How to Trap a Tycoon(13)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

"No, I like those even less," Dorsey assured her.

"Get used to them, Dorsey," Anita told her. "Because Lauren Grable-Monroe is about to go national."

Oh, no, Dorsey thought. No, no, no, no, no.

Evidently taking her silence as a positive sign, Anita continued blithely, "The book is selling like crazy, and readers and booksellers are clamoring to meet Lauren. You wouldn’t believe the mail we’ve received and the feedback our sales force is getting."

"But, Anita—" Dorsey cut in feebly.

So feebly, obviously, that Anita didn’t even hear her. Because the editor continued quickly, "The American public wants Lauren. Badly. And Rockcastle Books wants to give her to them."

Give her to them? Dorsey echoed to herself. More like toss her to them. "Them" being not the American public, which actually connoted a rather warm, comfortable gathering of moms, baseball players, and grandmas holding apple pies, a fate that wouldn’t be without its merits, actually. No, the "them" she visualized at Anita’s assertion was a group more consistent with a pack of howling, rabid wolverines that were frothing at the mouth.

"But, Anita," she began to object, "how—"

"A book tour is the logical way to do that," her editor interrupted her. Again. "We want Lauren to speak and sign books in some of the larger cities, starting, naturally, with Chicago . And we’re setting a place for her at Book Expo in the spring."

"But, Anita, how are you—"

"It’s incredible, the response to this book, Dorsey. Good Morning America has already called twice. Twice. We can’t put them off any longer. We don’t want to put them off any longer. Do you know how hard it is to get time on national television? Yet they’re calling us! It’s phenomenal."

A wave of nausea rolled through Dorsey’s midsection as she waited for Anita to come to a stopping point. The instant she heard her editor taking a breath, she jumped in, "And how are you going to manage this, Anita? Need I remind you that Lauren Grable-Monroe doesn’t exist?"

Immediately, she regretted voicing the question. Not because she feared offending Anita, but because she feared the reply she just knew her editor was going to give her.

There was a thoughtful pause from the other end of the line. Then, softly, "No, Lauren doesn’t exist," Anita agreed. "But, Dorsey … you do."

Aaaaaggggghhhh!

The silent scream unrolled in Dorsey’s head, and it was with no small effort that she kept it silent. Yep. That was pretty much the reply she had feared, all right.

"Yes, I do exist," she agreed. "But I’m not a sexy former mistress full of tips on how to bag a tycoon. I’m an academic striving to carve out a career in research and teaching," she reminded her editor. "If the head of the sociology department at Severn finds out I’m the one who authored How to Trap a Tycoon, she’ll never let me teach again. It might even compromise the reception my dissertation will receive this spring."

"Dorsey, your dissertation is a scholarly, sociological treatise on stuffy old-boy men’s clubs and how they exist as a microcosm of a male-dominated society," Anita reminded her. "Two words, darling: big yawn. Nobody’s even going to be able to finish it, so why are you so worried about defending it?"

Dorsey reined in the comment she wanted to make. Hey, maybe it wasn’t destined to be a best-seller, but she was proud of her work. Her dissertation, she was certain, would be a hit with the faculty of Severn ‘s sociology department when it came time for her to defend it.

Unless, of course, Anita Dixon and Rockcastle Books had their way. Should it ever get out that Lauren Grable-Monroe was actually Dorsey MacGuinness, then Dorsey might very well be barred from teaching at the college she loved.

And in addition to blowing her credibility, the revelation that she was Lauren Grable-Monroe might also compromise the financial aid Dorsey had been receiving for years. Even if she wasn’t benefiting from the profits of the book—every last cent of the advance and royalties were being paid to Carlotta— Severn would view Lauren Grable-Monroe as a wealthy woman. They might very well demand that Dorsey repay the thousands of dollars’ worth of tuition that she had received over the years, based on her economic situation. And that was a lot of money to have to repay. Especially seeing as how Dorsey would never have it.

Somehow, she quelled the ripple of hysteria that had begun to bubble just beneath her surface and tried to focus again on the conversation at hand. "I can’t be Lauren," she told her editor. "I can’t. I’m a sociology Ph.D. candidate, not a social butterfly. Furthermore, my mother has just accused me of dressing like a lumberjack. And you know what, Anita? She’s right. I do dress like a lumberjack. I’m not some former mistress-slash-party girl like Lauren in any way, shape, or form. I’m not Lauren, period."

There was another one of those pregnant pauses, followed by Anita’s carefully stated, "You could be."

Aaaaaggggghhhh!

"Oh, no, I couldn’t," Dorsey stated immediately, adamantly, swallowing another silent scream. "Lauren and I have absolutely nothing in common. If it hadn’t been for Carlotta, I never would have written this book. The content is hers, not mine. Hell, the earnings are hers, not mine."

"But the writing is yours, Dorsey," Carlotta interjected. "All I did was list a lot of pointers and suggestions. The wit, the wry humor, the irreverence … that’s all you."

"She’s right," Anita agreed. "And those are the things that define Lauren."

"Anita," her mother said. "Maybe if you let me talk to Dorsey—"

"There will be no talking," Dorsey stated clearly, first to her mother and then to the telephone. To Anita, she added, "You agreed going into this thing that I’d be able to preserve my anonymity."

There was a rather dubious silence from the other end of the line, followed by a rather ominous sigh. "We need to rethink this anonymity thing, Dorsey," Anita said carefully.

"No, we don’t," Dorsey told her. "You assured me, before I even signed the contract, that taking a pseudonym wasn’t going to be a problem."

"That’s not the problem," Anita told her. "That, actually, especially in hindsight, was a very good idea."

"You also assured me," Dorsey continued, "that my personal life wouldn’t be jeopardized at any time. That there was no reason to disclose the fact that Lauren Grable-Monroe is, in fact, a Ph.D. candidate in the sociology department of Severn College ."

"That’s not the problem, either," Anita replied. "Quite frankly, the last thing I want is for Lauren to come forward as a stuffy academic from some snooty women’s college."