Her Top Dog: An Alpha Man Workplace Romance (Rescue Me Book 2)

by Katana Collins

  I stopped, thinking it was perhaps his boss or another sample employee. “That man,” I said pointing, “should be arrested for lewd conduct—”

  “You were actually just unknowingly part of a television show,” one of the women said and handed me a clipboard. I blinked in shock as she explained the premise of the stupid prank show.

  “So… let me get this straight. You pull jokes on strangers… unsuspecting people on the street? Don’t compensate them for their time or for using their likenesses? And somehow you all don’t get the pants sued off of yourselves?”

  The girl shifted uncomfortably, pointing at the liability waiver she handed me. “Does that mean you’re not going to sign?”

  I glanced down, reading it for the first time. There at the top of the form was Silhouette Studios stamped with their embossed logo.

  Silhouette Studios. My new employer. I was starting as their in-house entertainment lawyer for network programing on Monday. I smiled a slow sneer and glanced up across the courtyard at the man who had read me those questions. A few production assistants had towels and were helping him clean up. That’s why I recognized him. When I’d applied for the job, I had watched a bunch of their shows to brush up for the interview, but most of my job at the company, I thought, would have had more to do with contracts and making sure these shows didn’t too closely resemble existing properties. I didn’t pay too much attention to the talent on the shows, only watching one episode of each to get a feel for the brand of Silhouette Studios TV. And this show, I remembered, was a big hit, but so not my cup of tea.

  I set the pen down on the clipboard without scribbling my name. “No,” I said. “I won’t be signing this. But I assume you’ll use the footage regardless and blur my face?”

  The girl winced and I felt bad for her. She was probably lower on the chain of command…maybe an associate producer. “You’re not going to sue us, are you?”

  I tilted my head, keeping my cards close to the vest. “Does that happen a lot?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “N-no. Most people love our show…”

  I smiled, but I knew from the multiple times my ex had told me… my smile was intimidating. “Then you should have nothing to worry about,” I said sweetly with a final glance over my shoulder at the man. The man whose name I never got.

  He glanced up right in that moment and his eyes latched onto mine. Sorry, he mouthed to me from across the courtyard.

  Eat shit, I mouthed back.

  I arrived at Guiseppe’s ten minutes later, and five minutes late, where my best friend, Missy, was already seated and waiting for me.

  “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” I said, sliding into the booth opposite of her.

  “Please,” she waved away my tardiness with a sip of her red wine and pointed to a glass in front of my place setting. “I did the honors of getting yours ordered, too.”

  I grabbed at the glass, brought it to my lips, and drank, swallowing the delicious notes of citrus and spice. “Thank you,” I said. “And thank you for never caring that I’m always late.”

  Missy shrugged and rolled her eyes. She was an accountant and thoroughly punctual… literally all the time. Even during tax season. It would have been annoying if I didn’t love her so damn much. “So, what was it tonight? You haven’t started the new job yet, so let… me… think…” She punctuated each word with a tap of her index finger to the tip of her nose. “Did the sales person at Chanel hold you up?”

  I sighed and opened the menu. “Honestly, I don’t even want to talk about it.” I was still so livid.

  But that was the beauty of Missy—she’d never pressure me to talk before I was ready. She merely shrugged one shoulder to her ear and said, “Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.”

  After a few minutes of catching up, she folded her menu and set it to the side. “I need to use the restroom. Can you order me the hot honey pizza if our server comes back?”

  “Sure.” I pulled my phone free from my purse, using the time Missy was gone to pull up the Wikipedia page for that show.

  Sam “Smurf” Murphy, is the youngest of the Murphy Brothers and star on Silhouette Studios’ newest hit television prank show.

  I rolled my eyes. The fact that this show was as popular as it was made me seriously concerned for our country’s standards for quality television.

  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’t have to 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 your date?”

  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 lawsuit waiting to 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. “You really think 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 how traumatizing our 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 really did come here to apologize. Sincerely. But if you’re going to threaten to sue me, 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, that is 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.

  “But don’t you worry,” he said, “I’m not a coward who hides behind a lawyer. And I only strike when someone else strikes first.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “How Karate Kid of you.”

  That won me a smile… a smile that I didn’t trust. Not for a second.

  “Well, when I have a problem with someone, I confront it directly. Talk it out. And I find we can usually come to an agreement of some sort.”

  By the tone of his voice, it seemed like that ‘agreement’ probably involved nudity and a lot of sweaty moaning.

  I swallowed hard. Then again, maybe I was projecting.

  “I’m back!” Missy said, pausing as she walked up to find Sam standing there. She eyed him curiously, sliding back into her spot in the booth. “Um… did our server come yet?” Her gaze ping-ponged between Sam and me in our staring match.

  Finally, he broke eye contact to glance at Missy. “Ah. You must be her date.”

  “Ummm, I guess?” Missy said, looking to me for some sort of confirmation. “Do you two know each other?”

  “Not exactly. We just both love the soup here.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and threw down a hundred-dollar bill. “Here. Dinner’s on me tonight.”

  And with a smug smile that implied he had won, he turned and exited the restaurant.

  Oh, Mr. Murphy. If only you knew… your piddly little win tonight was just the beginning. The war begins on Monday.

  Chapter 3

  Sam

  For nearly three days, I couldn’t get that woman out of my mind. Nina. Fucking Nina with her periwinkle eyes and long legs and fuck-me heels. I rubbed my fingers against my eyes trying to push her image out of my mind.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Josh asked, leaning in. “Are you that nervous to meet our new company lawyer?”

  I shook my head as my dog, Harley, sat up beside me and nudged at my hand. I smiled down and ran my fingers over the velvet fur between her ears. “I just haven’t slept well the last couple nights.” I didn’t mention the fact that I’d been up fucking touching myself to thoughts of Nina for the last three nights. And it certainly didn’t help that every time I walked past the editing room, I knew I could look through the file and see her face once more in the footage from the other night.

  Fuck. I had to find her.

  Richard Blair, studio President, blew into the room like the force that he was. “Morning everyone,” his voice boomed, and the meeting room went immediately silent. Everyone had been nervous since our previous lawyer had quit to move to New York for a new job. There’d been talk that Richard was interviewing some heavy hitters in the industry along with a new team of executive producers. These sorts of shakeups can be intimidating for most. My brothers didn’t show nerves often, and it wasn’t like any of us were quaking in our boots at the thought of meeting the new network attorney… but I’d be lying if I said the concern that our show had the potential of being legally risky hadn’t crossed our minds at least once. And a show with high liabilities could easily be the next show canceled.

  “We’re going to try to keep this short,” Richard said, and I couldn’t help but smile. When did that man ever not keep meetings short when he could? It was one of the things I liked so much about our boss. He was succinct and sharp and on top of everything. There was no time for bullshitting unless we were on a golf course or at the club having a business dinner. And even then, he typically had his meal, one scotch, and was gone before dessert. “We’re going around to each office to meet the crew and casts of each of our network shows, and we have several more to hit before lunch. That being said, you will have a chance to ask questions, just please keep them short.” Richard paused to sip his coffee. “Our newest executive attorney comes to us from a film background, and we were lucky enough to steal her away from a small little superhero franchise that I think you all may have heard of. I think her expertise will prove invaluable here. Everyone, please give a warm Silhouette Studios welcome to Nina Miller.”

  Nina? It couldn’t be…

  My gaze jerked up from my iPad. Sure enough, entering our board room in deep purple stilettos, a fitted sleek purple dress, and a black blazer was Nina. My Nina.

  Confused by the shock of seeing this woman I’d been dreaming about in person again, I didn’t quite put two and two together—was she here about the lawsuit she was claiming?

  Then, Richard said, “Welcome to the Silhouette team, Nina. We’re incredibly lucky to have you.”

  “Uh-oh,” Josh muttered beside me.

  I was stunned. But more than that, my heart raced and my pants tented considerably beneath the table. I’d never been happier that we didn’t have a glass top table that would reveal the state of my cock to everyone in the room. Because fuck, was I hard.

  She quirked a brow in my direction, and in the briefest moment, one side of her plump, ruby lips curved into a smile as if to say, check mate.

  Oh, baby. The game is only just beginning. I leaned forward onto my elbows. “Well, this just got interesting.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” Josh whispered beside me.

  I shot my brother a look. “C’mon. Like what?”

  “Like fuck your new boss.”

  Damn, was I that transparent? Then again, this was my big brother talking. He knew me better than anyone, including Dom and Cal. As the twins, those two were always bonded. Always together. Even though Josh and I were a bit farther apart in age, we were buddies through and through. He was my best friend as well as my big brother.

  Beside me, Harley gave a little yip and, as though caught off guard, Nina’s gaze darted to the set of big brown eyes staring back at her, perked ears, and wagging tail. “You brought a dog… to a board meeting?”

  She blinked, as though shocked, before dragging her gaze back to me. I smirked and shrugged. “It’s in my contract that my dog is allowed on set and in the studio.”

  With pursed lips, she blew out a breath and rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath, “Of course it is.” Then, moving across the room, she took a seat beside Richard at the head of the table. “Morning everyone.” Her voice was so sharp, it could have sliced through glass. “I think some of you might remember me from the other night.” Her eyes once more caught mine, and it was like an electric current pulsed through my body. But she didn’t linger—she rolled her gaze around the table. “I had to admit, when I was looking through the roster for Silhouette’s TV lineup, I wasn’t too impressed by this show. It seemed… juvenile at best.”

  “Jesus,” Dom whispered. “Deal it to us straight why don’t you.”

  “Juvenile, silly, sophomoric�
�”

  “Yeah, we all know you’re smart and have a thesaurus,” I muttered, interrupting.

  “Ah, Mr. Murphy,” she smiled at my interruption. “It’s nice to see you… again. As I was saying. I wasn’t impressed initially. I thought your show was juve—”

  “How about inexpensive? Thriving? The network’s biggest ROI?” I said, interrupting again, and I reveled in how her cheeks flushed just the tiniest bit pink.

  “Dude, what are you doing?” Cal said. “Stop interrupting our new boss.”

  But I ignored him. I wasn’t going to sit here as she talked shit about our show on the first meet and greet that was supposed to be a sign of good will. I pulled up the numbers that I had brought with me. “Our show is the cheapest of all of Silhouette’s current network television contracts. And because we can make the show for so little, it gives us a huge return on investment.”

  She chuckled, a condescending little laugh that, if we’d been in the bedroom instead of the office, I would have responded to by taking her over my knee and spanking that pretty, tight ass of hers until it was pink. “You didn’t let me finish. I was about to say that, when I delved more into your show, I realized that it’s an incredibly smart and effective use of a budget. Props and sets are fairly minimal. There is no massive cast, no A-list actors to pay. And frankly, I was shocked to discover your ratings are through the roof. Everyone from ten-year-old kids to soccer moms to frat boys and sorority girls and even grandfathers seem to love your show based on the latest poll.”

  Huh. Well that was… unexpected. Then again, around this woman, ‘unexpected’ was basically the new normal.

  “But—” She raised a finger.

  I groaned. Out loud. Her eyes flicked to me before she continued. “But I am concerned that this show could be a liability. Richard and I had a meeting first thing this morning and we both agree that things need to change. The pranks you pull, the way you talk to people, touch people without their permission, leave this studio open to a potentially massive lawsuit.”