Free Only with You by Lauren Layne

flaws, so if you want me gone, you’ll have to haul me out by the hair,” she shot back.
    Sophie saw his fingers flex briefly and suspected there was nothing he’d like more than to follow through with her suggestion. But the hot, angry Gray was slowly fading.
    Sophie watched with an odd pang of disappointment as the Ice Man returned, and he slowly lowered to his chair. For a moment he’d seemed so…alive.
    “How about a compromise?”
    She squinted warily. “What sort of compromise?”
    “It’s more of a trial period, actually. One week to see if we can put the past behind us.”
    Sophie considered. One week. She could do that. Probably.
    People separated the personal and professional all the time, and half of her friends hated their bosses. Maybe her situation wasn’t so different after all.
    And the sad truth was, she needed this job. It was either this or ask her parents for a loan. Her stomach turned at the thought.
    “Okay,” she snapped, before she could change her mind. “It’s a deal.”
    She expected him to respond with smugness. After all, she had just agreed to his terms. With no arguing. Everything she knew about him so far said he should be gloating.
    Instead he looked…panicked.
    But about what?
    Once again, the flicker of humanity she thought she saw disappeared from his face in an instant.
    “Fine,” he said with a dismissive wave. “We’ll reassess the situation next Friday.”
    She nodded in agreement. “And in the meantime? Anything you want me to do besides answer the phone and follow your bidding?”
    His silver eyes seemed to burn hot before he shifted his gaze to the wall behind her. “How do you feel about decorating?”
    Sophie shrugged. “Amenable.” I hope you like pink.
    “Amenable,” he repeated. “That must be a first for you.”
    He waved his hand in the general direction of the dead animal gallery. “Get rid of all this. Donate it, sell it, keep it, ship it back to Martin Brayburn. I don’t care what you do with it so long as you get it out. Once that’s complete, we’ll discuss what I want to replace it with. If anything.”
    “Should I be writing this down?” she asked sweetly.
    “If you think you need to.”
    Sophie rolled her eyes. “Anything else? Boss?”
    “Mr. Wyatt,” he corrected.
    “Whatever.” She was already heading to the door.
    “Sophie,” he called, just as she was about to walk out.
    She felt a weird jolt at hearing him say her first name. She ignored said jolt. “Yeah?”
    “Do you think we’ll be able to survive a week of…this?”
    She didn’t have to ask what he meant by “this.” But of course neither one of them would put a name to it and say it out loud.
    Not with their history. Not with their work relationship. Not with her sister.
    “I don’t know, Mr. Wyatt,” she responded. “But it will be fun to find out.”

C HAPTER FIVE
    I don’t think Bambi would appreciate how much trouble you’re giving me,” Sophie muttered at the deer head that was staying stubbornly mounted to Gray’s office wall. “Oh God. You’re not Bambi, are you?”
    The thought made her shiver, which in turn made her teeter on the ladder.
    “Pull it together, Sophie,” she commanded once she’d regained her balance.
    She pushed Bambi out of her mind and tried to force herself to think of the hunting trophy as a thing .
    Davie the Deer was the last to go, and was proving far more stubborn than Elvis the Elk, Morrie the Moose, and Benny the Bear.
    Not that she’d gotten attached to the poor guys while she’d been taking them down or anything.
    “Come on, Davie,” she said, easing her hands around to where the plaque met the wall. “Work with me here. This looked so easy when Jeff did it.”
    Jeff Andrews was Brayburn’s vice president of sales and had become one of her first friends at the company ever since he’d rescued her Red Vines from the vending machine on her first day. He’d offered to help her out, and she’d happily taken