Free Only with You by Lauren Layne Page B

you had to do it yourself!”
    “I didn’t,” she evaded. “Jeff helped me.”
    His eyes narrowed at that. “Jeff who?”
    He stared at her blankly.
    “Jeff Andrews?” she prompted. “Your vice president of—”
    “I know who Jeff Andrews is, Sophie. What I don’t understand is why one of my top-ranking executives is helping my secretary play with stuffed animals while I try to get my fucking teeth cleaned.”
    “Hmm, that’s quite the potty mouth, Mr. Professional.” Sophie huffed. Although part of her was happy to hear the f-bomb. It made the man somewhat more human. “Look, I can see that you’re upset, and I can’t really blame you. I’d feel guilty too if I were in your shoes.”
    “Guilty.” He folded his arms over his chest. “You think I feel guilty?”
    She nodded and patted his arm condescendingly. “Of course you do. The only reason I was wrestling that big deer down by myself is because I was paranoid that I’d be fired if I didn’t! So really it’s your fault I almost broke my neck.”
    “That’s absurd.”
    “Is it? You gave me a one-week trial period of employment and then asked me to get rid of these stupid animals. It was either pull Davie down or get fired.”
    As far as explanations went it was a bit dodgy, but Sophie opted to stand her ground and see where it went. She was finding it sort of enjoyable to see him all worked up.
    “You named the dead—okay. Okay.” Gray closed his eyes as though praying for strength. “Ms. Dalton…”
    “Sophie.”
    “Ms. Dalton, first of all, the one-week trial was in no way contingent upon your ability to redecorate my office. And second of all, if you did assume the two were related, why in God’s name would you wait until the last possible moment on Friday afternoon to complete the task?”
    Sophie waggled a finger at him. “Now, that I actually can explain. See, I intended to do it sooner, but it’s taken me this long to find Davie and crew a good home. I couldn’t just put them in the Dumpster, and none of the local donation centers accept…you know…dead animals. And Martin didn’t get back to me until this morning because he’s been in Europe, but good news! He’ll take his babies back!”
    “I’m so relieved.”
    “You don’t look relieved. You look annoyed.”
    His jaw clenched. “Of course I’m annoyed! I came into my office expecting to catch up on filing and instead I find my assistant teetering idiotically on a ladder!”
    “That would be upsetting to your delicate constitution,” she murmured.
    “For someone who is so paranoid about getting fired, you’re certainly not taking care to get on my good side.”
    Sophie bit her lip. He made a valid point.
    Poking the beast with sarcasm wasn’t exactly the way to ensure long-term employment.
    “Sorry,” she said halfheartedly. “I’ll try to be more biddable.”
    “I doubt you know the meaning of the word,” he muttered as he turned and headed toward his desk.
    She followed after him, deer mission abandoned. “Just out of curiosity, if the one-week employment trial wasn’t based on the décor update, what was it based on?”
    His head snapped up, and something hot seemed to run over his features. “You know full well what I was trying to determine. Whether or not we could avoid that .” He nodded toward the ladder.
    Sophie flushed slightly. Somehow she didn’t think he meant her falling so much as his catching her fall.
    She hated that he made her feel disoriented. Her eyes narrowed. What was he after? He’d made it clear that even if he was attracted to her, he didn’t like her. Which meant only one thing…
    The jerk was probably toying with her.
    So she hit back.
    “How’s Brynn?” she asked, keeping her voice casual and plopping into the chair across from his.
    His hands stilled from rummaging in his drawers, and she could tell the question had caught him off guard.
    “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”
    Sophie took the high road and