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dangerously.
    “You do have a little pinched look around your mouth that reminds me of a schoolteacher who has found a frog in her drawers.”
    She sputtered with outrage.
    “Hey. Desk drawers!”
    “Stop it! You’re trying to distract me.”
    “Is it working?” he said silkily.
    Yes. “No!”
    “Because I have another way to take that pinched look off your lips. Not to mention distract you.”
    Rory Adams was threatening her with a kiss!
    And it was far too easy to imagine the hard line of those lips dropping over the softness of her own!
    She stared at him, and then felt the traitorous blush moving up her neck. She didn’t blush anymore. Who blushed in this day and age? Oh God, she was acting exactly like the old biddy he’d accused her of being.
    Then she realized he had no intention of really kissing her. He was teasing her the same way he had when she was a child. And she had the frustrating feeling he was still enjoying the result!
    She drew in a deep breath, did her best to erase kisses from her mind. “Quit dodging the issue. What I want to know is how you happened to be here at the park as all this was unfolding?”
    “Just as you found yourself in need of a white knight?” he asked.
    He was baiting her. Wanting her to argue about his qualifications to be a white knight. Or maybe about hers to be a damsel in distress.
    But she wasn’t fourteen anymore, and she was not going to allow him to suck her into his teasing. Or to look at his lips and wish, in a moment of madness, that he hadn’t been teasing about his ability to distract with that.
    She folded her arms over her smudged chest and tapped her foot. She told herself she didn’t care if she looked like an old-biddy schoolmarm with a frog in her drawers.
    “What were you doing here?”
    “Your secretary told me where I could find you,” he admitted.
    Grace felt a moment’s annoyance at her secretary, Beth, but it quickly dissipated. What woman would have a chance against Rory if he decided to turn on his charm? Including her. So she steeled herself against him, kept her arms folded and her foot tapping.
    “And why did you want to find me?”
    “We have some business to discuss.”
    “I already told you we didn’t.”
    “Well, now we do.”
    “You’re right. Send me a bill and I’ll reimburse you for whatever you paid to have the ponies rounded up.”
    He looked scornful. “That’s never going to happen.”
    “Then we have no business. I’d like to say it was nice seeing you again, but the circumstances overshadow the delight, I’m afraid. Good-bye and—”
    “My company wants to be one of the sponsors for your fundraising event for Warrior Down. We’re prepared to make a substantial contribution.”
    Now he had truly caught her off guard. Her arms dropped and her foot stopped tapping.
    A stronger woman would have refused him outright. But Warrior Down was her baby. Of all the events she would plan this year, only this one would be so close to her heart. Its success meant everything to her. Everything.
    As much as she wanted to, she could not put her own
pride in front of her cause. How could she say no to a man who could pull cowboys out of thin air? She was pretty sure any contribution he wanted to make to Warrior Down was going to be amazing, because he was not a man who would ever be satisfied with the ordinary.
    Including an ordinary girl like you, she thought, and then pushed that thought away like a pesky fly.
    She wanted to know right now what he considered a substantial contribution, but she also had the horrible feeling of the balance of power shifting to him, and she’d had enough of him having the upper hand for one day.
    She was not going to address this situation while standing here in the growing afternoon heat of the park in a broken shoe and a smudged dress. She was not in any kind of frame of mind to make good decisions, never mind maintain absolute control over her baby, Warrior Down.
    She could barely defend