Her Sexy Valentine Read Online Free PDF Page A

fit?”
    â€œBecause it’s not a prudent investment,” Carol said, crossing her arms. Which would’ve been more menacing if the movement hadn’t made the helium heart-shaped balloon bump her in the nose. She slapped at the balloon and lost a grip on the ribbon. It rose to the ceiling where it hit a hot light and burst. Everyone jumped.
    â€œNow then,” Carol continued, “I agree the idea of a company party has merit—if we did something on-site, it could be affordable, and something that everyone could enjoy. But I’m not convinced that employee bonuses are the best way to spend a half million dollars.”
    Janet bit her lip and shrugged at Luke. “Carol has a point, Luke. The vote has to be unanimous, and when it comes to financial matters, I’ll always follow Carol’s lead.”
    Luke nodded, then clapped his hands. “Since we all agree on a party, why don’t we move ahead with those plans, and take some time to think about the bonuses.”
    Carol narrowed her eyes. Meaning, take some time for him to campaign for support for the bonuses .
    â€œWe could reconvene Friday morning,” he said, then he cut his gaze to Carol. “If we reached an agreement that morning to pay a bonus, could we have the checks printed in time to give to employees at the party that afternoon?”
    Carol pursed her mouth. “ If we reached an agreement, it would be possible, I suppose.”
    â€œOkay,” Luke said with a grin. “Let’s have a party!”
    As the meeting broke up, Carol marveled how everyone gravitated to Luke. He was animated as he spoke to Teresa, the Director of Marketing, whose team handled employee events and would be coordinating the party. Carol flashed back to this morning when shehad straightened Luke’s tie on the elevator. For a few seconds, she had detected something between them, and for a few moments, had been almost… excited about the prospect of seducing him. Standing here, she conceded a little disappointment that even though she knew she’d made the right business decision for her conscience, she would occasionally think about what might have been. Sure, she’d been planning to dump him after the seduction…but it might’ve been fun along the way…
    Then Luke lifted his gaze to hers and over the heads of their peers, the proprietary look in his eyes sent an arrow of longing straight to her sex. She was reminded of the “take no prisoners” Cupid dressed in camouflage because Luke was looking at her as if she were the hill on which he was going to plant his flag.
    She knew that look: Luke was planning to change her mind about the employee bonuses. The question was, how far would she let him go to win her over?
    By standing up to him, she’d flipped the seduction production. Now who was seducing whom?

4
    The next morning, Thursday, Carol pulled into the parking lot at her regular time, so early that only the security guards were working. But she spied another car in the parking lot—a pewter-colored BMW—and smirked when she saw Luke emerge and hurry in her direction, smothering a yawn. She had to give him points for getting up with the birds to start trying to win her over.
    It was a frosty, still morning, cold enough to sting her nose and eyes. Carol lifted her gaze toward the rising sun to find an eerie, reddish hue bleeding over the horizon. The strange color of the winter sky left her with a sense of foreboding that enveloped her this time everyyear. A shiver skated down her spine. She couldn’t wait to put another Valentine’s Day behind her.
    Her phone chimed to let her know a text message had arrived. She slowed to unclip it from her purse and glanced at the screen. It was from Gabrielle Pope.
    Sensing all is not well, hope I’m wrong…let me know if I can help.
    Carol squinted. How could Gabrielle possibly know that something had derailed her seduction of