“Ugh, do you have to be such a guy?”

He swung around and damn it, he could feel the guilty expression on his face, even though he had no reason to feel guilty. Daisy gave in to the urge to cut and run when faced with Emma’s sarcastic tone. He decided the safest course of action would be to change the subject. “Glad you finally decided to join me. Don’t tell me you were working late because I know better.”

“You really missed your calling. You’d kill as a comedian.” When she pulled out the seat next to him, he forced his gaze away from the miles of legs revealed by the short skirt she wore. This was one of those times when he needed her to continue being a bitch before his cock snapped to attention.

Clearing his throat and trying to focus, he asked, “So . . . um, why exactly are we here? I think we already covered the fact that you’re dateless for your reunion, and I’m not even remotely interested in bailing you out of that dilemma. There is nothing you could do that’s gonna change my mind, honey, but go ahead and amuse me anyway.”

He settled back in his chair with a grin, suddenly interested to see where this would go. He had to give her credit: She was always inventive. If nothing else, he would have a good laugh and a drink before he headed home. Hell, if he played his cards right, maybe Daisy the server would be up for some company later. When Emma remained calm and confident instead of getting upset, he started to feel the first trickle of unease. What was he missing here?

She appeared to be studying her nails as she asked, “Are you sure about that, boss? There is nothing in the world that would convince you to help me out? Nothing at all?”

“No?” Shit, even he heard his statement come out more like a question. “Just spit it out, Emma, I’m tired of this. I can’t imagine where all of this is going.” Great, now I sound like some kind of pussy. She’s probably expecting me to start crying next.

She continued to stare him down for another minute before pulling what looked like a calendar out of her purse and plopping it on the table before them. When she swung it open to the month of December, he still had no idea what was going on. He had thought she needed a date now, not months ahead. She looked up at him and then slowly unfolded the calendar to its full length, displaying the picture that had been hidden. He felt the blood drain from his face. She had the nerve to pat his lifeless hand almost sympathetically before saying, “Ah, now it looks like we are on the same page.”

“Where . . . how?” he stuttered.

“It was quite by accident, I assure you, or something I like to call divine intervention. Mr. September dated my friend and I ended up with her calendar. A chance look through my old yearbook led to this moment.”

“You haven’t shown that to anyone, have you?”

Emma smiled at the strain in her usually unflappable boss’s voice. Yeah, he was shaken up. It was a little surprising because she suspected most men would be proud for a woman to see such an impressive picture. She might hate the man, but even she had to admit he was smoking hot on the calendar. Of course, most people weren’t as uptight as Brant, which was what she was banking on. “Nope, your secret is safe with me. I mean, that’s what friends do, right? They help each other out. You would do the same for me if I needed you, I’m sure.”

Her mouth fell open in shock when he quickly responded, “What I would really love to do is spank your ass until it shines, but I guess I’m fucked.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to say stuff like that to your assistant unless you’re working in a brothel or something.”

Brant quirked a brow at her. “Since when have we ever been concerned with what we say to each other? I don’t think you should say stuff to your boss like ‘blow me’ either, but that has never stopped you before.”

Emma nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’ve got me there. So-o-o, back to my original plan. I’m going to need you to accompany me to Pensacola, Florida, for my class reunion in two weeks. I checked our schedule and, as luck would have it, you have a trip scheduled for Miami in a month. I’m confident that we could move that up and kill two birds with one stone. We’d fly into Miami, take care of business and then catch a plane up to Pensacola. The reunion is on a Saturday night, so we can fly back home on Sunday afternoon and not miss much work.”

“Wow,” he chastised, “if you put that much thought into your daily work, you would be an unstoppable force at Danvers.”

“You know, it’s funny. I seem to get a lot accomplished when I don’t have someone interrupting me with stuff like ‘can you get me some lunch’ or ‘did you steal my number two pencils again?’ Stuff like that tends to suck the motivation right out of you.”

Brant couldn’t hold back a grin. Sometimes he thought that sparring with her was better than sex. That would explain the wood that he sported at the office when she was around for any length of time. He was a competitive man by nature and succumbing to blackmail over the calendar was not an easy thing for him. On the other hand, he didn’t want people at the office laughing over something he did back in college for his fraternity either. How bad could it be? He would stay at a hotel and she could stay with her family. They would really need to see each other only during their travel time and for a few hours at the reunion. If she weren’t so damn difficult most of the time, he would have offered to help her out anyway. This didn’t have to be a big deal. Knowing her, she would book them seats on the plane as far away from each other as possible. You had to love how predictable she was sometimes.

Chapter Five

Most people might be able to leave on a trip without having a root canal first, but Emma should have learned by now that she wasn’t most people. They had been putting in some long hours over the past couple of weeks to prepare for being away from the office for a few days. Now their flight was scheduled for this afternoon and she’d discovered she needed an emergency root canal just hours before they left for the airport.

The nagging discomfort that she had been feeling on and off for a month had turned into a full-fledged throbbing, at which point she finally broke down and went to her dentist. They had scheduled her procedure for today and she had little choice but to keep it. She couldn’t risk going out of town and having the pain become unbearable. She might have bent the truth a bit when she assured them that her traveling companion would be taking care of her. But she had already arranged for a car to pick her up at her apartment and drop her at the airport. She knew her mouth would probably be numb for the entire flight. After they arrived in Miami, she would crash for the evening and sleep in the next day while Brant went to his meeting. No problem, right?