Must Like Kids by Jackie Braun Page B

match his words. And no wonder. “What the hell,” he muttered and leaned forward.
    This kiss was brief, a close cousin of chaste. Even so, it stirred her blood.
    “Don’t expect me to apologize,” he warned afterward.
    “I...I...”
    While she stammered, a smug smile creased his cheeks.
    “Back to business,” he said. She was hardly reassured when he winked and added, “For now.”
    It took fifteen minutes to hammer down the appropriate clothing for Alec’s television appearance. It helped Julia’s concentration that he’d retreated to his side of the desk once again and that the intimate look he’d sported had turned pensive to the point of brooding.
    “I know for other events I’ve said you need to come across as more accessible to your core customer base, but in this instance, I’m thinking your attire needs to reflect your position of authority.”
    “In other words, a suit and tie.”
    “You look really good in them.” His brows rose and she felt her cheeks heat. “A-and they make sense since you’re representing the company and the board of directors. You’re reaching out to stockholders as well as consumers. Also, the host of the morning show will be wearing professional attire. If we go too casual, it might seem as if you’re not taking either your position or the interview seriously.”
    “So, I should wear what I wear every day to the office. Something like this.” He splayed his hands out in front of him, and she was forced to look at him.
    He had on a cobalt-blue dress shirt and black, gray and light blue-striped tie, knotted in a half Windsor. Draped over the back of his chair was a black suit coat. The gabardine held the faintest hint of a pinstripe. Alec had impeccable taste and wore clothes well thanks to a well-honed physique. It didn’t hurt that his affluence afforded him the luxury of custom-made garments that were guaranteed to fit his athletic frame. Her mouth threatened to start watering as her thoughts turned to what the body beneath those garments might look like...and feel like under her hands. Work, she reminded herself. They were talking about work.
    She cleared her throat. “Almost.”
    “Almost?”
    “I was thinking a pastel-hued shirt underneath charcoal gabardine.” But that wasn’t all she was thinking, making her ever so grateful that Alec was incapable of reading minds.
    “Pastel?” His lips pulled back in a sneer as he all but spat out the word, and he crossed his arms.
    Julia was grateful for the fight she sensed coming. Better the two of them butt heads than dance around their mutual attraction.
    “You need something softer.”
    “I prefer bold colors.”
    “Yes, well, I prefer mild winters, but that’s not what I get living in Chicago.”
    He wasn’t done arguing. “White then.”
    She shook her head. “Too stark and, frankly, unimaginative.”
    “Is that another way to say boring?”
    “Oh, not at all.” But, given the way his brows lowered, she suspected he didn’t believe her.
    “I won’t wear pink, so don’t even ask.”
    The color wouldn’t suit him, but the devil made her say, “I suppose lavender is out of the question, too?”
    A snort served as his reply. Oh, they were butting heads all right. It was just her bad luck that she found that to be a turn-on, too.
    “Yellow might make your complexion appear sallow, especially on camera. Sea-foam-green is popular right now. What do you think?”
    “I don’t like green, in the shade of sea foam or otherwise.”
    “That’s a very broad assertion.”
    “Bad association.”
    She waited for Alec to expound on that or at least crack a smile. He didn’t. He was dead serious. What did he have against green? Something in his gaze kept her from asking.
    “Light blue it is,” she said. “Do you already have a shirt in that color?”
    “I do. Six, as a matter of fact.”
    Six light blue shirts? This despite claiming he preferred bold hues. She could only imagine how many of those he