Page 6 of One Night on the Naughty List

“Oh!” Her gaze bounced between the bag and me, and she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, her movements fussy. “Yes, I’ve got it here.”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking you to bring it along. When I say my mother goes all out with decorations, I’m not exaggerating. She takes living in North Pole very seriously.” Which was an understatement. My mother was one step away from adopting a herd of reindeer and letting them graze in the backyard.

“I don’t mind,” Samantha said. She licked her lips. “I mean, we’re supposed to be talking marketing strategy.”

If she kept doing things with her mouth, the only talking I’d be doing was a series of grunts. I made another discreet adjustment and forced my gaze to the road. “Well, for the upcoming quarter, I’d really like to focus on our social media presence.”

Her golden head bobbed up and down in my side vision. If she had paper and a pen, she’d be taking notes. She did that a lot, her smooth brow furrowing as she scribbled things down during our meetings. She chewed on the end of her pen, too, which had a tendency to make me forget whole sentences. And my name.

Snow pelted the windshield, and I flipped the wipers up a notch. “I hate to pile more work on you, but you’ve handled our social channels so well over the past three years.” I dared a look at her. “I’m hopeless with it, as you know.”

“I know,” she said, a smile in her voice.

The warmth in her tone made my heart beat a little faster. “I just don’t understand why everyone has to talk in code. Why can’t people spell things out?”

Her laugh hit me in the chest and frazzled its way outward, banging against every nerve ending, ratcheting up my desire. “What’s stumping you now? I already explained LOL and LMAO.”

You, sweetheart.You’re stumping me. But in the most delightful way possible. “What’s SAME?” I asked her. I spelled it out. “I keep seeing that one.”

For a second, she was silent. Then she burst out laughing.

“What?” I smiled, confused but utterly enchanted. It was a good thing traffic was light, because I was losing my battle to keep my eyes off her.

She put a hand over her mouth, clearly trying to contain her mirth, but her eyes squeezed shut as she started laughing again, her thick lashes so long they made shadows on her cheeks.

I made my voice low and gruff. “This is employee insubordination, Ms. Pratt.”

Wrong thing to say.Immediately, my mind conjured up all the ways I could “correct” my wayward employee—all of them NSFW. Oh yeah, Samantha had explained that one to me, too.

Still chuckling, she lowered her hand. “It’s not an acronym. It’s just same. Like saying ‘I feel the same’ when you agree with someone.” She snorted and crossed one jean-clad leg over the other. “I can’t wait to tell Kara you said that.”

“Don’t you dare,” I said, my throat going dry as my gaze ran from her rounded ass to her booted foot. There was a whole lot of denim-clad real estate between those two points, all of it cranking my discomfort to record levels.

She patted my arm, her movement sending a swirl of vanilla and sugar around me. “Don’t worry, Bain. Your secret is safe with me.”

Her touch was brief, but the heat from her fingers seemed to go right through my sleeve to my skin. Jesus, I had it bad. Reluctant humor spread through me. I’d been worried about being too old for her and now I was hard as iron, my heart beating faster than a teenage boy’s at the prospect of kissing his first girl.

She swung her foot a little, her leg bouncing up and down.

I gripped the wheel, blurting, “So what made you decide to go into advertising?”

Smooth segue, Thatcher. Masterful.

She ceased her bouncing. “It’s kind of a boring story.”

“I’m sure it’s not.” Nothing about Samantha was boring.

I felt the moment she decided to give in and answer. “It was in high school. My class didn’t have enough money to put on a prom, so I had the idea to ask people in the community to chip in by sponsoring a senior. It worked because people got personally invested. Sponsors got to have a say in the colors and the theme. I set up an online poll so they could vote on the music playlist.”

“That’s a hell of a great idea.”

“Once word spread, local businesses got involved, too.” She let out a soft laugh. “I had more money than I knew what to do with. I got a bridal salon to donate dresses to all the girls, and a tux shop gave the boys free rentals. There was a photographer and a limo company. We even got catering covered.”

Admiration swelled in my chest, and my voice came out huskier than I intended as I met her gaze. “So you saved prom.”

She shook her head, but a small, satisfied smile played around her mouth. “I don’t know about that.”

“It must have been quite a night. Did you have fun?”

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