Page 284 of The Christmas Wife

"If it means you’ll be working for me, then yes."

She firms her lips. "You’re more despicable than I thought you were."

"Is that a yes?"

Her gaze narrows. "I’ll never forgive you for this."

"You haven’t answered my question yet."

"Goddamn you, yes. I’ll work for you. Now, will you release me?"

"On one condition."

"You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you, Whittington?"

"Only when it comes to you."

"Stop saying that."

"But it’s true. There’s no limit to what I’d do to make you mine, Zara."

She looks between my eyes, then tips her chin. "There’s no limits I’ll go to avoid becoming yours."

I twist my lips. "We’ll see."

"Okay."

"Okay."

The door swings open. "Oh, sorry Mr. Whittington, I didn’t realize you were with someone."

I release her hand and step back.

"It’s fine, Daniel, come on in. Meet Zara Chopra, my new PR manager. Zara, this is Daniel, my campaign manager."

"That went as expected." Zara pushes back from the conference room table and rolls her shoulders.

After the meeting with Daniel, I called a team meeting and introduced Zara to all of them. She, of course, was impressive,and within minutes of meeting everyone, began to draw up a PR strategy for the campaign.

"I thought that went better than expected."

"You mean at least one-fourth of your team doesn’t resent me for having marched in here and redrawn half the campaign strategy?" She snatches up her notepad and pen, then her phone, and slides them into her bag.

"I mean, you cut through the clutter and came up with a coherent strategy. You did in an hour what my team and I have been trying to pull together for months."

She turns in her chair to face me. "Is that why you never launched your campaign? Because you weren’t happy with the strategy so far?"

"Among other things."

"Why else would you hold back when every day you didn’t declare you were running would make it tougher for you to win?"

"I’m still launching before the deadline."

"If you mean twenty-four hours before the final deadline, then you’re barely squeaking through. As it is, you’ve lost so much time?—"

"But I’ll be off to a strong start and that’s more impactful than simply announcing my campaign in order to be seen."

She tilts her head. "Sometimes, I’m forced to agree with you."

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