McKnight in Shining Armor Read Online Free Page A

distracted him from thoughts of Vicious Vena, distracted him from work. And she’d seemed interested in him. At least she had until that chimp had made a monkey out of him and he’d totally blown his cool.
    After that little scene she probably thought he was a jerk. She probably thought he hated animals. A rude jerk who hated animals. A dog kicker.
    He hung his head.
    “Kelsie Connors.”
    “Kelsie,” he said in his satin voice, instantlycomposed and confident, “this is Alec McKnight. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
    Her heart pounding, Kelsie glanced at her watch. She was five minutes late. “No, not at all.” Not if it meant getting another shot at the Van Bryant campaign.
    “I just wanted to apologize for this morning. I lost my temper. It was very unprofessional of me.”
    Kelsie smiled a crooked little smile. “A chimpanzee threw coffee in your face. I think you have every right to be angry. By the way, send the cleaning bill to me, and I’ll have Millard take care of it.”
    “Don’t worry about it.”
    “I’m the one who should apologize—for Darwin’s behavior. He never acts up. I really don’t know what came over him.”
    “Probably spending too much time with his owner,” Alec muttered to himself, compulsively straightening the items on the coffee table in front of him.
    “What’s that?” Kelsie asked, leaning backagainst the wall, noting absently that her living room resembled an abandoned war zone.
    “Ah—probably eating too much sugar. Listen, Kelsie,” he began, tugging on his earlobe, a habit he’d had ever since he’d been persuaded to give up thumb-sucking when he was four. “I was wondering if we could maybe get together—”
    “Sure!” He was going to give them a second chance! Kelsie looked heavenward and mouthed a heartfelt thank-you. “I’ll be certain to bring the right briefcase this time. I know you’ll be impressed with the work Darwin’s done—”
    Alec winced. “I didn’t mean about the campaign. I meant you and me on a date.”
    Kelsie’s heart shifted into overdrive. Her knees suddenly felt like marshmallows. “A date?” she asked, as if the word were only vaguely familiar to her.
    “You bet.” He smiled his slow, devastating smile, even though she couldn’t see it.
    Kelsie shivered from head to toe, then all her nerve endings went numb. If she hadn’t been on such a tight schedule, she might have gotten sick. A date. A date with Alec McKnight with themillion-dollar grin, holder of the fate of her business.
    Just the word
date
sent Kelsie into a tailspin. She hadn’t been on ten dates in the past three years. She’d dated only one man before that—her ex-husband. Mere mention of dating turned competent, capable Kelsie into a shy, insecure teenager. Since her divorce, she’d become a master at avoiding dating. It hadn’t been difficult because she hadn’t met anyone she was
that
attracted to. Now a man she
was
that attracted to was asking, and she was paralyzed with panic.
    “Kelsie?” Alec asked. Had she hung up on him? Dead silence wasn’t the usual response he got when he asked a lady out. Using his most persuasive tone of voice, he said, “Come on, Kelsie. Let me make this morning up to you. Go out with me.”
    Shivers coursed over her as if he’d caressed her. It took no imagination at all to conjure up the image of his direct, penetrating stare. She had to look down at the photograph of her parents that sat on the table to break the imaginary eye contact. “Um—I don’t think so.”
    “I’m really sorry about this morning. We got off on the wrong foot. Give me another chance, Kelsie,” he said, smiling to himself. He was too accomplished a bachelor not to know the effect his voice could have on a woman.
    “A—gee—a—Alec,” she stammered. In spite of her acute fear of dating, he was actually seducing her with his voice. Before she could succumb to the temptation, she took a deep, sustaining breath and launched into a