Page 28 of Have To Be Mine

“Can I just say.” I paused. “My assistant is supposed to review all my emails so I don’t miss things like this.”

Krista’s eyes widened, angry again. “You have an assistant? How is this the first time I’m hearing about this? I should have been talking to them this whole time.”

“Well, now, that’s the thing,” I said, suddenly wishing I hadn’t mentioned it at all. “I’m supposed to have an assistant, but after my last one left, I haven’t gotten around to hiring anyone.”

“Unbelievable.” She shook her head. “Let me guess. Your last assistant left because you’re a total mess?”

“Actually, she was promoted internally at the company. She’s VP of marketing now.” I grinned at Krista. “So I guess you’re not always right.”

“Just almost always,” she said, showing a slight crack in her anger.

“We should celebrate after this wraps up,” I said.

“We should not.”

“One drink. We pulled off a launch. The media is happy. The models are in the water. The content is going to be incredible.” I gestured at the sparkling sea. “Look at this. Look what we’re standing in the middle of. Let your hair down. You can have one drink.”

She turned and looked at me with those dark eyes, and for a second, I thought she was going to say yes.

“No.”

“Look, we got off on the wrong foot. Let’s have a drink and start over.”

“We need to go back to the hotel and finalize the travel itinerary for Corfu,” she said. “Then I want to go over the content shoot logistics. Location access. Vendor confirmations. You need to actually go through your email and make sure there’s nothing you missed.”

“I thought you were managing my email,” I quipped.

“I’m not.”

“That’s what you want to do tonight,” I said. “We’re in this beautiful location and you want to go over itinerary?”

“I want to do the job I was hired to do. Yes.”

“In Athens? One of the oldest cities on earth.” I shrugged. “Well, probably. I don’t know because I’ve never had time to take a proper tour.”

Krista sighed with her whole chest. “We’re not here for Athens. We’re here for the campaign. I have a job. You have a job.”

“We could be here for both.” I wasn’t going to give up. If there was anyone that could get the woman to loosen up, it was me. If I could get her to lighten up, we would both have a much better time. “The nightlife here is supposed to be excellent. We could hit a few spots, grab some drinks, maybe some dinner. Talk business if you want. Let’s enjoy Athens for five minutes.”

She looked at me like I was something on the bottom of her shoe.

“I’m going back to the hotel with or without you,” she said. “The work has to get done, whether you’re willing to step up or not.”

“Suit yourself.” I shrugged and looked down the beach at the models. They were laughing, splashing in the water, looking absolutely delectable. “I’m sure one or all of them would love to hit the clubs with me tonight.”

I expected her to say something. Make some cutting remark about my predictable behavior or my inability to take anything seriously. But when I turned back, she was already walking away. Her ponytail swayed and those cargo pants somehow managed to hug her ass in a way that was completely unfair.

I stood there watching her go. Why couldn’t I stop watching her ass? She had gotten under my skin. Somehow, in less than forty-eight hours, this woman had managed to burrow herself into my thoughts. It was deeply inconvenient.

Her rejection stung more than it should have. More than any of the others ever had. Okay, that might not have been true because I couldn’t remember when I’d been rejected. At least not anytime in the last ten years or so.

And that pissed me off. I was Dash Blackwell. I didn’t chase women who walked away from me. I didn’t care if they said no. Why chase a no when the world was full of yeses?

But I found myself caring what she thought. Wanting to prove to her that I wasn’t just the fuck-up fuckboy she’d decided I was. I needed to prove it to my family as well.

Although…

I looked back at the successful shoot happening on the beach. The shoot that would have been a complete disaster if she hadn’t found those boxes. If she hadn’t done the job I should have been doing.