Page 38 of Bad Boy Bachelor Christmas
Marge gave my cheek a firm pat before letting me straighten up. “That’s what I want to hear! I’m going to go find her and pick her brain. Cami? Where on earth did you disappear to, girl? Come along, Leslie. Let’s find that daughter of yours.”
Marge and her closest friend, Cami’s mother, bustled off down the hall, leaving Justin and me to continue welcoming viewers to his open house. The morning had already been a huge success, which, lucky for me, meant I hadn’t spent any one-on-one time with Winter.
After how things ended last night, I wasn’t sure she’d want to see me. It couldn’t have felt good to her ego to have me get up and walk out right before she was about to deck the halls and grab my balls. I’d wanted to go further with her, but things got real too quickly, and I’d been suddenly very aware of the fact that I hadn’t been with a woman since Veronica.
I couldn’t go further with Winter. It felt like I was betraying my beloved wife. Simultaneously, I’d hurt the girl who’d been busting her ass for my company, who I very much wanted to see in compromising positions, last night. Primarily on her back.
“Earth to North?”
I blinked as Justin waved his hand in front of my face. “Sorry. What?”
He chuckled. “Where’d you go, man? You were staring off into space.”
“Got a lot on my mind.”
“Does it happen to have anything to do with your sexy new intern? Because if it doesn’t, I wanted to see how you’d feel about me…” He trailed off and swayed his hips like a salsa dancer before pumping his eyebrows. “You know, taking her out for a night on the town?”
“No.”
“No, as in you weren’t thinking about her and she’s on the table, or no, she’s off limits?”
“Off limits,” I growled.
He held up both hands and backed off. “Okay, okay. Sheesh. I was just asking. Did you see how tight her ass looks this morning in those pants? Shit.” He whistled. “If I had a girl like that staying on my property, I’d—well, I’d do a lot of things to her. And those—”
“Stop, before I make you.”
Justin gave me a shit-eating grin. “I fucking knew it.”
“Knew what? That you’re a slimy little horndog?” I gave him a shove in his chest that sent him back several paces.
He recovered and smoothed out his suit jacket. “No, I knew that you were into her. I’ve seen the way you look at her. It’s exactly like how I look at her. So if I’m a horndog, so are you, champ.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Tell me you haven’t thought about being between those legs of hers and—”
“Justin,” I grated.
“And feeling just how amazingly—”
I closed in on him and backed him right up against the frame of the front door. Shoving a warning finger in his face, I snarled at him. “Do yourself a favor and stop talking before I throttle you with your own tie. Do you understand? She’s my intern and colleague, not a piece of meat to be served up on a platter. Any attraction I may or may not feel toward her is none of your business.”
He tugged at the collar of his shirt, undoubtedly imagining how easy it would be for me to actually strangle him with his own tie. “All right. All right. I fold.”
“Wise.”
I left Justin to continue greeting potential buyers at the door and stepped away to get a breather from him. He was just horsing around, and I knew he wanted me to get back in the saddle after losing Veronica, but I wasn’t ready. I might never be ready. He may not have been able to make peace with that, but I sure could.
After wandering the first floor and admiring all of Winter’s work for the tenth time that morning, I found myself in the kitchen, where she was charming potential buyers and making small talk with Marge and Leslie. Cami leaned on the kitchen island shoveling shortbread cookies into her mouth. She gave me a squirrel-like smile when she caught me lingering in the doorway, watching Winter.
Why was everyone up my ass about my fucking intern?
It was like I had a giant red sticker on my forehead that said,bailed right before things got good last night.
Winter spotted me for the first time and abruptly stopped talking. All eyes shifted to me, and she cleared her throat before recovering smoothly, picking up brochures from the island beside the plate of cookies and passing them out to everyone in the kitchen.
“These are Waylon Farm Christmas trees,” she explained, “which are all throughout the house, you might notice. If you are in the market for a live tree this year and you want something that will make your guests gasp when they see it, call or email us. All our contact info is on the back of the brochure. We do special events as well, not just trees for your living room.”
