Naughty, Naughty Prince Charming (Charming 1)

Once the first episode started, she began the consumption of sweet candy bliss. With piece number six aimed at her mouth the phone rang. She dropped the candy in the bag. It hadn’t tasted the way it normally would. Not as sinfully perfect. Nothing felt right. Everything felt wrong.

Lucy shoved the bag of chocolate aside and reached for the phone. “How was the first day at work?” It was Zoe. No hello. Just straight to conversation.

Lucy sighed. “You’re never going to believe what happened.”

“Judging from your tone, it’s not good.” A pause. “Wait. Tell me that’s not ’Red Hot Secrets’ I hear in the background. I thought we’d broken that habit.”

Reaching for the remote, Lucy hit the button and ground her teeth in irritation. “Would you please focus? I have a problem.”

“It can’t be as bad as you’re making it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucy asked defensively.

“You take life too seriously.”

“I have to.”

Zoe snorted. “No, you do not. What’s got you so worked up?”

Eager to prove her point, Lucy said, “Remember Logan?”

“As in the only man you’ve spoken about who isn’t a part of the ’Red Hot Secrets’ cast? How could I forget him?”

“He’s my new boss.”

Zoe laughed into the phone.

“What’s so funny? This is a disaster!”

“A disaster? Hardly. No food on the table. An earthquake. A tornado. These are disasters. You don’t have a disaster.”

“Then what do you call it?” Lucy demanded.

“Interesting,” she said quickly.

“Are you hearing the words that are coming out of my mouth?” Lucy said. “The man is my boss. What in the hell am I going to do?” A pause. “He’s my boss!”

Zoe laughed. “Do you still want him?”

“He’s my boss.”

“Do you report directly to him?’

“Not exactly,” Lucy reluctantly admitted because clearly, Zoe had some agenda.

“And do you want him?”

“Zoe—”

“You do. Okay. Does he want you?”

“Stop answering for me.”

“He does. Good. What exactly is the problem? You aren’t his direct report. Your relationship started before you were employed. It seems fairly simple. Have a fling and get him out of your system.”

“Sometimes I just don’t understand you,” Lucy said, reaching for the bag of chocolate again. It seemed a better comfort than Zoe.

“Look,” Zoe said, “it’s not a big deal. Keep it simple, keep it private.”

Lucy was silent a long moment, trying to process her thoughts and Zoe’s loudly spoken opinions. The problem was she wasn’t sure her heart wasn’t already involved. But she wasn’t about to admit that. Not even to Zoe.

“People have office affairs?”

Zoe snorted. “Oh please, honey, all the time. You really are naïve sometimes. Stop making it so complicated.”

A few minutes later Lucy hung up the phone, but she didn’t feel any better than before her talk with Zoe. In fact, she felt worse. To think Logan might want to have a heated little office affair with her, and then pretend it didn’t happen later… Well, any way she sliced it, she didn’t like it. Could she have an affair and then act like it had never happened? Or even now, in public? She wasn’t sure she was built that way. And it had been hard enough to forget Logan after one night. She might never recover from an affair. Lucy reached for the remote and flipped on the television, reaching in her bag of candy, hoping to forget Logan for only a few minutes.

A tall, dark, and handsome hunk filled the screen. “I’m going to make love to you, Tara. I’m going to make you never forget me.”

Those had been Logan’s words. Lucy hit the off button on the remote. She was really learning to hate this show.

* * * * *

The next morning Lucy had hardly had time to sit down at her desk when a knock sounded at her door. “Come in,” Lucy said, trying to sound bubbly when she felt anything but. She hadn’t slept. Fretting over the situation with Logan had dominated her entire night. But she had awakened with resolve to fight for her career. Today she would dig in and make an impression based on her professional abilities.

Celia appeared in the doorway and offered Lucy a friendly smile. With her stood a tall, blond Adonis-looking man Lucy recognized from the board meeting. “Lucy,” Celia said, “this is Greg Marsh.”

Greg nodded and gave her a really quite sexy, quite devastating, smile. If you liked his type. Lucy didn’t. But Greg no doubt had plenty of women after him. That was one of the things about her attraction to Logan. She never went head over heels over a man. Except for Logan. Mentally she shook herself. Already her thoughts had drifted back to him.

“Nice to meet you, Lucy,” Greg said moving toward her with an extended hand.

Lucy accepted it reluctantly. There was a hint of interest in Greg’s eyes she didn’t want to encourage. “Nice to meet you,” she replied formally, and with what she hoped was distinct coolness.