and the way his lips trembled when he spoke to her.
She’d thought he might kiss her under the moonlight. But he’d pulled away and left. She didn’t know how she felt about any of it.
She was ambivalent. Just like the heroine in her novel.
When it came to love, she could take it or leave it. Corey didn’t want drama in his life and neither did she. She’d have a little vacation on Fate Mountain then go back to her life in Seattle. Case closed.
She laid down on her bed, groaning. She closed her eyes and all she saw behind them was Corey. The pheromones were no joke. She couldn’t get him out of her mind or out from under her skin. Her whole body felt alive, and she couldn’t help thinking that they had some real chemistry between them. Not just the sex appeal, but something else. She’d genuinely liked him.
The rest of the night, she tried to enjoy her suite and the super comfortable bed she was sleeping in. When she woke in the morning, she resolved to put her attraction to Corey behind her. Maybe it was for the best. Right?
She’d spent the entire night tossing and turning, worried about all the things that were happening in her life. Her book. The stalker. And now her fated mate didn’t want anything to do with her. She just couldn’t relax.
When she pulled herself out of bed late in the morning, she was already dreading the day. She told herself she’d spend the first day of her vacation trying to catch up on work.
She passed her laptop on the way to the bathroom for a shower, knowing that a confusing mess was waiting for her. She groaned and patted the curly mat of hair that had formed on the back of her head.
She took a long shower, soaking under the rainwater showerhead. She stepped out of the shower and drank in the luxury that the lodge had to offer. The granite counters and tile floors added to the ambiance. She pulled on the fluffy bathrobe and wrapped a towel around her damp hair. After combing out the curls, she put on some basic makeup and got dressed.
She’d ordered room service for nine-thirty sharp and was ready for her day by the time it arrived. The server carted the tray into the room and set it up on the dining table.
Willow sat in front of her meal, drank her coffee, and nibbled on her toast. She already had her laptop open to the last place in her manuscript where the hero walked away from the heroine.
“Whatever, bro,” Willow typed. “You do you.”
She groaned and deleted the entire passage, reading over the last lines of dialogue.
“I’m not ready for this, Cleo. I don’t know if I’ll ever be.”
Willow stared at the dialogue.
“What the fudge is wrong with you, Felix? Why don’t you grow a pair?” Willow said to her hero.
But Willow knew her hero wouldn’t grow up until he was forced to do it by the heroine, and she wasn’t cooperating either. She loved her characters, and she knew they belonged together. They just wouldn’t cooperate, no matter what she did.
Willow tore apart her toast and shoved it in her mouth. She was beginning to wonder why anyone had ever read any of her books in the first place. She had to finish this manuscript. Her publishers were demanding it. She had to make it work. Too bad her brain was not on board.
She spent the rest of the day scrolling back through the previous chapters, editing typos and changing around sentence clauses. When she got up from her chair, she wasn’t any further along in her story.
She heard the sound of music coming from outside her dark window. She walked out onto the deck and looked out at a bonfire glowing on the large bricked patio below. People were dancing and laughing to the music.
The scent of barbeque wafted up to her. Willow looked down at her sweat suit. She’d have to change if she was going to go to that party. There were a lot of fun, sexy people down there.
Willow went to her closet and looked inside. She’d brought mostly practical clothes for her working holiday, but she’d also
Learning to Kill: Stories