Page 5 of Her Holiday Heartthrobs

The walk isn’t long, but I catch my favorite glimpses of the neighborhood: The red brick houses with white railing decks and high shrubbery. The fountain of the park catty corner to the train entrance. The cafe I’ll soon be passing every morning on my walk and the tempting scents of freshly baked bread as it wafts out the door.

And besides, everything is decorated in twinkling lights and garlands for the holiday season. The ride is a bustle of activity, with anxiety and excitement swirling in my stomach—it makes me glad that I didn’t eat breakfast this morning.As I enter the brick building to a massive foyer, I’m in awe. Everything about it is grand, white and silver with pops of black and redwood.

It’s almost overwhelming, but I try to slow myself down and take in some of the details. Clean lines, a wrought-iron sculpture by the elevators, sparse seating grouped around the open floor plan, how the large windows highlight the room with warmth from the sun.

I can almost picture myself meeting clients on those cushions, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The elevator is near bursting when I squeeze into it and press the top floor. Riding up is slow, stopping at every level as the car eventually empties out. Finally at the sixteenth floor, I step out into a modern office.

A secretary sits at a long, black-stained wooden desk, and she smiles at me. “Who are you looking for, hon?”

“I’m here for the new marketing manager position with Rockwell International. I’m?—”

“Paige Monroe. You’re in the right place. Just give me a minute, and I’ll call back to the boss. He’ll want to show you to your new office himself.”

I nod, startled a little by how efficient she is. Standing with my briefcase collapsed in front of me, I try not to fidget. Sweat gathers under my arms and at the back of my neck.

After a few minutes, a blonde bombshell of a woman saunters toward me. She has a big smile that showcases straight, white teeth. I’d say she wants to take a bite out of me, but the kindness reaches her eyes as she holds out her hand to me.

“Hi. I’m Sabrina. You must be Paige. I’m here to show you the way back.”

I take her hand in a quick shake and follow as she waves me forward through a set of glass doors and into a buzzing collection of offices.

I love every bit of it. Do I really get to work in a place this upscale and beautiful every day?

I cannot wait to see if my office looks anything like what I’ve seen so far. And my God…Iget an office. A space to myself. I haven’t had one of those in four years.

Tamping down a new wave of nerves, I weave with Sabrina through desks and people settling in for the day to the office in the back corner. The dark wooden door is halfway open when Sabrina knocks on it. “Mr. Walker, I have your new marketing manager here.”

“Show her in and close the door please.” That voice vibrates through my guts, twisting them painfully as I step past the barrier.

A head of light brown hair, streaked through with gray, is bent over a stack of papers, scribbling his signature across the bottom. And I know that strong jaw, the strength of those wide shoulders, the gentleness of those big hands before he shows me his face.

He catches me with those all-too-bright blue eyes.

And my traitorous heart stops.

Henry is my new boss.

HENRY

When Paige Monroe steps into my office, I catch a glimpse of her before I bend down to sign the last page of a contract I should have reviewed yesterday.

She’s just as beautiful as she was four years ago, but now, she’s a stunning, confident woman—who’s scowling at me.

We stare at each other for a few heartbeats. I haven’t seen her since that night—the one I replay at the most inopportune moments. The one that haunts me when I’m frustrated and take myself in hand, the one that knots my guts with guilt every time I go to her father’s house and pretend it never happened, the one that I want to do over again and not be such a prick this time.

Fuck, I’ve thought about her a lot. Nearly every day since she left for college and didn’t come back. Or at least, not when I would see her. Maybe, I’d learned to be precise about when I visited the house to curb temptation.

Because I was tempted to stay after what happened, to spend the entire night with her and see her off to college in the morning, to hold onto her after Patrick returned and to stake my claim on her. To visit her on the weekends and integrate myself into her life for as long as she would have me. But the momentI remembered I couldn’t have any of it, I closed myself off. I turned into the asshole that I promised my mother I would never be.

It was a daydream concocted from attraction and that rare connection I felt with Paige that night.

I don’t sleep with a woman unless I feel it. And as wrong as it was, that undeniable draw is what tipped me over the edge.

My only hope was that the night we shared hadn’t messed up her life, and it doesn’t seem to have. Not with her marks, her internships and portfolio, her references. They all reflect the hard work she put in to earn this job.

My standing up startles her, and she blinks her gaze away from mine. It’s obvious that her father didn’t warn her who she’d be working for. Will it change her mind about the job? “Miss Monroe, please have a seat.”

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