Page 13 of Snowbound in Her Boss's Bed

He joked, but he was also serious.

He meant every word he said, even when his delivery was shameless.

Sighing out the last of her irritation on the point, she updated her spreadsheet, elaborating and specifying the menu she had rattled off to him facetiously.

Eyeing the updated menu with narrowed eyes, a part of her grumbled, knowing the necessary tastings would have to be squeezed into her already tight schedule.

The rest of her acknowledged that the revision was an improvement over the original.

With his input, the new menu was more interesting and memorable, and far more aligned with her concept.

“Wonderful work, Ms. Howard. Now that’s sorted, please continue. I believe we had arrived at entertainment.”

He spoke as if he were a king, generously doling out his approval, and Miri resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

She didn’t know why it was so hard to maintain control of her reactions when it came to the man at her side.

It was probably just that everything he said and did was provoking.

If he could have managed to stop behaving as if the entire world worked for him for more than three minutes, it might have been easier to keep a handle on herself.

Never mind that she did work for him.

They continued through the remaining elements of the gala in generally the same manner—Mr. Silver waving his dismissive hand of approval to most of what she presented with periodic breaks for criticism that goaded her into improvement.

That he seemed to understand her intentions without needing explanations only made it that much more irritating each time he lambasted the elements of her plans that were merely acceptable or expedient.

But to both of their credits, the event improved at each and every point at which he stopped her.

When they were done, Miriam was confident that if this gala didn’t blow its attendees away, it would be because those attendees were dead inside.

Unfortunately, her neck was also stiff and tense from the effort it had taken to rein herself in every time her mind wanted to dash off on a wild tangent related to his voice or brace for his next critical interruption.

Bringing a hand to rub her neck, she checked her watch, only to startle at the time.

They were late—by an hour.

How had they gone over by a whole hour?

By the way Mr. Silver had gone on and on about how limited his time was, she would have expected him to have set an alarm to keep them on schedule.

As it was, going over the hour threatened to put even her off schedule.

Yes, flying by private jet saved a lot of time, but losing an hour meant losing the chance to get home and change her clothes before she headed out to meet her friends.

But out loud, all she said was, “It looks like we’ve gone over our two hours.”

She packed her things back into her bag with a new urgency.

“What?” His response was swift, that stunning voice of his filled with genuine and not exactly pleased surprise.

Even caught off guard it was kind of sexy.

Shocked at herself at the thought, Miri moved with even more purpose.

She needed to get out of Colorado and back to Los Angeles. A warm night with friends would wash this whole encounter away—which she obviously needed.

They might work well together, but she was grateful it wasn’t going to be an all-the-time thing. Three hours in the company of Mr. Silver was simply more than her body and mind could handle.

---