Page 86 of Breaking the Ice

“You love him, don’t you?”

“Yes. God, yes.” And it just kept growing.

“So go with him.”

“No. My home is here. My career is here. And being dragged around the countryside as a kid was more than enough traveling for me.”

Bec made a disapproving noise that Sam knew only too well but she thankfully let it drop. “Okay, okay. Tell me about the sex and don’t leave out any details.”

Samantha spilled the details. “Do you know I have a G-spot?”

“Every woman does. Just because Gary couldn’t find it with a compass, a map and a miner’s helmet doesn’t mean you’re the only female on the face of the planet without one.”

“Nick finds it every time. I swear… the man is a sex god.”

“You know you’re going to be a complete wreck when he leaves?”

“Yup. But it’s okay, I’m using a method adopted by all highly evolved, upwardly mobile, urban females.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“Denial.”

After two solid days and nights in bed, they knew they had to get back to the real world. They opened the shop. They were distracted as hell. The customers noticed. They didn’t care. Work was a complete inconvenience interrupting their naked time together.

And then something happened to burst their little bubble once and for all.

“Hello, Birdie’s. This is Samantha.”

“Sammy!” Bob boomed down the line.

“Bob.”

Her gaze flicked to Nick who was helping a customer find the right dark, why-choose romance. He grinned and shot her the thumbs up.

“Good lord, I couldn’t believe it when Ray told me you were working in a second-hand bookshop. I need you here pronto, Sammy girl. Everything’s a mess and only you can fix it.”

Samantha gripped the receiver tight, not quite believing her luck. First Nick and then her job. Could life be any more perfect? Still, she lectured herself to play it cool. He may be offering her the one thing she wanted more than Nick but she wasn’t going to make his humble pie easy to eat.

“Ray not work out then?”

“He was completely incompetent. Never let emotions or loyalties get in the way of business, Sammy. You’re never too old to learn that lesson.”

“I think I remember saying he was no good, Bob.”

“Yes, alright, alright, you have me by the balls. I’m sorry, okay? I made a mistake. Now come back. We need you here.”

They were exactly the words she’d been waiting months to hear and yet they were apparently failing to excite her the way she’d fantasized. In the beginning she’d been obsessed with getting her job back but she suddenly realized that imperative had slowly waned. The more fun and stress-free and relaxing it had been at Birdie’s, the less she’d thought about the frenetic, big money, burning-the-midnight-oil pace of her old job.

Having learned there was more to life than spreadsheets and tax season, she was actually balking at going back to it all. Which was ridiculous.She wanted this. Right?

“I want double what I was on before.”

Bob spluttered for a bit but then so did she, internally. Where the hell hadthatcome from? Maybe the time away had made herreally think about her worth, her value to the company. She’d always given 200 per cent but had never been acknowledged or rewarded for it.

So, she guessed she’d soon find out how badly Bob really wanted her back.

“You drive a hard bargain.”

---