Free ROMANCING THE BULLDOG by Mallory Monroe Page A

how
    wonderful it felt to lean against him, to relax in the warmth of his arms. It had been so long for
    her, so agonizingly long, that she had almost forgotten what that unbridled human contact felt
    like.
    But even that feeling wasn’t enough for her to let her guard down, she thought as she
    walked toward her desk. Jason had been kind to her, and she appreciated it. But every man
    she’d ever fell for had been kind. They all were nice and kind in the beginning. Scotty, her
    ex, was super-nice and super-kind. But they always broke her heart in the end. She was
    grateful to Jason Rascone, he provided a shoulder to cry on yesterday when she needed one
    badly, but that was as far as it was going to go. Her days of broken hearts, of blind love and
    trails of tears, were over.
    She had just taken a seat behind her desk and was slipping on her shoes when Shameika
    escorted Jason into her office. She looked up over her half-moon reading glasses, and was
    about to stand, but his look caught her short. He walked in, not as that concerned, overly-
    helpful man of yesterday, but as the person she suddenly realized he was: the very stern, very
    conservatively dressed, very powerful mayor of an American city. A man undoubtedly
    accustomed to every human being in his path jumping at his every command. She decided to
    remain seated.
    “I present to you, Mayor Rascone, ” Shameika said, attempting to sound formal and
    professional. Liz almost laughed.
    “Thank-you, Shameika, that’ll be all,” Liz said instead.
    Shameika, obviously disappointed that her boss weren’t willing to let her hang around for
    the show, nonetheless took her leave.
    After the door closed, Jason seemed to relax somewhat. He placed his hands into the pant
    pockets of his expensive suit. He remembered yesterday, and how it felt to touch her again, to
    hold her. When he left her, sleeping like an angel, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. That
    was why he had to come. He had tons of work to do, tons of problems on his desk, but he
    had to see her again.
    “Hello, Elizabeth,” he said, his blue eyes staring deep into her brown ones.
    “Mayor Rascone, hi,” Liz replied.
    “Oh, come now. It’s Jason. Jace. Whatever. But not Mayor Rascone ,” he said this as if
    he were marking her, causing her to smile. “You look very studious this bright day.”
    Liz suddenly became self-conscious when he said that, but she didn’t remove her glasses.
    “I had some files to review, but how may I help you?”
    “You can start by offering me a seat.”
    Liz blushed with embarrassment. “Oh, I’m sorry, of course. Have a seat. Please.”
    Liz had one shoe on and one shoe off, but she wasn’t about to bend down to complete the
    task, not with this man staring at her so profusely.
    When he sat down, he crossed his legs and began to peruse the office itself. “This is a small
    space,” he said, looking around at the paneled walls and the tiny window. He wondered how
    she could breathe, let alone work, in such a cramped room. Liz, however, took offense, as if
    he could somehow sense, by the size of her office alone, that she was a failure.
    “It may not be up to city hall standards,” she said, “or your standards. But it suits me.”
    “I didn’t mean,” Jason started, stunned that she would be offended by his innocent
    comment, but she cut him off.
    “I’m sure you didn’t take time out of your busy schedule to come here to talk about the size
    of my office.”
    Jason eyed her with a mixture of sympathy and suspicion. When he decided to drop by,
    mainly because he couldn’t stay away, he never dreamed she’d still be carrying that chip on
    her shoulder. He had assumed she was just having a very bad day. He apparently had
    assumed wrong.
    “I came by to see how you were doing,” he said truthfully.
    This truth, however, surprised Liz. “What do you mean?” she asked him. The idea that
    some man would be concerned enough about her to inquire as to her