Free I Hate You by Shara Azod Page B

convincing. That was certainly working out well—not.
    “Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day,” Ms Jenkins offered, not at all helpfully. “Maybe you should ask her out? Show her a good time. This back and forth between the two of you isn’t getting you anywhere.”
    Egan opened his mouth to argue, but closed it as a thought occurred to him. Chanti would never agree to go out with him no matter what he said to her. That didn’t mean he couldn’t romance her properly. He just needed a little help.
    “We need to have the quarterly reports done for sponsors and benefactors by Wednesday right?” Egan knew damn well they did. He also knew the one division head who hadn’t yet turned in her numbers was Chanti.
    Ms. Jenkins squinted her eyes, fixing him with one of her patented “ what are you cooking up ” looks. Every employee at Open Arms had been on the receiving end of it at one time or another. “Egan Braun....”
    “Hear me out,” he cut his boss off, eager to get his plan out before she could tell him all the ways it wouldn’t work. “I think I should work from home tomorrow. But I need you to tell Chanti she needs to get the numbers to me tonight.”
    Ms. Jenkins frowned, her hands going to her hip. “Why would she when she could just email them to you?”
    Egan had to grin at his own brilliance, such as it was. “Because we both know she hasn’t input anything into a spreadsheet. She never does, she just hands me the raw data. If you wait until around four o’clock, she’ll have no choice. Especially since I have to have those numbers tonight. And wouldn’t you know it, I have a lunch meeting with several of our biggest donors. Too bad I have to go straight home after that.”
    Chanti would be pissed, beyond it really. She was going to be livid. Although she could be positively lethal when mildly annoyed, get her to the highest level of piss-tivity and she forgot to act rationally. Egan knew he wasn’t the only one to feel the heat between them. He'd seen the way her breasts tightened earlier, saw the way she squeezed her thighs together whenever they started the verbal war. It killed him not to be able to take her in his arms and give in to what he was certain they both really wanted. If this worked out the way he was praying it would, he’d never let her get away with denying what was between them again.
    “You now this just might get you killed, right?” Ms. Jenkins sighed, a sure sign she was going to give in. Egan had to repress the urge to jump up and down like a kid.
    “But if it doesn’t I get the girl.”
    Ms. Jenkins stood there for a few, long, painful moments, before shaking her head. “Fine, but if this backfires, I knew nothing about it.” She shook her head again as she turned to leave. “I’ll be praying for you, son. You’re going to need it.”
    No shit, but it was a chance he had to take.   
     

 
    I Seriously Hate Him...
     
    Chanti was mad enough to spit nails. It didn’t really matter she had absolutely nothing better to do with her night, but that didn’t mean she wanted to spend it dropping off crap at Egan Braun’s house. Maybe she should’ve given him the damn numbers a week ago, but she’s always turned them in at the last minute. He had to choose now to work from home? Probably had a hot a hot date with some big breasted bimbette. The thought made her a little sick to her stomach. Alone with no one watching she could freely admit she hated the nameless, faceless bitch who got to kiss Egan, touch him in a way a woman touches a man she wants.
    Long ago, when Egan had first started at Open Arms he had attempted to flirt, but Chanti hadn’t been foolish enough to take him seriously. A man like that was used to having women tripping all over themselves just to get him to smile at them. Independently wealthy, devilishly handsome, witty and possessing more charm than any man had a right to, he probably had a harem of women, one for each night of the month. Instead