.

“Don’t worry.” Jared laughed again.  “I think this might continue to be fun.  Listen, do you have that letter from Becca Kamp, the chapter president?”

“Yeah, do you want it?”

“Turnabout’s fair play. Toreas Rose spoke to my boss, now I think I’ll speak to hers.”

As Derrick went off in search of the letter, Jared’s mind strayed once again to the soft, full, luscious lips that tasted like strawberries.

***

It was two days before Toreas realized her mistake. She was dumping her waste basket when she realized she didn’t see any yellowed note paper. She dumped the contents of the can on the floor and searched the trash frantically.
Oh no
, she thought.
Please, God, don’t let Jared read that note.

Toreas rubbed her hand across her head that was now hurting. There was no way Jared Stone had not read the note. She wondered why he hadn’t called her. She thought to call him and explain the note she’d not intended to send. Then she dismissed the thought. She didn’t want to talk to Jared; he would only ask her to come back on the show. To ask him not to show the note would mean she’d owe him a favor. She didn’t think it safe to be in Jared’s debt. She’d just have to wait for the shoe to drop, to see what he planned to do with the note.

Chapter
Four

There was excitement in the air.  Becca was ringing the bell for all she was worth and there was a secret smile on her face. 
Oh, oh
, Toreas thought.  The hairs on the back of her neck prickled.  Something about this meeting wasn’t right.

Becca had been bugging her for over a week, wanting to know if she’d received any response from her note of apology to Jared. Then suddenly without warning she’d dropped her attack.

“Ladies, take your seat.”

Becca was preening, tamping her hair down with the palm of her hand. 
That’s not like her,
Toreas thought.  Usually Becca contained her fiery hair with fancy barrettes.

No, there was something wrong.  Toreas sat back in her chair to wait for the bomb, the knots in her stomach her surefire signal that something was amiss, something big and coming soon.

“Ladies, we have a special guest tonight.”

Toreas watched as Becca paused for effect.  The knots were pulling tighter and when she looked down at her arm, the hairs were standing on end.

“I know this was not on our calendar but I’m sure this speaker will be able to help some of you with ideas you might be working on.”

Becca smiled then. “He’s very anxious to talk to our group and perhaps he can give us the male perspective on romance. Also, as an added treat, he’s in television and has agreed to allow us to pick his brain.  He also worked for several years in advertising and public relations. Please, let’s welcome…”

Toreas stared at Becca with horror. Then she turned quickly toward Liz, wondering if she knew.  She didn’t need to hear his name.  She knew who it was. Jared Stone.  Oh God, no.  Not here.  This was supposed to be her safe place.

“Now let’s welcome Jared Stone.”

When Becca started applauding, the door opened. Obviously the two of them had worked out that little signal beforehand.

Toreas attempted to clap.  It was the only polite thing to do, but she couldn’t.  How could Becca do such a thing to her?  Hadn’t she seen the polls in the papers?  The man had gotten the entire state involved in their feud; now he had been invited into her home, so to speak.

Toreas could hear the gasps of surprise, the quick intakes of breath.  Even she had to admit the man was handsome, but so what?

    They were behaving as though they had never seen a handsome man. My God, they frequently had various cover models come to their meetings, so there was nothing special about Jared Stone.  And if she didn’t look at him she could keep telling herself that.

Jared stood in the middle of the room smiling at the women, caressing each one in turn with his eyes, making each feel that he was there for her alone.

Toreas was doing her best to keep her eyes down on her open notepad.  She had to find something else to look at.

Jared’s voice was smooth and rough at the same time.  Toreas curled her toes inside her shoes and gripped her pen for all she was worth.  She didn’t want to look at him.

She heard him talking, laughing easily, and answering the women’s questions.  All the time she felt the heat rising in her face, reaching out toward him. She wanted to keep her head down but it was as though an invisible string was forcing her to look up into his eyes.

He was looking at her, and he was laughing at her. Though he was answering the women’s questions, it didn’t matter. She could tell he was laughing at her.

“Mr. Stone, could you tell us why you hate romance books so much if you haven’t read them?”

“Because they’re nonsense. There is hate at first sight, not love.” He smiled in Toreas’s direction. “I think if you kissed a woman the moment you met her, sparks would fly and she’d slug you. What do you think, Ms. Rose? Would you hit me if I kissed you?”

“Not if you had permission,” Toreas answered, feeling her skin warm with embarrassment.
Oh Lord
, she thought,
what in the world has gotten into me?
She chewed on her lip, knowing how Jared would take that.

“If I asked you for permission would you give it to me?”

“No,” Toreas said under her breath and began scribbling notes on her paper, wishing Jared would go away.

“Why not, Toreas? Isn’t this the stuff romance is made of? Isn’t this the stuff you write about?” He came and stood directly in front of her and grinned. “Shouldn’t you be writing this down?” He glanced at the paper in front of her. “Are you?”

Toreas covered her paper with her hand and glared at Jared.

“Mr. Stone, you haven’t answered the question. How do you know so much about romance if you don’t read it?”

Good. It was Liz.  Now the whole group would be able to rip him to shreds, something they had failed to accomplish on the show. Toreas settled into her seat and sat back to watch Jared squirm out of this one.

“Well,” he smiled a lazy smile then directed his gaze toward Toreas.  “Let me ask a question.  Ms. Rose, how do you conduct your research?”

It was an innocent enough question.  Heck, they’d had many sessions on just how to answer that very question but with the eyes of the entire group on her and Jared’s tawny gaze doing things to her that she shouldn’t even be thinking, she couldn’t answer.  She gripped her pen harder. Why was he intent on staying on her?

She refused to allow the silence to overtake her again.  She pried her lips apart with her tongue.  “The stories are fiction, Mr. Stone.  You figure it out.”

Kelle and Lauren glanced at her and she glanced back at them, knowing what they were thinking:
There she goes being nasty again.
  The carefree mood Jared had managed to bring into the room was seeping away and it was all her fault.

“Exactly my point, Ms. Rose. You can’t write about love and passion if you’ve never experienced it. You can’t write about characters falling in love at first glance unless it’s happened to you.”

“How do you know it hasn’t,” Toreas asked.

“Has it?” Jared smiled while Toreas squirmed. “I’m only trying to help you with your stories.” He laughed out loud when Toreas glared at him and rolled her eyes.

“Ms. Rose, I’ve read enough romance novels to know that when a strange man kisses a woman she generally kisses him back.”  He tilted his head, enjoying the blush that stole over her skin. Damn. This was even more intriguing. He'd never made a woman blush. He decided to press his advantage.

He stared into her eyes, holding her gaze, watching as she swallowed. He was making her nervous. He smiled gently when he saw her biting her lips, wishing his own lips were there to cushion the sharp edges of her teeth. He found he had to swallow  before he could continue. “Have you ever imagined yourself as a heroine in a romance novel, Ms. Rose?”

“Why would I imagine something like that?”

“If you could imagine it then maybe when a strange man kisses you, well, I’d say you’d know what to do. And hitting him wouldn’t be your first response. Participation in the kiss would be.”

It was time to wrap up his questioning of Toreas. Her eyes were as large as…Well, Jared had no comparisons. He’d never seen a woman open her eyes so wide. But she was looking as if she wanted to bolt. “I’m sorry for having kissed you without your permission, Ms. Rose. But I had really thought that writers experienced things they wrote about. I never meant to offend you.” He smiled. “I would be willing to kiss you again if you want. That is, if you want to use more than your imagination. If you want your stories to be believable, I have a suggestion. Maybe some field training would work wonders.”  He then had the nerve to turn to Liz and smile.

“Perhaps you’re right.  Maybe I have been rather harsh on you ladies. I’ve only skimmed a few hundred romance books and they all seemed pretty alike to me. Maybe yours are different, I don’t know. I guess it’s my fault for not taking you ladies up on your offer to read some of your work.  If you will forgive my oversight and my behavior, we can remedy that situation. Reading some of your work could help my perspective.”

The shuffle of bags being opened was almost deafening.  With his sexy smile and dimpled cheeks, he had managed to charm the women into forgetting that he was dissecting them a little at a time every day.

The women pooled their collection in the middle of the table.  Becca leaned toward Jared, actually wetting her lips with her tongue. Toreas couldn’t believe it. What was wrong with her friends? Had they taken leave of their senses?

“Mr. Stone.”

Toreas listened as Becca practically purred.

“We have an assortment here.  You can take them all or pick out a few.”

He straightened then. He had been leaning against one of the tables, half sitting, half standing, but when he stood erect and turned toward Becca, Toreas couldn’t take her eyes off the man’s lanky body.  God, he was tall.

“You ladies have all been so wonderful to me,” he turned and smiled at Toreas, “especially since we’ve been having this little disagreement.” 

Please God, no, just do this one little thing for me and I promise I’ll try and behave
. With a sinking feeling Toreas knew God wasn’t listening, because it was obvious to the entire room that the man was looking in her direction. She closed her eyes and wished for a hole to open up and swallow her. Jared laughed and the sound washed over her, forcing her to open her eyes and look at him.

“I’m as ready to put an end to this as you ladies are.  Anytime Ms. Rose wants to come back on the show, she and all of you have an open invitation. I promise, I’ll be on my best behavior. Now let me take at look at your books. I think it’s time I really read a romance.”

He began shuffling through the pile. “I want to read Ms. Rose’s book. Where is it?”

“I don’t have one there. I’m still working on it.”  Toreas felt her entire body blush.  She was embarrassed to admit to Jared that she was unpublished.

It was worse than saying she was sorry.  She felt naked and so very ashamed. She looked at the pile of books to avoid seeing him laughing at her. She would have to hit him, and this time she would do it right.

“Then I would like to read what you’re working on.  Maybe I could be of some help.”

He was standing in front of her again but luckily there was a six-foot table between them.

“No.”

“No?” Jared repeated. “Why not?  Just show me a few pages, something to give me an idea of where you’re coming from.”

He sat one hip on the table in front of her and stared.  She could feel her heart doing a double dance tap.  She wanted nothing more than to shove him off the table.

Maybe she did want something else.  Maybe she wanted him to grab her and kiss her again in that caveman fashion, the way he had done almost a month before.

But women didn’t want that anymore.  They didn’t want to be dominated by a male.  Neither did she.  Definitely not by this male.  Yet here she was having a hard time breathing.  The hairs on her arms were tickling her and her senses were on full alert.

Toreas pushed her chair back, away from the table.  She couldn’t continue to sit that close to him with his tight butt right there in front of her, begging to be touched.

“I don’t want you to read my work. It’s that simple.”

“You’re not still mad at me, are you?”  He looked around the room.  “Ladies, I’m sorry if there are any hard feelings, but you have to understand I have a job to bring in viewers any way I can.”

His voice was soft, beguiling, and Toreas herself was tempted to believe him as she listened to him.

“You’re in the same line of work,” Jared continued. “We’re all trying hard to make a living. If the public is on your side you’re hot.”

Toreas eyed her friends.  They were lapping up every word.   Who wouldn’t?  She felt her reserve starting to melt just a bit and realized she was no different from the others. She wanted to believe Jared Stone was not a monster, just a working stiff like them.

“Ms. Rose, if you’d come back on the show it would more than likely help your group.  You don’t even have to apologize.”  He smiled at her.

Toreas felt all eyes turn on her.  She refused to blush again. “I’ve already said I’m sorry.”

“Oh that, I have it right here.”  He held her yellowed envelope in his hand. “It’s…hmmm…interesting. Both sheets.”  He smiled at her then. “Would you like me to read one to the ladies?”

Heat flooded her cheeks and she knew very well that she was
blushing. She glared at Jared and the condemning note he held in his hand. So that was his game. He was threatening her and she was not going to take it. She should have known. Let him read the darn thing to the group. She’d never intended to send it anyway. She refused to allow him to blackmail her. She didn’t care now what he did.

“I wrote it to you but if you want to share, be my guest.”  Toreas smiled at him. “Go ahead, Mr. Stone. Read my note.”

Jared’s head dipped and he speared her with a look that sent shivers through her entire body.

“No, as you said, this was written to me. The words that are in here will remain between the two of us, our little secret. I promise. How’s that, Ms. Rose?”

Jared was beginning to enjoy this, maybe a little too much.  He had openly challenged Toreas and she hadn’t even flinched.