That Wild Cowboy

“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 least a promise that Clint Griffin was interested. “Look, you’d be in the spotlight again. You could write your own ticket, sing some of your songs. All we want to do is follow you around on a daily basis and see how the great Clint Griffin lives his life. And you’d make a hefty salary doing it. What’s not to like about this?”

“You said it yourself,” he replied, obviously done with this conversation. “People like to get inside other people’s private affairs and...I might be dumb but I’m not stupid. I’ve been on the wrong side of a camera before—both the tabloid kind and the jailhouse kind. That’s a can of worms I don’t intend to open.” His chuckle cut through the air. “Heck, if I want attention I’ll just get into another brawl. That always gets me airtime.”

Victoria could tell she was losing him. “But I thought you’d jump at this chance. The pay is more than fair.”

He whirled and she watched, fascinated as his expression changed from soft and full of a grin, to hard and full of anger. Her heart actually skipped a couple of thumps and beats. Even if she didn’t like him, she could see the star potential all over his good-looking face.

“I’m not worried about the pay, darlin’. I know everyone and his brother thinks this ranch is about to bite the dust, but this isn’t some I’m-desperate-and-I-have-to-save-the-ranch type story. The Sunset Star will always be solid. My daddy made sure of that. It’s just that—” He stopped, stared at her, shook his head, stomped her toward the open doors into the house. “It’s just that I need to take care of a few things before I settle down and get back to keeping this place the way my daddy expected it to be kept. And I don’t need some reality show to help me do that.”

“But—”

He held her by the arm and marched her and her equipment toward the front of the house. “But even though you’re as cute as a newborn lamb and you seem like a good person, I’m not ready to take on the world in such an intimate way.”

Victoria’s panic tipped the scale when he opened the front door. “What if you just give me a week? One week to follow you around. Just me. No crew? I’ll edit the footage and let you have the final say.”

“No.”

“What if I double the offer?”

He stopped, one hand on the open door and one hand on her elbow. “Can you do that or are you just messing with me?”

“I can do that,” she said, praying Samuel would do that. “We really want you for this show.”

Clint glared down at her, his nostrils flaring in the same way as the black stallion in his favorite piece of artwork. “I don’t know. Maybe Clint Griffin is worth even more than that. You must want me pretty bad if you’re willing to give me millions of dollars just so you can follow me around.”

She blushed at the heated way he’d said that. But she was willing to play along. “I do. I mean, we do. I can’t go back without a yes from you. I might get fired.”

“And that’d be so horrible?”

“Yes. I’m a single, working girl. I have bills to pay. I have a life, too.”

“Then film your own self.”

“I can’t do that. I was sent out here to film you, to get you to become a part of our highly successful television series. You’d be a ratings bonanza.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard all that.” He leaned close, so close she could smell the scents of pine and cedar. “And yes, I would.” He let her go, leaving a warm imprint on her arm to tease at her and tickle her awareness. This was so not going her way.

Victoria gave up and took in a breath. She’d failed and now she had to tell Samuel. He would not be pleased. She started down the steps with the feeling that she was walking to her own execution.

“Hey,” Clint called. “C’mere a minute.”

Victoria whirled so fast, she almost dropped her camera. “Yes?”

“Would this contract include anything I wanted in there? Would I have a say over what goes in and what stays out?”

She swallowed and tried not to get too eager. “Uh, sure. We can put whatever you want into your contract—within reason, of course.”

He leaned against a massive column and crossed his arms over his chest, giving Victoria a nice view of his healthy biceps. “Come to think of it, I do have a nonprofit organization I could promote on air to get some exposure. That might be good. And I could certainly put the money into a trust for my niece. I’ll have to consider that possibility, too.”

Victoria was all for good deeds, but good deeds didn’t always make for good ratings. He couldn’t go all noble on her now. She needed bad—the bad-boy side of him. Or did she really? “Charities? You? On air?”

“Yes, charities, me. On air. I might be a player, sweetheart, but believe it or not, I’m also a human being.”

“Really now?”

“Really. Yes. I tell you what, you come back with a contract I can live with and I just might sign on the dotted line.” His grin stretched with all the confidence of a big lion getting ready to roar. “And I just might give you a little bit of what you want, too.”

Before she could stop herself, she blurted, “Oh, yeah, and what’s that?”

He moved like that roaring lion down the steps and got to within an inch of her nose. “My bad side,” he said, his eyes glistening with what looked like a dare.

“You’re on.” She backed up, glad she could find her next breath. She would not let this womanizer do a number on her head. She had to work with him, but she didn’t have to fawn all over him. Or put up with him fawning all over her.

Clint laughed and shook her hand. “We’ll see, sweetheart.”

Victoria knew that might be as good as she could get today. She’d be back all right. And she’d have a strong contract in hand and a couple of lawyers with her to seal the deal.

She might be dumb herself, but she wasn’t stupid either. She had to get Clint Griffin to star in Cowboys, Cadillacs and Cattle Drives or she might be out of a job.

She didn’t want her last memory of working on the show to be Clint Griffin turning her down. And honestly, she didn’t want things to end here. The man had somehow managed to intrigue her in spite of his wild reputation and in spite of how he’d treated her during their one brief encounter. But she was interested in him on a strictly professional level.

Victoria wanted to see what was behind that wild facade.

And she wanted to get to know Clint a little better in the process, too.

Temptation, she told herself. Too much temptation.

But this was a challenge she couldn’t resist.