Head Over Heels for the Boss (Donovan Brothers) Read Online Free PDF Page B

that littered the floor, along with the green spongey-looking stuff that was usually put in the containers for the arrangements to hold the flowers in place. The rubber gloves she wore were tinted green from finger to palm. He’d spent all day thinking about her—in a supervisory way—and she hadn’t given him two thoughts.
    “I just wondered where you were,” Devon said.
    “I told you I had arrangements to make.”
    He carefully walked closer. “I know, but I assumed you’d check in. When you didn’t, I decided to check on you.”
    She peeked up at him, her face a study in confusion. “Why?”
    “Because that’s what employers do.”
    She sighed. “Seriously? If I don’t check in you’re going to come looking for me?”
    If this was part of her problem with working with him, she might as well know the truth. “Yes.”
    “And just how often do I have to call and use precious time to report the obvious?”
    He had to work to keep from agreeing with her. Why did her insubordination sound like logic? “Often enough that I know where you are during business hours.” He walked to her table, picked up a pink carnation.
    She slid her gaze over to his. “Don’t touch the flowers unless you intend to help me finish this.”
    He laughed, suddenly understanding a bit of what was going on. Not only had she always set her own hours and schedule, but she’d spent her entire career being the one to give orders, not take them. “Did anybody ever tell you you’re sassy?”
    “Most of my professors, and my parents about once a week.”
    He had to stifle another laugh. She was such a smarty pants. It almost seemed a shame that he was going to have to break her. “You don’t even try to deny it?”
    “No sense to it.”
    No. He supposed not. He met her gaze again. “You know, as your boss, I’m going to have to train that out of you.”
    She laughed. “You can try.”
    All his male hormones whooshed through him like a sled dog team at the starting pistol for the Iditarod. “Is that a dare?”
    She put a rose in between two white flowers he couldn’t name, stood back, and admired her handiwork. “Nope. I think it was more like a warning.”
    The challenge of it rippled through him. He should have wanted to yell. Instead he only saw fun. He couldn’t remember the last time he had fun. He couldn’t remember ever joking with a co-worker. Yet, somehow with Isabelle it seemed okay. “Fine. Then I’ll warn you that I don’t take insubordination lightly.”
    Their eyes met. The light in hers flickered, and he saw it. Attraction. Interest. Something .
    “Okay.” Her soft, breathy voice was back. But outside of the office he heard it for what it was: an involuntary reaction that happened when a woman was attracted to a man. His senses shifted and sharpened, making him remember her responses to him in the office and interpret them differently. She couldn’t like him because they didn’t know each other that well. But could she have a crush on him? Like when she had asked him to her prom—
    When she was seventeen and desperate because her boyfriend had just broken up with her. If it had been any time in his life other than a few weeks after coming home from a deployment, he probably would have been kinder in the way he’d handled it. As it was, he’d abruptly told her no and walked away. And they’d forgotten it.
    Hadn’t they?
    He had, until now, but what if she hadn’t? What if he’d hurt her?
    Oh, crap. Maybe that was why she was having such a hard time dealing with him.
    He wasn’t the kind of man to have long-term relationships with women, but he also wasn’t the kind of guy who deliberately hurt women. He really hadn’t meant to hurt her. But all the circumstances around that prom invitation had been weird. He hadn’t been himself…
    She looked away. “So we’re both warned.” She set the fifth bouquet on the shelf by the door with the other four. “Since you’re here, how about going with me