Page 2 of Sexy Bad Boss

“You were talking about the goat?” James’s voice is deep, so even when he speaks softly it carries a note of command. If I weren’t a veteran it would make me jump. Still, it makes me shiver. But not like I’m scared. It’s more of a tingle that one might get from a sensual caress. The kind one might hope to take further.

“I was telling her she should get a goat.” Chloe beams as she slips her arms around Paynt. “It’s what brought Paynt and I together. Perhaps a goat might help Myra find her own happiness.”

“Funny. You’re kidding, right?” James gapes at me, his brows raised to his neatly styled dark hair. “A goat? Most people choose actual pets, not barnyard animals.”

“Actually, perhaps that’s not such a bad idea,” Paynt agrees. “But if anyone needs a goat in their lives it’s my brother. Which is why I asked him to look after Spot while we’re on our honeymoon.”

“Really?” Chloe and I both ask at the same time. James isn’t an animal person. It’s not that they don’t like him. It’s more that he doesn’t know how to handle them, especially the energetic, inquisitive types.

“Sure.” James shrugs. “I can handle it. It’s only for a couple of weeks. I’ll get Myra to put it on the schedule. That way if I’m too busy, she’ll make sure it’s done. Won’t you, Myra?”

“Of course.” What else is a walking, talking PDA for other than keeping a schedule? And that’s all I really am, isn’t it? With no change on the horizon.

“Okay. Now, if you don’t mind, brother, I think we’ll quit hogging your attention and get a drink. Who knows how long it will be before our father rounds me up to complain about my life choices.”

“It’s just because Mom wants grandbabies.” Paynt winks at me behind James’s back.

“She already has one. She doesn’t need me to get more grandchildren,” James grouches. “Coming, Myra?”

Boy, does a drink sound good right now.

***

I’m standing on the raised deck, watching the lanterns down near the beach send a shimmer over the water. Somewhere between the I do’s and the happy couple saying their farewells, it’s gotten dark; the only light comes from the bulbs strung through the yard.

Garrett and Erin snuck off a little while ago to take their little girl home, but they probably just want some alone time now that they’re finally, officially together.

Ronnie, the only girl in the Frost pack, slunk out of here with the young man who helped her set up.

And James? I knew when I agreed to come to this wedding with him that it wasn’t a date. Not a real one anyway. I’ve accompanied him to enough events, business and otherwise, to know that when he asks me to join him, he just doesn’t want to go alone. Or he’s hoping to network.

I don’t know why I expected it to be different at a family event. One I was invited to on my own merit. One I could have brought a real man to. Of course, James is a real man. There’s no questioning that. Especially where my lady parts are concerned. Earlier, he’d taken my elbow and guided me around the yard, talking to this person and that, and I could have sworn there was an undercurrent of something possessive to it. When he asked me to dance I got lost in the way his hands felt on my hip as he held me slightly apart from him.

But that’s just James. Considerate and a gentleman. Nothing more. He isn’t trying to flirt with me. He isn’t offering anything more than a lovely evening with some business networking thrown in. Because he doesn’t see me as a woman. I’m an extension of his office that he can take wherever he goes. I may as well be a pissing robot rather than a flesh-and-blood female. Then again, maybe it’s like my father always said: I should stop being a daft cow and pull my finger out.

Which is why I’m hiding while he talks to his parents and says good-bye to the rest of Chloe and Paynt’s guests. Because it’s time. Either it’s going to happen or it isn’t, but unless I make a move on him, I’ll never know. And I can’t move forward without knowing.

James probably hasn’t even noticed I’m missing. But his mother must have because James looks up and scans the yard at the same time as his parents, all three gazes coming to rest on me.

James and his parents say something and then Jill waves at me. I raise my dirty martini in acknowledgment and polish it off, since Mr. and Mrs. Frost take this moment to depart, leaving a few stragglers heading toward the driveway where cars and cabs wait for them. James, however, heads in my direction.

We have to lock up the house when everyone’s left. And there’s the matter of the goat. Although I’m not sure where the delightful animal has gotten to, and I’m too busy staring at James to look for her right now. I can no longer hold out hope that he might decide there’s something more between us than business meetings and contracts. It’s now or never.

“What are you doing up here, My Supergirl?” James climbs the wooden steps of the deck. “Are you not enjoying your night?”

A star shoots across the lake. A small flare of light that promptly fizzles out. “Sometimes I hate that you call me that.” Almost as much as I like it.

He shakes his head and comes to stand beside me, close enough that I can smell the cigar he shared with his father earlier, and the quality scotch he likes so much. His suit is a little crumpled, and the jacket puffs out around the wrist of his hand that is shoved into the pocket of his slacks. “Sorry. I’ll stop. It just fits so damn well. The first day in my office, you saved my bacon.”

“I suppose that’s the definition of Supergirl, but saving your bacon is part of my job.” It’s the way he adds my to it that turns me upside down. “But things change. Don’t they?”

“That they do.” He unknots his tie, slides it from his neck, and shoves it into his jacket pocket. “It’s hard to believe I’m at the wedding of one of my siblings. Didn’t expect to see two brothers engaged at the same time. Mom’s ecstatic though, talking about all the grandbabies she’s going to be blessed with.”

“She has such a big heart.”

“I just wish she would leave me out of it,” he huffs.

“Don’t you ever think about it?” I twist to face him, the railing at my back.