Penny Jordan Collection(94)

                From behind her Georgia heard Piers saying sardonically, ‘It seems that diagnosis is even less your forte than training... There’s nothing wrong with him.’

                ‘Where’s Mrs Latham?’ Georgia demanded, hot-faced with chagrin. Piers, it seemed, was quite right—there was nothing wrong with Ben, but there was no way she was going to admit as much.

                ‘Not here, I’m afraid. Nor will she be here for the next few weeks; she’s having a much needed holiday with her sister, and whilst she’s away I’m going to be staying in loco parentis, so to speak.’

                ‘She’s left Ben with you? You’re looking after him?’ Georgia queried, unable to hide her feelings.

                ‘There wasn’t really much alternative. It seems that the kennels weren’t...er...able to take him...’

                Georgia’s flush deepened a little as she saw the way Piers was looking at her.

                ‘You’re staying here, looking after Ben?’ she repeated, swallowing tensely, as though she found the words uncomfortably unpalatable.

                ‘I’m staying here looking after Ben,’ Piers agreed grimly. ‘And whilst I’m here I am going to look round for a more suitable home for him.’

                ‘No!’ Georgia protested. ‘You can’t do that. Mrs Latham would never part with him.’

                ‘My godmother is besotted with the animal, I agree,’ Piers replied acidly. ‘But that does not make theirs in any way a suitable alliance. Far from it...’

                ‘It isn’t Ben’s fault he’s so...so...so disruptive,’ Georgia defended. ‘If he was properly trained—’

                ‘If he was properly trained. But that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? He is most certainly not in any way trained at all, and in my view—’

                ‘Setters are scatty when they’re young...but...’

                Georgia had no idea why she was defending the dog so fiercely. After all, she had said herself that Ben wasn’t really a suitable dog for Mrs Latham, but something about the way Ben was looking at her, something about the obvious love and the doggy treats and toys which surrounded him touched her heart in a way she could hardly explain to herself, never mind to the tough, uncompromisingly unemotional man standing in front of her.

                ‘Look, I appreciate that you have a vested interest in him staying here. After all, you were the one who foisted him on my godmother in the first place, weren’t you?’ Piers told her grimly.

                Georgia stared at him.

                ‘No. I...’

                ‘Don’t bother trying to deny it,’ Piers warned her. ‘My godmother told me herself that you were responsible for her getting Ben.’

                Georgia’s heart sank. Mrs Latham had on more than one occasion mentioned how large a part she believed Georgia’s unavoidable absence from the waiting room had played in her becoming Ben’s new owner. But for Piers to claim that she had either actively solicited such a situation or even encouraged it was way beyond the truth. Not that she was going to attempt to tell him so. Why should she? Let him think badly of her if he wished. She didn’t care; why should she?

                Just because he had the kind of sexy good looks that made her heart thud and her temperature rise, that did not mean that she was foolish enough to want to solicit his good opinion and ignore her own principles in doing so. Besides, he really wasn’t her type. No, not at all. She liked men with kind, open, honest faces and ready smiles, men who liked animals and understood them. The kind of man she liked would have immediately seen that Ben was as much a victim of the situation as his owner.