Don't Tell Eve Read Online Free PDF

out.’

    Unfortunately, as they edged towards David and Cheekbones, Eve did the same, only she didn’t edge. In a surprisingly swift and effective move, she kissed the agent – encountering actual flesh – mentioned doing lunch, and was gone before he’d finished his sentence, let alone his lecture.
    In engineering her vault across the room, Eve managed to ignore Roger, who quickly pretended he wasn’t planning to speak to her anyway and instead joined a gaggle of sleek publicists, who immediately fell silent.
    ‘Damn,’ said Zoë, realising they were too late. ‘How did she do that?’
    ‘Practice? Desperation? I’m sure she won’t be long.’
    The reason for Jess’s confidence was that Cheekbones was staring, bunny-caught-in-headlights, at Zoë. This reaction wasn’t entirely unexpected, since what Zoë had decided to wear to a casual after-work literary book launch was a skintight silver catsuit, zip undone almost to the navel. But somehow she managed to make dressing like an extra from Star Trek seem both fashionable and appropriate – even desirable.
    She winked at Cheekbones. ‘You’re right. Let’s stay. We might learn something.’

    ‘So,’ Eve was saying, drawing out the word and ending it in a w. ‘Who have we here?’
    David, alarmed by this sudden interest, began to explain. ‘Chris, Chris —’
    Jess immediately recognised the surname. He was indeed one of theirs, one of David’s to be precise. Which explained what he was doing there, with David.
    Eve recognised the name too, and held her head a little higher. ‘But, of course – heck, the author photo just doesn’t do you justice.’
    Turning to David, she said, ‘We’ve talked before about photos and authors.’
    David flinched.
    Eve continued. ‘We’re all delighted to have you on board. You know, I read those sample chapters of your novel and loved them. Loved them.’ Hilary had briefed Eve on the contents of the five sample chapters that had been provided. ‘David tells me the rest is just as good and of course I trusthis judgement completely. He really does have an ear for fresh young voices.’
    She put her arm around an increasingly uncomfortable David and gave him a squeeze, before returning to the author. Chris’s lean, boyish face, slogan t-shirt and badly ironed cargo pants made him seem no more than twenty-eight. He was in fact on the side of forty at which many people are inclined to assess their progress, and find it wanting.
    ‘David’s great,’ he said quietly. ‘I consider myself p-p-privileged to be able to work with him.’
    David blushed, shuffled a bit, then offered to get them all more to drink.
    ‘Yeah, you do that.’ Eve thrust David into the throng. ‘So, Chris, this book of yours,’ she lowered her voice, ‘is it autobiographical?’
    Her voice wasn’t quite so low that Zoë and Jess couldn’t hear it.
    ‘Zed, hon,’ said Jess. ‘I’ve read his book. Time to exit stage left right now and find a drink ourselves.’
    ‘Not so fast. What’s it about?’
    ‘Oh, you know, this and that. Sex, mostly.’
    ‘Well, why the fuck would we want to move now? Are you crazy? This could be a hoot.’
    ‘Or just excruciatingly embarrassing – for all of us.’ Jess was feeling squeamish already.
    ‘Come on, I want to see how he deals with her – don’t you?’
    ‘In a way, but to be honest I’m more interested to see how she deals with him. It would be useful to know what she’s like outside the office. I know a bit, but this …’
    ‘That’s more like it.’
    ‘N-n-no, it’s not,’ Chris stammered.
    ‘I’m not sure that he’s going to do so well.’ Jess kept her voice down.
    ‘Oh, I think he’ll bounce back. Indie-boy-band appeal plus authorship of a book on sex? Of course he can handle her.’
    ‘Don’t misunderstand me,’ Eve continued. ‘It’s just that I know how common it is for authors to draw on their own experiences, particularly in their early writin’.’ As she