“Hey,” Sara chimed in a sing-song voice, “look who’s standing under the mistletoe.”
Mariah gave Riley and Lucas a meaningful nod that made her antlers bob. “It’s you two.”
Riley’s eyes snapped upward. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling directly above her. “Wait, how did that get there?”
“Playing innocent,” Mariah said. “That’s almost believable.”
“I’m not innocent,” Riley stammered. “I mean, I’m not playing.” That was hardly better. Her gaze shot to Jody. She raised her eggnog glass in a toast and mouthed the words, “Merry Christmas.”
This was Jody’s idea of a Christmas gift? Incredible. Because when you didn’t know what to give someone, orchestrating an awkward moment with the boss was obviously the perfect choice.
A gift card would have been just fine.
Riley fiddled with her empty paper cup and felt herself blushing. “I didn’t know that was there.”
A smirk grew on Lucas’s lips. He not only enjoyed her jealousy but her discomfort too. “Didn’t you? Well, as the police say, ignorance of the law is no excuse. The same probably applies to mistletoe. You did call me over.”
Was he serious? “I didn’t though.”
“She’s shy,” Mariah fake whispered.
Riley coughed. She would’ve taken a step back, but she’d run into the wall. “I’m pretty sure kissing at office parties is against company policy.”
“I’ve never heard that policy,” Mariah said.
Sara nodded in agreement. “We keep a list of company policies at the front desk, and that’s not on it.”
“It is,” Riley chirped. “It definitely is.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at Lucas. It was one thing to tease her about mistletoe, but by now he’d probably switched back into managerial mode, thought this whole incident was unprofessional, and was edging away from her. She didn’t want to see it.
Mariah waved a hand in their direction, and her voice went low. “Honestly, you all need to get rid of some of that tension you’re hauling around and subjecting the rest of us to. This could be your way to kiss and make up.”
“You do need to work things out,” Sara agreed.
“Consider it an intervention,” Mariah added. “Do we need to get more folks over here? That’s how interventions work, isn’t it?”
“No more folks,” Riley sputtered. “We already have enough folks.”
“The people have spoken,” Lucas said, finally drawing her attention back to him. Far from being horrified, he looked amused. She should have known as much. She was blushing and couldn’t form a coherent sentence, so of course, he found the situation funny.
“But if you don’t want to kiss me,” he went on, “I’ll accept a compromise. We can sit down, have a discussion, and work out our differences like normal people.”
Sara took a sip of her drink. “The normal people option sounds like a good one.”
Those were Riley’s choices? Lucas was taking this opportunity to force her into a conversation where he told her, once again, that she’d been in the wrong not to trust him.
She didn’t want to hear it.
Without another word, she handed Sara her cup, stepped toward Lucas, and took hold of his gray button-down shirt. Before she could talk herself out of it, she went up on her tiptoes, pulled him toward her, and planted a kiss on his lips. She had meant it to be a quick kiss, but let her lips linger for a second longer, and then a second longer after that. It wasn’t that she had no willpower. This was a kiss to let him remember what he was missing.
She needed to make a point.
Once it was made, she let him go. “No compromise needed,” she announced.
He lifted his eyebrows and gave her a wide grin. She wasn’t sure what that meant—whether she’d won this round or whether he had—but she left the group with her head held high.
She heard Lucas’s deep laughter behind her and Mariah’s voice trailing after her. “So much for the normal people option.”
CHAPTER 12