Crazy for the Boss (Crazy in Love Book 1) by Ashlee Mallory Read Free Book Online Page B

meet you ladies. I’d offer to buy you all a round of drinks, but it appears as if you’re already covered,” he said just as the waitress returned with another round of shots that she set down, pointing out another group of men sitting across the room.
    She felt him studying her again, but she couldn’t trust herself to meet those eyes. Not when she felt like he and everyone in the place could read just about everything that was crossing her mind.
    “Well, I didn’t mean to interrupt your festivities. I just thought I’d stop and say hello.”
    She lifted her hand and gave a quick wave before sucking down another drink of rum and Coke.
    “Nice meeting you,” Anna and Tessa echoed, not hiding the fact they were watching him walk away with appreciative grins.
    “He seems nice. Not like the spawn of Satan at all,” Tessa said.
    “The verdict is still out.”
    “Should we have another toast, then?” Anna asked, already raising her shot glass.
    “I’m out,” Quinn said, studying the dark liquid dubiously. “No way can I show up tomorrow nursing a hangover.” Plus, having her boss just several yards away made the whole night suddenly awkward.
    “Two shots will not give you a hangover. Come on, just one more, pretty please?” Anna cajoled. “Then we can hit the club across the way for some dancing—since I know you’re already plotting your escape now that you’ve seen you-know-who.”
    “Hey, if I can do it despite an early morning in court tomorrow on a property dispute, so can you,” Tessa said and held her shot glass up.
    One more shot and they could leave, no begging required? That she could do.
    “Fine. Last one. Then I’m on water the rest of the night.”
    With a quick glance to make sure James wasn’t watching her debauchery—which she didn’t have to worry about since he was completely enraptured by whatever the barely twenty-one-year-old girl was saying—she threw it back.

    * * *
    J ames was laughing at something that one of the girls who surrounded him said, more out of courtesy than anything else. Maybe it was him, maybe it was just the usual melancholy that hit him over the holidays, but tonight, the conversation all seemed rather dull.
    At least the conversation where he was sitting.
    What he wanted more than anything was to park himself at the table several yards away to hear what Quinn and her friends were saying.
    He glanced over, about to take a drink of his scotch, when his attention was caught by the sight of the three women suddenly bursting into laughter. More specifically, his attention was caught by one person in particular.
    Quinn, his prim, serious-minded employment counsel, was laughing unabashedly, her head tilted back into a full belly-clutching laugh, her smile wide enough for him to see her pearly whites from here.
    She definitely should do that more. It suited her. Letting herself go, enjoying the moment.
    It was a new thing for him tonight, seeing her dressed in anything but her usual conservative suits and with her hair unbound and around her shoulders—even if it was primly held back by that headband. It was almost like an invitation into more of Quinn, and he couldn’t help but be intrigued.
    Hell, more than intrigued, as he had to admit that, for a moment, his gaze had dropped to admire the enticing view of skin the low-cut blouse afforded him, reminding him that she was definitely a woman. A very pretty woman who suddenly had a hard time looking him in the eyes.
    But she didn’t have to look at him for him to know the color of those brown eyes that were a touch darker than the chocolate candies she had hidden on her desk. For him to see the inevitable embarrassment she likely felt, if the redness that suffused her face was any indication.
    “James.” He glanced over to see one of the girls surrounding him pouting, evidently because he’d missed whatever darling thing she’d said. He’d have to try harder. “Sorry, what was that?”
    She repeated it and