BooksBarbecue
Back First Comes Love
Chapters (92)
  1. First
  2. Love Connection
  3. Zero
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. One Month Later
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Six Months Later
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-one
  27. Twenty-two
  28. Twenty-three
  29. Twenty-four
  30. Six Months Later
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Twenty-six
  33. Twenty-seven
  34. Twenty-eight
  35. Twenty-nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-one
  38. Thirty-two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. I Have Never
  41. One
  42. Two
  43. Three
  44. Four
  45. Five
  46. Six
  47. Seven
  48. Eight
  49. Nine
  50. Ten
  51. Eleven
  52. Twelve
  53. Thirteen
  54. Fourteen
  55. Fifteen
  56. Sixteen
  57. Seventeen
  58. Eighteen
  59. Nineteen
  60. Twenty
  61. Twenty-one
  62. Twenty-two
  63. A Christmas Date
  64. One
  65. Two
  66. Three
  67. Four
  68. Five
  69. Six
  70. Seven
  71. Eight
  72. Nine
  73. Ten
  74. Eleven
  75. Twelve
  76. Thirteen
  77. Fourteen
  78. Fifteen
  79. Sixteen
  80. Seventeen
  81. Eighteen
  82. Nineteen
  83. Twenty
  84. Twenty-one
  85. Twenty-two
  86. Note from the Author
  87. Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
  88. Two
  89. Three
  90. Four
  91. Also by Camilla Isley
  92. About the Author

“Sorry, Miss, the event’s over,” he says, without sparing me a second glance. And then he’s gone.

What now? I could wait for him to get changed and come back out, but again, I’m impatient. And if I stay too long out here, I might chicken out, call my mom, and surrender my bed to Julia.

Never.

I throw a circumspect look around. No one’s monitoring the booth, so I enter Santa World and follow Diego behind the hidden door into a tiny backstage dressing room. There’s barely enough space for a locker and a small bench pushed against the opposite wall.

Diego has the upper half of the locker open, which screens him from my view.

“Excuse me?” I repeat.

“Hey.” He closes the locker and throws me an angry stare. “This is personnel only.”

He’s still wearing the fake beard and Santa hat, but the upper part of the red suit is now dangling upside-down from his hips and the belly stuffer is gone, leaving his ripped chest and abs all too visible under a sweat-soaked white T-shirt. With muscles like that, he could win any wet-T-shirt contest.

I tear my eyes away from his chest, saying, “Yeah, I know. But I really needed to talk to you.”

“Listen, lady, if your kid has missed his spot, I’m sorry, but it’s late and I want to go home. We’re doing another event in two days; you can come back then.”

“I’m not here to see Santa. I’m here to see you, Mr. O’Donnell.”

He starts at that. “How do you know my name?”

“Nikki Moore, nice to meet you. I work at KCU Advertising, and I’d like to talk to you about a job opportunity.”

I don’t usually name drop, but I need to gain some credibility before I present him with my crazy plan.

“The big agency on Madison Avenue?”

“Yes, but the job wouldn’t be for the agency; you’d be working for me. Care to hear me out?”

He shrugs. “Mind if I keep getting changed?”

“No, not at all. Go ahead.”

Diego turns around and pulls the wet T-shirt off his back in one fluid motion. I’m momentarily distracted by more male skin than I’ve seen in a long while. Gosh, even his back is ripped.

“I’m listening,” he says, opening the locker again and blocking my ogling feast.