I saw Lucy at just the wrong moment. I was still fuming from the way Sandra had just spoken to me. How dare she attempt to threaten me?

The kiss on my cheek had added insult to injury. Those cold lips of a woman who would clearly do anything for money, so different to Lucy, who didn’t have a clue how much I was worth. She was everything Sandra wasn't.

But as I walked away from Sandra and saw Lucy standing in the doorway, my phone rang. I had warned them not to ring me tonight unless it was urgent.

It was.

“Bill, it’s Malcolm.”

“What is it?”

“Are you somewhere you can talk?”

“Go ahead.”

“She’s persuaded him to start court proceedings. The guy just brought the forms in by hand. It looks like they’re going to try and fuck us over this.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“I’m going to try and set up a meeting for tomorrow or Sunday. Can you get to it?”

“I’m supposed to be at this conference. Can you handle it without me?”

“I can try but I need you to run through the strategy first. We have a few options I’ve put together but if we choose the wrong one, we risk-”

“I’ll come back. Where are you?”

“Still at the office. How long will you be?”

“A couple of hours if the pilot’s still on duty.”

“Thanks, Bill. Don’t worry, we’ll get out of this mess.”

“I hope so.”

I hung up. Lucy was gone. I thought about going after her but I decided against it. For one thing, I didn’t have time, for another, if I spent more than a minute with her, I wouldn’t be going back to London, I’d be staying here tonight and keeping her company. That would be fun but it wouldn’t help sort this mess out.

Could they have handled it without me? Maybe. But they didn’t know Sandra like I did. From how she’d just behaved, I already had the start of an idea about how to play this. I just needed to get the rest of them on board.

I wrote a note for Lucy and left it at reception. I’d talk to her on Monday, sort out the mess I’d made. Then we could start over again.

I wasn’t giving up on her, I just needed to deal with one thing at a time. She would have to wait because unless we stamped on this problem, she might not have a job in a couple of months, neither might half the company. Only solvency could bring in investment and without investment, we were bound to crumble.

I rang the pilot. He was at a guesthouse near the helicopter. He grumbled about flying back so late but a healthy bonus offer changed his mind and I was heading back for London half an hour later.

The office building had a helipad on top. Once we were down, I took the stairs to Malcolm’s office, finding him hunched over a pile of papers. Together we got to work.

We ended up arranging the meeting for Sunday. It wasn’t ideal, working through the weekend, but the deadline for Marty to submit was Friday and come the start of the working week, I either needed to pay him the extortionate amount in the contract and accept the clause that no other book could fill his slot in the calendar, a clause that would cost us an awful lot more than just his advance, or the alternative. Have another book ready to go.

I hadn’t had chance to seek out any books during the weekend but then I did receive an unexpected parcel halfway through Saturday. It had come from the woman I’d met at the conference. She had been stood to the side of the Herriot suite, looking in as if she was looking for someone.

We had got talking, not long before Sandra appeared. She had written a book, of course. It was unpublished, of course. But she had described the plot and I had to admit it at least had potential. So I’d given her my details and a courier had brought her manuscript through to me in the boardroom.

When we finally broke for the day a little after ten on Saturday night, I had two things. A vague hint of a plan for Sunday and a book to read.

I read it that night. It was long. It was good. Really good. Was I reading too much into it though. Was it my desperation for a hit that was making it seem better than it was? I needed a second opinion from someone I could trust.

I rang Ted, asking him if he’d give it a look. He said he’d call into the office the next morning and get it from me. That left me hoping he would agree. Because if he did, I had the perfect ace to throw into my hand when it came to dealing with Marty. If he didn’t? Well, don’t think that way.

Sunday came around. Ted arrived at the office ten minutes after me. “What’s it about?” he asked as I handed the manuscript over to him.

“Go in blind. I don’t want any preconceptions. Just come back to me with your honest opinion. Could it be a hit or am I going mad?”

“If it can, you might have just earned Snow Day a reprieve,” he replied. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I’m done. Are you ready for the meeting?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I sounded more confident than I felt. That was the important thing. Never let the doubts show.

“What about that girl you were gunning for?”

“Who? Lucy? That’s still up in the air.”

“You’re hiding something. What is it? Is she married?”

“I’ll tell you later. I need to focus on this for now.”

“Understood.” He headed off with the manuscript under his arm and I headed to the boardroom. Malcolm and the others were waiting for me.

When noon came around we were all sitting looking as serious as we could. Marty walked in with Sandra to his left and a guy in a suit to his right. He had to be their lawyer.

Malcolm nodded to the man I didn’t recognise. “Gone freelance, Derek?” he asked.

“Still sucking the corporate cock?” Derek replied.

Pleasantries out of the way, they sat down opposite us, Derek holding up the contract. “Shall we save some time and you just pay my client now?”

“That’s not happening,” I said, shaking my head.

“Which of you tried to claw the advance back out of my account?” Marty asked, glancing from one of us to the next.

Derek shushed him. “Let me handle this, Marty.” He turned back to me. “The advance is rightfully his. The severance is also his. Admit you screwed up the contract and pay him.”

“He owed us a book. He had until Friday to deliver. That was two days ago.”

“My client assures me the manuscript will be with you shortly.”

Malcolm coughed. “A deadline is a deadline, you know that, Derek.”

“Who tried to take my money?” Marty asked again, his voice higher.

“Interesting,” I said.

“What? What’s interesting?”

“How your relaxed, chilled attitude towards life vanishes when it affects your bank balance.”

“Screw you. Give me back my money.”

“It’s not your money, is it? It’s our money unless we have a book we can sell. Or shall we take it to court and let a judge decide?”

“There’s no need for that,” Sandra said, speaking for the first time, smiling sickly at me. “You know as well as I do that without a book lined up to fill Marty’s slot, you have no choice but to cut your losses on this one.”

“We have got a book lined up.”

“You have?” For the first time, the confidence had gone from her voice.

I nodded. “We have.”

“Might we be permitted to see a copy?” Derek asked.

“You’ve no right to take my slot!” Marty snapped.

I leaned back in my chair. “You should have worked a bit harder. We will of course forward a copy to your legal advisor, not to you.”

“Why? Don’t trust me?”

“No. Now unless there’s anything else, I think this meeting is over.”

Marty stood up, Sandra joined him, scowling at me. “You don’t have a book, do you? You’re just playing for time?”

I kept the poker face fixed until she was gone. Only then did I exhale and turn to the lawyers. “What have I done?”

“You’ve bluffed,” Gary said, closing his file. “I’m guessing.”

“Have you got a book lined up?” Malcolm asked.

“Maybe,” I said. “I just need to find out what someone else thinks first.”

I left them and headed out of the office. I needed to clear my head and there was only one place to go.

I sat on my bench by the river, thinking of last time I was here. Lucy had slid down that hill just behind me into the pond. That had been the day I’d seen her naked for the first time. Well, almost naked.

I thought about the conference. Was she still there? I tried to tell myself I didn’t care, that it didn’t matter, that I had more important things to think about.

But that hadn’t mattered on Friday night when I’d gone home to my empty bed, thinking about how it would look with her in it. Nor had it mattered on Saturday night when I’d again slept alone, something that never usually bothered me.

I dreamed of her that night. The two of us in the hotel room only this time there was no knock on the door, there was nothing stopping me from spanking her until her ass was burning red and she was screaming for me to let her go, screaming until my cock went into her mouth and cut off her complaints, choking her on my length.

I stared out at the river and tried not to think about her. It was impossible. She was hundreds of miles away and probably hating me by now. Or was she? Maybe the time apart would be enough to make her see how right I was.

There was only one way to find out how she felt about me after what had happened. I would speak to her at work tomorrow, go into her office and lay it all on the line. I wanted her to be my sub. I wanted her to admit the truth, that she wanted me to dominate her. It would be a simple enough choice. She would either agree to it or refuse. If she agreed, I got my way. If she refused?

I didn’t like to think of her refusing. No one had ever refused me before. I was always the one to turn down other people. That was the way it worked.

What was it about her? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her? It wasn’t just her body, exquisite though that was. There was something more to it, something I couldn’t put my finger on.

It bugged me, not knowing. I knew everything about people. Talk to her, that was my strength, persuasion. I could persuade her to start again, I could seduce her. There was no doubt about that. I could seduce anyone I wanted to and I wanted her.

Then I could get her into my bed, then she could scream as loudly as she wanted. Best of all, I could bury myself between her legs, taste her wetness, bring her to one earth shattering orgasm after another.

My phone rang just as I was picturing it. I swore out loud, hating the interruption of my daydream.

“What?” I asked, pressing the phone to my ear.

“Nice to speak to you too.”

“Sorry, Ted. How did you get on? What do you think?”

“I think it’s maybe the best book I’ve read in five years, maybe longer.”

“Really? It’s not just me?”

“Nope. Who wrote it?”

“Just someone I met at the convention.”

“Have you got the rights sorted?”

“No but I will. You’re certain it can replace Marty’s bullshit invisible book.”

“I’m not a publisher, Bill, I’m a reader. I’m also not a reader of romances but that was amazing, kept me going all night. Marie didn’t know what hit her. I gave it to her to read too, she loved it.”

“Rekindling marriages, that could be the tagline.”

So that was one problem solved. I had a book. I just had to get the writer to sign a contract, and not one Sandra had written. Lucy would need to draw it up as head of adult fiction. That gave me the perfect excuse to speak to her.

I headed home. Most people hated the start of the working week but as far as I was concerned, Monday couldn’t arrive fast enough.