Read Online Negotiating Skills by Laurel Cremant - Free Book Online Page B

unheated apartment, she was sick and it felt horrible.
She curled into herself shivering so hard her teeth
rattled.
    Her body ached and she felt frozen to
the core. She hated being sick. The helplessness of it always made
her want to scream out in frustration. She burrowed further into
the blankets and tried to fight back tears.
    Mother Nature was always the great
equalizer thought Veronica. No matter how capable and strong you
thought you were, Nature would bitch slap you with some virus, germ
or otherwise generally hellacious ailment that had even the
strongest person whimpering for their momma. Veronica had
definitely reached that point.
    She wished she hadn’t made Victor
leave. As obnoxious as he was it did suck to be sick and alone.
Tears feel down her cheeks unchecked and she just hoped that sleep
would envelop her again.
    “ Hey, you’re
awake.”
    The sound Victor’s gruff voice almost
made her sob out in relief.
    “ You’re still here,” she
whispered.
    “ Of course, I am,” he
said.
    “ I told you it was going to
take a lot to make me leave,” he said as he leaned over her and
touched his hand to her brow.
    “ You’re still really
hot.”
    “ I don’t feel hot,” she
said.
    “ I feel like someone dumped
a pile of ice on top of me,”
    “ Well to sound completely
cliché, I know how to warm you up,” he said waggling his eyebrows
at her and twisting his mouth into a comical leer.
    “ You’re a pervert,” she said
with a small tired smile stretching her lips.
    “ You can’t blame a man for
trying,” he said returning her smile.
    “ Like I said,
pervert.”
    “ Well this pervert is going
to get you some more aspirin and see about turning on some heat,”
he said as he turned and left the room.
    Watching him walk away a strange
thought flickered through Veronica’s mind. That even an arrogant,
manipulative, pervert could be the sweetest nursemaid.
    When he returned with the aspirin, she
still had a smile on her face.
    “ Unfortunately, you’re a/c
doesn’t have a heating option so the best I could do was to just
turn it off, so at least you’re not getting a draft of cool air,”
he said as he helped her sit up in the bed.
    Testing his resolve, Veronica let the
blanket slip slightly to expose the upper swell of her breasts. She
hid her smirk behind the mug Victor hastily handed her along with
some aspirin.
    “ Thanks,” she said and
handed him back the mug.
    “ What time is it,” she
asked.
    She didn’t know how long she’d slept
and she found the idea of Victor roaming around her apartment for
hours a little jarring.
    “ It’s just past two a.m.,”
he said.
    “ Are you serious,” she
exclaimed.
    “ I can’t believe you’ve
stayed here all this time,” she said.
    Victor just shrugged his shoulders and
joined her on the bed. He swung his feet up on the bed and leaned
his head against the headboard. He crossed his arms across his
chest and yawned loudly.
    “ It’s no big deal. I got
some work done, channel surfed, ate all of your rocky road and fell
asleep on your couch,” he said.
    “ You’re lucky I’m so weak,
or you’d be maimed by now. I take my ice cream very seriously,” she
said sending him a mock scowl.
    “ I’ll count myself blessed
then,” he said drowsily.
    He reached an arm over her shoulders
and dragged her close to his chest.
    “ Get some sleep, you’ll feel
better in the morning,” he said as he rested his chin on top of her
heard.
    Veronica heard him release another
loud yawn. He felt so solid and warm she was reluctant to move. She
knew she should tell him to go home and get some rest of his own,
but she wanted to feel his warmth just a little while longer. After
a few minutes she heard him release a muffled snore and she smiled
snuggling into him more. There was no harm in letting him get a few
more minutes sleep she thought as her eyes drifted
closed.

    Victor drifted awake slowly,
not wanting to leave the depths of the best sleep he’d had