Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23738 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23738 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
The lights. The music. The forced cheer.
Most of all, I hate being alone while everyone else runs home to family I no longer have. So I stay at the office—because work is the only thing I can control.
Then Blake shows up.
He’s my new intern. Too confident. Too handsome. Too aware of the way my body reacts to him. He asks for time off for Christmas… and I say no.
I tell myself it’s about work. But the truth is, I want him here. With me. Watching me unravel.
He shouldn’t touch me. I shouldn’t want him. But the moment he looks at me like I belong to him, I realize something terrifying...The most powerful woman in the room is about to give up control… And I don’t want it back.
A page-turning, over-the-top, instalove Christmas romance featuring an alpha who is always in control and a powerful yet innocent virgin CEO who needs him desperately. No cliffhangers or cheating, just pure power-play and spice with a HEA that is perfect for the holidays!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
KATHRYN
I hate Christmas.
The lights, the colors, the same obnoxious songs—even the food. Call me Scrooge, I really don’t give a damn.
But the thing I really despise about Christmas is how it gets in the way of my work.
I’m thirty-one. Youngest female CEO in America, and I didn’t get to where I am today by taking time off. Which is all my employees want this time of year.
They want to go home to be with family so they can unwrap gifts, sing Christmas carols, walk around their neighborhood, and admire the lights.
I don’t have a family. So none of that is an option for me.
Mom died just before I got into Harvard, and Dad died just before I graduated. Ironic, isn’t it?
They’re who I did it for.
All the studying, the late nights, guzzling coffee to keep myself awake. It was all for their approval. And they weren’t even around to see my success.
So when I look out the glass of my office at the office Christmas party, I don’t feel warm and fuzzy like they all do, I just feel…alone.
“Kathryn?” Francesca, my current assistant, knocks cautiously at the door. “I have those papers for you to sign.”
“Bring them in,” I tell her.
My business is an e-commerce business I founded three years ago. Most startups fail within the first few years, but my company is now valued at around 1.2 billion.
She hands me my Montblanc fountain pen. I see she found the red one to go along with the theme of the holiday.
I take it from her and am just about to sign when something over her shoulder catches my eye.
There, smiling beside the Christmas tree, is a man I’ve never seen before.
He’s tall—at least six feet—and although he’s wearing a work shirt and tie, it’s obvious he works out.
Something about him takes my breath away. My heart skips a beat, and it’s like the world goes into slow motion as I stare.
He’s not traditionally good-looking. Not movie star material. But my body instantly warms as my eyes scour his face.
Nothing but sharp lines—a powerful jaw, high cheek bones, and lips any girl would kill to kiss. And his hands…
Big and strong, with thick fingers that look like he could palm a basketball. I realize my skin is tingling and I’m starting to sweat.
Jesus, what is happening to me?
I’ve never had the time or the desire for men. In fact, I’ve started to wonder if I’m actually asexual. But right now, I can only think of one thing…
Him.
“Who is that?” I ask Francesca, pointing discretely in his direction.
She looks back. “Who?”
“Him, right there!” My voice is raised. I’m practically shaking. I take a deep breath, trying to calm down. “The man standing by the tree.”
“Oh, that’s our new intern, Blake Koch.”
Tasha, a pretty blonde from our digital marketing team, goes over to Blake and offers him a drink. He smiles and takes it from her, and a feeling gushes through me—a feeling I’m unfamiliar with. A feeling I haven’t felt in years.
Jealousy.
I’m actually jealous that Tasha is talking to Blake, an intern I’ve never even met.
That foreign emotion grows as I watch her flirt with him, batting her eyelids and laughing at everything he says.
Please, he can’t be that funny.
But when she reaches out and touches his arm, that’s when I lose it.
“Bring him in here,” I bark, causing Francesca to jump.
“Now? You want me to bring him in here now?”
“Yes, Francesca, now. I’ve never met him before, and I like to know who’s working for me.”
Francesca has been my assistant now for two years and knows better than to question me, but she does give me an odd glance before stepping out of the office.
I watch her thread through the party over to him. She places a delicate hand on his shoulder. He turns, and I almost have a heart attack.
His eyes…
They move down, clearly checking out Francesca’s cleavage. She’s wearing a blouse today with a neckline that’s lower than normal.
It didn’t bother me until now…
She whispers something in his ear, and he looks up. For a brief second, our eyes meet, and it’s like my soul leaves my body.
Heat floods through me. My thighs tickle, and a fuzzy feeling blows through my head. I have to blink several times to ground myself as he follows Francesca back through the party and to the door of my office.
She knocks out of formality, then introduces him.
“Kathryn, this is Blake Koch, our new intern.”
“Thank you, Francesca, you can leave.” It’s curt, but I want to be alone with him.
I need to.
In fact, if I could draw the privacy curtains without causing the whole office to start gossiping, I would.
He’s only a few feet away from me now. I can see that his clothes look professional but are second-hand. His tie is tied sloppily, and his watch is a knockoff.