Page 3 of The Naughty or Nice Deal

You’d think such a good businessman would be better at lying.

MAEVE: No, there isn’t. I run your calendar. I know when things are due. Try a little harder next time.

I don’t know why Hayden wants to pull me away from my nice evening. Maybe I made his coffee wrong this morning, and this is his revenge or something.

Putting a smile back on my face, I look up and realize that Kyle has an odd look on his face. He must’ve noticed that I asked him a question and didn’t even hear the answer.

“Everything okay?” He tilts his head to one side.

“Everything’s fine,” I assure him. “My boss is just demanding sometimes. Even after hours.”

“Ah. That’s so annoying,” Kyle says sympathetically. “Honestly, shitty bosses are one of the big reasons I quit and work for myself now.”

“Oh?”

Our wine arrives and the sommelier gives a little speech about it. I nod along and try to look interested, but I feel a bit bad. Kyle clearly cares about this and probably thinks he’s impressing me. He has no idea I’ve had to hear all kinds of speeches about fancy wine before, and that it just reminds me of a time when a man did all he could to make me feel small.

The wine is poured, and Kyle holds up his glass. “A toast to a lovely evening.”

I raise my glass. “I’ll drink to that.”

A shadow looms over our table as we start to clink our glasses together, and I look up, expecting to see our server.

But it’s not the server at all.

It’s Hayden.

He’s still dressed in the suit he wore at the office earlier. All black, a bespoke design that hugs his broad shoulders and whispers of quiet luxury. It’s classy and sophisticated while also making him look incredibly intimidating. Hayden never dresses in anything less than the most impeccable suits, the king of every room he walks into. I suppose it helps that he’s six foot four and handsome as sin, with neatly styled dark hair and rich brown eyes that miss nothing.

“What are you doing here?” I blurt out without thinking.

Hayden doesn’t look angry, exactly, but his expression barely shifts as he arches an eyebrow. “You might be in charge of my calendar, but I’m in charge of you, Keller. And you’re needed back at the office.”

Kyle frowns. “You realize it’s seven at night, right?”

Hayden gives Kyle a cutting glance that I’ve seen him give to dozens of people he considers idiots over the years. Everyone withers under that glare, and Kyle is no exception, although I can tell he tries to hide it.

I exhale slowly, setting down my wine glass as I fix Hayden with an icy stare. “If you’re mysteriously late for meetings for a week and lose your reservation at restaurants, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”

Hayden shrugs. “Then you can kiss that Christmas vacation goodbye.”

“And oops, you can kiss those filled-out contracts goodbye. Guess you’ll have to do the tedious work of initialing all those sections all over again.”

Kyle glances back and forth between us, seeming annoyed. “Are you serious right now?”

“Yes,” Hayden says calmly, as if he’s reminding Kyle that the sky is blue. He pulls out his wallet and drops a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills on the table—enough to cover the wine ten times over. “Now you won’t have to blow your entire paycheck on a bottle of wine to try and impress her. Not that it would work.”

He’s right, the bottle Kyle ordered didn’t impress me at all, but I’m not going to let Hayden know that he’s read the situation correctly. This is what I get for trying to have a social life.

I stand up, gripping my purse tightly. “You,” I hiss, “are impossible.” I glance over at Kyle. “I’m so sorry. I had a… a nice time. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“But don’t count on it.” With those words, Hayden’s hand settles at the small of my back, a firm, proprietary weight as he steers me away from the table and toward the door. “When I need you at the office, I need you now,” he murmurs as we walk. “You’d think after the fifth time or so, you’d have learned that.”

I snort. “Funny, I was going to say the same thing about you learning to respect work-life boundaries.”

Yeah, this isn’t the first date of mine that my boss has interrupted.

I think what it is, honestly, is that Hayden works harder than everyone else. He’s always in the office before me, and always still there when I leave, and I tend to get there pretty early to make sure everything’s set up and I don’t leave until everything is perfect. The cleaning crew apparently all know him. He gets them personalized Christmas gifts every year.