Page 5 of Her Top Dog
Sam Murphy is 29 years old and was born and raised in the suburbs of Orange County. He’s never been married, but has been linked to actresses Colette Steere, Rebecca Lovett, and Riley Carr.
Below were some pictures of him with the actresses at various red carpet events. Holy hell, he looked even better in a tux. Some men didn’t… some men looked strange or like they were trying too hard when they dressed up, but not Sam. He wore that tux like it was made for him. His dark hair was even styled swooped to one side in a near-perfect Superman sort of curl.
It wasn’t fair that he was so damn attractive… but also such a jerk. I don’t care that it was for a show. I don’t care that it was his job. He didn’thaveto say those things to me… he chose to because he was being paid a shit ton of money to do so.
“Hi,” a deep, soft voice came from across the table, and I startled, looking up to find Sam himself sitting there in Missy’s seat across from me. “I’m sorry to interrupt your dinner.” He paused, his eyes falling to Missy’s half-empty glass of wine, then to mine. “Are you on a date?”
My brows lifted. “What if I am?”
His features hardened and I delighted in the fact that, even though we barely knew each other, he seemed angry at the fact that I was on a date. Even if I really wasn’t.
“Fine,” he snapped. “I won’t take much of your time. I just wanted to come and apologize in person…” His gaze shifted down, landing on my phone which had fallen on the table face up… with his picture illuminated.
Shit.
The hardened scowl morphed into a cocky smirk. If I didn’t want to slap him so badly, I might have kissed that smirk right from his face. “You doing some research there? While on yourdate?”
I snatched the phone off the table and shoved it into my purse. “Weren’t you apologizing?”
He raked a hand through his hair, and it fell boyishly around his face. “Yeah. I really am sorry—”
“For what exactly? The humiliation? Or verbal assault?”
His face twisted, brows knitting together between his eyes. “Verbal assault? Whoa. It was just a dumb prank.”
“Yeah. Sexual in nature. Your stupid show is a lawsuitwaitingto happen.”
“Are you a lawyer?”
He was nervous. I could see it in the slight tip of his head—a nervous tick I saw him do when he was reading the questions to me. “What if I am?”
“Look… what’s your name?”
I snorted. “Youreallythink I’m going to give you my name?”
His eyes closed and his lips moved slightly, as though he was silently counting to ten. “Jut your first name, so we can talk. Normally.” His smirk lifted and he gestured to my phone, now put away in my bag. “Besides, you clearly already know my name.”
My glare hardened. One point for Sam. “Nina,” I snapped. “My name is Nina.”
“Nina,” he exhaled my name like it was a meditation. Like saying it, knowing it, brought him inner peace.
Hearing my name rumbled in that low, graveled voice made my insides mushy in a way that I didn’t care to explore or even admit. As much as I loved being a boss in the office, the bedroom was a different story. And the way he said my name and held my stare… I had no doubts Sam Murphy could take control whenever and however he wanted between the sheets.
Shit.I needed to get control back. Technically, in a couple of days, Sam Murphy and I would be colleagues. “Can I give you some advice, Mr. Murphy?”
One side of his mouth lifted higher in that arrogant smirk, his eyes flashing as I called him by his formal name, and I squeezed my thighs together against the pulse of arousal. “Go ahead,” he said.
“If someone is threatening to litigate, don’t apologize. It’s an admission of fault.”
He inhaled slowly, narrowing his eyes as he sat back in the booth. “I guess I didn’t realize howtraumatizingour jokes can be.”
“That right there. That patronizing tone tells me everything I need to know about that so-called ‘apology’ of yours.”
He shook his head, a sharp breath exhaling out his nose. “Look, I reallydidcome here to apologize. Sincerely. But if you’re going to threaten tosueme, then I’m not going to sit here and play nice when the real bully is the one across the table with her lawyer on speed dial. And frankly, I’m the one who got soup poured over my head. If we’re going to get technical,thatis legally assault.”
Damn if he wasn’t right about that. A few years ago, there was a highly public case where a girl threw a glass of water into her date’s face in a restaurant. She was arrested and prosecuted for assault, according to California state law.
Sam slid out of from the table and paused, standing above me. I hated when men did that. Asserted their power by showing how much bigger they were physically. It was bullshit. With a rigid spine, I stretched so that I sat taller in my bench, but I didn’t dare stand and go nose to nose with him. Hell, no. That was just what he wanted. That would show he’d gotten under my skin.
