Tall.
Buff as hell.
And he had these dreamy brown eyes that made me go mute every time he looked at me.
A man like that probably rode bulls on his weekends and felled trees with a single swing of his axe.
Easton was a pipe dream.
A quiet muse.
Someone to make my fantasies a little more vibrant.
He’d been on my mind more than a couple of times when I’d pulled out my magic wand vibrator late at night.
In fact, he’d been the only object of my self-care fantasies since the first time I saw him. I’d imagined ridingthatbucking bronco at least three times a week for the last six months.
I looked back down at the gift on my desk. This wasn’t from him. No way.
This was probably from the receptionist, Nicole. She wassucha sweetheart, and she knew I was sad being away from my family during the holidays. Or maybe it was from Lenore.
Carefully, I unwrapped the package, mystified that someone was going out of their way to gift things to me. If they knew how lonely I’d been, they’d realize their kindness was making my Christmas bright. I only wished I knew who it was so I could properly thank them.
There were two chocolate treats inside the box. Pulling out a tiny note, I saw that they were from a place called Stephanie andCory’s Sweets. That was the local bakery that I hadn’t been to yet.
The note said, ‘I hope you love these turtle doves as much as we enjoyed making them! Love, Stephanie and Cory.’
Hm, but no hints as to the sender.
I bit into one of the chocolates, andoh-my-lord, my entire world shifted on its axis. This was the best piece of chocolate I’d ever had in my life. I moaned quietly while I had a mouth orgasm.
Whoever my secret gifter was, they hadexcellenttaste in decadent things.
But right now, I needed to dig into my accounts. There was a discrepancy I’d spotted on the Bear Creek Lodge account. The budget was out of whack, and it looked like it was running nine thousand dollars over. I knew I hadn’t made a mistake in my calculations, so I needed to figure this out before I got in trouble. You don’t justlosenine thousand dollars. It had to be here somewhere.
Chapter 4
Easton
The box of chocolates was gone, and the gift wrap was in her trash can.
I wonder if she liked them.
I drifted past her desk, staring longingly at the back of her head. I’d never had a crush on a woman like I did on Violet. It had been instantaneous. From the first second I saw her, I’d been totally enamored.
And the more I’d observed her over the past few months, the more I liked her.
Violet was shy. And quiet like me.
She was also a hard worker. And a little bit quirky, even though she tried to hide that part of herself.
I wanted to dig deep into the layers of who she was, but I hadn’t figured out how to loop her into a conversation. It was hard to get to know someone who always had their head buried in their computer.
Plus, there was the wholeworkthing.
Dating wasn’t simple anymore. If I asked Violet out and shewasn’tinto me, who was to say she wouldn’t march over to HR and call it harassment? Not that I thought Violet would do that. But these days you couldn’t be too careful. And if she wasn’t into me, she might legitimately feel like I’d creeped her out with all these gifts. I didn’t want that.
It’s not like I was a stalker. I had a pretty straightforward workplace crush going on, but as a man these days, you could never be too careful.
