Jackson Peterson saw the immediate response to his email by Krista Miller and smiled to himself. Krista was his go to girl. The only one on the entire finance staff seemingly not bitten by the holiday fever that had swept the building. He clicked on her name, telling himself it was the fact that she was a hotshot accountant and not that she had a killer pair of legs that excited him whenever he saw her name.

He froze in his chair as he read the email message. I'm out of the office until January 2. Please direct all inquiries to Marsha Graham at mgraham@northernsports.com.

Not believing what he was reading, Jackson picked up the phone and dialed her extension. Her cheerful voice answered on the first ring. "You've reached the office of Krista Miller. I'm out of the office until January second. Please contact Marsha Graham at extension 7158. Thanks."

This was why he hated the holidays. This was why everyone in the office called him Scrooge. He'd counted on the information that Krista was pulling for him. He needed it to finish his report before he left for the evening. And now he was going to have to do the work himself.

He knew better than to depend on anyone. At Christmas time people got caught up in the holidays and forgot commitments. He was just surprised that Krista was one of them. She'd been very dependable up to this point.

The knock on the door frame startled him. He glanced up to see a bottle of some sort of wine and two long-stemmed champagne glasses under the mistletoe someone had hung on his door just to needle him.

"Scrooge McDuck, you in here?"

"Krista, I just called your office. I thought you'd left."

"Did that piss you off?" she asked, sashaying into his office like she owned it and sitting on the edge of his desk.

"Hell, yeah."

"How do you feel now?" she asked, setting the two pieces of stemware on his desk and pouring the sparkling liquid into them.

"Like I wish you'd stop pouring...what are you pouring?"

"Champagne. Continue with what you were saying."

"I wish you'd stop wasting time and tell me why we are drinking and not going over the numbers in the report you were supposed to have on my desk,"--he glanced at the Swiss Army Watch on his wrist--"two minutes ago."

She handed him a glass and then hopped off his desk. She took a quick sip of hers then smiled at him with pure devilry in her eyes. "I think you better drink the sparkling wine while I explain. In fact, you might wish for something stronger but since this is the office and we're technically still at work, I thought I'd better stick to what was okayed by Human Resources for the holiday celebrations."

"I don't celebrate the holidays," he said, knowing she knew this. He'd thought Krista a kindred spirit. A fellow workaholic who understood that a hard day's work was what really mattered, not a calendar full of social obligations during the work day.

"Believe me, I know. But I've come up with a diabolical plot to force you out of your Chief Financial Officer/Scrooge persona for this one night."

He finally took one of the long stemmed glasses from her and took a sip. There was something sexy about the way she said diabolical. And the glimmer in her eyes echoed the one inside him. He'd wanted her since she'd walked into his office six months ago and aside from one accidental kiss on the elevator late at night three weeks ago, he'd managed to forget about that side of her...until this moment.

But he was from the never-let-them-see-you-sweat school. "Go on, I can't wait to hear the rest of this."

"Well, you're being blackmailed, Jack. I'm not going to supply you the numbers you need to finish that report unless you come to dinner with me."

"Why are you blackmailing me?" he asked not sure what he hoped her answer would be.

"Because I want to get Scrooge and make him understand there's more to life than work. I studied the story and thought about following it to the tee."

"What story?"

"A Christmas Carol by Dickens. You do know why the staff calls you Scrooge, right?"

"Krista, I'm considered a patient man by most but you are tempting me to lose my temper."

"Hot damn!"

"Okay, smarty, what made you decide not to follow the story?"

"You live in a gated community and have a really good security system. For me to visit you three times I think I'd have to take a little trip to the police department. And I really don't want to spend Christmas Eve in lock-up. Not exactly conducive to what I have in mind."

"What do you have in mind? And why can't you just give me my report? If you did that I'd be able to actually get out of here and go enjoy this life you don't seem to think I have."

"No, you won't. That information's not due to Roger until after the first of the year. That means you'll immediately jump into doing the pro forma on the new chain of West Coast retail stores that we have scheduled for January."

He hated that she knew him so well. When had his work habits changed from dedicated and driven to predictable? Most of his staff never looked at him. Never saw him as anything other than a hard boss who rewarded them financially with bonuses twice a year. Why did she?