All Chapters of HEAT BETWEEN THE LINES : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Emma stood outside the glass doors of Meridian Publishing, clutching her coffee like a lifeline and trying to convince herself she wasn't having a panic attack. The building's sleek lobby buzzed with its usual morning energy, but all she could think about was Jake Morrison's knowing smile and those four words that had haunted her all night: "This is going to be interesting."She'd barely slept, alternating between rehearsing professional explanations for yesterday's coffee shop encounter and imagining worst-case scenarios where Jake told everyone at Meridian that their bestselling romance author couldn't write a convincing love scene to save her life."Emma! There you are." Harold Morrison Jake's father, she now realized with horror approached with his familiar warm smile. At sixty-two, Harold had the gentle demeanor of a favorite professor, all wire-rimmed glasses and cardigans. Nothing like his sharp-edged son. "Ready for our meeting?""About that emergency..." Emma fell into step b

Emma arrived at the Meridian Publishing offices fifteen minutes early, clutching her coffee like a shield and trying to project the kind of confidence that came naturally to successful authors. Her meeting with Jake Morrison was scheduled for ten AM sharp, and despite her best efforts to remain calm, her palms were sweating inside her leather gloves. The receptionist directed her to Conference Room B on the fifteenth floor the same sterile space where publishing careers were made and broken with equal efficiency. Emma had been in this room before for contract negotiations and marketing meetings, but today it felt different. Today, it felt like an examination room where her professional competence would be dissected under fluorescent lights. Jake was already seated at the mahogany conference table when she arrived, surrounded by what appeared to be every manuscript she'd ever submitted to Meridian. Her novels were spread across the table like evidence in a literary crime scene, each o

Emma was pacing her apartment like a caged animal when Maya arrived with Thai takeout and a determined expression. It was eight PM, twelve hours before her first intensive editorial session with Jake, and Emma had managed to write exactly three sentences all of which she'd immediately deleted. "Okay," Maya announced, setting the food on Emma's coffee table with the authority of someone conducting an intervention. "We need to talk." "I can't do this, Maya." Emma gestured helplessly at her laptop, which sat open on her dining table like an accusation. "Jake wants me to rewrite my entire romantic arc with devastating emotional authenticity, and I can't even write a convincing paragraph about attraction." Maya opened the takeout containers methodically, the smell of pad thai filling Emma's small living room. "Em, sit down. Eat something. And tell me what's really going on." "What's really going on is that my editor has given me an impossible ultimatum, and I'm going to lose my publishi

Emma sat in the Meridian Publishing lobby at exactly 8:45 AM, clutching a coffee that had long gone cold and rehearsing the speech she'd practiced in front of her bathroom mirror for the past hour. Three days had passed since Marcus's phone call, three days since that devastating kiss with Jake, and three days since she'd fled his apartment like a woman running from her own feelings. Which, she admitted to herself, was exactly what she'd been doing. Maya had spent those three days alternately lecturing Emma about self sabotage and bringing her comfort food, but it was Maya's final words this morning that had driven Emma here: "Em, you can't let fear make every decision for the rest of your life. Sometimes you have to choose what you want over what feels safe." Emma checked her phone for the fifteenth time. 8:47 AM. Jake would be in his office by now, probably wondering why she'd been avoiding his calls and emails since Wednesday night. Probably assuming she'd decided their profess

Emma stared at her laptop screen in Jake's home office, the cursor blinking mockingly at the end of Chapter 4's latest revision. Three days had passed since their coffee shop encounter, and she'd rewritten the same scene seventeen times. Each attempt felt more forced than the last. The problem wasn't technical her prose was as polished as ever. The problem was that Jake's challenge echoed in her mind with every sentence: "Make me believe she's genuinely at risk of losing herself in what she feels for him." Emma rubbed her temples and reached for her wine glass. Jake had insisted she work at his apartment tonight, claiming his home office would provide fewer distractions than her Brooklyn place. What he hadn't mentioned was how distracting his presence would be, even when he was in the next room allegedly working on other manuscripts. "How's it going?" Jake appeared in the doorway, his tie loosened and sleeves rolled up. He looked like every fantasy Emma had ever had about sexy, in