Loving Him: A New Adult International Romance Serial (Angelique's Greek Book 5) (3 page)

“Sure!”

“Then all I have to do is look for a publisher.”

She squeezed him ever tighter and began to whirl them both round until they collapsed on the sand in a giggling heap. He laughed with happiness, then she laughed at him, and he laughed at her back in turn, until they found they couldn’t stop. Angelique found tears were falling down her face and she wiped them away quickly.

“I’m proud of you,” she said once they’d recovered themselves. “Really proud of you.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I’m proud of you, too.”

She looked back. “For what?”

“Just being … well, you.”

She couldn’t help but lean in and kiss him, gently and softly. She felt like her soul was melting into his, and it was such a beautiful feeling she didn’t want it to ever end. An idea formulated in her mind, totally out of nowhere, while their lips were locked.

Once they pulled away from the kiss, she turned the idea over in her mind for a moment.

“I think we should go back,” she said eventually. She knew there was a twinkle in her eye but she tried to stay deadpan. “I’ll call Peterson.”

Theo grinned and raised his eyebrows. “Already? Sounds like you have something planned.”

She tossed her braids over her shoulder and looked away. “Oh no,” she said airily. “I’m just getting hungry.”

“Oh really?” he said suspiciously. “After all that breakfast?”

They’d had a true Bahamian breakfast feast, with stewfish, Johnny cake and grits, alongside pineapple juice and fresh watermelon. The truth was she wasn’t hungry at all, and doubted she’d eat again until late afternoon. Still, she didn’t want to tell Theo her idea.

“Yes,” she lied. “My appetite is crazy right now.”

“Hmm,” he said, unconvinced, but he was clearly too happy about finishing his manuscript to push it any further.

Peterson took them back across the water to Cat Island, and Angelique practically skipped the way back home.

Theo grinned, picking up his pace a little as they stepped onto the road, under the shadows of the towering coconut trees. “I like that you’re happy.”

“You bet I am,” she said. Her idea seemed to buzz through her body, and she was so excited that she could have easily run all the way home. The way Theo kicked out his flip flops along the road, so casual and calm, was so agonizingly slow that she kept saying, “Come on! Come on!”

When they got home, she took his bag from his shoulder. “I’ll do some editing right away,” she said.

Theo’s eyes lit up. “That’d be great.”

She slung the bag over her shoulder and walked out of the back door. They had a small pergola at the end of the garden. Theo began to follow her, but she turned, and kissed him so forcefully it pushed him back inside. “Nuh uh uh,” she said playfully. “I wanna savor it all to myself.”

Theo leaned forward and planted three quick kisses on her lips. “Okay, my girl.”

“My girl!” Angelique giggled. “You’ve been here too long, my boy.”

He laughed. “I’m gonna go take a shower.”

“Okay.” The house was empty and Angelique would have jumped at the chance to join him, but the urgency of her idea gave her self-control. “See ya.” She winked at him as he walked away, and he winked back.

She dashed to the pergola and opened the laptop, then quickly set it up to the internet. She knew exactly where she was going first. She’d already formulated the list in her head when they had been speeding over the clear waters on the way back from Emerald Cay.

Penguin.

Bloomsbury.

HarperCollins.

The only three publishers she’d heard of.

Penguin first. Her heart beating like crazy, she got her smartphone out of her pocket and Googled ‘Penguin submissions’. Soon she had the number of the New York editor, Carmel Foley, and before she knew what she’d done she’d pressed
Call
.
 

“Carmel Foley’s office?” a young female voice said.

“Good morning,” Angelique said, pushing her voice into sophistication. She tried to talk like Mr. Sands. “I am Personal Assistant to Theodros Katrakis. I assume you know who that is?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” said the young woman. She sounded almost awestruck. “Yes, I do.”

Angelique cleared her throat and tried to sound confident, though her heart was racing at the speed of light, it seemed.
 

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Emma.”

“Emma, my name’s Angelique Felix. I’d like to speak to Carmel Foley to see if she’d be interested in acquiring Mr. Katrakis’ memoir of his life before I offer it to other publishing houses.”

“Let me put you through,” the young woman said quickly.

Angelique had thought it would be impossible to get through. Her childhood friend Pearl had tried to get her own manuscript published but no publishers would ever return her calls and told her she had to look for an agent. It seemed that having a name got people to open doors.

“Carmel Foley,” an impatient voice said at the other end of the line.

“Good morning,” Angelique said, trying to calm her shaking hands. “I have the life story of the world renowned hedge fund manager Theodros Katrakis, written by the man himself. Would you be interested?”

“Absolutely.” All the impatience was replaced with eagerness. “I will liaise with the acquisitions department and give you a call back with an offer. What is your number?”

Angelique gave her Theo’s cell number and delighted at the thought of him getting a call offering him a huge deal for his book, totally out of the blue.

“All right, thank you,” Carmel Foley says. “I will be ringing back within the hour. Thank you for getting in contact.”

“You’re welcome,” said Angelique.

As soon as she hung up the phone she was onto the next one. If they were going to get a call back in an hour she had to work quickly. Pearl had described in vivid detail how publishing houses could bid against each other, and that was how people got massive, seven figure book deals. Pearl had given up on her manuscript and shelved it in the end, despite Angelique’s protests.

“Bloomsbury, good morning.”

Angelique’s eyes scanned over the website for the right name. “I’d like to speak to Rex Cunningham, please.”

After ringing around a few more publishers, Angelique leant back in the garden chair, satisfied. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Theo’s face.

And sure enough, he didn’t disappoint, coming to the door with his smartphone in his hand, a confused smile on his face.
 

“Angelique?” he said.

“Yes,” she replied innocently.

“Someone just rang me from Penguin. And when I hung up I had a message from HarperCollins. Is that you?”

She grinned. “Yep.”

He ran down the steps and all the way over to her, then gathered her up in his arms and squeezed. “You. Are. The. Best,” he said. “You. Are.
The. Absolute. Best!”

Angelique laughed happily. “Why, thank you. Thank you very much.”

“You know how much they offered me for an advance?” he said.

“What’s an advance?”

“What they pay you upfront,” he said. “Then they pay you royalties once books are selling.”

“Okay.” They both sat down and she looked him in the eyes. “So how much, then?”

“Four million dollars.”

Angelique was glad she had sat down. “What?”
 

“Yep.” He shook his head, seemingly in disbelief too.

“Wow.”

“And you know what?” he said. “You’re my agent, since you did all the work ringing around.”

“Oh, it was nothing.”

“Which means you get 15 percent. $600 thousand”

Angelique stared at him. “No. Surely not. All I did was make a couple of calls.”

He grinned. “Maybe you should take up work as a literary agent. Seems you’re pretty good at it.”

“I couldn’t take all that money,” she said.

“Why not?” He was quite indignant. “You did the role of an agent, so you should get it, fair and square.”

“Wow.” Angelique sank back in her chair. Even the air seemed different. It was all so strange. She couldn’t imagine having that kind of money. She’d be able to pay off a great deal of Mermaid Hole with such an amount, if she had wanted to.

“I’ll take 15 percent as well,” Theo said. “Then the rest can go to charity. And all of the royalties will go to my old neighborhood. They’re not really slums anymore, but it still needs it.”

“You’re not keeping much for yourself,” she said.

He sighed and almost looked sad for a moment. “You know, not many people know it, but there is definitely such a thing as too much money. All you can do after a certain point is give it away. The thing is, you’ve got to make sure you give it away to the right things. It’s a lot of responsibility.”

“I can imagine.” She even felt a responsibility with $600 thousand. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what Theo was worth. $100 million? $200 million? Maybe even more. She guessed she could look it up and it would pop up on Google right away but it felt almost like prying. “Well, I guess that money will buy me some time while I work out what I want to do.”

“Sure it will,” he said. “And if you put it right into a savings account with an interest rate, the interest rate will probably pay off your living expenses.”

“Okay.” She nodded, trying to take it all in. It had all happened so fast. Overnight she had gone from worrying about money to being financially secure. She could buy her own few acres. Build a house. There were so many possibilities.

“You have a very bright future ahead of you,” he said, “financially and otherwise.”

She giggled. “You sound like a fortune teller. How do you know?”

He moved his chair closer to hers and played with one of her braids. “I dunno. Just always had a sense of people who were destined for greatness.”

“Destined for greatness?
Me?
”

“You sound so surprised.” His voice was soft and he planted a kiss on her temple. “Of course, greatness. What else could you do? What else could you be other than great?”

It was a question she couldn’t find an answer to.

“You
are
greatness,” he said. “It’s just a part of you. It shines from you. You radiate it.”

“Oh,” she said, then laughed at herself.
 

She sounded so simple, so far away from greatness.

But when she turned to look in Theo’s hazel eyes, they were filled with belief and hope and faith and light. She felt a surge of energy, and began to think maybe her purpose in life was bigger than she had ever imagined before.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you,” she whispered back. It felt like they were creating the future.

*****

Chapter 4

The summer passed peacefully by Mermaid Hole.

Both Angelique and Theo found themselves writing poetry, immersed in the beauty of the gardens. With the sweet chirping of birds, the sound of the breeze gliding through the leaves, and the scent of every exotic flower lingering in the air, creativity came easily. The words sprang from their pens without much coaxing, and they spent many an afternoon lazing in the grass, reading their work to each other.
 

One such afternoon was to stick in Angelique’s memory for many months afterward. She lay back on the grass, staring through the gently swaying palm fronds into the creamy blue sky. She felt like there was nothing wrong in the whole world, and that nothing ever could go wrong.

Theo sat close to her, their feet touching, but he sat up and read from his notebook.

She watched a puff of cloud float by as she listened to him.

“
What I need in life
,” Theo read, “
is to be remembered for the right reason.

Not for wealth, but for impact.

Not for possessions, but for the difference I’ve made.

The world turns quickly;

Billions have lived before me

Billions will live after.

What did I matter? What did my life mean?

Whom did I help?

I have come to see the wealth I’ve gained as not one endless opportunity to play,

But as responsibility to devote my life to making the world a better place.

I do not have to strive and toil for my bread, my clothes, my shelter,

But the vast majority of the world do.

I decide to stand with them.

The only thing I can hope for,

Is that the woman I’ve come to love will stand with me.
”

He placed his notebook down and leaned over her. She smiled, and felt the comfort of his smile upon her face, just like golden sun shining down.
 

“So?” he asked. “Will you?”