Lured In (31 page)

Authors: Laura Drewry

This time he blushed all the way up to his scalp.

“Wellâ¦” Wincing a little, Ronan lifted his shoulder in a half-shrug. “I'm not making any promises on that, but I'll try.”

An awkward silence hung between them until Ro thumbed over his shoulder and took a step back. By that time she was so busy looking at everything else in the room but him that she was probably happy to have him go.

He'd half turned away from her when her voice stopped him.

“In the movie
The Wolf of Wall Street
, they drop the f-bomb five hundred and six times.” She blurted the words out so fast that Ronan had to wonder how long she'd been waiting to let them loose.

“Is that right?”

She lifted her hands, palms up, and nodded, her eyes wide, as if she couldn't believe it herself. “That's almost three times a minutes, you know. World record.”

“Is that right?” Ronan wasn't sure if she was warning him or daring him, so he tipped his head a bit and smirked. “Soâ¦what? You want to shoot for five hundred and seven? Seems like a lot, but get Finn and me in the same room and you never know.”

“What?” she cried. “No, I didn't meanâ¦I justâ¦youâ¦oh!”

Her whole face turned about six shades of pink, and holy jumpin' Judas, Ronan had never seen anything as pretty as that.

“You're kidding.” Her quiet laugh only lasted a second before it faltered. “Oh God, you
were
kidding, right? You weren't serious, were you?”

The longer he hesitated, the wider her eyes got, until he finally gave in and chuckled.

“I was kidding.”

“Oh, thank God.” Her laugh was a little more relaxed this time as she wrapped her hands around the straps of her bag and began backing toward the door. “I think I'll go finish unpacking before I give you any more ideas.”

“Right. Yeah. Okay.” Why couldn't he stop smiling at her? Even after she left, he must have stood there for another minute or two, twisting that damn dish towel and smiling at the empty door frame.

Fuuuuuck
.