Page 33 of Ruff and Tumble

“Don’t worry. I’m ready.” Hailey drew a deep breath and tossed the binder at him. “You have half an hour to go over these, and then we’ll make our picks in the conference room. Use your time wisely. I already have my dream lineup picked out.”

He caught the notebook easily, but something in his expression shifted as he stood there looking at her. Hailey fought the urge to squirm and tug at Penny’s jumpsuit, wanting to put distance between her skin and the tight cling of the fabric.

“Well?” she asked, her tone more abrupt than she intended. She couldn’t help it—that look on his face was doing strange things to her, wreaking havoc on a circulatory system that was already prone to causing her the maximum amount of embarrassment in the shortest amount of time. “Do you want to look those over in here, or should we head to—?”

She was prevented from finishing by the enthusiastic entrance of Philip, who showed no hesitation in recognizing Hailey despite her recent makeover. Sometime in the past twenty-four hours, the puppy had been washed and dressed in a teal bow tie. She didn’t know if it was the bath or the natural outcome of a day spent in a palatial mansion, but he looked, well,good.

“Hello, Sir Philip,” she said as she squatted down to the puppy’s level. He was a body in motion, squirming and wriggling as though he had no choice but to wear his happiness on the outside. “Yes, I’m very pleased to see you, too. Yes, I know you want to lick my face, but I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Is that something you don’t enjoy?” Cole asked. “Interesting.”

Hailey glanced up to find that Cole had returned to his former state—which was to say in complete mastery of himself and the room. His smile was back, though a little lopsided this time, his eyes twinkling as they took in the sight of her trying to prevent Philip from burrowing in her neck.

“I hope you didn’t let Jasmine see you come into her precious office with a puppy,” she said by way of answer. She didn’t trust herself to address the other part—theflirtatiouspart—until she had a better handle on herself.

“Don’t worry. We snuck in through the back,” Cole promised. He held out his hand and hoisted Hailey to her feet. A decent man would have let her go right away, but he was no such thing. He used his hold to tug her close and transfer his grip to her waist. He spanned a good portion of it, his thumb grazing her belly. “Do I dare hope this is for me, or did you dress for the cameras?”

She tried not to fall for it. She took a deep breath and willed her heart rate to maintain a steady beat. She imagined herself inside an ice castle. She pictured the deepest, darkest cave in Norway.

It was no use. Her blush spread like wildfire across her cheeks.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her voice prim. “But on the subject of cameras, might I suggest you start looking through that binder sooner rather than later? The photographers will be here any minute.”

Her tactics failed. If anything, they had the reverse effect of what she intended. Cole’s grip tightened, his fingers pressing into her waist so much that a shiver moved up and down her spine. There was something deliciously possessive about his hold. Even Philip pouncing playfully around their feet and Penny standing a few feet away didn’t seem to weaken him.

“You look good,” he said. And, more forcefully this time, “Reallygood.”

As was rapidly becoming the case whenever she interacted with this man for longer than five minutes, Hailey felt all her verbal filters strip away and her raised hackles take their place. Okay, so she was rarely the best-dressed woman in the room. And there wasn’t always time to do her makeup and hair as nicely as she wanted. And yes, she’d have never chosen this particular outfit by herself.

But it wasn’t as if she’d just stepped out of a pumpkin carriage. Her transformation hadn’t occurred by magic. All that had changed was some permanent marker on her eyelids and hair that felt about three times taller than it normally was. He could show alittleless surprise.

“I know I do,” she said and stepped back. That small bit of distance between the hard planes of Cole’s body and the heated planes of her own wasn’t much, but it was enough. “And I’m going to look a hundred times better when my team of puppies demolishes yours. Wouldn’t it be awful if you lost both the Puppy Cup and the Kickoff Cup this year? What would your parents say?”

He looked as though he wanted to argue further—maybe even pull her into his arms again—but he allowed the moment to pass. With a chuckle and a shake of his head, he said, “Yet another low blow, Hailey Lincoln. You know very well what they would say.”

He was right. She did know. She might have only been in their presence for one day, but that had been more than enough to tell her everything she needed to know. One of the least helpful skills she’d developed in her lifetime was the ability to dissect a family at a glance. She could sense financial strain as soon as she walked in the door. She knew when a couple was on the brink of divorce and hoping to stall it by becoming foster parents. She felt their disappointment when the child who’d been placed with them was shy and awkward and not at all what they’d been expecting.

She also knew genuine love and affection—felt how it radiated in everything a family said and did, joined it in front of the television to watch a game of football.

Cole didn’t know how lucky he was to have that in his life—toalwayshave had that in his life. This man, with his twelve-million-dollar arm and his good looks, his easy charm and loving family, had no idea what it was like to have to fight for every scrap of affection.

Philip did, though. Along with the hundreds of other puppies desperately waiting to find their forever homes.

“They’d tell you to get off your ass and get to work,” she said. She nodded at the expensive and wholly unnecessary gold watch on Cole’s wrist. “You’re not so far ahead that you can afford to run out the clock, Cole Bennett. But then, I don’t have to tell you that, do I?”

* * *

Cole was doing his best to concentrate on the roster of puppies spread out in front of him, but it was no use.

He’d been tricked. Duped. Lured into this project with false promises of easy, friendly competition.

There was nothing easy or friendly about the way Hailey looked right now. As she bent and twisted, tacking photos and stats and other useful bits of information on the wall that was to serve as their draft board, the only thing he could seem to focus on was her ass. In the clothes she’d worn every other time they’d met, she’d seemed attractively curvy—a warm collection of round parts that fit her personality.

Today, however…

He shook his head to clear it and forced himself to focus on the task at hand. Today, she’d revealed more than just the small curve of her waist and the way her body swelled above and below it in perfect proportions. Today, she’d revealed her hand.

She was going to do her best to win, and if he allowed himself to be mesmerized by the way the fabric of her jumpsuit clung to her hourglass shape, she was going to demolish him.