Holly and Her Naughty eReader by Julianne Spencer Page B

in the corner and stepped into Christoph’s line of sight.
    “Excuse me,” I said. “May I make
a suggestion?”
    Christoph, who was right in the
middle of a diatribe about laziness and incompetence, stopped shouting
midsentence and looked at me with awe in his eyes. I could tell he was
intrigued that I had chosen to do this, but would be gravely disappointed if I
didn’t deliver.
    “Certainly,” he said. “What is
your suggestion?”
    “Well, you know how many of
these circuit boards you’re selling every day, don’t you?”
    “We should. But let’s ask.
Dinakar, do you know exactly how many circuit boards you sell on any given
day?”
    “Of course we do, Mr. Green,”
answered the man on the other side.
    “And you know exactly how much
precious metal is in each circuit board?” I asked.
    “Dinakar?” said Christoph.
    “Mr. Green, yes we know. Can we
please get back to--”
    “Hush, Dinakar. The lady is
speaking. Please continue Ms. Stone.”
    “If you know how many circuit
boards you’re selling every day, and you know how much metal is in each board,
then you know how much metal you’re selling every day,” I said. “Why not make
an arrangement to buy the exact same amount of metal at the end of every day as
you just sold?”
    Christoph looked at me like I
was the only thing in the world worth seeing.
    “Did you hear that, Dinakar?” he
said.
    “Yes, sir, that is a strategy
that--”
    “That is a strategy that will
work,” Christoph said. “It solves everything. Only one day of exposure to
market fluctuations. All this inane complexity you’ve tried to work in with
production schedules and futures contracts. Seriously, Dinakar. Why didn’t you
think of this already?”
    “If it is what you want us to
do, we will do it.”
    “Of course it’s what I want you
to do! Let’s check in next week and see if you’ve gotten your head on straight
by then.”
    He ended the call and stood from
his chair.
    “Any other ideas you’d care to
share with me Miss Stone?” he said.
    “No,” I said. “That one just
came to me because…well, because I listened to what you were talking about.”
    “How much are we paying you?”
    “You’re actually paying the temp
agency, Mr. Green.”
    He held up his hand. “Please.
Call me Christoph.”
    Wow. In the original version of
the novel, Annabelle has to call him Mr. Green until Chapter 12. I must have
really impressed him with my changes.
    “And come with me to HR,” he
continued. “We’re going to pay the agency whatever is required to release you
from your contract so you can work for me. Is $50 an hour okay to start?”
    “Sure,” I said, smiling at the
interesting twist this story had taken from my one little change.
    In the original version of the
story, Annabelle and Christoph continued their flirtation for a week before
anything happened. But in this new version I initiated with my brilliant
business idea, Christoph and Annabelle ended up in the Den of Decadence that
very night.
    He had me stand in front of his
full length mirror and undress myself.
    “I want you to look at your
body,” he said. “I want you to appreciate your own beauty.”
    Five minutes later he had me
strapped to the St. Andrew’s Cross at the back of the room and we were having a
grand old time. When we finished, he untied me and we collapsed onto the floor.
    Lying next to me, rubbing my
bangs out of my face, he said, “I want to take you on a trip.”
    A trip? Now we were very far
removed from the plot of the book.
    “Okay,” I said. “Where shall we
go?”
    “Somewhere far away,” Christoph
said. “We’ll leave tomorrow, and we’ll just keep going and going. I want to
leave this world behind. I want nothing to demand at my attention, so I can
give it all to you.”
    Swoon.
    I was looking at him now. Lying
there, gazing into my eyes, there was no denying it. I had fallen for a
character in a novel.
    What was it that made Christoph
Green so attractive? Yes,