One Night with the Boss

by Teresa Southwick

  “I take it that didn’t go over well with you?”

  Alex grinned now, but he probably hadn’t at the time. “She really ticked me off, but it gets better.”

  “Oh?”

  “She went back to Texas without telling me. So I followed her. Of course.”

  “Right.” He waited for more and when it wasn’t forthcoming he asked, “Why?”

  “At the time I told myself it was all about my child. I wasn’t going to let her keep me away from him.”

  “Him? It’s a boy?”

  “Figure of speech. We don’t know yet.” He shrugged. “Ellie wants to be surprised, so we’re waiting.”

  “So you chased her down because of the baby. At the time, you said. Meaning there was more to it?”

  “Yeah.” Alex rested his elbows on his knees. “Her folks helped me see that I loved her. She felt the same way about me, but I had to back off and let her figure that out.”

  “Since the two of you are engaged, I guess she did?”

  “Yeah. She came back to Blackwater Lake and the third time I proposed, she said yes.” Alex looked pretty pleased about that. In fact, this was the happiest he’d looked in a very long time.

  “So why are you waiting to get married?”

  “We decided it would be best to do it after the baby’s born. She wants her family to be here. And the Harts of Texas are some high-powered businessmen. They need a little lead time, according to her.” Alex shrugged. “Just between you and me, I think they’d drop everything to be here whenever their little sister gets married.”

  “How is she feeling?” Brady decided he needed to explain that question. “My sister had some issues toward the end of her pregnancy. She had to stay off her feet.”

  “I remember.” His friend leaned back in his chair. “You did double duty and filled in for her a lot at the ice-cream parlor.”

  “Right.” He could never have done that if Olivia hadn’t been here to keep things running smoothly with his business.

  “And everything worked out. How old is Danielle now?”

  An image of his niece with chocolate ice cream all over her face popped into his mind and he couldn’t help smiling. “She’s a little over a year. Cute as can be.”

  “Spoken like a proud uncle.” Alex nodded. “Makes a guy wonder why you don’t have any kids yet.”

  The question made him think about what Maggie had said. That he was getting to that age where people were questioning why he wasn’t married. If he was honest about why he wouldn’t let anyone close, he’d get the talk about taking a chance.

  “Because I haven’t met anyone like Ellie yet.”

  “She is definitely one of a kind. I’m grateful every day that I found her first. She’s doing fine, by the way. Thank God,” he added. “Says she’s big as the buildings she designs.”

  “Good. I’m glad all is well.” He pointed at his friend. “I better get a wedding invitation.”

  “Top of the list, buddy.” A question slid into his eyes. “I heard that Olivia is taking a job in California.”

  “Yeah. She gave her notice right after the first of the year, but I managed to convince her to stay until the company retreat is over.”

  “As I recall, that’s coming up pretty soon, no?”

  Brady nodded. “Two weeks.”

  “Good executive assistants are hard to find.”

  “Preaching to the choir, my friend. Fortunately Olivia found me a replacement.”

  “California is really different.” Alex’s dark eyes narrowed. “It’s where I started my business, and I still have a branch of the company there. Olivia’s a Blackwater Lake girl.”

  “I’m aware of that.” He couldn’t remember a time when Olivia wasn’t here and didn’t want to think about how it would be after she left.

  “Have you tried to talk her out of it?”

  “Of course.” And as her departure date inched closer, he was feeling just a little north of desperate. “She’s determined to go, but it’s not over until it’s over.”

  “Well, good luck with that.” Alex stood. “I have to get back to the job site.”

  “Thanks for bringing the preliminary sketches by. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Brady walked his friend to the front door then watched Alex climb in his black truck with the McKnight Construction logo on the door. The man had gone to California and come back because Blackwater Lake was a good place to live. Wouldn’t Brady be doing Olivia a favor if he saved her the inconvenience of finding all that out the hard way?

  He’d been helpless when he’d lost his father. But he could do something about losing Olivia. He knew she was lying about Leonard. If he could just get her to admit it, that might be the key to getting her to stay.

  The first step was kissing her again. If she kissed him back the way she did last time, he could poke holes in her story. And he was willing to kiss her again if that’s what it would take to get through to her. Hell, he was more than willing. It had taken every ounce of determination he had not to kiss her good-night when he’d taken her home after dinner.

  Now the clock was ticking. It was crunch time. If he was going to do this, he had to pick up the pace, and there was no time like the present.

  * * *

  Olivia returned from lunch and parked her car in the driveway, then got out.

  Getting ready for work that morning she’d decided on jeans, then tucked them into boots lined with a fur-like material—very expensive and exceedingly warm. With snow still on the ground from a storm the day before, it had seemed like a good day to go more casual than usual, and she appreciated Brady’s informal dress code. She was going to miss it. Hunching her shoulders against the frigid temperature, she walked around the car toward the front steps.

  “It’s about time you got back.” Brady’s voice startled her; she hadn’t seen him on the porch. He stood there with his arms folded across his chest.

  She stopped and looked at him. “Why? Is there a crisis?”

  “No.” He walked down to meet her. “I just like it better when you’re at your desk.”

  “So you’re a beck-and-call kind of boss.”

  “Something like that.” There was a funny look in his eyes. This was definitely out of character and there was a significant vibe that he was up to no good.

  “Why are you out here?”

  “What’s wrong with standing on my own front porch?” he countered.

  “It’s just not like you. You barely pull your nose out of the computer to eat, so standing here when it’s freezing outside seems a little weird.”

  “Wow, let me bask in the respectful tone,” he said wryly. “One man’s weird could be another man’s turning over a new leaf.”

  “This is you we’re talking about, so that’s not likely.” The frigid air was starting to penetrate her clothes. “And if you don’t get out of the cold soon, you’re going to get sick.”

  “Being cold doesn’t make you sick. Viruses do.” He breathed deeply of the cold, crisp, clear air. Beside them was a gently rolling area that in summer would be lush green grass. Right now there was a thick covering of white. “It’s a beautiful day.”

  “It’s twenty-two degrees,” she reminded him.

  “The sky has never been so blue. The sun has never shone so bright.”

  “Now you’re waxing poetic. This level of weird is starting to scare me.”

  “Liv,” he said, his tone dripping with sympathy, “you have to stop and smell the roses.”

  “I can’t. Flowers have enough sense not to come out until spring.”

  “It’s an expression.”

  “Right. You’re trying to tell me that all of a sudden you like being outside and one with nature.”
<
br />   “Something like that.” There was a whole lot of wicked in his eyes that made this explanation suspect.

  “Well, I’m freezing.” She walked past him and climbed the first step toward the porch and front door. “Knock yourself out, nature boy.”

  “I’m sorry, what did you just call me?” There was laughter more than anything else in his voice.

  “You heard me. I have work to do—”

  And that’s when something that felt a lot like a snowball hit her in the back, right near her collar so that the coldness slid down inside her sweater, leaving a wet trail. A shiver raced over her spine and escalated the spirit of revenge into he’s-going-down mode.

  “That was a cheap shot and completely unworthy of you.” She dropped her purse by the front door and turned to face him.

  “What can I say? I’m a cheap guy.” Completely unrepentant, he had the audacity to grin. “But personally I think it was awesome and finally all that high-school baseball paid off.”

  “It was underhanded.” She marched down the steps and stood a few feet away from him. “You are dead, mister.”

  She bent down and scooped up a handful of snow and hurled the icy projectile at him. It was infuriating when he ducked and the mass sailed by, leaving him unscathed.

  Even more infuriating, he laughed. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

  He grabbed up some snow and threw it in her direction, hitting her in the face. She tried again and he dodged again. Now she was really getting ticked and figured the best way to nail him was getting in close. They circled each other, watching for a move, a sign of weakness. Their shoes crunched on the snow and their breath made white clouds between them.

  Brady’s foot slipped, but he caught himself and didn’t go down. Still, it gave her an opening. She bent and took a fistful of snow and pitched it in his direction, catching him squarely in the chest.

  “Lucky shot,” he taunted.

  “Skill and determination, my friend.” She pumped her arm in triumph. “I played softball in high school and college.”

  “Hmm. I didn’t know that.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” she said smugly. Because he’d never really noticed her.

  That personal thought made her concentration slip for a second, giving him the chance to reach down and lob a ball of snow at her in one lightning-fast motion. The hit was dead-on and caught her just where the cold trickled down the neck of her sweater all the way to bare skin.

  “That does it.” Olivia was finished playing cat and mouse. “It’s time for shock and awe.”

  “Bring it.”

  She squatted down and started grabbing snow, chucking it at him as fast as she could. He blocked it with his forearm while moving in on her, a frontal assault. Before she could get to her feet and run, he grabbed her and stuffed snow inside her jacket while she squirmed to break his hold.

  Unfortunately, he had her on size, weight and strength. That just made her more determined to get her licks in wherever she could. But the snow was slippery and he lost his balance. They fell into the icy softness with Brady on top of her.

  He levered some of his weight onto his forearms to keep from crushing her, but showed no inclination to move away and let her up. Their faces were very close and his breath stirred her hair.

  “Are you ready to concede defeat?” he asked.

  “Never give up, never surrender.”

  “Even though I’ve got you where I want you?”

  If only that were true, she thought. “This was my plan all along.”

  He laughed and resumed shoving snow inside her jacket while she shrieked at the bitter coldness of it and struggled to get away. At the same time she was doing her darnedest to inflict some cold, wet damage on him. She managed to get some down his back and in his face, but she was tiring.

  Apparently Brady was, too, because he said, “Care to talk terms of surrender yet?”

  His mouth was inches from hers and she ached for him to kiss her again, but probably that wasn’t the negotiating point he meant. Just like that, the fight went out of her and the cold slipped in. She shivered and her teeth started to chatter.

  “That’s it. Consider the white flag raised.” He levered himself off her, then stood and reached down a hand, pulling her to her feet. “You need to get inside and change those wet clothes before you catch your death.”

  “C-cold doesn’t make you sick. V-viruses do.” She was trying to be sassy, but the violent shivering took the starch out of her words. “How c-come you’re not freezing?”

  “Who says I’m not? If you hadn’t caved, I was getting ready to throw in the towel.”

  “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

  “Is it working?”

  “N-not so much. I can’t feel my hands and the feet are going f-fast.”

  Brady hustled her up the front steps and grabbed her purse before opening the door. “Up there,” he ordered, pointing to the stairs. “Take a long, hot shower.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll find something dry for you to wear.”

  Olivia nodded and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. She went into the guest room bath and shut the door before peeling off her wet clothes with fingers barely functioning, they were so cold. She turned on the shower and let it get good and warm before stepping inside.

  As the soothing water beat down on her she breathed, “Heavenly.”

  She stayed that way for a long time and was beginning to wonder how big Brady’s water heater was when she heard a knock.

  “Liv?” The door opened.

  Brady! The shower-door glass was frosted and he couldn’t see anything even if he walked in, which he didn’t. But her body responded as if he was staring right at her. Heat pooled low in her belly and her thighs quivered. Her breasts felt heavy and ached to be touched.

  “Liv? Are you okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “I left some sweats on the bed for you.”

  “Thanks,” she called over the sound of the water.

  “I’m going to make you a hot drink. Meet me in the kitchen when you’re finished.”

  “Okay.”

  The door closed and with a sigh of regret, she turned off the shower then grabbed a towel from the bar on the wall just outside it. She wrapped the terry cloth around her hair and took a second one to dry her body. On the bed she found black sweatpants, a long-sleeved gray T-shirt and thick wool socks. She had a few hair things in the bathroom and managed to comb through the wet strands then pull them up with a scrunchy. Looking in the mirror at her flushed, makeup-free cheeks, she sighed.

  “Ready or not, here I come,” she said to the reflection.

  In the kitchen she saw Brady pulling two mugs from the microwave. His hair was wet, too, and he’d changed into dry jeans and a T-shirt.

  “This is, without a doubt, the weirdest day I’ve ever had at work,” she said.

  “I know what you mean.” He was just setting the mugs on the counter.

  “These pants are really big. I’m afraid they’ll fall down. So this workday could possibly get even more bizarre.”

  Brady finally looked over and when he saw her, his eyes flashed with something hot and intense. He swallowed hard. “Call it a job perk. One of the advantages of working at home is having dry clothes available for a spontaneous snowball fight.”

  “Easy for you to say. They’re your clothes and fit you.”

  “You might not believe this—” His gaze met and held her own. There was a ragged edge to his voice that was different. Exciting. “It’s not that easy for me to say.”

  Olivia’s heart skipped and she couldn’t think of a single sassy or coherent response.

  Brady picked up a
steaming mug and moved close, holding it out to her. “Another perk of this job. It’s probably safe to say that you’ll never have another one where the boss makes you hot chocolate.”

  “It’s true—”

  Without warning the reality of the situation hit her. She wanted to say that where she was going in California there wouldn’t be any snow and the Pacific Ocean was a perk, but she couldn’t get the words past the knot of emotion lodged in her throat.

  To her horror and humiliation, tears started rolling down her cheeks. She turned away and covered her face with her hands. Behind her she heard Brady swear, then he was there, his hands on her shoulders, turning her against his chest. Strong arms came around her, warming her as surely as the hot shower had done.

  “Don’t cry, Liv. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad. Please stop. I’m a jerk. An idiot. A moron. Everything you’ve ever said about me.”

  “I n-never called you a moron—” She laughed but the sound was more like a choked sob. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done, but she lifted her face away from his chest and looked up. “Don’t feel bad. It’s nothing you said. I’m just tired and emotional.”

  He cupped her cheek in his big, warm palm and brushed a tear away with his thumb. “You’re allowed.”

  He was looking at her in a way that made her feel intensity rolling off him and wrapping around her. If someone snapped a video of them right this minute, she was sure it would show her body language begging for the touch of his mouth to hers.

  In the next instant he kissed her and it was as if a switch flipped on. His mouth was greedy and demanding and she met him with a hunger that could no longer be ignored. Their breathing escalated, mingled, and the sound of passion was all she could hear.

  And then she felt his hand move, sliding up under the big shirt, easily finding her bare breast. Finally. Finally she had his attention. He noticed her the way she’d always wanted.

  Chapter Twelve

  Olivia sighed as Brady cupped her breast in his wide palm. She’d waited forever to be in this moment with him and it felt better than the best day she’d ever had. His thumb brushed over her nipple, just the lightest touch, but it zapped her and sent sexy signals straight to her core.