Page 6 of The Big Scoop

“Mr. Night—”

“Let’s go in here,” he said, taking my hand unexpectedly and leading me to the room on the right. “I’m pretty sure this is an office. At least that’s how I had it laid out on the blueprints.”

“Are you an architect as well, Mr. Night?” I asked.

“Call me Harrison,” he replied. “And yes. I’m not certified, but I do all my own drawings for all my houses.”

Show off.

His hand was strong and firm around mine. I could feel the calluses on his hand, which I didn’t expect, given the pampered lifestyle he was accustomed to living. Probably from the gym or something.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off him as he walked in front of me, pulling me along like one of those trendy Instagram photos that girlfriends always make their boyfriends do these days.

His body was sculpted; I could see his back muscles through the sheer fabric of the loose-neck white t-shirt he was wearing. I could also see he had some sculpted glutes under those suit pants of his, and his triceps looked like they were ready to pop out of his sleeves.

His skin was a sweet, light caramel color, but it didn’t look like a spray tan or a guy who spent time in a tanning bed; it looked real, like he actually spent time out in the sun, and his haircut was perfect—medium length and brushed back like Elvis without the pompadour.

Focus, Gwen! I told myself as we reached the door of the room to our right, which indeed turned out to be an office. But just as we were about to step through, Harrison spun around and headed the other way, pulling me along behind him.

“You know what?” he said as I stumbled in my heels as I tried to keep up. “Let’s go out back. It’s a beautiful summer afternoon and I’ve got a back yard you wouldn’t believe. I’ll have Audrey bring us out some drinks and something to eat.”

“I didn’t come here to have dinner with you, Harrison,” I said. “I came to—”

“I know, you came for the interview,” he replied as he led me across the koi pond. I stepped carefully to avoid ending up wet (as if I wasn’t already). “But I don’t think well on an empty stomach.”

I started to protest, but Harrison tugged me over the last step of the koi pond and around the stairs to a massive glass wall with sliding open doors leading out to an enormous landscaped back yard with lush hedges and rows of flowers.

“Wow,” I said softly.

“Hey, I think that’s the first nice thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth today,” Harrison smirked as we stepped outside.

The ground felt shaky beneath my feet. It shouldn’t have, as we were standing on a beautiful concrete patio, but it did. In fact, the whole world felt off balance as I stepped up beside Harrison while he still held my hand and looked out at the amazing view.

I may have been staring down the grass at the tall trees out back, but I felt Harrison’s eyes on mine, and when I glanced over at him, I saw an expression on his face that could only mean one thing…

…and my heart fluttered.

Keep it together, Gwen!

“Why don’t we start the interview while we wait for the food?” I asked, finally pulling my hand away from his and taking a seat at a patio table nearby.

“Didn’t they teach you anything about patience at…where did you go to school?”

“UNH,” I replied, waiting for Harrison to sit. But he just stood there, towering over me with a bulge in his pants that I could barely keep my eyes off of. It was like meeting a king—an emperor—and I felt myself slowly succumbing to his charms with every second that ticked by.

This guy’s really a playboy jerk? I thought as I looked at him, the sunlight gleaming off his perfect jawline that was graced with just the right amount of stubble.

He seemed nice…cocky but nice.

That’s probably what all the girls think, Gwen! Right up until the next morning when they wake up alone and never see him again.

He was looking at me like he’d decided to skip the food and eat me instead, and if I was being totally honest with myself, I wouldn’t have minded that.

To say that I wasn’t good with men would be an award-winning understatement, and it had been a long time since any man had given me the kind of attention that Harrison was giving me.

I was a nerd in high school and a nerd in college. I’d let myself get carried away freshman year and fell for the charms of the starting center of the basketball team. He pretended to be a nice guy and I almost gave him my virginity, but then I caught him cheating one night at a sorority party when he told me he was going to be at home working on a Stats project.

After that, I stopped trying to impress guys and they stopped trying to impress me. Now here I was, sitting on the patio of a multi-million-dollar house, being obviously hit on by a billionaire who I was supposed to be doing a story on.

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