“Not a chance in hell.”
Friday
“Can I get you anything else?”the waitress, who’d been trying to flirt with him since he sat down an hour ago, asked after a slight hesitation, drawing his attention to find her frowning down at the empty booth behind him.
Already having a pretty good idea what that something was, Garrett focused back on the files spread out in front of him as he asked, “Is there an incredibly adorable woman with black hair hiding beneath the table with a laptop, mumbling incoherently to herself?”
“You could say that,” the waitress said as Garrett made a quick note on one of the files. “Do you know her?”
“That depends on whether or not she’s currently trying to signal you to be quiet,” Garrett said as he stacked the files and slid them back into his bag.
“She’s definitely doing that,” the waitress said as Garrett pulled his wallet out of his pocket.
“What else?” he asked, tossing a couple of twenties on the table.
“It looks like she’s wincing, panicking a bit there, and now, it looks like she’s trying to make a run for it only I think her legs are asleep,” the waitress explained as Garrett absently nodded and added another twenty.
“That sounds about right,” Garrett said, grabbing his bag as he stood up and took a look at the small woman currently curled up on her side beneath the table,
“Stupid legs,” Kristen mumbled sadly as she tried to wiggle her way out of the booth.
“So fucking adorable,” Garrett said with a heartfelt sigh as he made his way outside, curious to see what the stubborn little pain in the ass did next.
Saturday
Lookslike she didn’t need the bastard after all, Kristen thought with a satisfied sigh as she went to finish her sentence only to drop her pen so that she could adjust the thick sleeping bag that she’d helped herself to when she was searching for a hiding spot yesterday when a gust of cold wind swept over her.
Once she was assured that she wasn’t going to die of hypothermia, Kristen moved to pick up her pen only to spend the next thirty seconds cursing the soft wool gloves that she was forced to wear to hell and back when it kept slipping from her fingertips only to finally give up, tear the glove off and release a satisfied sigh as she picked up where she left off. She would havepreferred to write from the comfort of her couch, but since that didn’t seem to be working for her, this would have to do, Kristen decided as she shifted to get more comfortable against the cold stone foundation behind her.
As long as she was able to write, she could handle anything, Kristen decided with a firm nod only to wince when the rock poking through the frozen ground beneath her forced her to shift a few inches to her right. That was followed by another satisfied sigh, dropping her pen and wiggling her fingers in an attempt to get feeling back in them before picking up where she left off only to end up sighing heavily and-
Frowning when she suddenly couldn’t figure out what to write next.
Wondering if she’d shifted too far to the right, Kristen made her way back to the left, winced when the rock dug into her bottom again, and-
Still nothing.
Maybe he moved to the couch? Kristen wondered, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she tilted her head back and glanced at the office window above her only to sigh heavily, unzip the sleeping bag, get to her knees and turn around so that she could-
Gasp when the first jet of ice-cold water hit her back.
The second had her slowly turning around and the third, well, that one had her scrambling to climb out of the sleeping bag and moving her ass in an attempt to get out of the way before the sprinkler had a chance to turn back and-
“Oh, come on!”
-hit her again just as two more sprinklers suddenly turned on and took aim, soaking her from head to toe as she made a mad dash across Garrett’s lawn only to have ten more sprinklers suddenly come to life.
By the time she reached the road, she was soaked, freezing her ass off, trembling uncontrollably, and more determined than ever to find another way to pull this off because the last thing that she needed was the annoying bastard back in her life.
Sunday
“So fucking adorable,”Garrett murmured, taking a sip of his coffee as he watched Kristen make her way down her walkway only to stop abruptly, shake her head in disgust, turn around and head back the way she came only to stop when she reached the first step just as her shoulders dropped in defeat.
That was followed by reluctantly turning right back around and, after a pause and what looked like a heartfelt sigh, she adjusted the computer bag slung over her shoulder and slowly made her way back down her driveway.
It took longer than he would have liked, but that was fine. He was a patient man and more than willing to give the stubborn little pain in the ass time to realize just how much she needed him.
Garrett watched as Kristen made her way across the street, up his driveway, looking more pissed with every step of the way, until finally, she was walking through his front door and making her way into his office, glaring at him with a look that dared him to say something. There was no need to say anything, not when they both knew that he had her where he wanted her.
