Page 17 of Wine or Lose

Still, I couldn’t make it that easy on her, so I countered with something much smaller. She groaned but shot back a new number. Far less than what she’d initially asked, but a budget I could get on board with.

“Deal.”

Amara quirked an eyebrow. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” I said, offering her a reassuring smile. “You have until the end of summer to prove to me that these are good ideas that will make the company money instead of costing it. And by make money, I mean I want to see a return on every single penny you put into this stuff. We’ll re-evaluate at the end of Q3 and go from there.”

She blinked briefly in surprise before her golden eyes narrowed on me, as if she couldn’t quite believe I was willing to work with her on this. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it myself. And fuck…I felt that stareeverywhere.My chemical reaction to this woman was pissing me off. My cock and hormones really needed to get it together.

“You do realize I could call a meeting and vote your ass out of this company, right? Then I could do whatever the fuck I wanted, and you couldn’t say a word about it.”

“You could,” I agreed. “But you won’t.”

“And what makes you so sure?”

“Because,” I said, rising to my feet. Brazenly, I moved toward her, coming to a stop at her side and spinning her desk chair so she faced me. With one hand gripping the arm rest, I reached up with the other and tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear. Those silky strands were the softest things I’d ever felt, but I needed to remain focused, not grab a handful, tug her head back, and capture her mouth with mine. Her sharp intake of breath when my fingertips skated across her cheekbone told me just how strongly she reacted to my physical presence in her personal space. I wished I could say she was the only one. “You thrive on the challenge. Youlikeme standing in your way. Youlikethat you being the boss doesn’t intimidate me. You likethatIownyou.”

I loved knocking this girl off her game, forcing her out of her comfort zone. One of these times, I knew she was going to do something she couldn’t take back. I was biding my time, waiting for her to prove to me she was exactly who I thought she was.

And hell, if one of her moments of weakness resulted in her letting me sink into her body…well, that was just the cherry on top.

After all, what was more unprofessional than the boss fucking her CFO?

She sucked in a breath, slowly releasing it before she said, “You have no idea what Ilike.”

I rose to my full height and turned away from her. When I reached the door, I paused and looked back, grinning at the blush in her cheeks, and the way her chest rose and fell.

“Maybe not, princess. But I look forward to finding out.”

“I should really fireyou for that,” I said to Cindy after Calvin had disappeared down the hall. “You’re supposed to announce people, or stop them from coming in altogether.”

“I didn’t hear any screaming in there, so I’m assuming it went well?” she asked, ignoring my comment.

It went a little too well. I’d expected it to be a knockdown, drag out fight. Instead, he’d approached me with…a plan. A way to give me what I wanted without potentially hurting our bottom line as a company. While he royally pissed me off—simply looking at his face, that damn dimple and the way his deep red-brown hair waved over his head always made my blood pressure rise to dangerous levels—he was good at his job.

And okay, the words he’d uttered as he leftmayhave had my toes curling inside my heels a bit. I chalked that up to them being sore and smushed.

“I got what I wanted…on a trial basis,” I told her.

“Better than nothing,” she assured me.

“That remains to be seen,” I grumbled. Her eyebrows drew together, and before she could question me, I changed the subject. “What’s on the agenda for the rest of the day?”

I flicked my wrist, checking my watch. It was shortly after three p.m., and I was already looking forward to getting home, uncorking a bottle of wine, and sinking into my bathtub with my Kindle. There was a new small town romance calling my name.

“You’ve got a meeting with Liam and those grower douche bags in twenty minutes.”

“Cindy,” I scolded.

“Sorry, boss,” she said sheepishly. “After that, though, you’re free until Monday.”

I gave her a tight smile before moving to the free standing armoire near her desk. If I was walking the grounds, I wasn’t going to be doing it in my Louboutins.

Once my beat up tennis shoes were laced, I clipped my hair back, slipped my arms into a Chateau Delatou branded zip-up hoodie, and saluted Cindy. “Wish me luck.”

“You don’t need luck,” she reminded me. “You’re Amara Delatou. You own these guys.”

I certainly owned something, but it wasn’t the men I’d been forced to surround myself with in this job. Five months in and I was still struggling to get anyone to take me seriously. Calvin Ryder was simply the tip of the iceberg, albeit a particularly sharp, pointy, and obnoxious one.

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