Tiger in Her Bed
Lizzie Lynn Lee
It was a simple dare. Walk to her brooding, hot boss, Quinn Alexander, in the middle of the New Year's office party and kiss the arrogant smirk off the bastard. Fueled by too much alcohol, Vanessa Lyle impetuously takes up the challenge.
The next morning after the hangover fades, she's mortified. To think she'd been drunkenly brazen enough to steal a kiss from her boss. Quinn will fire her for sure.
To her surprise, she gets to keep her job because Quinn demands she fix the problem she's caused. Someone had taken a video of that scandalous kiss and posted it on social media. The video went viral. Quinn's mom happens see the video and demands to meet his "girlfriend." Quinn orders Vanessa to pretend to be his woman just to keep his mom off his back.
During a weekend at his parents' house, Quinn takes pretending to a whole different level. He can't keep his hands off her, in and out of his bed. But then she discovers his furry secret. Hot guy + big cat = trouble, and curvaceous Vanessa learns it the hard way …
Chapter One
Not once had Vanessa Lyle considered she'd have to endure the dreadful walk of shame when she got to the office this morning. All eyes were glued on her as she shuffled past the lobby, into her cubicle. The partition in the workspace was so low-the company insisted the open space plan promoted workers' productivity-that Vanessa couldn't hide her face, even if she wanted to. So she dove under her desk, pretending to fix a computer cable, until it was safe for her to emerge.
Someone cleared their throat. Vanessa instinctively looked up.
Her coworker, Ivy Bishop, loomed from behind. "What are you doing?" she asked in her whinnying voice.
Vanessa winced inwardly. God, how she disliked this pugnacious person. It was Ivy's fault she was in this situation. If Ivy hadn't goaded her. If she hadn't consumed so much alcohol.
If only.
If only.
That was the game she played over and over in her head.
Gah!
She needed a re-do button. She'd like to take everything back from that New Year's Eve party.
"Do you need something?" Vanessa ignored Ivy's query. She forced her face into a blank mask and climbed into her office chair. She powered up her dual monitors and the desktop and began her morning ritual: tidy up her workspace, arrange her notes and writing implements, then check her work journal. Mise en place. Preparation before work led to maximum productivity. It was going to be a busy day: two project meetings with the animation department and writing a patch program for the render farm.
Assuming she still had her job.
Vanessa wouldn't put it past Quinn. She'd seen him fire people for lesser offenses. What she did to him at the office party put her in the cardinal sin category.
"I can't believe you really kissed Quinn," Ivy blurted.
Before Vanessa could open her mouth, others swooped in like hungry vultures.
"They said you walked up to Quinn and kissed him. Is it true?" asked the girl from accounting.
"Yowza. So how was it?" asked the girl's friend.
Vanessa waved them off. "It was nothing. I was drunk. I didn't know what I was doing," she answered diplomatically. Like she was going to spill her guts to these people. Never! They were Quinn's hardcore fangirls.
"You? Drunk?" The accounting girl rolled her eyes.
"What did Quinn do after you kissed him?" the other girl pressed.
"Uh-oh." Vanessa pinched the bridge of her nose. The incident was rather hazy. Quinn looked surprised when she snuck up on him and tapped his shoulder. She then tip-toed and planted a light kiss on his lips. She remembered giggling afterward and did a thumbs up in Stephen and Ivy's direction.
Then what happened after that?
Oh yeah. She recalled that Quinn had herded her toward the restroom, suggesting she was drunk. Duh, Captain Obvious. She remembered her boss helped her into a taxi, but not before pinning her against the wall, and kissing the life out of her.
Did that really happen or was it just a figment of her imagination?
There was no way Quinn would kiss her back. The man was an Ice King. Mr. All Work and No Play. His Majesty Lord Demon.
Now that she thought about it, did Quinn also get into the taxi and escort her to her rented home? Vanessa lived with two housemates, but at that time, Nina and Silvia had also been out partying. She couldn't verify if Quinn had indeed taken her home.
And the next morning, Vanessa had the worst hangover ever. From that day on, she swore off alcohol for life.
"Well?" Quinn's fangirls pressed.
"He knew I was wasted and put me into a cab and sent me home," Vanessa said, omitting the rest.
"Did he say anything to you?" Ivy pestered.
Vanessa shrugged. "Honestly, I don't remember."
"Come on. This is Quinn we're talking about. You must remember something."
"I don't know! Geez. After the fifth whiskey sour you guys forced me to drink, everything was kinda blurry."
Ivy and the two girls looked disappointed.
"You're the first one who dared to do that and get away with it. I wish I had the courage." The girl from accounting sighed theatrically. "Quinn is so yummy."
The others chorused their agreements.
Vanessa rolled her eyes. Give me a break.
Ever since their boss, Quinn Alexander, took over his uncle's position as CEO of Animatrica, one of the country's top five game developer studios, he had been subjected to endless gossip from the female employees.
Quinn was tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome. He was physically fit and a sharp dresser. It didn't matter that he was perpetually broody. All his crankiness was forgiven by the opposite sex because he was one hell of a male specimen, jammed into a fine package: gorgeous, smart, and extremely wealthy. Many of his male employees often jested when Quinn arrived at the office. "A Witcher? Quick, hide your women." An inside joke in the gaming world based on a blockbuster RPG game where the main character, "Geralt of Rivia," had such incredible sex appeal that women kept flocking to him wherever he went.
Vanessa didn't jump onto the bandwagon with the rest of his female fans. It wasn't because she didn't think Quinn was hot as hell. He was out of her league. She was also practical. There was no point in coveting something she couldn't win.
She'd always been the prim, proper, and level-headed one in her family. While her sisters partied through high school and college, she had always been known to have her nose in books, studying and getting good grades. She learned her limitations at a very early age.
While her two older sisters were blessed with their mother's good genes: tall, willowy and beautiful, Vanessa unfortunately inherited her father's traits: chubby, plain and socially awkward. Their mother was a B-movie actress in her golden days and their father was a math professor at Princeton.
After she graduated from college and got her dream job as a game designer, Vanessa maintained her Spartan lifestyle. At first, she did it because she wanted to excel at her work. By the time she realized she wanted more from life than just being good at what she did, it was too late. A geek could never shed her shell as a social butterfly.
But that night changed everything.
The damn New Year's Eve office party.
What the hell was she thinking? She was a lightweight when it came to booze. She had one too many and impulsively agreed to a dare. All because she wanted to prove Stephen wrong. He was the team leader of her department. Since she was transferred under him, Stephen had thrown some digs at her that she wasn't team player material.
Vanessa was academically brilliant and also an efficient worker. Efficient workers led to more productivity. She didn't appreciate the bullshit that middle management liked to pull on her. Stupid meetings to discuss stupid stuff, when time was better spent on the actual work itself. When she insisted on doing her projects her way, she was branded difficult to work with. Too rigid. Uptight.
In her tipsy haze, she'd been irritated that Stephen nitpicked her personality over her capability to work. She challenged him with the idea she was capable of doing something unexpected. Something on a whim.
And that was when Ivy Bishop half-jokingly suggested Vanessa might as well walk up to Quinn and steal a kiss if she wanted to prove she wasn't as strait-laced as everybody thought.
Quinn Alexander was dubbed Lord Demon for a reason. He was a perfectionist and workaholic to the core, and expected his employees to work as hard as he did. His smile was as rare as a two dollar bill. A broody hen was more cheerful than he was.
To think she would take Ivy's bait and kissed Quinn so rashly …
Oh God, if Vanessa could take everything back, she'd gladly sell her soul to the Devil.
She really liked her job at Animatrica. What have I done?
Now she was going to have to start looking for a new job at second-rate companies.
Vanessa shooed Ivy and the fangirls from her cubicle. "Nothing to see here. I need to do work."
They dispersed as they continued their chatter.
Swallowing a bitter gulp, Vanessa scrolled through her work emails. It shouldn't have been a surprise when her mail box contained a few "R U Crazy?" messages. She didn't need to be reminded how shitty her situation was. She'd planned to go to Quinn's office and apologize for her behavior.