Page 361 of Summer Heat
“None to none at all.” Liar.
He made a disappointed sound, but didn’t give up that easily. “I promise I’ll behave. Unless…you’re going to do something in the bath that you’d need privacy for.” He put just enough goading in his tone to tick her off, but not enough for her to hang up on him. “Is that the case?”
Yes. And the jerk was being deliberately obtuse about it.
She maintained radio silence.
“Because if that is the case, I don’t have to behave. I could…misbehave.”
Her jaw locked at his audacity.
A firm believer that one should never negotiate with terrorists, she decided to instead fight fire with fire. “Since it doesn’t look like I’m getting rid of you anytime soon, I’m just going to go ahead and start…my bath.”
She grinned in triumph when a quiet groan came from his end.
Placing her phone on the counter, she dropped her towel and slid into the water. The slow, purring sound she let out wasn’t for his benefit.
But it seemed to affect him all the same.
“Am I on speaker?” The words were smoky, stilted.
“Mmm hmm.” Her eyelids drifted closed as she sank back against the tub, letting the hot water unravel the tension from this crazy day. “Connor, you have maybe a minute before I start dozing off so if you have something to say, you better say it now.”
“Have dinner with me.”
She bolted upright—to avoid taking in a gaping mouthful of bath water.
“Dinner? Why?”
“Because the next time you’re in that tub, I want to be there with you. And, well, I figure it’d be wise for us to eat beforehand.”
He was smiling again, she could hear it.
The guy had balls, she had to give him that. “What on earth makes you think I’d agree to take a bath with you?”
“Nothing but sheer hope.”
She resisted the urge to melt at that, reminding herself that this was a veteran player she was talking to here.
And she’d barely even cut it in little league.
“I don’t think dinner would be a good idea.”
“Okay, lunch then. Afternoon baths are fun too.”
Dang it, she was really close to laughing. “No. And don’t you dare suggest breakfast or dessert. Or brunch!”
“Well then we have a problem. Call me old fashioned but I’d really like to feed you before we take a bath together.”
Somehow, she managed to smother the life out of a burgeoning giggle. “That was a blanket no. To the bath also.”
“Fine. But you don’t know what you’re missing. I’ll have you know, I give a pretty mean underwater massage.”
Ooh, that was low. Her achy muscles wanted in. But her common sense knew better. “Oh, I believe you. I’d be more surprised if you told me you gave a nice one.”
“Ouch. Okay, okay, I deserved that. Well, since you’ve now clearly moved on to the brutally honest portion of our phone call, why don’t you explain why you told me to leave earlier?”
“Brian already covered all that,” she skirted.
