Chapter Ten: In the Sultan's Harem
"And then, the eloquent Circassian woman reclined on the silk pillows. Mehmet's eyes followed the graceful , curvy form of her body as she stretched, seductively exposing all of her body to him through the thin fabric of her silks clothing. The Sultan was captivated by his newest concubine, with her pale, nearly alabaster skin, dark curly hair and rose-red lips. Slowly, he rubbed his hand down her soft thighs, his actions elicitning a slight moan of pleasure from her. And he knew right then that he had to take her tonight..."
The publisher stopped reading for a moment and looked up at Nazanin Choudhury, out of work English major and aspiring Romance novelist. Not that it was her first choice of work, mind you, but it put food on her table and paid for the rent. Besides, it was certainly better than any of the minimum wage jobs she could have gotten with her degree.
"Well," she said smiling hopefully, "What do you think so far?"
The publisher just sighed. Nazanin knew that wasn't a good sign.
"Look Ms. Choudhury," he said, "It's not that it's a bad work. In fact, it's actually a very solid story. It's just that I see dozens, maybe even hundreds of potential Romance novels every month. For me to pick one up, it has to be exceptionally steamy..."
Nazanin almost wanted to break into tears. She was literally crushed. All of this hard work and nothing! This was the seventh publisher she had tried to sell her manuscript to, and it looked like he was going to be the seventh one to reject it too.
"And besides," he said, "Being an as-of-yet unpublished author, it would be very difficult to sell your book. I'm sorry, but you just don't have the name recognition that our company likes to draw in readers with."
"Please Mr. Johnson," Nazanin pleaded with him, "Can't you at least think about it? You're the only publisher in the entire city that I haven't talked to yet, and I'm getting desperate here. I really need the money. At this point, I'd be willing to do almost anything to get it published?"
Mr. Johnson raised an eyebrow at that comment.
"Anything you say?"
"Yes," Nazanin replied quickly, "I could make edits, change characters or plot details, even get rid of a chapter or two. I'm willing to make whatever creative changes you want if you..."
"You said anything," Mr. Johnson interrupted, "Right? Well how badly would you like to get that manuscript published?"
It was just then that Nazanin noticed the publisher's eyes wandering over her luscious, dark-skinned body. He looked her over, inspecting her full cleavage and nice, shapely legs. Nazanin was a very sexy woman after all, so it was hardly surprising. The look of sheer lust in Mr. Johnson's eyes was something else altogether though. She knew exactly what he was thinking...
"Why don't you close my door," Mr. Johnson said, "And we can discuss this further."