"I don't have a good reason for my burnout. You're exhausted from traveling the world to help people. I've just…published books."
"Come on, that's nothing but an excuse for not opening up." I hook my leg over his and tickle his ear with my lips. "Guess it's torture, then. The steamy kind that'll make you explode."
"All right, I surrender. I'll tell you my story."
Chapter Eight
Richard
Maddie is one hundred percent right, of course. I despise talking about myself, and I especially don't like admitting I'm knackered from years of working sixteen-hour days while trying to appease prima donnas and outright arseholes. Not all my clients are awful, but the few who are have made my life hell.
But Maddie has a point. I'm avoiding the inevitable. If I want to get to know her, I need to explain my life.
With a sigh, I resign myself to confessing. "My father started a publishing company before I was born. By the time I turned fifteen, Hunter Publishing had become one of the most successful small publishers in the UK. Five years after that, the company had gained international renown for producing some of the best nonfiction books on the market and for its growing list of bestsellers. Once Dad decided to branch out into fiction, the business took off."
"That's amazing. When did you start working there?"
"After university, I took a job as an intern at Hunter Publishing. My father insisted on it. He told me I needed to learn every aspect of the business and work my way up to taking over for him." I lay a hand on her thigh, where it drapes over mine, and use caressing her soft skin as an excuse not to speak for a moment. Or maybe I do that strictly because I love touching her. "When I was thirty-four, my father handed the company over to me. I wanted to make him proud, but instead, I ran it into the ground."
"What happened?"
I shrug one shoulder. With Maddie tucked against me, I can't shrug them both. "I was trying to bring the company into the twenty-first century. Dad liked to keep things as they were, as they'd always been. I had grand ideas about modernizing and attracting younger authors who might bring us a new audience to complement our existing customer base. So I courted a few celebrities."
Maddie wriggles her toes, tickling my leg. "Sounds exciting."
"Not really. Not for me. I've never thought of fame as being a great accomplishment in itself."
"True. But you were trying to promote your company, right?" She pokes me in the side, gently. "Come on, you have to tell me the rest."
"First, I signed an Olympic sprinter, Helmut Beyer. He had suffered an injury that nearly destroyed his career but came back from it to win the gold medal. Helmut also broke the world record for the most social media followers for an athlete."
"Sure, I remember that guy. He got on all the talk shows."
I watch the waves lapping against the shore for a few seconds before I summon the nerve to tell her the rest. "I paid Helmut a rather large advance, but the book was a smashing failure."
"Doesn't 'smashing' means something was really good? But you called it a failure."
"I was being ironic." I wince when I remember the outcome of my next attempt to bring my company into the new millennium. "After that, you'd think I would have learned my lesson about celebrities. But I didn't. I signed a reality TV star who had a massive fanbase. I suppose I assumed the Helmut Beyer disaster was a fluke, and that Danisha Davies would be different."
"But something went wrong."
"Her book was a number-one bestseller in the UK and the US, and the profits poured into Hunter Publishing."
Maddie smiles. "You saved the company."
Her smile makes me feel…completely undeserving of her praise.
She tips her head to the side, studying me. "Why do you say you ran your company into the ground? You had one flop, followed by a big success."
I laugh without any humor. "Yes, it sounds brilliant, doesn't it?"
"Why do you say that like it's not true?"
"Because it isn't." I rub my eyes and sigh. "I'm an idiot and an arse."
"You're neither one."
"Which you know after spending twenty-four hours with me."