liked flirting, but business was business. “You don’t get off that easily. You came looking for me and I’m not signing on any dotted lines until I know what the deal is with this television show. And I’m certainly not making any decision this early in the morning. At least not until you answer my three questions, sweetheart.”
She glared at him and grabbed another biscuit.
CHAPTER TWO
VICTORIA RUBBED HER full stomach and wished she’d resisted temptation with those incredible biscuits. She was not a leggy blonde, after all. More like a petite and too-curvy brunette. And she had a job to do.
She also had another temptation to resist.
Him.
He smelled like freshly mowed hay. With his hair still damp and his five-o’clock shadow long past that hour, he looked as dangerous and bad as his reputation had implied. But he also looked a little tired and worn down.
Long night with the blonde?
Squaring her shoulders, she took in a breath and got back to business. After all, she was burning daylight just sitting here chewing the fat with this overblown cowboy.
“Okay, my producer, Samuel Murray, is a whiz at doing reality television. He has several Emmys to prove it.”
Clint nodded, leaned forward. “I got trophies for days, darlin’. And my time is valuable, so why should I sign up to have you and that fancy camera poking around in my life?”
How to explain this to a man who obviously thought he was so above being a reality?
“Well, you’ll get instant exposure. You’ll become famous all over again. You can revive your—”
Clint got up, stomped around the flagstone patio floor. “My what? Rodeo career? That’s been over for a long time. My songwriting? That’s more of a hobby, according to what I read in the papers and heard on the evening news.” He lifted his hand toward the vast acreage behind the yard. “This is it for me right now. Just a boring cattle rancher.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear and read,” Victoria replied, surprising herself and him. Why should she care how he felt or what he thought? “And the viewers love anyone who is living large.” She indicated the house with a glance back at it. “And it certainly seems as if you’re doing just that.”
Once again turning the tables on her, he asked, “And what do you believe? What have you read or heard about me? How am I living large?”
Should she be honest and let him know upfront that she despised everything he stood for? That beginning with high school and ending with a called-off wedding and later, one long kiss from him, she’d dated one too many cowboys and she’d rather be in a relationship with a CPA or a grocery store manager than someone like him? That she thought he was one walking hot mess and a complete fake?
“No need to answer that,” Clint replied, his hands tucked into the pockets of his nicely worn jeans. “I can see it in your eyes. You don’t like me and you don’t want to be here, but hey, you have a job to do, like everyone else, right?”
Victoria didn’t try to deny his spot-on observation. “Right. If we can work together, we both win. I get a nice promotion and you get the exposure you need to put your name back out there, so to speak.”
Clint lowered his head and gave her a lopsided grin. “Meaning, I can either make the best of this offer or I can show myself in a bad light and make things worse all the way around.”
She’d thought the same thing, driving out here. If he acted the way the world thought he acted, he wouldn’t win over any new fans. Or they’d love him and watch him out of a morbid fascination with celebrities doing stupid things. Watch him to make themselves feel better, if nothing else. Why the world got such a perverse pleasure out of watching others have public meltdowns was beyond her. Victoria valued her own privacy, which made her job tough sometimes. Filming someone in a bad light had not been her dream after college. But a girl had to earn a paycheck. She’d get through this. Right now she needed Clint Griffin to help her.
“I won’t lie to you,” she said, hoping to convince him. “This could work in your favor or it could go very bad. But I think people will be fascinated by your lifestyle, no matter how we slant it.”
“Oh, yeah.” He turned to grab his coffee then stared out over the sunshine playing across the pasture. “Everybody wants a piece of Clint Griffin. Why is it that people like to watch other people suffer?”
Wondering how much he was truly suffering, Victoria watched him, saw the pulse throbbing against the muscles of his jawline. Hadn’t she just thought the same thing—why people liked to watch others suffering and behaving badly?
She ignored the little twinge of guilt nudging at her brain and launched back into trying to persuade him to cooperate.
“I think people like reality television because they get to be voyeurs on what should be very private lives and they see that celebrities are humans, too.”
He turned to look at her, his eyes smoky and shuttered. “They like to watch people hurting and trying to hide that hurt. They like to see someone who’s been given everything fail at it anyway. That’s why they watch.”
“I suppose so,” she conceded. “It’s a sad fact, but today’s reality television makes for great entertainment. And I do believe you’d make a great subject for our show.”
“In spite of your better judgment?”
“Yes.” Victoria believed in being honest. But she couldn’t help but notice the shard of hurt moving through his eyes. “You’d be compensated for your time, of course.”
“At what price?”
The look he gave her told her he wasn’t talking about money. Did this shiny, bright good ol’ boy have a conscience?
“You’ve heard the offer already but you could probably name your price.”
He stared at her then named a figure. She tried not to flinch. No surprise that he was holding out for more. “I’ll talk to Samuel. But I think we can come to an agreement. I can’t speak for the network and the army of lawyers we have, but I can report back and have someone call you or meet with you and your handlers.”
He laughed, shook his head then offered her a hand. “No dice, darlin’. I don’t have a lot of handlers these days except for my manager, who also acts as my agent. But I’ve already informed him and your army of lawyers, as you called them, that I’m really not interested in your show.”
“What?” Victoria didn’t know how to respond. She would have bet a week’s pay that this ham of a man would have jumped at the chance to preen around on a hit television show.
But he didn’t seem the least bit interested or impressed. He actually looked aggravated.
Victoria’s head started spinning with ways to sway him. Should she stroke his big ego and make him see what he’d be missing—a captive audience, loyal female followers and his name back in the bright lights?
She couldn’t go back to Samuel without at
