Her Bossy Christmas Grinch: Chestnut Grove Christmas, #1

By Juliet Jake

Julian is an arrogant, self-absorbed, workaholic and entirely too hot to be anyone's boss.
I am his overworked employee, ready to jump ship.
And maybe into his bed.

I'd hoped for a fun holiday weekend, enjoying the town Christmas Bash with friends in our small mountain town, Chestnut Grove. Instead, I find myself babysitting my infuriating, grumpy, grinchy and oh-so sexy boss, Julian Klaus. Yeah, Klaus. No relation to Santa. I can promise you a belly laugh never came out of Julian's mouth.

But when that mouth makes it way to my lips, it's guaranteed I'll be on Santa's naughty list. Maybe permanently. Still, there is no way I'm falling for Julian no matter how good he is at kissing. Or anything else. I mean, no one falls for their grumpy boss. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Her Bossy Christmas Grinch is an enemies to lovers, grumpy boss short romance that is sweet with heat and a whole lot of heart. No cliffhangers or cheating, just a hilarious, sizzling romance with a delicious happily ever after.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Love Smitten Books
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215462331

Juliet Jake

Juliet Jake writes sizzling romance with heart, humor and heat. When she’s not writing, you can find her on the beach with her toes in the sand, drinking a Margarita and watching the world go by while she plans her next romantic adventure story.

Book preview

Her Bossy Christmas Grinch

Juliet Jake

Books by Juliet Jake

What Happens in Vegas Series

That Night in Vegas

Four Weddings and a Baby Shower

The Non Proposal

My Royally Grumpy Boss

Shadow Force Series

Redemption - Rum Harbor

Reckless - Rum Harbor

Crazy Irresistible - Rum Harbor

Chestnut Grove Christmas Series

Her Bossy Christmas Grinch

Her Grumpy Christmas Hero

Crushing with Colton

A New Orleans Christmas

Her Christmas Spirit

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locals is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher and author. For more information regarding permission, contact the author.

Copyright © 2021 Juliet Jake

All rights reserved.

Silver Gate Press

Her Bossy Christmas Grinch

Julian is an arrogant, self-absorbed, workaholic

and entirely too hot to be anyone’s boss.

I am his overworked employee, ready to jump ship.

And maybe into his bed.

I’d hoped for a fun holiday weekend, enjoying the town Christmas Bash with friends in our small mountain town, Chestnut Grove. Instead, I find myself babysitting my infuriating, grumpy, grinchy and oh-so sexy boss, Julian Klaus. Yeah, Klaus. No relation to Santa. I can promise you a belly laugh never came out of Julian’s mouth.

But when that mouth makes it way to my lips, it’s guaranteed I’ll be on Santa’s naughty list. Maybe permanently. But when that mouth makes it way to my lips, it’s guaranteed I’ll be on Santa’s naughty list. Maybe permanently. Still, there is no way I’m falling for Julian no matter how good he is at kissing. Or anything else. I mean, no one falls for their grumpy boss. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

Her Bossy Christmas Grinch is an enemies to lovers, grumpy boss romance that is sweet with heat and a whole lot of heart. No cliffhangers, or cheating, just a hilarious, sexy romance with a delicious happily ever after.

Chapter One

Meadow

He’s coming!

A wind of papers flying, heels and soles scuttling across the carpet, and a hush of cussing across the cubicles filled the air. Panic had set in. The monster was on his way.

I stood beside my co-worker’s cubicle, where I may or may not have been gossiping, and desperately tried to slide my feet back into the required professional footwear. But my brand-new high heel pumps were too tight now that my feet had swelled since I’d kicked off the tight new shoes this morning. And I had defied the sexist dress codes again, refusing to wear a dress in the freezing cold that had enveloped Chestnut Grove with an early cold front of snow and sleet.

Mr. Julian Klaus, my boss and the spawn of the devil himself would probably consider me a rebel for such behavior. More likely, he would never even notice. He’d barely looked at me in the year I’d worked for him. The little rat seemed to have no interest in anything other than market reports, new contracts and that annoying little cell phone he always had his eyes glued to, as if it held the secrets to the universe. Or more likely the secrets to the financial markets and his growing billions.

Julian Klaus, or Mr. Grumpy Pants as I liked to call him behind his back, must have decided to resuscitate the old rule that all women employees wear dresses or skirts and heels to the office. Really? In this century? Even if Genesis Trust was the most conservative financial firm in Chestnut County, it was a ridiculous, antiquated rule. Whoever made that stupid rule was someone who had never worn a dress and heels.

I gritted my teeth as I heard the elevator ding, the warning bell that told me I had maybe thirty seconds left to shove my stockingless feet into my new pumps and run for my cubicle. Heaven forbid, I wasn’t at my desk when he arrived. He might die of mortification right on the spot, just looking at my empty chair. More likely, he’d raise his eyebrows in that judgmental way that he did, letting me know in no uncertain terms that he did not approve. And I’d ignore him in a way that said in no uncertain terms, I did not care.

The elevator bell dinged again, like a shrill ring of terror heard around the world. Well, if Genesis Trust was your world. It was my world lately with all the overtime I’d been working. And now that my skunk of a boss was here, no doubt to bark an order about some new project that had to be done by yesterday, we’d all be working through the weekend. Or at least I would be. Through the firm’s stodgy Christmas party Friday night, no loss there and through Chestnut Grove’s grand Christmas Bash on Saturday night, a big loss there.

The Chestnut Christmas Bash was the party of the year, and everyone in our small mountain town attended. And I do mean everyone. Things could get wild, well, at least wild for a small mountain town full of misfits. This town of artsy hippies, cowboys, tough guys, high-flying corporate types and a few normal town folks, kids, and grandies made strange bed fellows. But for some reason, on one magical night of the year, everyone came happily together in Chestnut Grove and had a ball. Long life friendships were born, love blossomed, and babies were made under the magic of the town Christmas lights. Everyone had a grand old time. Everyone except Mr. Grumpy Pants. The man had no idea how to have fun.

The elevator doors opened, and a hush fell over the staid office whose bare walls held not even one stitch of Christmas tinsel. Can anyone say grinch? I glanced up just in time to see his large, capable hand brush through those glossy locks of hair as he strutted out of the elevator like a run way model. Okay, so I forgot to mention how damn good looking the grinch of Chestnut Grove was; he was a very fine specimen of a man with not a single green hair on his delectable, grinchy body. Sigh.

So, there he came, walking that annoyingly brisk, confident walk as if he owned the world, which maybe he did, looking down at his phone, ignoring his staff, immersed in some world where only he existed. Did I mention I didn’t like the man? Nope, not even a little bit. But let’s face it, who actually