Page 38 of Seducing Her Scarred Boss

‘It’s short notice.’

‘Just offer to pay double and they’ll do it.’

She laughed. ‘Is that how you get what you want? Offer to pay?’

‘No. That wouldn’t work with you. I have to come up with other alternatives.’ He grinned. ‘Like abduction.’

She chomped on her lip some more. So tempted.

‘Phone up and get it done.’ He gave her a sideways look. ‘What else did you have scheduled for the weekend?’

‘A few things.’ Sophy dug out her phone and her diary. ‘What am I going to tell them?’

‘The truth.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘You don’t want to say you’re running off for a dirty long weekend?’

Oh, she couldn’t hesitate now. ‘We’re a secret, remember?’

She got on and made the calls. It took the whole twenty minutes they had left on the ground to rearrange everything she’d agreed to do in the weekend.

She put the phone away but her practical-oriented brain presented her with the next set of problems.

He lifted her face to his. ‘What’s wrong now?’

‘I don’t have any clothes with me.’

‘You don’t need any.’

‘Oh, we’re going to a naturist colony? Awesome.’ She aimed for sarcastic but was burning inside with the naughty promise of his words. ‘They don’t mind furry teeth either?’

He laughed. ‘There are shops where we’re going. We can get you a toothbrush, okay?’

‘Fabulous.’

The flight was only just over an hour. Christchurch. She knew the destination now, of course—the signs and the pilot’s message had given that one away. She was fine with it. Christchurch was a nice city and she hadn’t been there in ages.

But when they got into the rental car he headed straight onto the bypass and the motorway north.

‘Where are we going?’

‘I told you, you’ll see.’

After forty minutes or so she thought she had it figured. The rows and rows of vines in the fields gave it away. Waipara—part of the wine region.

‘We’re staying on a vineyard?’

‘No.’ He kept driving.

It was another hour, passing alongside a river and the weird shaped cabbage trees that looked like something Dr Seuss would have drawn. A few sheep were scattered in the fields. And then they got there—to Hanmer Springs, an Alpine spa town in the heart of a geo-thermal area. He slowed down as they drove through the main street of the village.

‘Look, swimsuit shop on the right,’ he pointed out. ‘Leopard print number in the window gets my vote.’

Oh, please.

‘Superette on the left for toothpaste and other essentials.’ He pointed with his hand. ‘Bakery for the best pies in the country.’

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