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“You’re a trooper.”

I held up my finger as a warning, trying to maintain a poker face, even though the game was long over.

He nodded. “I forgot. Silence is golden.”

I laughed at the ridiculousness of this beautiful man.

I reached up and finally pressed my lips to his.

All the noise and chanting suddenly disappeared.

I tried to remember why I wanted to fight kissing him so much, when it was my new favorite thing to do in the world.

Kissing Ben Baxter was a dream.

Sweet and wonderful.

Our mouths fit together perfectly.

My heart rate kicked up a notch, just from the feel of his body against mine.

Ben grabbed me by the waist and pulled me against him even harder, deepening the kiss.

This was pure heaven.

Nothing more and nothing less.

He pulled away and smiled. “There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

I was dazed and confused and still needy.

I wanted more.

“Why did you stop?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I didn’t want to take advantage of the situation in front of all these people. The kiss was amazing, you collected your bet, and my needs were met.” He grinned.

I shook my head at him. “Dr. Tough Love, you more than anyone should know that you should put the needs of the woman first. And just between you and me, I’m not even close to finished.”

I reached up and kissed him again.

Chapter Twenty-One

BEN

I pulled up to the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe about twenty-five minutes before our promotion with the radio station was set to begin.

Today, we would promote and educate the public on what the incredible nonprofit organization was doing for our community and share information about their spaying, foster, and adoption programs. We would also be going live on the radio with a couple of call-ins to talk about what we were doing and invite the listeners to come by, say hi, and take a tour of the wonderful facility. Our public appearance would only last two hours and typically the time flew by for these events because we were interacting nonstop with so many people.

After saying hello to Dan and a few of the other radio station promo assistants who were setting up the booth and remote broadcast equipment, I decided to wander around the huge twelve-acre property.

I ended up in the new adoption center where one of the volunteers, Kaitlyn, recognized me and enthusiastically greeted me, saying she was a big fan of the show.

“Where’s Lori?” Kaitlyn asked. “I want to meet her.”

“She’ll be here soon, I would imagine, since we’re starting in about twenty minutes.”

“Let me show you some of the cute dogs up for adoption. You love dogs, right?”