Page 59 of Teasing Her Grumpy Boss

He ended it just as it hit hot.

She pushed him back and sat up again. ‘Why are you here?’ She sounded defensive, trying to cover up her desperate desire.

‘I’ve got a proposition for you.’

Forget her heart accelerating speedway-style, this time it was as if he’d hit the blast-off button and her heart were the rocket rapid-firing to Mars.

‘What kind of proposition?’ Could he hear the way it was beating? She could hardly hear herself speak above the thump in her ears.

He was still for a moment. ‘I’m needing a bar manager.’

Job. It was job-related. Her heart slammed down to the heels of her cow girl boots. Or would if she were wearing them. As far as she knew he still had them. So it was to the soles of her sandals that it sank, squashed.

‘You see—’ his smile was slightly self-mocking ‘—I find myself with this bar to look after and I need someone to manage it for me.’

‘I thought it had been sold.’

‘It has.’

‘So how come you’re still worrying about it?’

‘Because I bought it.’

‘What?’

His smile widened. ‘I bought it.’

She sat up, jaw hanging a mile open. You bought Principesa? Why did you do that? How did you do that? Do you just happen to have half a million sitting in the bank or something? Did you just fancy a new business?’

‘I like it. I like being there.’

‘Haven’t you got enough on your plate?’

‘Probably. But I’m a man who likes a challenge.’

She clamped her mouth shut as she absorbed what he was saying. He’d bought the bar. And he wanted her to run it. She should be happy. She should be saying, ‘Fabulous, yeah. I’ll be there.’ But it was all wrong. Something major was missing.

She felt sadder than she had in all the days just past and felt the sting of tears threatening.

Sure, he still wanted her. But just as his bed mate? His sleeping pill in human form?

Not good enough.

She didn’t want to be his modern mistress. She didn’t want a casual agreement between two consenting adults. What was happening to her? She’d come over all fairy tale and knight on white charger and she wantedhappy ever after.She didn’t want to be his bed partner for as long as he felt like it. She didn’t want to have him finish with her when he was bored and leave her working in his bar and having to watch him with other women. And there would be other women. She’d been wrong about him. Sure, he wore a suit, but in no way was he boring. He was so attractive. He was offering her the job of her dreams but she couldn’t do it. The price was too high.

‘Um. Thanks for thinking of me, Daniel, but I’m afraid I can’t.’

He scrutinised her relentlessly. ‘Why not?’

How did she answer that without giving herself away completely? She focused on a patch of the grass about three feet away. ‘Um.’ Help, brain, think!

‘Does it help if I tell you that I bought the bar because I believe in you? That I believe you can run it better than anyone? And that I believe you can stick at it?’

No, it didn’t help. Because she had no desire to stick at that particular bar unless she also had his heart well and truly won.

‘I’m sorry, Daniel, but…’

‘But what?’ he whispered.

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