Second Chance (9 page)
Authors: Audra North
He raised his left hand and began ticking off on his fingers as he named his conditions. Thumb first. “I won’t accept any solution that involves lowering the amount that every employee gets, or excluding anyone from the bonus.” Index finger. “No loans,” he repeated. Middle finger. “If you make up the difference in these six days, I will double your signing bonus.” He paused, studying her face for a reaction to the proposal that he had just laid out. She had been promised a signing bonus of thirty thousand dollars after completing her third month of employment and it was essentially a done deal, in his mind. He had meant it before, when he’d said that she was the best.
She let out a little yelp at that, and he had to suppress a smile. For some reason, he was starting to find her awkwardness endearing. Or maybe he always had. It certainly hadn’t bothered him before.
He pushed past the thought and touched his ring finger. “But if you do not manage to make up the difference, I’ll add that extra thirty thousand dollars to the fund, instead, as part of the missing two hundred thousand.”
“I can’t allow—” she began, but he cut her off.
“
My
conditions, remember?” He said it with a wink and a smile, making her blush. It shouldn’t have thrilled him to see it, but he couldn’t stop an image from forming, of Meredith lying on his bed, naked, looking as pink and flushed all over her body as she did on just her cheeks right now.
He barely managed to suppress a groan.
Focus, man.
She was looking away from him again, probably beating herself up over this. She was the kind of person who’d be convinced that it was her personal responsibility to fix, even though the missing money wasn’t her fault.
Andrew didn’t like what that implied about the former CFO, both professionally and personally. Over the years they’d worked together, Bob had become more of a father figure to Andrew than a colleague. That Bob might have done something shady with the money wasn’t something he could think about right now. He’d deal with that later.
“Final condition. You’ll work alongside me, in my office, for the next six days. Any possibility you come up with, any number that can be tweaked even a little bit, I want you to share it right away. It’s not because I don’t think you can handle it. But this is just too big for me to take it less than one hundred percent seriously.”
Her throat worked in a delicate ripple. He’d never noticed before just how fine her skin was, pale and smooth and probably soft to the touch.
Get a grip.
He stepped back toward her, offering his right hand. “What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
Those green eyes darkened, the pupils growing large in the irises. An irrepressible thrill shot through him, something primal that made him feel like a predator in the midst of hunting a particularly juicy prey.
Her gaze flickered from his outstretched hand to his face before her warm fingers slid into his grip.
“I accept.”
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Acknowledgments
This book was something of a whim—a passing thought that turned into a short story that turned into novella. Thank you, Tahra Seplowin, for encouraging me to run with this, and for the valuable input and inspiration.
To my husband and children, thank you, as always. You make my life better every day just by being you.
To Gwen Hayes, for a fabulous critique and edit, I am so grateful. You are brilliant, funny, and talented in equal measure, and you made this book so much better through your hard work.
And finally, thank you to my readers for all your support and love! I appreciate every one of you.
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