Free The Bouquet List by Barbara Deleo

need your help to get the restaurant where we want it, but you can’t dictate whom I see and when. If you’re not interested in me I can accept that, but I won’t have you acting as some sort of corporate babysitter. Are we clear?”
    His heart clenched tight in his chest. This was all about his rejection of her last night—she’d believed he couldn’t be interested in her, which was good, but seeing her so passionate and ready to stand up for herself made him even more sorry he’d had to turn her down.
    Even if he couldn’t be with her, Paulo wouldn’t be the one to take his place. That man would never be right for someone as sweet as Yasmin. She deserved someone who saw all the honest possibilities in the world, a man who would put her every whim first and understand her need for fun and laughter.
    “So,” he said pointedly, “you liked the way he was winking and smirking?”
    She pulled her lip between her teeth then released it. “Not particularly, but that’s not the point.”
    “It was sleazy, and if Paulo pulls anything like that again I’ll be telling him so and he’ll be off the project.” He started to walk toward the kitchen, and thankfully, this time she followed.
    She’d always been so quiet before, so studious and polite. This new assertiveness, as well as the self-confidence when she’d propositioned him last night, was becoming a turn-on, and he needed to get away from all this temptation, get the work at the Palace finished, and get back to his real life and the things that really made him happy.
    “What you do with your time,” he said over his shoulder, “won’t be an issue, because you won’t have any to spare. Neither of us will have time to socialize, or do anything outside the work we’re doing on the renovation.”
    He pushed the swing door and held it open for her, but she stepped toward him, then stopped and put her hands on her hips, her chest thrust slightly forward. He became aware of a soft, floral scent surrounding her, and when she ran her tongue across her top lip he had to concentrate on what she was saying. “And will I get a say in any of the renovation?”
    “Of course you will.” And of course she could go where and with whomever she wanted. But now, something made him want to keep her here with him for the next couple of weeks. And it was precisely that lack of focus that he wouldn’t succumb to. He couldn’t let anything distract him. Especially not Yasmin.
    Suddenly, her phone made its echoing doorbell sound. “And do you think you could change that damn ringtone while we’re working together? I keep thinking there’s a door-to-door salesman in your bag.”
    She was holding the phone in her hand and for once, she didn’t switch the sound off. “For your information, it isn’t a ringtone, it’s a mindfulness bell. A reminder to live in the moment, not to have regrets or to worry about the future. A reminder to appreciate what’s happening in the here and now.”
    The way her cheeks flushed and her eyes shone caused him to hesitate on his response. A mindfulness bell to remind her to live in the moment? What a way to live a life.
    What he wanted in this moment was to kiss her, lose himself in her, tangle his fingers in that ridiculous hair, and forget all about time.
    But that would be wrong. People had to be sensible, have maturity in making decisions and look to the long term, to their goals, not merely live for the here and now.
    “And another thing.” She pushed a strand of hair back over her shoulder. “I don’t want you to write off the idea of the long tables just yet,” she said, gesturing back toward the restaurant. “I’d like to have the chance to show you how it could look.”
    He grinned; he couldn’t help it. She wasn’t backing down, and good for her. “Okay, going out with who you want I’ll agree to,” he said, hoping like all hell it never happened, “as long as it doesn’t interfere with what we’re doing here. The