narrow waist and tight rear end. She jerked her thoughts away from his body, back to the pressing problem at hand. “Please, Mr. Warfield. I need this interview, and the publicity would be good for business.”
“I don’t need the publicity that bad,” he said, stomping down the stairs.
“But you just said your marketing department thought it was a good idea,” she said, struggling to keep up with his hasty descent down the stairwell. “Think of it as free advertising.”
He held up his hands, then turned and unlocked the door to his office. “Look, Ms. James, I appreciate your effort.” He pushed the door open. “But I’ve made my decision—”
A tiny, white puppy exploded from the small office and jumped at Jared’s legs.
All thoughts of the article disappeared from Erin’s head. “Oh, look at that! What a sweetheart.” She squatted and held her arms out. “Come over here, puppy.”
The fluffy puppy bounded over to Erin and launched itself into her arms. Enchanted, Erin flopped sideways onto the carpeted floor as best she could in her skirt and held the dog close, taking every single kiss the enthusiastic puppy had to dole out.
She loved dogs. She’d had a dog once, a fluffy mutt her dad had named Max. But her dad died when she was eight, and so her mom had given the dog away, claiming Max made her allergies flare up. Erin had never been aware of any allergies and said so, but it hadn’t made any difference. The dog was gone within hours, to where, Erin never knew. She’d cried for days, in private, of course. Her mom found fault with almost everything Erin did, but displays of emotion topped the list.
“What a cutie-pie you are, yes you are.” She stroked the puppy’s curly fur and planted kisses on its fuzzy head, falling headfirst into memories of her dad and Max. The three of them had spent hours together on walks and playing at the park. Those days, spent with her dad, were the only time in her life she’d felt truly loved and cared for. Of course, true to the pattern in her life since, her happiness had come to an abrupt end when he’d died.
After a few melancholy moments she pulled herself out of her reverie, sensing the force of Jared’s burnished gaze. She glanced up at him, noting his puckered brow. Uneasiness slid through her.
He cocked a slight smile. “Do you really love dogs, or are you just trying to soften me up to get your interview?”
She clambered to her feet, the puppy still in her arms, and smoothed her skirt down at the hips. She gazed at him frankly. “Look, I love dogs with or without the interview.” She shook her head, perplexed. “What could my love of animals possibly have to do with the interview, anyway?”
“You could pretend to like dogs so I’d look down and think how cute you two look together and—”
She handed the pup back to him. “Yes, well, that’s a little farfetched. I reacted the way I always do when I see a cute baby animal. I got down on the floor to play.” Erin’s curiosity about what drove Jared, already piqued, rose even higher. Why was he so wary about every little thing she said and did?
She looked directly in his eyes and raised an inquisitive brow. “You don’t trust me very much, do you, Mr. Warfield?”
“I don’t particularly distrust you, Ms. James,” he said slowly, obviously choosing his words carefully. “I’m sorry if I offended you, but I’ve learned to be cautious around the press.”
She would love to know why he was so skittish. Fortunately, she wouldn’t know him long enough to find out, and she doubted her article would delve that deep. And this certainly didn’t seem like the time to press him about his daughter. “I’ve noticed that.”
She leaned toward him and nuzzled the pup in his arms. Realizing how close she was, she stiffened and looked up. Her eyes met his and their gazes held. Silence strung out between them, taut and tense. She was so close she could smell his scent, coffee and earth, swirling around her. Sparks of awareness tingled along her skin. Her heart leaped. Obviously, the attraction she’d felt earlier was not a one-time thing.
His gaze flicked to her lips and stopped, and her body tightened. She swayed toward him, wishing with everything in her that he would close the distance between them and press that wicked mouth against hers for a long, deep kiss.
The puppy yipped, breaking the spell, scrambling Erin’s control like eggs in a sizzling frying pan. She took a quick step back and drew in a ragged breath. Man, Jared was hot. His smell and gorgeous body were enough to make control a foreign word.
Enough, already! Shocked, Erin moved back another step and ripped her gaze from his, hoping he didn’t notice her blush. She scrabbled for control, focusing her wayward attention on what she’d come here for. Her story. The bonus. Financial salvation.
“So, about the interview?” she asked, proud of how normal she’d made her voice sound after she’d almost burst into flames.
He turned and moved behind his neat-as-a pin, heavy wood desk, an expression on his face she couldn’t decipher. “Still after that story.”
She regarded him solemnly. “It’s my job.”
He tucked the puppy under one arm and looked through some papers on his desk with his free hand, but didn’t speak right away. Her heart pounding, Erin waited for an answer.
Finally he looked up, his face hard. “I’m sorry, Ms. James.”
Erin fought the panic spreading through her, grasping at straws in a last-ditch effort to change his mind. “Even if I let you have final approval of the article?”
He hesitated, then shook his head. “No.”
The burn of defeat spread through her, creating a lump in her throat the size of a boulder. She vaguely wondered how she was going to clean up the gigantic financial mess Brent had saddled her with and how she was going to complete “The Bachelor Chronicles.”
She nodded woodenly and pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. “I guess… I guess I’ll go now,” she managed to say. She wished she could forget this story and Jared Warfield and everything else that had happened in the past two days.
And then, because she had no choice, she turned and walked away, hoping she would wake up and discover this was all just a bad dream.
Jared watched Erin leave, admiring her slender legs from the back, loving the way her curvy hips moved under her skirt.
When she was gone, he rubbed Josie behind her ears and tried to regain control of his body, floored at how close he’d come to kissing Erin a few minutes earlier. Thank goodness Josie had let out that bark in the nick of time.
Despite his irritation over the pull he felt toward Erin, he still wondered if he shouldn’t have given her the damn interview. If marketing said Warfield’s needed the publicity, then Warfield’s needed the publicity.
Oh, man. Had he let his desire to protect Allison intrude on his good business sense? Maybe he should call Erin back.
The sizzling look they’d shared was incentive enough, as was the way she’d looked sitting on the floor with Josie, her skirt hiked up above her knees, her long, shapely legs exposed. With her auburn curls framing her face and her moss-colored eyes sparkling with delight, she’d looked like a woodland goddess come to life.
