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‘Stay,’ he said to them.
They did.
James gave them a dazzling smile then left the room.
Estelle let out her held breath, then turned to her pets. ‘What was all that then?’ she hissed. ‘That was not the plan.’
They ignored her, sniffing around James’s desk.
‘Come here. Get away from the dark side.’
James’s mobile rang and Chester barked. Estelle crossed the room and picked him up, glancing down at the phone screen. Someone called ‘Char’ was calling. Charlotte? Charlie? The temptation was strong to answer it, so she went back to her own desk and plonked down her bag containing James’s gift. Is this a mistake, too? Undecided, she put the bag on the floor behind the desk and sat, flipping her laptop open.
Five minutes later, James returned. Her dogs acted as if he was the second coming bearing gifts of marrow bones.
‘Chester! Joy! Leave him alone!’
James placed her cappuccino down on a small space she’d cleared, then called the dogs to heel.
Staring at the froth, once again Estelle was convinced he was trying to make a pattern in it. But of what?
‘Do they have beds?’
Huh? Her head snapped up.
‘Your dogs.’
‘Yes, in the Defender, but it doesn’t mean they’ll use them. I’ll get them in a moment.’
James’s eyes fell to Chester. ‘What have you got there, boy?’
She stood to look over the desk. Chester was dragging her bag over to James.
‘No!’
The bag fell open. ‘A present?’
‘It’s not for you.’
He picked it up and read the back of the gift tag. ‘Do you know another James Hunter-Savage?’
‘Er…’
He traced the patterns on the sparkly wrapping paper. ‘Maybe one who’s going through a “unicorn phase”?’
‘Um…’
‘How did you know it was my birthday?’
‘It is?’
‘In eight months’ time.’ The corner of his mouth lifted. ‘I appreciate how—’ his gaze fell to the mess of her desk ‘—organised you are.’
Heart thudding in her chest, she took another sip of her perfectly-made coffee.
‘I wonder what it is.’ James gently squeezed the package, a pensive look on his face. ‘It feels soft, but at the same time, very, very hard…’ The tip of his finger slid under the edge of the wrapping paper. ‘May I?’
Estelle stared, her eyes unable to break away from their locked position on his hands as he slowly undressed her gift. The fact he was taking so much care not to rip the paper just made the situation in her pants even worse. Yes, he was objectively hot, but his sinfully sexy personality was a siren call her body didn’t want to ignore.
