Paws off the Boss - Casey Griffin (best books under 200 pages .TXT) 📗

“Piper, I wasn’t embarrassed to be with you. How could you think that?” He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I was embarrassed of my life, of exposing you to self-important snobs like Holly Hart or making you a paparazzi target. You were so nervous just to go on television last week. I wanted a normal night where the two of us could be … us, like when we go to the park.”

His thumb made nervous little circles on the back of her hand. “I wanted you to go on a date with me. Aiden. Not the CEO of Caldwell and Son Investments.”

Piper saw the sincerity in his expression. Now that she’d calculated that coin’s value, it turned out to be worthless. Nothing. It was barely a penny. No, it was a button.

She took in his answer, struggling to maintain a straight face, while she wanted to sag in relief and do a happy dance. Either that or take a page from Colin’s book and mark her territory. He’s mine, ladies. All mine!

Piper recalled that night at the restaurant. Holly had been fishing for information, manipulating Piper’s insecurities for dirt on Aiden. She’d known Holly had targeted him for years, and yet Piper had let herself be played. You can take the journalist out of the tabloid, but you can’t take the tabloid out of the journalist.

“Well,” she began, reining in her sudden irritation with herself, “sometimes that’s going to be your life. You can’t escape it. And if I date you, I have to accept that.” Which was the nicest way she could find to tell him he was being ridiculous.

Aiden gave her a sad-puppy look. “If you date me?”

“Now that I’m dating you,” she corrected. God, how those words made her heart dance in her chest. Oh, look. Not exploded at all.

His dimple made an appearance at her answer. “I wish I could make it up to you, take you on another date right now. But I suppose it’s getting a little late.” He eyed the sky.

The sun had long since set. The remaining light blushed along the skyline.

“But we could still pretend,” Piper said hopefully. “That we had our date and you’re walking me to my car.”

She pulled out her keys and strolled to the VW Bug waiting in the dark parking lot. Colin followed behind, marking things as he went.

“And how did it go?” Aiden asked, playing along. “You know, any initial feelings, ideas, impressions?”

“It went well. I had the chicken; you had the risotto. We shared some wine. I probably had too much because I was nervous.”

“And how was I? Was I charming? Funny?” He pulled a silly face, but his posture tensed like he was waiting for honest feedback.

“You made some good jokes. A couple times I laughed when it wasn’t funny, but overall, very charming.”

“Oh, no. A pity laugh.” He ran a hand through his already tousled hair. “Did I make up for it? Did I at least get a goodnight kiss? Was it good enough to warrant another date?”

“I don’t know. It hasn’t happened yet.” She slowed down as they approached her car, and she fiddled with her keys. “I’m still waiting for one.”

“I suppose it better be a good one to make up for that pity laugh.” He rolled his shoulders, straightening his collar like he was preparing.

Piper laughed and pulled him in. He kissed her softly once, then again, his lips lingering against hers. A kiss worthy of a second date. But after two weeks of seeing him almost every day, Piper was ready for more than second-date action; she craved a tenth-date kiss.

Dropping her keys, she reached up and gripped his collar. She pulled his body closer. Aiden backed her up until her butt hit the trunk of her car, pressing, grinding against her until something firm pressed against her stomach. She knew it wasn’t the dog treats in his pocket. And if it had been a dog treat, he must have switched to feeding Sophie extra-large bones. What would his dry cleaner have to say about that one?

Piper’s body was back in control. Her brain wasn’t just taking a break; it was gone. Away on vacation.

His mouth found her earlobe, and he tugged on it with his teeth. She felt a shiver run down her neck, right to her toes. The little German car rocked on its wheels, squeaking with each nudge from Aiden’s hips. Piper’s groans added to the chorus.

His hand slid over her jeans and across her butt. Gripping her thigh, he hiked her leg up. She wrapped it around him in order to get his bone closer. When she moaned, the sound echoed across the empty lot.

The fire had done something to her. That sense of urgency, the adrenaline, still lingered in her veins. It reminded her how precious life was, bringing her feelings for Aiden to the surface.

Now that the fire was out and the danger settled, all that remained, all that mattered, was the two of them. Being in his arms, feeling the touch of his hands, his mouth, the pressure of his body against hers, was reassuring. Because life was too short.

As his five-o’clock shadow rubbed deliciously against her collarbone, she was certain she’d already died and gone to heaven. The pearly gates had opened up and, oh, wow, she could see the light. And it was dazzling. And bright. Really, really bright.

Piper squinted, cringing away from it. She held up a hand to block the light. Turns out, that wasn’t the heavens smiling down upon her and Aiden. It was an LED flashlight pointed at their flushed faces.

“Is everything all right here?” a voice asked.

And those weren’t angels in white. They were the boys in blue.

“We heard sounds of a struggle,” the other said.

Aiden jumped back. Piper ran a hand over her clothes to make sure everything was where it should be. She tried to act natural, leaning on the car, like what could they possibly be doing alone in a dark, quiet parking lot at night?

“N-n-no. No struggle, Officer,” she stammered. The only thing she would struggle with that night was her libido. “We’re fine.”

Aiden cleared his throat, straightening his tie. “Thank you, officers.”

The flashlight lowered, and Piper could see again. She didn’t miss the look that the two cops exchanged. They didn’t appear annoyed or like they were about to arrest Aiden and Piper. But it was a good thing they’d shown up sooner rather than later; the things she’d wanted to do to him in her car would have been all sorts of indecent public exposure. They would have spent the night behind bars for sure. She could just imagine the headlines Holly would’ve come up with for that one.

“All right,” the first cop said, an unspoken warning beneath the amusement in his voice. “You two have a good night.”

“Thank you.” Piper stifled a giggle as they turned away.

Aiden rested his head against hers, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “So?” he asked when he got it under control. “What do you think? Does that warrant another date?”

“I think that warrants the next hundred dates.”

“At least it didn’t warrant a trip to jail,” he said, reflecting her earlier thoughts.

Laughing, she bent down to find her keys where she’d dropped them on the ground. She groped among the gravel in the dark, listening for the telltale jingle, but then something sharp stabbed her finger. She hissed.

“Ouch!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Something cut me.”

Slipping his cell phone out of his pocket, Aiden turned on the screen and faced the light toward the ground. The gravel beneath their feet shone like it was littered with diamonds. It took a second for Piper’s eyes to adjust to the light. She kicked a glittering piece and realized what they were seeing: broken glass.

Aiden raised the light to Piper’s passenger window, which sported a gaping hole. But that wasn’t all. Spray-painted in white across the entire side of her poppy-red classic car was the word “Floozy.”

“Laura.” She clenched her teeth. “Who even says ‘floozy’ anymore?”

Aiden frowned. “Maybe she got bored with the usual and bought a thesaurus.”

Reaching past him, Piper wrenched the door open and saw more glass spread over the interior, the console, the floor, the seat.

“Can I see your phone?” With a shaking hand, she reached back over her shoulder.

Aiden passed his phone to her, and she aimed the light around the cramped interior. She had a lot of junk in there: bits and pieces of telegram costumes, textbooks, evidence of her Starbucks obsession.

But none of it had been touched. Her purse was still lying behind the driver’s seat. Except … She checked her console again.

“Did she take anything?” Aiden asked.

“Yeah. I grabbed my mail on the way out of my apartment this morning. There was a letter—” She caught herself before she said any more. It had, in fact, been a notice from her cable company, saying if she didn’t pay her bill, they’d turn it off. “Er … just junk mail.”

His face turned grim. “It would have had your address on it.”

“But Laura already knows where I live. She would have no reason to take my mail.”

The phone’s light cast deep shadows on Aiden. It made his jaw seem sharper as it clenched. “Then obviously the arsonist’s not done playing with us.”

Piper froze in her search. She’d assumed it was Laura because of the less-than-original message. But what if it was worse? Maybe Laura wasn’t the only one who’d stopped by.

She recalled Inspector Samuels’s