“No reason.” Every reason. Daniel strode out of his office and took the elevator down to street level to meet his fate.
He didn’t have to look far to find it. A crowd of women were huddled together in the middle of the foyer and he could see a brown-and-black tail poking between their legs. It was wagging wildly.
Traitor, Daniel thought, and made a mental note to have a severe word with Brutus later. If the dog had a grain of loyalty he would have sided with Daniel and refused to come into the building. After all those walks. All the sticks he’d thrown. All the belly rubs, and the dog hairs he’d picked off his clothing. He’d never witnessed such a display of canine ingratitude.
Strains of the conversation wafted over to him.
“He’s gorgeous.”
“What an amazing dog, does he really belong to Daniel Knight? I never even knew he owned a dog. He doesn’t seem like the type.”
“Oh, he’s a real dog lover,” came a bright, female voice that Daniel recognized immediately as Molly’s.
Why didn’t she sound angry?
And then he heard her voice again, sweet and a little breathless.
“Didn’t you know? He walks his dog every day in Central Park. It’s how we met. So romantic.”
So that was the way she was going to play it. Clever.
What she had in mind wasn’t rage, but revenge.
During one of their conversations he’d told her that he never took his private life to the office, so she’d brought it right here to his door, and from the looks of it she was determined to cause him maximum embarrassment.
Ready to perform damage control, he strode across the marble floor toward the little group. “Molly! This is a surprise.”
Molly rose to her feet and for an infinitesimal second her eyes met his. And then she smiled.
It was the first time in his life he’d been afraid of a smile.
“Daniel! Darling.” She reached up and kissed his cheek, and his last coherent thought before his senses were caught in the blast was that he wished she meant it. As her lips brushed his jaw he was transported back to the weeping willow, her body pressed against his, his pulse pounding as he felt the erotic slide of her tongue against his.
He wanted to power her back to the reception desk and flatten her to the smooth glass surface, but fortunately for his reputation Brutus intervened. The dog gave a delighted bark and leaped on him, clearly thrilled to see Daniel. Daniel was surprised to discover the feeling was mutual, and not simply because the animal had stopped him from risking arrest for indulging in obscene behavior in a public place.
“Hi, Brutus.” He bent to greet the dog, ridiculously pleased that his sisters hadn’t yet found a new home for him. The dog licked his hand and wagged his tail so hard he almost lost his balance on the slick polished floor. “This is a surprise.”
Molly gave him a playful smile. “But a good surprise, I hope. Don’t ‘ruffle’ his fur, Daniel.” The emphasis was faint but impossible to miss. “You know he always likes to look his best.”
Daniel straightened, assessing how far she was prepared to go to humiliate him. “I wasn’t expecting the pleasure of a visit.”
Her smile told him she knew exactly how much of a “pleasure” this visit was.
“I know we’re not supposed to bother you at work, but Brutus—” she emphasized his name “—was missing his daddy so badly.”
Daniel winced at “daddy.” Clearly she was prepared to go all the way. From what he knew about her she was smart and professional. He was pretty sure the word daddy wasn’t usually part of her vocabulary, especially not in this context.
She dropped into a crouch and held Brutus’s face in her hands as she talked in an exaggerated baby voice. “Tell daddy how much you were missing him, you poor baby,” she crooned. “You wanted him to snuggle with you and tickle your tummy like he does when he’s home, isn’t that right?”
The three girls from reception who had left their posts to fondle Brutus were all gaping at him. Clearly the image of him “snuggling” with anything was as alien as thinking of him as “daddy.” His reputation was disintegrating in front of his eyes. He didn’t care about that. He did care about the major client who was stepping out of a car outside the building. He estimated that he had about two minutes to execute damage control or he’d have a bigger problem than a few dog hairs on his suit.
“Brutus is struggling on the shiny floor, so why don’t we take this outside and—”
“We’ll be really quick. Brutus brought you a present.” She used the same ridiculous voice. A voice he’d never heard her use before.
A voice that told him he was royally screwed.
“Molly—”