Page 31 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

“I thought I only wanted to get in her pants.”

“Oh, I know you do. But do it while you’re here and Noah really will kill you if you don’t make an honest woman of her.”

She had a point, one I hadn’t considered. Wooing Jill in front of her family meant things had to be more serious, meant I couldn’t just bed her and walk away. I should get the hell out of there, but I remembered Jill’s smile when I caught her off guard, the way her expression shuttered when I got too close. I couldn’t walk away.

“I’ll take my chances.”

Her grin widened. “Excellent. You settle in. I’ll break the news to Noah and keep him away from you at least ‘til morning.” She had her phone out, texting furiously as she spoke. “Oh, dear, look at that. Another of Noah’s little ones has come down with the stomach bug. He’d better hurry home.”

“You don’t need to lie to your brother for me,” I said. “I can handle him.”

She slid her phone into her back pocket and patted my shoulder. “Sure you can, tough guy. But Mom will kill me if you two wake up the other guests with a shouting match.”

She strolled out and shut the door behind her. I locked it, just in case her lie wasn’t enough to get Noah to back off. I wasn’t worried that he’d best me, but I’d rather not show up to breakfast having beaten up Jill’s brother.

I undressed down to my boxer briefs and stretched out on the bed. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t settle. My whole plan was off-kilter. If Jill wouldn’t open up at work, how would I get her to open up around her family?

***

“I know things must be going bad if you’re calling me at eight in the morning and not in bed with Jill,” Agatha said.

“I appreciate your belief that I can work that fast, but I got in after ten last night. I haven’t seen her, yet.”

“Mm-hmm,” she said in a tone I recognized.

“But things are going badly. It turns out Jill is vacationing at her mother’s bed and breakfast. Last night, I saw Noah and met their youngest sister, May.”

“So, you’re back in the city, then?”

“I’m not going to give up on her just because of a small bump in the plan.”

“Honey, that is not a bump, that is a train wreck. Two trains carrying explosive materials that crash into a nuclear power plant kind of train wreck.”

“May thinks I should stay. She likes the romance of the whole thing.”

Agatha chuckled. “That is not romance, Alex. That is class one felony bullshit. And now she’s got the whole family there to back her up when she accuses you of stalking and takes out the restraining order.”

“She wouldn’t do that,” I said, not at all sure she wouldn’t. “I’m staying. I just need to know how to play this. Do I show up at breakfast in front of her whole family or wait to run into her?”

“Don’t be an idiot, boy. The whole family already knows you’re there. Be your charming self and go to breakfast like everything’s normal. What did you tell her little sister about why you’re there?”

“I told her the truth. I think she’s on my side.”

There was such a long silence I looked at the phone to make sure Agatha hadn’t hung up. “Do you want to go to jail?”

“May’s not an idiot,” I said. “She reminds me a bit of you, actually. She wasn’t going to believe anything else I told her.”

“You need to get in your car and get the hell back to Atlanta, Alex. I like this job, I even like you as a boss. I don’t want to have to attend your funeral and pretend to cry.”

“Don’t worry. If anything happens to me, Ajax Withers has been chomping at the bit to get his hands on my company and I’ve heard he’s a—”

The unmistakable sound of dead air and lack of music playing in the background let me know Agatha had hung up on me.

I threw my phone on the bed and rolled my shoulders. It was fine. I didn’t need her help. I could figure this out on my own and everything would be fine.

Just because Agatha, who was one row over from a bona-fide psychic, thought I’d end up dead didn’t mean…I dropped to sit on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands.

Shit.

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