Page 20 of Manhattan Bossholes

It was a jab about Maya. My father had hated her, but he hadn’t told me until we’d broken up.

“How would you like to meet her and find out for yourself? Let’s all go to dinner together.”

I ignored the nagging voice telling me there was no way Piper was going to agree to it.

“I’d love that! Name the time and place, and I’ll be there.”

I started pacing around my office as the realization of what I needed to do came into focus. Piper was going to gloat. Make me work for it. Damn it, I hated that she had so much power over me.

But this wasn’t just about me. I hated needing a single person this much, but I was willing to do just about anything to save my father from himself.

“I’ll talk to her and get back to you,” I said through gritted teeth. “And don’t book that trip yet, okay? At least let me look into it first.”

“You got it,” he said agreeably, making me freeze in place. I hadn’t thought he’d listen to me. Last time I’d tried to talk him out of an adventure, I’d lectured him for an hour without making anywhere near this much progress. Damn. I knew he wanted me to settle down, but I hadn’t known he wanted it this badly.

Okay, gotta see this through, I reminded myself. There’s nothing dumber than screwing up a successful strategy. When you’re winning, keep winning.

“What’s the lucky lady’s name?”

I heaved a sigh, the weight of what I was about to do settling on my shoulders. Invoking the name of the woman who’d done nothing but challenge me since the moment we ran into each other—literally—felt like admitting defeat.

“Piper,” I finally said. “Piper Doyle.”

The woman who might be the end of me.

6

PIPER

Vincent Forde was the Beelzebub of the boardroom. I hated that man!

I was so consumed with frustration after our confrontation about the Sullivans I couldn’t focus on my work. I longed for one of those stupid rubber squeeze balls with a corporate logo on it, so I could crush it in my hand and pretend it was his face.

His distractingly handsome face. Why did he have to be so damn hot? I should not be finding him attractive when he’d dismissed me like he was a principal and I was his unruly student!

How I was going to survive the next few weeks of torture was beyond me. It was like it physically pained him to admit when I was right. And now we’d be traveling together? I wanted to visit Hawaii, but not with him as my plus-one unless I could toss him into a volcano as a human sacrifice.

I settled back at my desk and tried to focus on editing some web content photos, but my phone went off with three texts in a row.

Matthew, again.

A greeting, a question about if I was purposely avoiding him, and a request to meet for coffee to catch up and “chill.”

I snorted and pushed my phone behind my computer. No way. I knew better than to get caught up in his lies again. Matthew was magnetic in all the wrong ways, and I didn’t have the time or energy to waste trying to figure out his angle. Maybe he was in between women, and he was looking for someone to keep him warm as he tried to find better options? The guy was dumb enough to try a “U up” text during the daylight hours, so I wouldn’t put it past him.

I settled in and finally shifted into my drone-zone, where all the background noise of the day faded away, only to have the interoffice phone on my desk scare the hell out of me with an overloud ring.

“Vincent would like to see you,” his assistant Linda said. “Again.”

I picked up the subtext in her clipped tone. Something was up.

When I walked back into his torture chamber of an office, he jumped out of the chair behind his desk and welcomed me in as if he hadn’t just dismissed me like I was an impertinent servant thirty minutes prior.

“Piper, thanks for coming back. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

I narrowed my eyes at his inexplicable lack of asshole-ishness, trying to figure out why he was suddenly displaying manners I’d honestly thought he didn’t possess.

“Actually, you did. What’s up?”