A Very Bossy Christmas - Kayley Loring Page 0,15
is clearly not as dire for you to work through Christmas as you had led me to believe.”
“I’ll have to make up for lost time, and I’ll be working at the office even when you aren’t there.”
“Really? You’ll be working at the office without me? All by yourself?”
I shrug. “If I have to, yeah,” I say quietly, my shoulders slouching the tiniest bit. Because I am not above trying to make her feel sorry for me right now.
“You know what?” she says. “Thank you for the offer, Mr. Cannavale. I’ll think about it.”
I study her poker face. “You will?”
She smirks and leans toward me. “You sound skeptical.”
I fucking love that smirk.
I know what she’s doing. She thinks she’ll have some kind of power over me if she doesn’t give me an answer one way or another. Look how happy she is right now.
“Okay, Cooper.” I put my gloves on. “You think about it.”
“I shall.” She nods once. “When do you need to know by?”
She needs a deadline. Deadlines for accepting offers are always tricky, but I have a feeling this woman needs as much time as possible to warm up to this idea. “The 22nd. Six pm. But I’ll need you to book travel and accommodations for us ASAP. You can always cancel your flights if necessary.” And before she can open that gorgeous, sassy mouth, I continue. “Separate adjoining rooms at the Ritz-Carlton in Cleveland.”
She frowns as she opens the door to the hallway. “You’re not going to stay with your family?”
“Absolutely not.”
“But they don’t live right in Cleveland, do they?”
“No, they don’t. But the best hotels are there, and I always stay at the Ritz-Carlton. And we’re only staying one night. The night of the 24th. Fly in that afternoon. Fly out the next morning. That’s very important. The wedding’s in Cleveland, so we’ll stay there for that too. I’ll email you the info.”
She’s still frowning at me, and as I pass her on my way out the door, I have the strongest urge to grab her and kiss that mouth. Really give her something to frown about. But I won’t. There’s no kissing in the art of negotiating a deal. And I need this. I need her. I need her for this.
“Uh-huh. And if I decline your offer, will you be traveling alone or selecting some other lucky hot-as-fuck winner?”
God, I love it when she says hot as fuck.
“I’ll probably just cancel everything. I mean, I have to go to the wedding, but…”
“Whose wedding is it, anyway?”
Now I’m frowning. Now I hate everything again. “My brother’s. See you Monday.”
I can hear her sigh of exasperation, followed by a derisive scoff, as I stride down the hall away from her. She thinks I’m being a moody asshole as usual, and that’s fine. I’ll be having flowers sent to Mrs. Pavlovsky—to thank her for letting me in today. And to keep Cooper’s nosey landlady on my team.
Art of the deal.
Deal with it, Maddie Cooper.
Eight
Piper
MADDIE AND DECLAN, SITTIN’ IN A CHRISTMAS TREE
K-i-s-s-i-n-g. That’s what they were doing. With their eyes and their words.
They would kiss with their lips eventually.
It was fate.
Maclan was just a couple waiting to happen.
A love story waiting to be written.
Why did it have to wait, one might wonder?
Why could Maddie not see the way Declan gazed at her longingly with his beautiful amber eyes? Why could she not see the chemistry between them? It was hot enough to melt the North Pole.
So was Declan’s butt.
His perfect, perfect butt.
It was the most perfect man butt Maddie had ever seen, even though she refused to admit it to herself or anyone else.
He had the Holy Grail of butts.
But back to Maddie.
What was holding her back?
It wasn’t a lack of confidence.
Oh no—that lady had confidence to spare.
It wasn’t that she was blind—even she could see how gorgeous Declan was.
Maybe it was just that she was so busy looking over her shoulder at all the crappy boyfriends from her past that she couldn’t see the potentially great boyfriend that was standing right in front of her desk all along. Or for two months or whatever. A New York minute was like a second, but two months was basically forever in the world of New York dating. It’s weird.
That was why Christmas was the perfect time for Declan to take Maddie matters into his own hands—to take Maddie into his own hands…under the mistletoe.
It was their company’s holiday party—a day unlike any other day. It was a day of celebration—of the